Ezekiel 43:19-20

“You will give to the priests, the Levites, who are of the seed of Zadok, who are near to me, to minister to me,” says the Lord Yahweh, “a young bullock for a sin offering, and you will take of its blood, and put it on the four horns of it, and on the four corners of the settle, and on the border round about. Thus you will cleanse it and make atonement for it. You will also take the bullock of the sin offering, and he will burn it in the appointed place of the house, outside the sanctuary.”

Once again we have confirmed the fact that the sons of Zadok now have a privileged position before God. This confirms that we are here dealing with a situation immediately after the exile when such ‘sons of Zadok' could be identified. There would be no grounds for such special privilege in any supposed millennium, for the sons of Zadok were equally responsible for the crucifixion of Christ (see further on Ezekiel 44:15 onwards). The partial rejection of a large part of the priesthood from the central sacred tasks was a preparation for the time which would later result in the rejection of the whole of the priesthood when it was replaced by Jesus Christ, God's own High Priest. After that there are no grounds for any restoration of a levitical priesthood. God's people are His priests, and their offering is one of praise, thanksgiving, dedication and good lives, ‘spiritual sacrifices' (1 Peter 2:5; Hebrews 13:15; Romans 12:1; Philippians 2:17; Hebrews 13:16)

Their responsibility here was to officiate in the overall sacrificial ordinances of Israel, which would begin here by offering a young bullock provided by Ezekiel (or his representative) as a sin offering. The fact that the offering was a sin offering stresses the defilement brought on the earth by the past failure of Israel. The first step to restoration of worship was admission of the depths of their sin, and the need for it to be atoned for.

The blood of the sin offering was then to be applied to the horns of the altar (with the finger) and the corners of the higher settle, together with its surround. The place in which future sacrifices were to be offered must be freed from all taint of sin. For the procedures see Leviticus 16:18 where the altar had to be cleansed on the Day of Atonement. Compare also procedures in Exodus 29:12; Leviticus 4:7; Leviticus 4:18; Leviticus 4:25; Leviticus 4:30; Leviticus 4:34; Leviticus 8:15; Leviticus 9:9.

‘Thus you will cleanse it and make atonement for it. You will also take the bullock of the sin offering, and he will burn it in the appointed place of the house, outside the sanctuary.' Thus cleansing and atonement (the ‘covering' of sin) was made. The altar was now pure. The burning of the remains outside the sanctuary was because the remains were now fully tainted with sin. Had it been because of their holiness they would have been burned in the sanctuary. This was done previously for major sin offerings which were for the whole people or for the priests and those offered on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 4:12; Leviticus 4:21; Leviticus 16:27 see also Ezekiel 8:17). This emphasis on this severe treatment militates against any suggestion of a memorial offering. The reference to ‘the house' does not necessarily refer to a specific temple, but to whatever place housed the sanctuary and the altar (compare Genesis 28:22; Judges 20:18; Jdg 21:2; 1 Samuel 1:7; 1 Samuel 3:15 and contrast 2 Samuel 7:6).

‘The seed of Zadok.' This refers primarily to those descended from Zadok (1 Chronicles 6:8), and the high priesthood would in future be Zadokite. However, ‘seed of' does not necessarily demand a blood relationship. It could include priests who had opted to be one with the Zadokites in their faithfulness to Yahweh, and exclude those who by their blatant misbehaviour had shown themselves not ‘true' Zadokites. In the same way Israel were the ‘seed of Jacob' (Psalms 22:23; Isaiah 45:19; Jeremiah 33:26) but the large proportion of them were not directly descended from Jacob, they were his ‘seed' by opting in and by adoption.