Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
Seven days—referring to the original directions of Moses for seven days' purification services of the altar (Exodus 29:37).
consecrate themselves—literally, "fill their hands," namely, with offerings; referring to the mode of consecrating a priest (Exodus 29:24, Exodus 29:35).
The sacrifices here are not mere commemorative, but propitiatory ones. The expressions, "blood" (Ezekiel 43:18), and "for a sin offering (Ezekiel 43:19, Ezekiel 43:21-22), prove this. In the literal sense they can only apply to the second temple. Under the Christian dispensation they would directly oppose the doctrine taught in Heb. 10:1-18, namely, that Christ has by one offering for ever atoned for sin. However, it is possible that they might exist with a retrospective reference to Christ's sufferings, as the Levitical sacrifices had a prospective reference to them; not propitiatory in themselves, but memorials to keep up the remembrance of His propitiatory sufferings, which form the foundation of His kingdom, lest they should be lost sight of in the glory of that kingdom [DE BURGH]. The particularity of the directions make it unlikely that they are to be understood in a merely vague spiritual sense.
As to the altar of burnt offering, which was the appointed means of access to God.
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