Ezekiel 44:11

11 Yet they will occupy My sanctuary, serving as guards at the temple gates and ministering at the temple. They will slaughter the burnt offerings and [other] sacrifices for the people and will stand before them to serve them.

Ezekiel 44:11 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 44:11

Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary
Though degraded from their office as priests and ministers of the word, yet being restored from their sins and errors, shall have a place in the house of God, and do their work there in a less honourable and a more servile way; as in former times, when ministers had sinned foully, and were degraded from their office, upon repentance they were not restored to that, but only admitted to lay communion; see ( 2 Kings 23:9 ) : having charge at the gates of the house;
like those sort of Levites who were porters and doorkeepers in the temple, or like our sextons or pew openers now: and ministering to the house;
employed as the Gibeonites were in hewing wood and bringing water for the use of the sanctuary, or in repairing of it; learning and exercising the business of smiths, masons, and carpenters: they shall slay the burnt offering, and the sacrifice for the people;
not bring it to the altar, and offer it there; only slay it, and skin it for the priests; which is not to be understood literally, there being no such sacrifice in Gospel times; but to denote the menial service and inferior post that such shall be employed in; if they have no trade, they shall learn one, in order to get a livelihood for themselves, and be serviceable to the interest of religion in a lower way; but ministers of the word they shall not be: and they shall stand before them to minister unto them;
either before the priests, whose servants they shall be, or before the people; signifying that those that sin publicly shall be rebuked before all.

Ezekiel 44:11 In-Context

9 "This is what the Lord God says: No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, may enter My sanctuary, not even a foreigner who is among the Israelites.

10 Surely the Levites who wandered away from Me when Israel went astray, and who strayed from Me after their idols, will bear the consequences of their sin.

11 Yet they will occupy My sanctuary, serving as guards at the temple gates and ministering at the temple. They will slaughter the burnt offerings and [other] sacrifices for the people and will stand before them to serve them.

12 Because they ministered to the house of Israel before their idols and became a sinful stumbling block to them, therefore I swore an oath against them"-[this is] the declaration of the Lord God -"that they would bear the consequences of their sin.

13 They must not approach Me to serve Me as priests or come near any of My holy things or the most holy things. They will bear their disgrace and the consequences of the abominations they committed.