Ezekiel 40:44-46

There was a lot of work for the priests who carried out the *sacrifices. The *temple needed many priests for these tasks. But there were only a few tasks in the *temple building. Only a few priests had the honour to serve there on any particular day. It was a very special honour. On that particular day, they would prepare for their work in a separate room. All the priests’ work was very *holy. But to serve God inside his *holy place was the holiest task of all.

All the priests in the *temple in this *vision belonged to Zadok’s family. This was different from the rule during Ezekiel’s life. We need to understand the reasons. The *Israelite priests had always been the *descendants of Aaron. Aaron lived many centuries before Ezekiel, so Aaron’s family would include many thousands of people. And all the men from that family who were over 30 years old were priests. But not all these men had been *holy. In fact, many of these men were very evil. And they had allowed God’s *temple to become a wicked place (chapter 8). God could not allow this to continue.

So God made a new rule. His priests would be from the family of Zadok. Ezekiel 44:15-16 gives the reason why God chose this family. They were loyal to God when other *Israelites were not. Zadok was an important priest who lived at the same time as King David. Zadok remained loyal to King David, even when other priests did not (2 Samuel 15:24-27; 1 Kings 1:7-8). So the phrase ‘priests from Zadok’s family’ means priests who are loyal to God.