Ezekiel, in a vision, has watched a man measure the new temple in Jerusalem. Mackie covers this in session 27 of his Bible Project class on Ezekiel.
This chapter is a climactic chapter for the scroll of Ezekiel. Earlier, in chapters 8-11 (see 10:4, 18-19 and 11:22-23) YHWH's glory began to leave the temple in Jerusalem. Here, finally, after much preparation, it returns.
Ezekiel 43:1-5, YHWH enters the temple
Then the man brought me to the gate facing east, and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory. The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when he came to destroy the city and like the visions I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell facedown. The glory of the LORD entered the temple through the gate facing east.
Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.
YHWH has now approached and entered the temple, through the east gate.
Ezekiel 43:6-9, With only a wall between us
While the man was standing beside me, I heard someone speaking to me from inside the temple. He said: "Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet. This is where I will live among the Israelites forever. The house of Israel will never again defile my holy name--neither they nor their kings--by their prostitution and the lifeless idols of their kings at their high places. When they placed their threshold next to my threshold and their doorposts beside my doorposts, with only a wall between me and them, they defiled my holy name by their detestable practices. So I destroyed them in my anger. Now let them put away from me their prostitution and the lifeless idols of their kings, and I will live among them forever.
YHWH will reside in this temple and will not allow it to be defiled. The kings, who set up their doors next to the doors of God's place in the temple, will not be allowed to defile the temple.
The Hebrew word translated "lifeless idols" by the NIV has peger, meaning "corpses", as its root. Mackie argues that this really means that the bodies of kings were buried next to the temple and cites 2 Kings 21:18, 26 as two examples of the burial of kings encroaching on temple land.
Ezekiel 43:10-12, Show the people the plan
"Son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their sins. Let them consider the plan, and if they are ashamed of all they have done, make known to them the design of the temple--its arrangement, its exits and entrances--its whole design and all its regulations and laws. Write these down before them so that they may be faithful to its design and follow all its regulations.
"This is the law of the temple: All the surrounding area on top of the mountain will be most holy. Such is the law of the temple.
Ezekiel is to describe the temple to the people of Israel.
Ezekiel 43:13-17, Gutter, altar, hearth...
"These are the measurements of the altar in long cubits, that cubit being a cubit and a handbreadth: Its gutter is a cubit deep and a cubit wide, with a rim of one span around the edge. And this is the height of the altar: From the gutter on the ground up to the lower ledge it is two cubits high and a cubit wide, and from the smaller ledge up to the larger ledge it is four cubits high and a cubit wide. The altar hearth is four cubits high, and four horns project upward from the hearth. The altar hearth is square, twelve cubits long and twelve cubits wide. The upper ledge also is square, fourteen cubits long and fourteen cubits wide, with a rim of half a cubit and a gutter of a cubit all around. The steps of the altar face east."
Parts of the area around the altar are described. The altar is quite large, about 30 feet across at the base and almost 20 feet high (Alexander)! Alexander's commentary (p. 972) has this drawing of the altar of sacrifice.
Ezekiel 43:18-27, Sacrificial system in the Third Temple
Then he said to me, "Son of man, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: These will be the regulations for sacrificing burnt offerings and sprinkling blood upon the altar when it is built: You are to give a young bull as a sin offering to the priests, who are Levites, of the family of Zadok, who come near to minister before me, declares the Sovereign LORD. You are to take some of its blood and put it on the four horns of the altar and on the four corners of the upper ledge and all around the rim, and so purify the altar and make atonement for it. You are to take the bull for the sin offering and burn it in the designated part of the temple area outside the sanctuary.
"On the second day you are to offer a male goat without defect for a sin offering, and the altar is to be purified as it was purified with the bull. When you have finished purifying it, you are to offer a young bull and a ram from the flock, both without defect. You are to offer them before the LORD, and the priests are to sprinkle salt on them and sacrifice them as a burnt offering to the LORD.
"For seven days you are to provide a male goat daily for a sin offering; you are also to provide a young bull and a ram from the flock, both without defect. For seven days they are to make atonement for the altar and cleanse it; thus they will dedicate it. At the end of these days, from the eighth day on, the priests are to present your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar. Then I will accept you, declares the Sovereign LORD."
Ezekiel reports on the requirements for the future sacrifices in this future temple.
For the Christian commentator, the sacrifices in this new temple provide a challenge. If this is to be done after the appearance of Jesus, this seems to violate the concept of Hebrews 9, that the death of Jesus ended the need for a sacrificial system. Alexander, who views this temple as a real one to be built in the Millennium age, believes these sacrifices will be symbolic, "not efficacious"; they are pictures of sin and its consequences but do not really remove sin as only Jesus does that. (Alexander has an essay, pp. 946-52, on this topic.) In similar futuristic images in the New Testament, Revelation 21:9-27, there is no temple for God and the Lamb are "are its temple" (verse 22.)
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