Ezekiel41

1 After that, the man brought me into the Holy Place, the large main room of the temple, and he measured the columns that framed its doorway. They were 11 feet square. 2 The entrance was 18.3 feet wide, and the walls on each side were 9.2 feet wide. The Holy Place itself was 73.3 feet long and 36.7 feet wide. 3 Then he went into the inner room at the end of the Holy Place. He measured the columns at the entrance and found them to be 3.7 feet thick. The entrance was 11 feet wide, and the walls on each side of the entrance extended 12.8 feet to the corners of the inner room. 4 The inner room was 36.7 feet square. This, he told me, is the Most Holy Place.

• Ezekiel 41 continues God’s revelation to Ezekiel of God’s future house in Jerusalem.
• The dimensions here are specifically for the holy of holies, the innermost chamber.
• This is the room where the veil was torn from top to bottom at Christ’s death, the completion of payment for our sins.
• This allows entrance to all who have believed in Him because His death gave us His holy life.
• We are now acceptable in God’s most holy presence.

5  Then he measured the wall of the temple and found that it was 11 feet thick. There was a row of rooms along the outside wall; each room was 7.3 feet wide. 6 These rooms were built in three levels, one above the other, with thirty rooms on each level. The supports for these rooms rested on ledges in the temple wall, but the supports did not extend into the wall. 7 Each level was wider than the one below it, corresponding to the narrowing of the temple wall as it rose higher. A stairway led up from the bottom level through the middle level to the top level.

• This is amazing architecture.

8  I noticed that the temple was built on a terrace, which provided a foundation for the side rooms. This terrace was 11 feet high. 9 The outer wall of the Temple’s side rooms was 9.7 feet thick. This left an open area between these side rooms 10 and the row of rooms along the outer wall of the inner courtyard. This open area measured 36.7 feet in width, and it went all the way around the Temple. 11 Two doors opened from the side rooms into the terrace yard, which was 9.7 feet wide. One door faced north and the other south. 12 A large building stood on the west, facing the temple courtyard. It was 128.3 feet wide and 165 feet long, and its walls were 9.7 feet thick. 13 Then the man measured the temple, and he found it to be 183.3 feet long. The courtyard around the building, including its walls, was an additional 183.3 feet in length. 14 The inner courtyard to the east of the Temple was also 183.3 feet wide. 15 The building to the west, including its two walls, was also 183.3 feet wide. The Holy Place, the Most Holy Place, and the foyer of the Temple were all paneled with wood, 16 as were the frames of the recessed windows. The inner walls of the Temple were paneled with wood above and below the windows. 17 The space above the door leading into the Most Holy Place was also paneled.

• 1Kings 8:27 But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain You.

18  All the walls were decorated with carvings of cherubim, each with two faces, and there was a palm tree carving between each of the cherubim. 19 One face—that of a man—looked toward the palm tree on one side. The other face—that of a young lion—looked toward the palm tree on the other side. The figures were carved all along the inside of the temple, 20 from the floor to the top of the walls, including the outer wall of the Holy Place. 21 There were square columns at the entrance to the Holy Place, and the ones at the entrance of the Most Holy Place were similar. 22 There was an altar made of wood, 3.7 feet square and 5.5 feet high. Its corners, base, and sides were all made of wood. This, the man told me, is the table that stands in the LORD’s presence.

• What we think about is what our hearts are feeding on.

• John 6:35 And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life: he that comes to me will never hunger; and he that believes on me will never thirst.

23  Both the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place had double doorways, 24 each with two swinging doors. 25 The doors leading into the Holy Place were decorated with carved cherubim and palm trees just as on the walls. And there was a wooden canopy over the front of the temple’s foyer. 26 On both sides of the foyer there were recessed windows decorated with carved palm trees.

• The Cherubim are described in Ezekiel 1. The glory of the Lord that will dwell in this house is also described in Ezekiel 1.

• Ezekiel 1:26 And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and on the throne was the likeness of a man above upon it. 27 And I saw as the color of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from his loins upward, and from his loins downward, I saw the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. 28 As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.

• Psalm 16:11 You will show me the path of life: in Your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

                                               Ezekiel 42

1 Then the man led me out of the temple courtyard by way of the north gateway. We entered the outer courtyard and came to a group of rooms against the north wall of the inner courtyard. 2 This group of structures, whose entrance opened toward the north, was 183.3 feet long and 91.7 feet wide. 3 One block of rooms overlooked the 36.7 feet width of the inner courtyard. Another block of rooms looked out onto the pavement of the outer courtyard. The two blocks were built three levels high and stood across from each other.

• God’s vision to Ezekiel of His future home in Jerusalem continues in Ezekiel 42.
• Three stories high with galleries opposite each other across the temple shows that the design is symmetrical, the same on both sides.
• In Ezekiel 40 God enlarged the basic measurement, the cubit, from 18 inches to 22 inches..

4 Between the two blocks of rooms ran a walkway 18.3 feet wide. It extended the entire 183.3 feet of the complex, and their doors faced toward the north. 5 Each of the two upper levels of rooms was narrower than the one beneath it because the upper levels had to allow space for walkways in front of them. 6 Since there were three levels and they did not have supporting columns as in the courtyards, each of the upper levels was set back from the level beneath it. 7 There was an outer wall that separated the rooms from the outer courtyard; it was 91.7 feet long. 8 This wall added length to the outer block of rooms, which extended for only 91.7 feet, while the inner block—the rooms toward the Temple—extended for 183.3 feet.

• 1Chronicles 22:5 …the house that is to be built for the LORD must be exceedingly magnificent, of fame and of glory throughout all countries.

9  There was an entrance from the outer courtyard to these rooms from the east. 10 On the south side of the temple there were two blocks of rooms just south of the inner courtyard between the temple and the outer courtyard. These rooms were arranged just like the rooms on the north. 11 There was a walkway between the two blocks of rooms just like the complex on the north side of the temple. This complex of rooms was the same length and width as the other one, and it had the same entrances and doors. The dimensions of each were identical. 12 So there was an entrance in the wall facing the doors of the inner block of rooms, and another on the east at the end of the interior walkway.

• This was all God’s design and instruction.

13  Then he said to me, The north chambers and the south chambers, which are before the separate place, they are holy chambers where the priests that approach the LORD will eat the most holy things: there they will lay the most holy things, and the food offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass/guilt offering; for the place is holy. 14 When the priests enter there, then they will not go out of the holy place into the outer court, but they will lay their garments in which they minister there; for they are holy; and will put on other garments to approach those things which are for the people.

• People come to the temple to draw near to God.
• The priests minister to these people.
• Some of the chambers are dressing rooms because the priests were to wear different clothes as they minister to the people than when they are serving God.

15  When the man had finished taking these measurements, he led me out through the east gateway to measure the entire temple area. 16 He measured the east side; it was 5,500 feet long. 17 He also measured the north side and got the same measurement. 18 The south side was the same length, 19 and so was the west side. 20 So the area was 5,500 feet on each side with a wall all around it to separate the holy places from the common.

• This temple area will sit on top of the highest mountain in the world, a square mile.
• It is to separate between the sanctuary and the profane place.
• God is holy and will dwell in the very center of His often unholy people whom He is sanctifying to Himself.

• Micah 4:1 But in the last days it will come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established in the top of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills; and people will flow unto it.

• Isaiah 40:3 The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley will be exalted, and every mountain and hill will be made low: and the crooked will be made straight, and the rough places plain: 5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.
  

                                             Ezekiel 43

The earth shined with God’s glory

1 Afterward he brought me to the gate, the gate that looks toward the east: 2 And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory. 3 And it was like the appearance of the vision that I saw, like the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city: and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face. 4 And the glory of the LORD came into the house by way of the gate facing toward the east. 5 So the Spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house. 6 And I heard him speaking to me out of the house; and the man stood by me.

• Ezekiel 9 explains ‘when I came to destroy the city.’ The visible glory of God is described in Ezekiel 1:26-28.

• Ezekiel 1:27 And I saw as the color of amber like the appearance of fire round about within it, from his loins upward, and from his loins downward, I saw the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. 28 As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.

7  And he said to me, Son of man, the house of Israel will no longer defile the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever, and my holy name/person, not them or their kings, by their whoring, or by the carcasses of their kings in their high places. 8 By setting their threshold by my thresholds, and their post by my posts, with only a wall between me and them, they have defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed: therefore I have consumed them in my anger.

• The crypts for the kings of Israel were just on the other side of the wall from the Lord’s chamber.
• Also idols were carved in secret rooms just on the other side of the walls.
• Nothing smells worse than death, no matter what you wrap it in.
• God is life. He sent His Son to die to give us life.
• Loved ones who die in the Lord are actually in the presence of the Lord so it does not matter where we put their bones (though it should be a place of care and respect); but not beside churches. Cemeteries should be anywhere except near the Lord who is life, eternal life.

9  Now let them put away their whoring, and the carcasses of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them forever. 10 You son of man, show the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern. 11 And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, show them the form of the temple, its design, its exits, its entrances, all designs, its statutes and regulations and all its laws: write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole design of it and all its ordinances and do them. 12 This is the law of the temple; On the top of the mountain the whole area surrounding it will be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the temple.

• This will be one square mile on top of the highest mountain on earth (Ezekiel 42).
• The future reign of Christ on earth will be centered in Israel at Jerusalem.

• Micah 4:1 But in the last days it will come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established in the top of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills; and people will flow unto it.

13  And these are the measurements of the altar by cubits: The cubit is a cubit and a hand width (22 inches) the bottom will be 22 inches, and the width 22 inches, and its border by the edge of it all around will be 9 inches: and this will be the higher place of the altar. 14 And from the bottom on the ground to the lower ledge will be 3.7 feet, and the width 22 inches; and from the lesser ledge to the greater ledge will be 7.3 feet and the width 22 inches. 15 So the altar will be 7.3 and from the altar and upward will be four horns. 16 And the altar will be 22 feet long, 22 feet wide, square in its four sides. 17 And the ledge will be 25.6 feet long and 25.6 feet in its four sides; and the border around it will be 11 inches; and its bottom will be a 22 inches around; and its stairs will face toward the east.

• The enlarged cubit was 22 inches. The span is the width of a hand stretched wide, about 9 inches.

18  And he said to me, Son of man, the Lord God says this; These are the ordinances of the altar in the day when they make it, to offer burnt offerings on it, and to sprinkle blood on it. 19 You will give to the priests the Levites that are of the seed of Zadok, who approach me to minister to me, says the Lord GOD, a young bull for a sin offering. 20 And you will take of its blood, and put it on its four horns, and on the four corners of the ledge and on the border round about: this is how you will cleanse and purge it. 21 Also you will take the bull of the sin offering, and he will burn it in the appointed place of the house, outside the sanctuary. 22 And on the second day you will offer a kid of the goats without blemish for a sin offering; and they will cleanse the altar, as they cleansed it with the bull. 23 When you have made an end of cleansing it, you will offer a young bull without blemish, and a ram out of the flock without blemish. 24 You will offer them before the LORD, and the priests are to cast salt on them, and they are to offer them up for a burnt offering to the LORD.

• Salt was a preservative in ancient times. God was going to preserve these people.
• God gave this temple design and instructions to Israel while they were in exile. It gave them hope and assurance for their return to their own land.
• The offerings portrayed Christ’s work on behalf of sinful mankind.
• For us today, the bread and the wine of the communion replaced the offerings of the Old Testament.

25  Each day for seven days you are to prepare a goat for a sin offering: they are to also prepare a young bull, and a ram out of the flock, without blemish. 26 Seven days they are to purge the altar and purify it; and they will consecrate themselves. 27 And when these days have ended, it will be, that on the eighth day, and from then on, the priests will make your burnt offerings on the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you, says the Lord GOD.

• Psalm 103:2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: 3 Who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases; 4 Who redeems your life from destruction; who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies. 12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

• Ephesians 1:4 According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, in which he has made us accepted in the beloved.

                                              Ezekiel 44

1 Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outer sanctuary that faces toward the east; and it was shut. 2 Then the Lord said to me; This gate is to be shut. It is not to be opened. And no man is to enter in by it; because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered in by it, therefore it will be shut. 3 It is for the prince; the prince, he will sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he will enter by the porch of that gate, and will go out the same way. 4 Then he brought me the way of the north gate before the house: and I looked, and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD: and I fell on my face.

• This is the Maker of heaven, earth, all the universe, and all that exists that these priests were serving.
• There is no other God. All the rest are imposters.
• Ezekiel 1:26-28 describes the glory of God as the fiery amber form of a man flashing forth rainbows.

5  And the LORD said to me, Son of man, mark well/set your heart, and behold with your eyes, and hear with your ears all that I say to you concerning all the ordinances of the house of the LORD, and all its laws; and mark well who may the enter the sanctuary, and who goes out from the sanctuary. 6 And say to the rebellious, to the house of Israel, The Lord God says this: Enough! of all your abominations, O house of Israel! 7 You have brought into my sanctuary children of foreigners, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it! My house! When you offer my food, the fat and the blood! They have broken my covenant because of all your abominations.

• Large parts of Christ’s church today have brought in strange customs from foreign religions and adopted worldly ways and a salvation of works.
• They totally leave out man’s sin and Christ’s death for sin.
• Those that do this are leading their people to eternal death. Christ died to bring eternal life.

• John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him not perish, but have everlasting life. 36 He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that does not believe the Son will not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him.

• Revelation 20:15 And whoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

8  You have not kept the charge of my holy things: but you have set others to keep my charge in my sanctuary for you. 9 The Lord God says this; No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, is to enter my sanctuary, of any foreigner that is among the children of Israel. 10 And the Levites that have gone far away from me, when Israel went astray that went astray away from me after their idols; they will bear their iniquity. 11 Yet they will be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house: they will kill the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they will stand before them to minister to them. 12 Because they ministered to them before their idols, and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity; therefore I have lifted up my hand against them, says the Lord GOD, and they will bear their iniquity. 13 And they will not come near me to do the office of a priest to me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, in the most holy place: but they will bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed. 14 But I will make them keepers of the charge of the house, for all its service, and for all that is to be done in it.

• God demoted them to gatekeepers and custodians, serving only in the outer court because they served idols in His house. He is so merciful to us.

• Psalm 57:10 For your mercy is great unto the heavens, and your truth unto the clouds.

• Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.

15  But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they will come near to me to minister unto me. They will stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, says the Lord GOD: 16 They will enter into my sanctuary and come near my table to minister to me and keep my charge. 17 And when they enter the gates of the inner court, they are to be clothed with linen garments; no wool is to come upon them while they minister in the gates of the inner court and inside. 18 Turbans of linen are to be on their heads, and linen undergarments are to be on their loins; they are not to clothe themselves with anything that causes sweat. 19 And when they go out into the outer court, into the outer court to the people, they are to take off their garments in which they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, and put on other garments; they are not to sanctify the people with their holy garments.

• In the temple there was the outer court where the people brought their sacrifices to the bronze altar for salvation and confession of sins and trespasses.
• Then there were two inner chambers. The holy place had the table of showbread, the golden lamp-stand, and the altar of incense; and the holy of holies contained the ark of the covenant with the mercy seat.
• The priests wore linen clothes inside the two chambers but when in the outer court they set aside the fine garments and ministered to the people in other clothing.

20  They are not to shave their heads, nor allow their locks to grow long; they are to only trim their heads. 21 Neither is any priest to drink wine when they enter into the inner court. 22 Neither are they take a widow for their wives, or her that is divorced: but they are to take virgins of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that had a priest before. 23 And they will teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.

• 1Peter 1:16 You be holy because I am holy.

24  And in court/disputes they are to stand in judgment; and they are to judge according to my judgments: and they are to keep my laws and my statutes in all my assemblies; and they are to hallow my sabbaths. 25 And they are not to come near a dead person to defile themselves: except for father, or for mother, or son, or daughter, or brother, or a sister that has had no husband, they may defile themselves for these. 26 And after he is cleansed, they are to count seven days. 27 And in the day that he goes into the sanctuary, unto the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he is to offer his sin offering, says the Lord GOD

The Lord God is ours

28  And it will be to them for an inheritance: I am their inheritance: you are not to give them land to possess in Israel: I am their possession. 29 They are to eat the grain offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering. Every dedicated thing in Israel will be theirs. 30 Also the first of all the first fruits of all things, and every contribution of all, of every sort of your contributions, is to be the priest’s: you are to also give to the priest the first of your dough, that he may cause the blessing to rest in your house. 31 The priests are not to eat anything that died by itself or is torn, whether it is bird or animal.

• Ephesians 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.

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SUMMARY: Ezekiel 41-44

• God’s architecture is amazing
• He made the universe
• This temple was all God’s design and instruction
• The Lord God is ours