Ezekiel - Lesson 46

In the previous presentation, as I was reading texts from the ancient world outside the Bible, I mentioned in passing that often, in Babylonian and Assyrian accounts of temple building and rebuilding, the process climaxed with the return of the deity. In pagan contexts that involved glorious processions with the king escorting the image of the deity and the priestly officials at the temple formally installing him or her in its cella, holy of holies, from which the people of the city and the land hoped he would lavish the citizenry with blessing and well-being. Once the image was installed, the king and his people would celebrate with unrestrained joy and lavish offerings to the gods that would be eaten by the people in the gods' presence, perhaps on temple grounds.Given this pattern, we should not be surprised that after the glorious presence of Yahweh had arrived and taken up residence inside the house and above the temple's complex, Yahweh should resume the Torah of the house. Verse 12, he should resume with instructions concerning the altar. In his tour earlier, Ezekiel could hardly have missed the altar, for as he approached the sphere of increasing sanctity, no matter which gate he entered, north, east, south, and which court he was passing through, he could have seen the altar up there, yes, literally ahead of him.And if he was moving in through the east gate, then the altar provided a lens through which to observe the glory of the temple itself and its divine resident. However, as we will see, this Torah of the house does not provide instructions simply for the celebration of Yahweh's return to the temple. It concerns the ongoing maintenance of the covenant relationship that Yahweh had restored with his people.Structurally, this passage divides into three parts. First, a thematic introduction that sets the stage for 43, 13 to 46, 24, which deals with Yahweh's provision and prescription for Israel's ongoing covenant relationship with himself. Verse 12.Second, we have a detailed description of the altar, verses 13 to 18. Third, instructions for the seven-day ritual by which the altar is consecrated for its role in ensuring Yahweh's ongoing acceptance of Israel, verses 19 to 27. Respecting these segments, I will try to make sense of the passage by asking three questions.What is the genre of this passage as a whole? Look at verse 12. This is the Torah of the house. All its surrounding territory at the top of the mountain shall be absolutely holy.Look, this is the Torah of the house, which, of course, is a reference to the temple. We may answer this question on genre quickly by noting Yahweh's formal introduction. The title, this is the Torah of the house, and the emphatic reiteration.Remarkably, he did not introduce this as, this is the Torah of Yahweh, or this is the Torah of Ezekiel, as if the prophet were some sort of replacement for Moses, for we do indeed have a large Torah of Moses incorporated in the book of Deuteronomy. But he was not purely a replacement for Moses. Like its geographical location, this opening announcement highlighted the significance of the house in the vision of Israel's future.Like the constitutional material in Exodus and Leviticus involving the Torah of the tabernacle, the mishkan, in Exodus and Leviticus, this discussion of the altar is not presented as part of the tour of the temple. In 40-47, in his description of the inner court, Ezekiel had noticed in passing that the altar was in front of the house, within the hundred-cubit-square inner court. However, instead of stopping there, the guide had immediately ushered Ezekiel into the vestibule of the house.What we have here is another case of resumptive exposition. A subject he had dropped, he noticed the altar, but after simply introducing it, he had to pick it up now and develop it more fully. Like the material in Exodus and Leviticus, after the revelation of the Decalogue and Moses' inauguration as Israel's lightning rod, Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5, everything that followed in this chapter was cast as speech coming from Yahweh's mouth, obviously addressed to Ezekiel, verse 18, and apparently to be recorded for posterity.This applies even to the precise measurements given for the altar. The surveyor acting as tour guide is nowhere in sight now. Second question, what do we learn about this new altar of burnt offerings? This is verses 13-17.Now, these are the dimensions of the altar in cubits, a cubit being one normal cubit plus a hand breadth. Its gutter was one cubit deep and one cubit wide, with a curb of one span around its edge. This is the base of the altar.From the bottom gutter to the top of the lower wall was two cubits, and its width was one cubit. From the lower wall to the top of the higher one was four cubits, and its width was one cubit. The altar hearth was four cubits high, and from the hearth four horns projected upwards.The hearth was twelve cubits long by twelve cubits wide, a four-sided square. The wall consisted of four equal sides. It was fourteen cubits long and fourteen cubits wide.The curb running around it was one-half cubit high, and together with its gutter one cubit wide all around, and its stairway faced toward the east. Verses 13-17 open with a formal announcement. Now these are the measurements of the altar.The isolation of this object for such detailed description reflects its centrality in the cultus, the liturgy, particularly its importance in purifying the temple grounds from pollution caused by previous territorial violation. Unlike the account in Exodus 20, 20-22, this description paid no attention to the composition of the altar. Was it of stone, or of earth, or of brick? All that mattered were its size and square shape, the latter of which was matched by the symmetry of the temple complex as a whole.To prevent misunderstanding, the text reminds the reader of the unit of measurement. It's the long cubit, which is one handbreadth longer than the normal cubit. Therefore, it's twenty-one inches rather than eighteen inches long.However, in describing the altar, we begin by reviewing what we have learned about the altar from earlier references, and will be reinforced in subsequent revelations. First, taking care of the altar and performing the rituals involving it was the responsibility of the Levitical priests, specifically the sons of Zadok, whom Yahweh had designated as its custodians and authorized to approach him to minister in his name. We'll hear more of this in chapter 44.Second, we must distinguish this altar from another wooden object that went by the same designation, Mizbiah, and that Yahweh identified as the table that is before Yahweh in 41-22, and see more in 44-16. Third, the altar was located in front of the house, but at the exact center of the 500-cubit-square temple compound, 40-47. Its tiered, ziggurat-like design suggests that it, rather than the temple proper, represented the pinnacle of the grand picture.Instead of a cosmic tree, a Weltenbaum, on a high mountain as a symbol of the link between heaven and earth, this altar served as an extension of the cosmic mountain. We will reflect on the significance of this later. But now we must look at our text.So, a fourth feature here, the sanctity of the altar and the animal sacrifices offered on it were served by two gutters surrounding the altar, one at the base dug into the ground one cubit, verse 13, and the other on the ledge of the 14-cubit base of the top layer of this ziggurat, verse 17 and 519 later. These gutters functioned as receptacles for the blood and the gore of animal sacrifices, enabling the officiants to work in a relatively clean and dry environment and preventing the defilement of the sacred ground by spilled blood of the victims on the ground. A curb, one span high, that's a half cubit, that enhanced the edge of the gutter all around the altar, adding insurance against mixing the blood with the hallowed ground.In this kosher context, this ensured the efficient drainage of the blood, which represents its sacred life, and that is the sacrificial offerings' sacred life, and enabled the priests to save some for consecrating rituals, as we see in verse 20, and other aspects of the rituals, 4519, especially to offer to Yahweh the fat and the blood, 4415. Fifth, the altar was huge. The base dimensions, including the curb and gutter, was 20 cubits, a 20-cubit square.That's 35 feet, while the hearth at the top, where all the action occurs, was a 12-cubit square, 21 feet. This meant that the altar proper was as wide as the entryway to the temple, and the overall width was the same as the vestibule of the temple, 4049. In terms of area, it was not exceptional when we compare it with other ancient altars.At Megiddo, archaeologists have found a 33-foot diameter round altar, 33 feet. At Mount Ebel, 30 by 33 feet. The first temple, the one that Solomon built, it was 30 by 30 feet, and it would certainly have been dwarfed by the altar of Herod's temple in New Testament times, a 45 by 45-foot square.However, rising 17.5 feet above the ground, it exceeded Herod's by almost 60 percent, and was two and one-half feet taller than the one in the courtyard of the temple that Solomon built on David's behalf. It's a big one. Six, the hearth at the top was a perfect 12-cubit square with horns on each corner.The hearth had a special name, Har El, which sounds like the expression for mountain of God. Har is the word for mountain, El, a designation for God. Reinforcing our suggestion earlier that this object represented the peak of the cosmic mountain.In verses 15 to 16, Ezekiel identified the hearth as Ari El, which probably alludes to Isaiah 29, 1 to 8, the only other place this expression appears in the First Testament. There the word bears its true sense, altar hearth, Ari El is an altar hearth, but it is used figuratively of the conflagration that will come to Jerusalem. Yet I will bring disaster upon you, and there will be much weeping and sorrow, for Jerusalem will become what her name Ari El means, an altar hearth, covered with blood, Isaiah 29, 2. The size of the altar hearth was 20 cubits square, which translates to about 440 square feet.This would have provided plenty of room for four or five large bovines to be offered at one time. The description here says nothing about the composition or design, except that it had horns protruding upwards at each corner. That this was no innovation is clear from written descriptions of the mosaic incense altar, Exodus 29, 12, which had horns, and the one used by Solomon at the time of his accession, 1 Kings 1, 50 to 53, and 2, 28 to 29.And we also know it from numerous exemplars that have been discovered by archaeologists, though none of these comes near to matching Ezekiel's altar in size. We're not sure about the function of these horns, but the fact that blood was to be smeared on them during the consecration ritual, verse 20, and elsewhere during normal sacrifices, Leviticus 4, 7, this attests to their importance in the ritual. Endangered persons seeking asylum in the sanctuary would come and seize the horns of the altar and expect divine protection, 1 Kings 2, 28 to 34.The imposing dimensions of the altar itself were matched by the capacity of the trenches, the gutters. Assuming the base of the altar was an 18 by 18 cubit square, verse 17, the bottom trench on each side must have been 20 cubits long by one and one-half cubits deep by one cubit wide, yielding a total volume of 120 cubic cubits, about 4,810 U.S. gallons. This was plenty for the blood of hundreds of animals and would probably have enabled the uninterrupted slaughter of sacrificial victims from morning till night.A seventh feature, the stairway faced east, verse 17. This may seem like a small detail, but it certainly suited the overall design of the temple with its central spine of increasing sanctity. Furthermore, if we imagine the glorious presence as a fiery cloud that passed through the gates at this point, the incline before the altar facilitated its rise, the top of the altar was the level of the floor of the temple.Symbolically, it declared that sacrifices were the key to Yahweh's taking up residence in this holy place among his people and maintaining the relationship represented there. We will have more to say about that later. But there is more here.In the ancient cultural context, apart from the permission or orders of a superior, it was deemed rude to turn one's back to the superior. Remember that image of those people in the temple in 816? They're prostrating before the sun, but that means their backs are to the holy of holies of the temple. They are mooning Yahweh.This design facilitated the priests also in their ministry before Yahweh to maintain the proper and respectful orientation while they were ministering to him on behalf of the people. You don't want to turn your back on the temple itself. That would be rude and an insult to the deity living there.But this small detail reminds us how compromised and syncretistic was the design of Herod's temple. According to Jewish tradition, it was oriented with steps to the south and was off to the side, not as part of a central spine of sanctity. This small detail adds to my many other questions concerning what God thought about this temple that is Herod's temple, designed by a pagan and constructed for political purposes.No wonder the veil would finally be ripped in two, exposing the sham that was this building and many of the rituals performed here. Yahweh's concluding comment that the hearth was approached by steps on the east side seems to contradict the prohibition of steps in Exodus 20-26. Well, if this Exodus text related to the altar of regular sacrifices at the front of the tabernacle, either Ezekiel assumed the Mosaic Torah would be superseded by his new constitution, or a literal fulfillment of the details of this vision is not to be anticipated.However, on second thought, apparently Yahweh's instructions for the altar in the Exodus text was not part of the sanctuary design, but it pertained to the altar the Israelites were to use one time at Sinai for the ritual involved in the signing and sealing of the covenant, Exodus 24, 1-8. Here the stairs symbolize Yahweh's provision for an effective means of service. By locating them on the east side of the altar, priests could keep their faces toward Yahweh in the temple as they approached with a sacrificial victim.Now, if we step back from this structure, based on Exodus 20, 24-26, we may well imagine the frame for this altar consisting of uncut stones, and then the cavity created being filled with soil. However, the prescription of natural stones occurs only in special covenantal context. Exodus 20, 24-25 assumes Moses will officiate at the rituals represented by this altar, which was what he did at the ratification rituals in Exodus 24, 1-8.The only other altar texts requiring natural uncut stones occurs in Deuteronomy 27, 6 and Joshua 8, 21, both of which involve the final ratification ritual at Gerizim and Ebal, where the land was formally integrated into the tripartite covenant's relationship. Solomon's temple was constructed largely of quarried stones cut to shape, and in 40-42, Ezekiel had actually noticed four tables of hewn stone. So, that may be what the outside of this was made of as well.Another question, what did this altar signify? The third question, verses 18-27. Here is the text, Then he said to me, Human, son of man, this is what the Lord Yahweh has declared. These are the ordinances concerning the altar to be observed on the day when it is constructed, for offering up whole-burned offerings on it and for dashing blood upon it.For a purification offering you shall deliver a young bull to the Levitical priests who are from the line of Zadok, and thus may approach me, the declaration of the Lord Yahweh, to render priestly service to me. You shall take some of its blood and smear it on its four horns, the four sides of the upper ledge, and the surrounding curb. Thus you shall decontaminate it and purge it.Then you shall take the bull, chosen for the purification offering, and have them burn it by the temple guard outside the sanctuary. On the second day you shall present an unblemished young goat as a purification offering. They shall decontaminate the altar just as they had done with the bull.When you have completed the decontamination ritual, you shall offer an unblemished young bull of the herd as well as an unblemished ram of the flock. When you present them before Yahweh, the priests shall sprinkle salt on them and offer them as a whole-burnt offering to Yahweh. Each day for seven days you shall prepare a goat as a sin offering.They shall also prepare a young bull of the herd and a ram of the flock, both unblemished. For seven days they shall make atonement for the altar, thereby purifying it and ordaining it for divine service. Thus they are to complete the period.Then from the eighth day onwards the priests may sacrifice your whole-burnt offerings and your peace offerings on the altar, and I will accept you, the declaration of the Lord Yahweh. Verse 18 marks the beginning of a new subsection, with Yahweh addressing Ezekiel again as Ben Adam, that's a new segment, human, son of man, followed by the citation formula, this is what the Lord Yahweh has declared, and then the formal opening of his speech, these are the ordinances concerning the altar. The signatory formula that occurs in verse 19 and at the very end reinforces the characterization of this as indeed a very formal address.Here Yahweh clearly functioned as the divine authority, issuing orders to his prophetic courtier, that's who Ezekiel is. These formulaic insertions transformed what looked like a priestly cultic document into a prophetic oracle, and enhanced the impression that Yahweh was treating Ezekiel as a sort of second Moses again, the recipient of the divine revelation to be communicated to the people, communicated to the people as Torah. As a member of the priestly family, Ezekiel was acquainted with Mosaic regulations concerning the consecration of the altar.It is possible that having noticed the altar in the courtyard during his tour of the temple complex, the prophet may have wondered how, after the horrendous history of the nation's rebellion against Yahweh and after their decades in exile, the ancient rituals for maintaining covenant relationship with God could or would ever be reinstituted. Yahweh's speech answered those concerns, but his answer must have gone far beyond the prophet's wildest dreams. Not only did he hold out the prospect of accepting the Israelites' worship by revealing how the altar was to be consecrated, but he also elevated the stature of Ezekiel in a new constitution similar to that of a latter-day Moses.Typically, however, the stoic prophet offered no hint of his response to this promotion. The opening formula classifies the regulations that follow as altar ordinances, as in the Mosaic Torah. In Ezekiel, the expression identifies a statute fixed by a superior, generally God, in Israel.In cultic context, it often denoted prescribed ceremony. Compare Exodus 12.14 and 17, Exodus 12.43, and other places. From the vantage of the prophet's exile and in Babylon, Yahweh's words looked forward to the day when the altar rituals would be reinstituted.I can imagine that must have excited Ezekiel. Verse 18b specifies two functions of the altar. It provided a place for presenting whole burnt offerings to Yahweh, the olah offerings, 40, 39, and for performing the sprinkling ritual.From earlier texts, we learn that this ritual was also part of peace or well-being offerings, shalamim, Exodus 24.6, and reparation offerings, restoring relationships by getting rid of evil. This opening invites hearers to expect regulations for these other ceremonies as well. But that's not what happened.Before acceptable rituals could be performed, the altar itself had to be properly decontaminated and consecrated. This is the subject of verses 19 to 27. And now we must ask several auxiliary questions.First, who are the participants in the consecration and decontaminating rituals? Verse 19 answers the question. For a purification offering, you shall deliver a young bull to the Levitical priests who are from the line of Sadok, and thus may approach me, the declaration of the Lord, to render priestly service to me. Actually, this statement offers two answers to the question, who participates in this ritual.First, the prophet Ezekiel. Since the previous narratives had not yielded any clues that Ezekiel had entered the temple grounds as an authorized priest to perform priestly functions, we might have thought he was a tourist recording the measurements of the compound as commanded by God and dictated by the guide. Perhaps now we see the full fruits of his ordination in chapters 1 to 3, although chapters 40 to 48 as a whole are cast as an unidealized visionary form.This revelation offered some compensation for the prophets not having been able to minister in the Jerusalem temple. As we skim through the passage, we may summarize Ezekiel's responsibilities and tasks like this. First, he is to procure the young sacrificial bull and deliver it to the officiating priest.Second, he is to perform the blood-sprinkling ceremony. Third, he is to participate in offering the bull as a purification offering. Fourth, he is to offer the male goat as a purification offering.Fifth, he is to present an unblemished bull and ram before Yahweh, verses 23 and 24. Sixth, he is to participate in this decontamination ritual for seven days. If we compare this altar purification ceremony with that prescribed in Exodus 29, we notice that Ezekiel was taking the place of Moses in addressing him directly and charging him to initiate the proceedings.Yahweh had elevated him to the status of, shall we say, cult founder, as second Moses, the one to whom this new order was revealed. Second, Levitical priests of Zadokite descent are also involved in these rituals. Like 4046b, the brief reference to Levitical priests in the line of Zadok in verse 19 anticipates the fuller discussion of the role of the Zadokites that will come in chapter 44, verses 10 to 16.Yahweh defined their role as those who approach me to serve me. To approach to serve is a technical expression for religious liturgical service. In particular, we find this in 4046, 4319, 4415, and 16, and 454.In 4412, this verb, sheireith, to serve, will be used of taking proper care of idols, that was in a pagan sense, which would have involved feeding and clothing cult statues. But since Yahweh tolerated no images of himself, the expression could not be used in such a concrete sense by Orthodox Yahwists. In this case, the Zadokites' ministry would involve the rituals of consecration for the altar.Yahweh specified the following specific priestly activities in this ritual. First, receive the young bull whose blood is to be used in the blood-sprinkling ceremony. Ezekiel would give them to the Zadokite priest, verse 19.Two, burn the bull of the purification offering in the appointed place, verse 21. Three, decontaminate the altar using the bull offered as a purification offering. Four, offer the unblemished bull and ram as a whole burnt offering, verse 24.Five, make atonement for, consecrate and purify the altar for seven days, verse 26. And six, offer the people's whole burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar from the eighth day onward. So those are the roles of the Zadokite priest.Ezekiel brings up all these animals, and they're the ones that do the actual work. The nature of the consecration and decontamination rituals. What sorts of rituals would be involved in the consecration and decontamination of the altar? Ezekiel and the Zadokites were to work together for an entire week preparing the way for the people's burnt and peace offerings in on the eighth day.It's not clear on which day of the week they would start. Is it relevant? We don't know. This is a vision.But we may trace their activities through this week day by day. Day one, verses 19 to 21, the rituals of the first day involve three principal actions. A, Ezekiel was to initiate the week-long ritual by getting a young bull, presenting it to the Zadokite priest who would slaughter it, presumably on the altar.Nothing is said about the nature of the animal, but the purgative purging context and the description of selected animals later in verse 23 demand a specimen without blemish. B, they were to collect blood from the victim and daub it on the four horns of the altar, the four sides of the altar, and the curb surrounding the entire altar. That is the top one.C, third, they were to remove and burn the carcasses by the house guard outside the sacred precinct. Here, house guard refers to those who stood at the outer gates like London bobbies in front of Buckingham Palace, except that they functioned as more than mere decoration for the amusement of tourists. Their responsibilities involved welcoming true worshippers and keeping out the riffraff, like we saw in chapter eight.However, the point here was that the remains of the sacrificial victim were to be disposed of by the temple personnel, but away from the sanctuary outside the inner court. They could not be burned on the altar as a sacrifice because the altar had not yet been fully consecrated and decontaminated. Two verbs capture the significance of the first day's actions, to de-sin and to atone for.The first word, de-sin, ch'te, it involves a special pl form of the verb that actually, the verb itself, ch'te, means to de-, means to sin, to miss the mark. That is, miss the mark of the covenant righteousness as established by Yahweh. The first testament insists that sin can only be removed by a divine act of forgiveness, Psalm 25, 18 and 32, 5, or blotting out Psalm 104, 14, or washing 51, 4 and 9, or purging ch'te, that's this word.This is what invites or causes, moves God not to take into account the sin. People who received the divine instructions for the removal of sin and those who performed ritual acts of atonement would experience this decontamination provided they have approached God with a pure heart and sincere faith. By his grace, Yahweh had clearly revealed to the Israelites those rituals that would actually work.But how could an object like an altar be de-sinned, decontaminated, had it missed the mark of God's covenant righteousness? Well, I guess we should say, not personally, but through contact with defiled humans, the objects they touched were contaminated. As again, as I've said earlier, while holiness is not contagious, the Bible is clear that the defilement of sin is, and because human hands had built the altar, by definition, it had been contaminated. Defilement is a contagion that prohibits sacred use and must be removed.But thanks be to Yahweh, the God of Israel, he had revealed the cleansing rites which, if performed with penitent, contrite, and humble hearts, this blessed state could actually be experienced. We should not look at this as a burdensome imposition on the people. No, it is a liberating thing.The Israelites actually knew what would satisfy God in removing the effects of sin. The purpose of the procedures involved in the consecration of the altar was not the forgiveness of sin. The altar is insentient.It doesn't sin. It's incapable of sinning. Rather, the intent was to purify the place and the object of the contamination of human sin.This would be a one-time ritual, preparing the altar for sacrifices that would ensure the well-being of the community from this point on. It's like ordination to ministry. It's the ordination of the altar.The second verb, not the sin, but kippur, reinforces this notion. The word kippur means to perform rites of expiation, that is, pay some sort of price to atone for a crime and avert death. However, here we need a purgative sense again, as is confirmed in verse 26, which uses the verb teher, to cleanse.The text does not indicate the cause of this defilement outside orthodox Yahwistic circles. The source of the impurity was thought to be demonic, which meant that the aim of decontaminating ritual was to rid the precinct of the demons and to stave off their return. While a residue of this notion may be reflected in the prohibition of mollec worship because it defiles Timae the sanctuary, Leviticus 23, the concern about defiling malevolent powers is largely expunged, wiped out, eliminated, disregarded in Israelite thinking.In their place, the scriptures recognize three other sources of pollution. One, contact with a corpse prior to entry into the sanctuary, Numbers 19, 13 and 20. Two, affliction with a pelvic discharge, Leviticus 15, 31, or something like leprosy, Numbers 5, 2. Three, inadvertent sin by an individual, a leader, or the community as a whole.The present consecratory actions assume the fundamental profanity. Now, this is not a bad word. By being profane, we mean it hasn't been dedicated and consecrated to be holy.It is pre-consecration. It doesn't mean it's evil. It's simply ordinary, normal.But these operations, these actions, assume the fundamental profanity of the altar, if for no other reason than simply because of contact with human hands that had constructed it. And they could be the hands of those who were genuinely godly and pious people, Haggai 2.10-14. Unlike other offerings, 42.13, 44.29, the priests were prohibited from eating the meat of this sacrificial victim. Instead, it was removed from the sacred area and destroyed by fire, presumably because it had absorbed the defilement.An interesting concept. That's how it was desinned. Cleansed.The impurities had been absorbed by the animal. But how did this occur? Unlike the Mosaic Torah, this text does not mention any ritual involving laying on of hands, as was the case in purification offerings for individuals, Leviticus 4, 4 and elsewhere, or the ritual of the Day of Atonement, Leviticus 16.21. The contamination may have been conveyed to the animal the moment the blood from the bull touched the hearth or as the blood was daubed on the altar. The close identification of blood with the nephesh, the very being of a creature, the life of the creature, explains why the final act in this ritual of purification involved not the blood smeared on the altar, but the bull itself.All of that's day one. Day two, verses 22-24. The rites of the second day were to begin with a ritual slaughter of a male goat to serve the same purpose as the sacrifice of the bull the day before, but it's a smaller animal, as a purification desinning offering for cleansing the altar.However, this time the ritual explicitly demanded an animal without defect, Tamim. After sacrificing this animal, they were to slaughter a second bull and a ram again without defect, verse 23, as a whole burnt offering, ola. The whole thing was consumed on the altar.Verse 24 adds that while performing these rituals, the priests were to throw salt onto the carcasses. Yahweh didn't explain the function of the salt, but the action reminds us of the expression, the salt of the covenant of your God in Leviticus 2.13. Apparently, and this is speculation, but apparently the preservative qualities of salt rendered it a perfect symbol of the permanence of restored covenant relationship. In Numbers 18-19 and 2 Chronicles 13-5, the covenant of salt, berit melech, denotes an eternal covenant.Here the addition of salt to the ritual may have reminded Ezekiel and the priests of Yahweh's irrevocable commitment to them. Days 3-7, verses 25-27. Here we observe obvious redundancies and affinities to the mosaic regulations in Exodus 29, 36-37 and Leviticus 8. However, verse 25 requires these purging rituals to last a full week.Each day the prophet was to prepare a goat for purification offering, that is the desin offering, and the priests were to prepare a bull and a ram, all without blemish, of course. Verse 26 explains that the whole series of sacrifices contributed to the decontamination of the altar, to the expressions, to atone for, to cover, to prepare, and cleanse, to hair, and a third, to fill the hands of the altar. Really? That's a literal translation of mele-yad.This expression was commonly used idiomatically for the ordination of a person, especially a priest. But it also applied to consecrating Levites, Exodus 32-29, or the people, 1 Chronicles 29-5, or the whole congregation, 2 Chronicles 9-31. The idiom of filling the hands derives from the practice of presenting a token payment or symbol of the office to the person being consecrated, like the gavel we give to new chairs appointed to boards or to the house of representatives.While other texts speak of an ordination ram, ale, hameluim, Exodus 29, 22, 26, and 27, and Leviticus 8, this is the only place where filling the hands applied to the ordination of an inanimate object, the altar, for sacrificial service. Does the altar really have hands? Of course it doesn't, but this is presented here formally as an ordination, a seven-day ordination service for the altar. It reminds us how important this altar is in the whole picture, that he should devote this sort of time to it.So, let's talk about the function of the consecration and decontamination rituals. Verse 27, thus they are to complete the period. Then from the eighth day onwards, the priests may sacrifice your whole burnt offerings and your peace offerings on the altar, and I will accept you, the declaration of the Lord Yahweh.Here's the gospel. So far, we've seen only law, regulations, prescriptions, but here's the point. This is beautiful gospel.These instructions for consecrating the altar conclude with a formal declaration of the goal to render the altar fit for regular service, sacrificial activity. Yahweh named two offerings that often appear together as symbols of the new covenantal standing of the people before Yahweh, the whole burnt offering that represents the gift to God, and the shalomim, the peace offering. These two offerings reflect the two-sided nature of covenant relationship.The first, consisting of a sacrificial victim consumed completely by the fire, was a presentation for God. He inhaled it all. Second, eaten by the worshiper, provided nourishment for the human.The term shalomim denotes a general category that involves several different types of offerings, Leviticus 7, 11 to 18. Thanksgiving sacrifices, vowed sacrifices, free will offerings. Shalomim were joyful offerings, celebrating the well-being of the worshiper in the presence and in relationship to God.After a week of consecration rites, the house doors could be opened for sacred business. The building had been restored. Yahweh had returned.The altar had been carefully constructed and dutifully consecrated. Now let the worship begin. The priests could appear before Yahweh on behalf of the people with full assurance of being received by him.With Yahweh as the subject, ratzah, to accept, to receive, represents one of the most hopeful words in human language. This altar Torah provided for the fulfillment of the promise made long ago in 2040 to 41, the only other occurrence of the word in the book. On my holy mountain, the high mountain of Israel, Ezekiel had said long ago, the declaration of the Lord Yahweh, there, the whole house of Israel, all of them will serve me in the homeland.There, I will accept them, and there, I will request your contributions and your choice gifts, all your holy gifts, as a soothing aroma. I will accept you when I take you out from the peoples and gather you from the countries in which you've been scattered, and I will manifest my holiness through you in the sight of the nations. Yahweh guaranteed the fulfillment of this promise with a divine signature in the form of the signatory formula, Naum Adonai Yahweh, the declaration of the Lord Yahweh.For all its detail and formal obsolescence for Christians after Calvary, Ezekiel's altar Torah proclaims an amazing and glorious eternal gospel of grace. How? Well, first, the altar symbolizes Yahweh's delight in the worship of his people. He has not returned to the temple to bask in the glory of his new surroundings.He has come to have fellowship with humans. The days of his wrath are behind, and he reaches out to them, offering a smile and acceptance to those who appear in his divine court. Second, Yahweh provides a way of acceptable worship, and he reveals it.In a previous age, the Torah mediated by Moses had provided a righteous and gracious system of civil, moral, and cultic guidelines that were the envy of the world, Deuteronomy 4, 6 to 8. What great nation is there that has a God so near to it as Yahweh our God is whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there that has a Torah, laws and ordinances as righteous as this whole Torah that I am giving you? Unlike the nations around, Yahweh's people were not left to experiment and guess what types of behavior and cultic expressions he would receive favorably, what pleased him. In his revelation to Moses and the community of his people Israel, he outlined his expectations clearly and precisely. And I would always say, the more detailed the instructions, the greater the grace, the less is left to guesswork.It would be the same with a new order. Through Ezekiel, the new Moses, Yahweh declared his will, offering guidelines on acceptable approaches to him. The cultic system represented by this altar could not be interpreted as a human effort to reach God.No, it signified God's condescension to sinners and his invitation to come and receive his grace. Third, as a corollary, even in the new order, defilement threatens fellowship with God. Even the altar at the heart of the sacred precinct was polluted by human touch and needed to be decontaminated.If the sacred precinct must experience cleansing, kitteh, tihar, kippur, atonement, cleanse, how much more fundamentally sinful mortals? This altar gives eloquent witness to the reality of the human heart, even under ideal conditions. And fourth, interpreted in the light of the sacrifice of Christ, Christians may celebrate. First, they have a mediator superior in quality and effectiveness to Moses and Ezekiel, Hebrews 3. Second, they have a permanent high priest who has direct access to the heavenly throne of God and who offers perpetual intercession on their behalf, Hebrews 4, 14 to 728.Third, the blood of a perfectly unblemished sacrifice has purchased favor with God and eliminated the need for any further sacrifice, Hebrews 9 to 10. God has provided a way. Using the ritual and sacrificial vocabulary that was familiar to Ezekiel, the priest, to Ezekiel the priest, and should have been to the Israelites as well, in this vision, Yahweh painted a future of a glorious spiritual reality that guaranteed the presence and the pleasure of God.But how would this work? As the author of Hebrews says, the blood of bulls and goats doesn't take away sin, Hebrews 10.4. Only the blood of Christ solves that problem. Well then, what is the point of this image of altar and rituals and sacrifice? And now we must go back to the beginning. At Sinai, God opened the windows of heaven, and in my view, invited Moses to look not only into the heavenly throne room and see God enthroned above the universe, but also to get a glimpse of the grand plan of redemption centered in the sacrifice of Christ.He instructed him to build a tabernacle as a replica of the heavenly temple, and then he revealed to him a series of replica actions by replica personnel that would not themselves solve the problem. However, when performed according to the divine will, by persons with contrite, humble, and believing hearts, the true, eternal sacrifice of Christ, slain before the foundation of the world, it was applied to the worshiper. This was the plan that worked for first testament saints, and it is the plan that Yahweh and his spokesman Ezekiel adapted to this glorious picture of Israel's eschatological future.The sacrificial system provided a switch by which ancient Israelites could access the forgiveness made possible by the eternal sacrifice of Christ. That the altar was at the center of this holy mountain reminds us of its centrality in the shadow and replica cultic system with which this priestly prophet was familiar. But in so doing, it points us who know the end of the story to Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice and the only way of forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with God.In the ancient world, temples were viewed as the links between heaven and earth. This was the earthly residence of the gods, and this was how Israel's temple had functioned. The Ark of the Covenant and the Holy of Holies functioned as a replica throne of God.But in Ezekiel's vision, God would not be boxed in the temple. According to 3727, his dwelling would be over Israel. Now we know how this worked.Yes, the glory had come through the eastern gate and made its way into the house itself, but it was not limited. It wasn't boxed into the house. Above the temple complex, in fact, above the altar, the glorious presence of God hovered for all to see.The temple had been destroyed and returned out of heaven as a transformed temple. The physical replica structure had been replaced by a supraphysical image and reality. The altar invites people to look up and see not the blood of bulls and goats, but God himself who offers forgiveness through the blood of Christ.Of course, this set the stage for Jesus' incarnation as Yahweh made flesh in whom divine glory and grace are embodied. And when Jesus declared, destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up, John 2.19, he set the stage for a return from the grave with a new spiritual body. Hallelujah! What a Savior!