A new temple
40
📚In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city had been destroyed, on that very day the hand of the LORD 📖 was on me, and took me there 📖. 40:1 Chapters 40-48 form a unit. All the material in them came in one vision in the year 573 BC. Some of the people of Judah had been in exile for 25 years. The temple at Jerusalem had been destroyed for 13 years. Now in vision Ezekiel sees a new temple. These chapters have perplexed commentators, both Jewish and Christian, all through the centuries, and they have set forth various interpretations to explain them.
(a) Some scholars have taught that these chapters are altogether symbolic of the Church of the New Testament and give only spiritual lessons.
(b) Some have taught that these chapters describe how the temple and city were to be built by Israel when they were restored to their land, but that they never actually did it.
(c) Some have taught that these chapters speak of the future reign of Christ on earth and speak of a temple and city to be built after He returns and sets up His kingdom.
(d) Some have taught that these chapters speak of the future kingdom of God, after the return of Christ, using expressions of worship, etc. familiar then to the Jews, which will be fulfilled in ways impossible for us to state at present.
Each of these interpretations has its difficulties when the details of the prophecy are examined. It is the opinion of the author of these notes that these chapters describe something that will literally take place in the future. But we should remember that a “literal” fulfillment does not exclude spiritual meanings. Compare the description of the tabernacle in Exodus chapters 25–30. A literal tabernacle was built, but in all its parts it spoke of Christ and spiritual matters. We should not think it impossible that there will be something similar in the coming reign of Christ over the earth.⚜
2 📚In the visions 📖 of God he took me to the land of Israel, and set me down on a very high mountain 📖. On it, to the south, there was what appeared to be the structure of a city. 3 📚And he took me there, and I saw a man whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze 📖, with a cord of flax and a measuring rod in his hand; and he stood at the gate. 4 📚And the man said to me, “Son of man, see with your eyes and hear with your ears and set your mind on all that I am going to show you. You have been brought here for the purpose of my showing them to you. Declare 📖 all that you see to the house of Israel”.
The courts, gates, and rooms in the courtyard
5 📚And I saw a wall 📖 all around on the outside of the temple, and in the man’s hand a measuring rod of six long cubits, each a cubit 📖 and a handbreadth 📖. So he measured the width of the wall, one rod; and the height, one rod.
6 📚Then he came to the gate which faced east, and went up its steps, and measured the threshold of the gate, which was one rod wide; and the other threshold of the gate, which was one rod wide. 7 📚And each alcove was one rod long, and one rod wide, and there was a space of five cubits between the alcoves. And the threshold of the gate by the portico 📖 of the gate facing inward was one rod.
40:5-7 Quite a bit of these chapters is taken up with measurements of walls, gateways, courts, buildings, etc. At present we cannot see any spiritual significance in this (which is not to say that it has none). It may have been much more meaningful to the Jews of that day than to us. It is difficult to keep from thinking that these measurements were given to indicate something physically real and solid.⚜
8 He also measured the portico of the gate facing inward, one rod. 9 📚Then he measured the portico of the gate, eight cubits; and its posts, two cubits. And the portico of the gate faced inward.
10 And there were three alcoves of the gate facing east on one side and three on the other side. The three were of one size, and the posts were the same size on this side and on the other side. 11 And he measured the width of the entrance of the gate, ten cubits; and the length of the gate, thirteen cubits. 12 And the space in front of the alcoves on one side was one cubit, and the space on the other side was one cubit; and the alcoves were six cubits on this side, and six cubits on that side. 13 He then measured the gate from the roof of one alcove to the roof of another. The width from door to door was twenty-five cubits. 14 📚He also measured the pillars 📖, sixty cubits to the pillar of the courtyard around the gate. 15 And it was fifty cubits 📖 from the front of the entrance gate to the front of the portico of the inner gate. 16 📚And there were narrow windows in the alcoves, and all around inside the gate to their posts, and also in the archways; and there were windows all around inside; and there were figures of palm trees on each post.
17 📚Then he brought me into the outer court 📖, and I saw that rooms were there, and pavement made all around for the courtyard. Thirty rooms were along the pavement. 18 And the pavement was by the side of the gates, corresponding to the length of the gates. This was the lower pavement. 19 📚Then he measured the width from the front of the lower gate to the front of the outside of the inner courtyard, a hundred cubits toward the east and the north.
20 📚And he measured the length and the width of the gate of the outer courtyard that faced the north. 21 📚And its alcoves were three in number on this side and three on that side, and its posts and its archways had the same measurement as the first gate. Its length was fifty cubits, and the width twenty-five cubits. 22 📚And their windows, and their archways, and their palm trees, had the same measurement as the gate that faced east. And its ascent was by seven steps; and its archways were in front of them. 23 📚And the gate of the inner court was opposite the gate facing north and the gate facing east. And he measured from gate to gate, a hundred cubits.
24 📚After that he brought me toward the south, and I saw a gate facing south. And he measured its posts and its archways with these same measurements. 25 📚And there were windows in it and in its archways all around, like those windows. The length was fifty cubits, and the width twenty-five cubits. 26 📚And there were seven steps going up to it, and its archways were in front of them: and it had the figures of palm trees, one on this side, and another on that side, on its posts. 27 📚And there was a gate in the inner court facing south. And he measured from this gate to the gate facing south, a hundred cubits.
28 📚And he brought me to the inner courtyard at the south gate; and he measured the south gate, with these same measurements, 29 📚and its alcoves, and its posts, and its arches, with these same measurements. And there were windows in it and in its archways all around. It was fifty cubits long, and twenty-five cubits wide. 30 📚And the archways all around were twenty-five cubits long, and five cubits wide. 31 📚And its archways faced the outer court, and figures of palm trees were on its posts, and its ascent had eight steps.
32 📚And he brought me into the inner courtyard facing east, and measured the gate with these same measurements. 33 📚And its alcoves, and its posts, and its archways, had these same measurements. And there were windows in it and in its archways all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 34 📚And its arches faced the outer court; and there were figures of palm trees on its posts, on this side, and on that side; and its ascent had eight steps.
35 📚And he brought me to the north gate, and measured it with these same measurements, 36 📚its alcoves, its posts, its archways, and its windows all around. The length was fifty cubits, and the width twenty-five cubits. 37 📚And its posts faced the outer court, and there were figures of palm trees on its posts, on this side, and on that side; and its ascent had eight steps.
38 📚And its rooms and its entrances were by the posts of the gates, where they washed the burnt offering. 39 📚And in the portico of the gate there were two tables on this side, and two tables on that side, for slaughtering the burnt offering and the sin offering and the trespass offering. 40 And on the outer side, as one goes up to the entrance of the north gate, were two tables, and on the other side, which was at the portico 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 in all, on which they killed their sacrifices. 42 📚And for the burnt offering the four tables were of cut stone, a cubit and a half long, and a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit high. On it they also put the instruments for slaughtering the burnt offering and the sacrifice. 43 📚And inside were hooks, a handbreadth wide, fastened all around. And on the tables was put the flesh of the offering.
40:38-43 Three types of offering are mentioned – burnt, sin and trespass. Peace offerings and grain offerings are included in later references such as Ezek 43:27; 45:17; 46:2, 12. For the meanings of these offerings see notes on Leviticus chapters 1–7.
The mention of offerings here has puzzled commentators. It points to a time when they will still be offered. If the picture in Ezekiel chapters 40–48 is of the time of the millennium, does this mean that such offerings of animals will be made then? Or should we take these references to offerings as altogether symbolic of Christ’s one offering? If the offerings are altogether symbolic does this mean that all the other details of this vision – temple, city, priests, etc – are altogether symbolic and will never have a physical reality? Or is there a mixture of symbolic and literal language here (as in many other places in the prophets), and should we expect a literal fulfillment in general without all the details being literally fulfilled? Such questions are easy to ask, but perhaps impossible for us to answer in our present state of knowledge.
One thing is certain – if animal sacrifices are to be offered in the millennium they will be memorials pointing to the one sacrifice of the Lord Jesus already made, as the Lord’s Supper is now. They will not be for the purpose of taking away sin, for Christ by His one offering has taken away the sins of His people forever (Heb 10:5-14). Regarding a future temple and offerings – other prophets seem to foretell that there will be such. See Isa 19:21 (vs 22-25 puts the context in the future); Isa 60:7 (in context); Isa 66:20-23; Jer 33:14-18; Hag 2:6-9; Zech 14:16-21; Mal 3:2-4. See also Matt 24:15; 2 Thess 2:4; Rev 11:1-2.⚜
44 📚And outside the inner gate were the rooms for the singers in the inner court. One was by the north gate facing toward the south, one by the east gate facing toward the north. 45 📚And he said to me, “This room which faces south is for the priests who have charge of the temple. 46 📚And the room which faces north is for the priests who have charge of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok among the sons of Levi, who approach the LORD to minister to him”.
40:44-46 Ezek 44:15-31. This mention of a group of priests, especially said to be descendants of Zadok (2 Sam 8:17), who are distinguished from other Levites and from the people in general, indicates a time other than this Christian era. Now all believers are priests and may draw near to the Lord to minister to Him (Rom 5:1-2; Heb 10:19-22; 1 Pet 2:5, 9).⚜
47 📚So he measured the courtyard, a square a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide, and the altar 📖 in front of the temple.
The temple itself
48 📚And he brought me to the portico of the temple, and measured each post of the portico 📖, five cubits on this side, and five cubits on that side; and the width of the gate was three cubits on this side, and three cubits on that side. 49 📚The length of the portico was twenty cubits, and the width eleven cubits. And he brought me by the steps which went up to it; and there were pillars by the posts, one on this side, and another on that side.