Ezekiel 43:13 - Meaning and Application

This is about the altar in this symbolic temple, and that altar is symbolic too, for Christ is our altar. After the Jews returned from exile, they had an altar before they had a temple (Ezra 3:3). But this was an altar inside the temple.

Here we first see the altar’s size (Ezekiel 43:13). It was six yards square at the top and seven yards square at the base. It stood four and a half yards high. It had a lower ledge, called a settle here, about a yard from the ground, where some priests stood to serve. Another ledge was two yards higher, where other priests stood. Each ledge was half a yard wide and had raised edges so the priests could stand securely. The sacrifices were killed at the table mentioned earlier (Ezekiel 40:39). What was to be burned on the altar was passed to those on the lower ledge, then handed up to those on the higher ledge, and they placed it on the altar. In God’s service, we should help one another in practical ways.

Second, we see the altar’s rules. Instructions are given here about its dedication at the beginning. Seven days were to be set apart for dedicating it, and sacrifices were to be offered each day. In particular, a goat was to be offered as a sin offering (Ezekiel 43:25), along with a young bull as a sin offering on the first day (Ezekiel 43:19). This teaches us to keep Christ, the great sin offering, in view in all our worship. Neither our persons nor our work can be acceptable to God unless sin is removed, and that can only happen through Christ’s blood, which makes both the altar and the gift holy. Scripture says Christ entered by his own blood (Hebrews 9:12).

There was also to be a bull and a ram offered as burnt offerings (Ezekiel 43:24). These were meant entirely for God’s glory, and they teach us to aim at that in all we do. We present ourselves as living sacrifices, and our worship as spiritual sacrifices, so that we and our offerings may be for his name, praise, and glory. The dedication of the altar is called cleansing and purifying it (Ezekiel 43:20, 43:26). Christ, our altar, had no uncleanness to wash away, yet he set himself apart fully for God (John 17:19). And when we dedicate the altars of our hearts to God, so that the fire of holy love keeps burning there, we must make sure they are cleansed from love of the world and the desires of the flesh.

It is worth noticing that several parts of these dedication rites differ from those in Exodus 29. That shows that ceremonial laws were changeable, and those changes pointed ahead to their ending in Christ. Here, as the general law required that every sacrifice be seasoned with salt (Leviticus 2:13), the priests were given a specific command to sprinkle salt on the sacrifices (Ezekiel 43:24). Grace is the salt that must season all our worship (Colossians 4:6). An everlasting covenant is called a covenant of salt because it cannot decay. The glory reserved for us is incorruptible and undefiled, and the grace formed in us is the hidden person of the heart, marked by what cannot spoil.

Third, we see the altar’s ongoing use after it was dedicated. From that time on, the priests were to offer their burnt offerings and peace offerings on this altar (Ezekiel 43:27), because it had been made holy so that it could make holy the gifts placed on it. We also note who was to serve there, the priests from the family line of Zadok (Ezekiel 43:19). Solomon had placed that family in Abiathar’s former role, and God confirms that choice. Zadok’s name means righteous, fitting for those who are a righteous people made priests to God through Christ, the Lord our righteousness.

We also see how they were to prepare for this work (Ezekiel 43:26). They were to consecrate themselves, filling their hands with offerings, showing that they gave themselves and their gifts fully to God’s service. Before we minister to the Lord in holy things, we too must set ourselves apart, with our hands and hearts filled with what belongs to him. And we see how they would succeed in it (Ezekiel 43:27): “I will accept you.” If God accepts our work and our service pleases him, that is enough. Those who give themselves to God will be accepted by God, first in their persons and then in their work, through the Mediator.