O what an enigma Ezekiel’s temple is for both modern-day Jews and modern-day Christians! For modern-day Jews, in the Jewish Scriptures, you have the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel meticulously describing a temple whose inner gates and altar and holy place and most holy place forms a shape that is, are you ready, get this, a perfect cross! Oy vey! That is no coincidence! For modern-day Christians, the daily sacrifice of a perfect lamb will be an eternal reminder of the eternal salvation for those of us who belong to the precious Lamb of God. Morning by morning, a lamb without blemish will be sacrificed in Ezekiel’s temple, which has the shape of a cross. It will be a daily, eternal reminder of what our high priest in the order of Melchizedek did for us, what Jesus won for us on the cross. To you Christians who are skeptical of animal sacrifices in kingdom come, I ask you: if a burnt offering is an aroma pleasing to the LORD, and we know that it is (EXOD 29:41), and if the LORD changes not, and we know that He does not (MALACHI 3:6), then does it not make sense that the LORD will institute animal sacrifices in perpetuity? Indeed. And besides, it says so in His Word! The LORD has called for animal sacrifices to be a perpetual ordinance (EZEK 46:15, ZECH 14:20-21)! The LORD will have a formal temple of worship upon the earth amongst mankind in Jerusalem during the Millennial Reign and then the LORD will have a formal temple of worship forever more in Ezekiel’s temple in kingdom come when we get a new heaven and a new earth. 

Consider this curious hypothetical comment in the Book of Hebrews about our high priest in heaven, Jesus:

For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law

—Hebrews 8:4

The Book of Hebrews spoke of this hypothetical situation during the same age we live in currently, the age of grace. Jesus serves as our high priest in the heavenly temple and is in the priestly order of Melchizedek. It does not say in Hebrews that there would be no more law of Moses on earth if Jesus were on the earth. It just says Jesus would not be a priest upon the earth because there are earthly priests who administer the law of Moses. In this hypothetical, having Jesus in heaven above and the law of Moses on earth below simultaneously is not a conundrum. Even though the law of Moses became obsolete when Jesus was nailed to the cross, the law has not passed away yet. The law of Moses waxes old and decays, but it has not yet vanished:

In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

—Hebrews 8:13

Notice it says the old covenant is “ready to vanish”. That is, it hasn’t vanished yet. The law of Moses waxes and decays as this present heaven and earth waxes and decays, and all are ready to vanish. The law of Moses and this present earth and present heaven are all bound together. They all wax old and decay and will soon vanish and we will get a new heaven and a new earth, but not yet, not until a little over a thousand years from now, shortly after the Millennial Reign. It is then and only then that the law of Moses and this present heaven and earth will be done away with and be no more. Only then will the law of Moses and this present heaven and earth vanish, when we get a brand new heaven and new earth, when God comes down out of heaven to earth to live with mankind in the new Jerusalem. At that time, the temple will no longer be in the city proper of Jerusalem but in a northern suburb of the new Jerusalem and the rules and regulations of the temple will be as the prophet Ezekiel said. 

So while it is true that the law of Moses was made obsolete when Jesus was nailed to the cross and we who believe partake of the new eternal covenant of Jesus Christ (which will be consummated after Daniel’s 70th week), nevertheless, the law of Moses will not be done away with until this present heaven and earth disappear after the Millennial Reign. And then in the new earth in kingdom come, the rules and regulations of the temple will be as Ezekiel described. But for those who belong to the high priest Jesus, who is in the eternal order of Melchizedek (HEB 5:6), we are free right now from the law of Moses and free from the rules and regulations of Ezekiel’s temple to come (which are for the sake of the mortal men upon the earth at that time) because we can partake right now, by faith, of the age to come (HEB 6:5) and the glorious freedom of the children of God throughout eternity in the new Jerusalem. But hear this and hear it well you sons of God: the glorious freedom afforded you by the precious blood of Jesus does not give you a license to commit sexual immorality. That would be insulting the Spirit of grace. And the only thing left for those who do such a thing is to wait in fear for the devouring fire of the wrath of God (HEB 10:26-31).