Ezekiel 40:1-49
1 In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day the hand of the LORD was upon me, and brought me thither.
2 In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain, by which was as the framea of a city on the south.
3 And he brought me thither, and, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate.
4 And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall shew thee; for to the intent that I might shew them unto thee art thou brought hither: declare all that thou seest to the house of Israel.
5 And behold a wall on the outside of the house round about, and in the man's hand a measuring reed of six cubits long by the cubit and an hand breadth: so he measured the breadth of the building, one reed; and the height, one reed.
6 Then came he unto the gate which lookethb toward the east, and went up the stairs thereof, and measured the threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad; and the other threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad.
7 And every little chamber was one reed long, and one reed broad; and between the little chambers were five cubits; and the threshold of the gate by the porch of the gate within was one reed.
8 He measured also the porch of the gate within, one reed.
9 Then measured he the porch of the gate, eight cubits; and the posts thereof, two cubits; and the porch of the gate was inward.
10 And the little chambers of the gate eastward were three on this side, and three on that side; they three were of one measure: and the posts had one measure on this side and on that side.
11 And he measured the breadth of the entry of the gate, ten cubits; and the length of the gate, thirteen cubits.
12 The spacec also before the little chambers was one cubit on this side, and the space was one cubit on that side: and the little chambers were six cubits on this side, and six cubits on that side.
13 He measured then the gate from the roof of one little chamber to the roof of another: the breadth was five and twenty cubits, door against door.
14 He made also posts of threescore cubits, even unto the post of the court round about the gate.
15 And from the face of the gate of the entrance unto the face of the porch of the inner gate were fifty cubits.
16 And there were narrowd windows to the little chambers, and to their posts within the gate round about, and likewise to the arches: and windows were round about inward: and upon each post were palm trees.
17 Then brought he me into the outward court, and, lo, there were chambers, and a pavement made for the court round about: thirty chambers were upon the pavement.
18 And the pavement by the side of the gates over against the length of the gates was the lower pavement.
19 Then he measured the breadth from the forefront of the lower gate unto the forefront of the inner court without,e an hundred cubits eastward and northward.
20 And the gate of the outward court that lookedf toward the north, he measured the length thereof, and the breadth thereof.
21 And the little chambers thereof were three on this side and three on that side; and the posts thereof and the archesg thereof were after the measure of the first gate: the length thereof was fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty cubits.
22 And their windows, and their arches, and their palm trees, were after the measure of the gate that looketh toward the east; and they went up unto it by seven steps; and the arches thereof were before them.
23 And the gate of the inner court was over against the gate toward the north, and toward the east; and he measured from gate to gate an hundred cubits.
24 After that he brought me toward the south, and behold a gate toward the south: and he measured the posts thereof and the arches thereof according to these measures.
25 And there were windows in it and in the arches thereof round about, like those windows: the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty cubits.
26 And there were seven steps to go up to it, and the arches thereof were before them: and it had palm trees, one on this side, and another on that side, upon the posts thereof.
27 And there was a gate in the inner court toward the south: and he measured from gate to gate toward the south an hundred cubits.
28 And he brought me to the inner court by the south gate: and he measured the south gate according to these measures;
29 And the little chambers thereof, and the posts thereof, and the arches thereof, according to these measures: and there were windows in it and in the arches thereof round about: it was fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits broad.
30 And the arches round about were five and twenty cubits long, and five cubits broad.h
31 And the arches thereof were toward the utter court; and palm trees were upon the posts thereof: and the going up to it had eight steps.
32 And he brought me into the inner court toward the east: and he measured the gate according to these measures.
33 And the little chambers thereof, and the posts thereof, and the arches thereof, were according to these measures: and there were windows therein and in the arches thereof round about: it was fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits broad.
34 And the arches thereof were toward the outward court; and palm trees were upon the posts thereof, on this side, and on that side: and the going up to it had eight steps.
35 And he brought me to the north gate, and measured it according to these measures;
36 The little chambers thereof, the posts thereof, and the arches thereof, and the windows to it round about: the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty cubits.
37 And the posts thereof were toward the utter court; and palm trees were upon the posts thereof, on this side, and on that side: and the going up to it had eight steps.
38 And the chambers and the entries thereof were by the posts of the gates, where they washed the burnt offering.
39 And in the porch of the gate were two tables on this side, and two tables on that side, to slay thereon the burnt offering and the sin offering and the trespass offering.
40 And at the side without, as one goeth up to the entry of the north gate, were two tables; and on the other side, which was at the porch of the gate, were two tables.
41 Four tables were on this side, and four tables on that side, by the side of the gate; eight tables, whereupon they slew their sacrifices.
42 And the four tables were of hewn stone for the burnt offering, of a cubit and an half long, and a cubit and an half broad, and one cubit high: whereupon also they laid the instruments wherewith they slew the burnt offering and the sacrifice.
43 And within were hooks,i an hand broad, fastened round about: and upon the tables was the flesh of the offering.
44 And without the inner gate were the chambers of the singers in the inner court, which was at the side of the north gate; and their prospect was toward the south: one at the side of the east gate having the prospect toward the north.
45 And he said unto me, This chamber, whose prospect is toward the south, is for the priests, the keepers of the chargej of the house.
46 And the chamber whose prospect is toward the north is for the priests, the keepers of the charge of the altar: these are the sons of Zadok among the sons of Levi, which come near to the LORD to minister unto him.
47 So he measured the court, an hundred cubits long, and an hundred cubits broad, foursquare; and the altar that was before the house.
48 And he brought me to the porch of the house, and measured each post of the porch, five cubits on this side, and five cubits on that side: and the breadth of the gate was three cubits on this side, and three cubits on that side.
49 The length of the porch was twenty cubits, and the breadth eleven cubits; and he brought me by the steps whereby they went up to it: and there were pillars by the posts, one on this side, and another on that side.
We want to get into the study of Ezekiel tonight, and right off the top I would like to confess to you that of all of the Bible and the passages in the Bible, I understand this the least. I do not pretend to have a full and complete understanding of Ezekiel Chapter s 40 through 48. In fact, I have greater difficulty with these passages than I do any other section of the Bible. And because I do lack personally in an understanding of this section, I do find it extremely difficult to minister from this particular section of the scriptures. I can't wait till I get back and get into the book of Daniel. And when we return, we'll take... your next assignment will be Daniel the first six Chapter s. And I can hardly wait to get into Daniel, because that I understand. Now, Ezekiel up to this point I have, I feel, a pretty good grasp and understanding of it, but beginning tonight with chapter 40 and going through the end, I get lost. I don't understand it completely. And to help in understanding, because he is describing the new temple that is to be built. Now, from the description of this temple, it will be a temple that will be built during the Kingdom Age after the return of Jesus Christ. This will not be the temple that will be rebuilt during the... in the very near future under the decree that is made by the antichrist. But this is yet future.
Now we passed out diagrams for you by which we have sought to more or less draw a diagram for you of this new temple that is to be built. Notice that basically it is square and the outer walls of this temple are five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits broad. Now, this is the building itself. Outside of this there is the wall that is five hundred reeds. Now, to help you understand, we get into cubits, reeds, and we're into types of measurements that are not familiar with us. According to the definition, the cubit here is a cubit plus a span, the cubit that he measured with, which would be the cubit is the length from your elbow to your fingertips and the span, of course, is from your thumb to your fingertip. So, the length from your elbow to your fingertip about eighteen inches plus the span gives you about twenty-four inches. So you're dealing with cubits of twenty-four inches. Now as you look at this diagram again, you notice this outer wall of the building would then be about a thousand feet, five hundred cubits, which would make it about a thousand feet, which means that that is a fairly good size building comprising a hundred thousand square feet within the perimeters of the building.
So then you notice this inner court. That inner court is a hundred cubits square, which would mean about two hundred feet square. So again, you begin to get the size of this building. It is quite large indeed. An inner court, two hundred feet, this building from wall to wall is about a hundred and eighty feet. So you add another twenty feet and the same distance back and you have the inner court here, which is about a two-hundred-foot square.
So that helps you then to get the overall, idea of the overall size of the building. It is quite a large building, the new temple that will built. Plus the wall that goes around it at five hundred reeds. A reed is five of these cubits, which would be ten feet in length. So the wall around the whole thing would be almost a mile square. Now, at the present time in Jerusalem, there is no area where this could be built, especially on the temple mount. The temple mount that was vastly enlarged by King Herod is nowhere near a mile square. In fact, the whole old city of Jerusalem is just about a mile square.
So when Jesus returns, and prior to the return of Jesus Christ there are to be many cataclysmic events. The book of Revelation, for instance, describes a tremendous earthquake that is going to jolt Jerusalem so that a tenth part of the city will be destroyed. This plus the other cataclysmic events that are described in the book of Revelation, the present situation of Jerusalem, with the earthquake, and of course, when Christ returns there will be a great cataclysmic event in that the Mount of Olives will be splitting in the middle and a new valley will be formed, and no doubt with the new valley that is formed and this great shaking of the earth, a new mountain will be shoved up. And this mountain will be called Mount Zion and it will be very high in the sight of all of the earth according to the prophecies that are in Isaiah and in Jeremiah. So that the new temple will be built then upon this new Mount Zion, and thus the large area that is devoted for the temple. But you see the diagram here of the buildings themselves. And thus, as you go through Ezekiel beginning with chapter 40, as Ezekiel is taken by the Spirit and is shown this new temple of God.
In the twentieth year of our captivity, [which would have been the year 572 B.C.], in the beginning of the year [which would have been April], the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was smitten, in the selfsame day the hand of the LORD was upon me, and brought me thither. In the visions of God he brought me into the land of Israel, he set me upon a very high mountain, by which was the frame of the city on the south (Ezekiel 40:1-2).
So there is a very new high mountain that rises up there in Israel in the area of Jerusalem.
And he brought me thither, and, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and with a measuring reed; he stood in the gate. And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart upon all that I will show you; for to the intent that I might show them unto thee you have been brought here (Ezekiel 40:3-4):
So he meets the man who introduces himself and says, "Now, pay careful attention to all these things I'm going to show you, because for this purpose you've been brought here."
and then declare all that you see to the house of Israel (Ezekiel 40:4).
So in these passages we are dealing in the Kingdom Age and with the house of Israel. We are not dealing with the church. And really this temple that is to be built and its worship is not related to the church, but it is related to Israel in the Kingdom Age. And so it is to be related to the house of Israel.
Now behold there was a wall on the outside of the house round about, in the man's hand a measuring reed of six cubits long [the cubit is about eighteen inches, ten feet] by the cubit and a handbreadth [so about twelve feet]: he measured the breadth of the building, one reed; and the height, one reed. Then he came to the gate which looked toward the east (Ezekiel 40:5-6),
Now you notice down on the bottom of your diagram we've drawn here the gate towards the east. We've only drawn three steps; there are seven steps leading up into that gate. And the gate itself becomes a corridor, because on either side you have these rooms that go along and then the area known as the pavement, sort of a porched portico, arched, porched area that is in the pavement there. And it describes the porch and the arches and the various carvings of the cherubim that are upon these arches and on these posts.
Now, I'm not going to try to go through and follow this all with you. It gets very laborious, and therefore I'm going to allow you that opportunity if you so desire to get the thing in your mind to take the diagram that we have prepared for you and as best you can, follow it through, read it out, and see if you can more or less figure this whole thing out.
You have the inner court in verse Ezekiel 40:27 toward the south. Now you'll notice that there are gates that come in on three sides. Both into the outer court area here and then in three more gates corresponding with the outer gates into the inner court area. Those steps coming into the outer court area are seven steps upward. Coming into the inner court there are eight steps. So you are coming from a lower plane, rising to a higher plane, and then the temple house is yet on a higher level. So the whole thing is ascending up. But you have the three gates, no gate to the west. But there are gates to the east, to the north, and to the south, but none coming from the west. And so you come in through these gates into the outer chamber and then up through the steps into the inner court.
Now, only a certain group were allowed on into the inner court--those that were making the sacrifices themselves. You'll find the altar of burnt offering in the middle of the inner court, and then on the west side you find the temple house itself and the holy place within the temple house. The holy place being twenty by twenty, or about a forty-foot cube area.
Now, as you go into these measurements, you'll find that they are, many of them, in multiples of twelve, which I'm sure has some significance. But just what the significance is I cannot tell you for sure. Because I don't know. There's a lot of things that people can read into things. I would rather not read things into it, but just read it as it is and that which I understand tell you; that which I don't understand just let you know that I don't understand it, what its significance or whatever. But I've noticed in going through many multiples of twelve.
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