Day 252 (Ezekiel 40-42) - Year 8

Tara-Leigh Cobble (0:01)

Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara-Leigh Cobble and I'm your host for The Bible Recap.

Buckle up, we've got three days of descriptions of Ezekiel's Temple vision. But guess what? You've already got one day under your belt. You're almost halfway through. We made it through five chapters of blueprints for the first temple back in Exodus plus 18 more chapters of the descriptions of building and finishing it, so I'm confident we can tackle this too.

But before we spend another minute of these three days in this text, I want to give you a heads up. Ezekiel 40-48 is one of the most challenging sections of scripture in the whole Bible. It's not as hard to read as it is to interpret. Commentators are at odds on how to view this text, and I'll explain more about that as we continue in the passage, but I don't want to give too much away yet, so here's what we need to know for now.

God is giving this vision to Ezekiel in 573 BC, at a time when his people are in exile in a foreign land. For God to go on for nine chapters about this temple is like him showing up and saying, hey, I know you've lost everything. I know the first temple was destroyed, the one Solomon built about 350 years ago, and we're all living here in the land of our enemies. But I want you to know without question that I've got a plan for restoration. You're not forgotten. I'm with you.

On the day Ezekiel has this vision, it's not just any day, it's the beginning of the preparation for the Passover. That's the day that commemorates the Israelites' exodus from Egyptian slavery. And the Passover celebration also corresponds to our modern day celebration of Easter, because Jesus had gone to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover when he was crucified. As part of Ezekiel's Passover vision, God gives him a complimentary tour guide. He kind of resembles the fiery man Ezekiel saw back in chapter 8

And remember how the linen man in chapter 9 brought his own tool belt for writing? Bronze man also comes with tools. They're both tools for measuring, a reed and a cord, which serve kind of like a tape measure and a ruler. Bronze man and Ezekiel go around measuring everything, from the gates to the inner and outer courts to the priest chambers. Then in chapter 41, they head into the inner temple area. Bronze man leads Ezekiel up to the most holy place, the Holy of Holies, but Ezekiel doesn't go inside.

Next, while he's describing the walls of the nave and the vestibule, you may have noticed that they have cherubim carved on them, the created beings who serve as guardians of the holy places. And maybe, like me, you wondered why they only have two faces when Ezekiel has plainly told us about their quad-faced heads. Not to worry, there's an explanation. Wall surfaces are two-dimensional, so it makes much more sense to carve two faces than four. If these were three-dimensional statues, not wall carvings, I'd demand the full four faces or half my money back. But since they're wall carvings, I'll let it slide.

In Chapter 42, Ezekiel sees into the temple's chambers. I know it's hard to translate cubits into feet in your head, but the measurements described in this vision are massive, especially compared to Temple 1.0. In fact, the temple courts are bigger than the surface of the whole temple mount. If you want to see what this vision may have looked like, we'll link to a picture in the show notes today. It's important to take any artist's rendering with a grain of salt, but there's another reason you maybe shouldn't get too attached to this picture. We'll talk about that when we finish the descriptions in two days, so stay tuned. Today's tour ends where it began, back at the Eastern Gate. The Eastern Gate is also known as the Golden Gate and the King's Gate, and it's the gate Jesus will come through when he returns. We'll read about that tomorrow. But it's also where I saw my God shot for today. Ezekiel describes an outer wall that runs along the perimeter of the whole massive temple complex. It's a large wall as far as circumference is concerned, but it's not a tall wall. According to Chapter 40 verse 5, it's only about 10 and a half feet high. So it's pretty clear right off the bat that this wall isn't a defensive wall. The point of it isn't to keep people out. According to 4220, the purpose of this wall is to be a line of demarcation between the holy and the common.