Year 2, Week 22, Day 1 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 22, Day 1

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Ezekiel 41-42.

Today’s reading continues the final major section of the Book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel 33-48 can be divided into two segments: Ezekiel 33-39 is composed of prophecies about the judgment upon but also the future restoration of Judah, while Ezekiel 40-48 is composed of Ezekiel’s vision about the new temple and new land. Ezekiel 41 describes the main building of the Temple area: “Then he brought me to the nave and measured the jambs. On each side six cubits was the breadth of the jambs. And the breadth of the entrance was ten cubits, and the sidewalls of the entrance were five cubits on either side. And he measured the length of the nave, forty cubits, and its breadth, twenty cubits” (Ezekiel 41:1-2). The main building was approximately forty feet by twenty feet. The Ezekiel is shown the inner room of the Temple, or the Most Holy Place: “Then he went into the inner room and measured the jambs of the entrance, two cubits; and the entrance, six cubits; and the sidewalls on either side of the entrance, seven cubits. And he measured the length of the room, twenty cubits, and its breadth, twenty cubits, across the nave. And he said to me, “This is the Most Holy Place” (Ezekiel 41:3-4). Ezekiel 42 go back out from the Temple to the Temple court area as further descriptions are provided: “Then he led me out into the outer court, toward the north, and he brought me to the chambers that were opposite the separate yard and opposite the building on the north. The length of the building whose door faced north was a hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty cubits” (Ezekiel 42:1-2).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading is a brief observation at the end of listing many of the measurements and dimensions of the Temple area: “He measured it on the four sides. It had a wall around it, 500 cubits long and 500 cubits broad, to make a separation between the holy and the common” (Ezekiel 40:20). The emphasis upon walls and rooms concerning the Temple served an important function: “to make a separation between the holy and the common.” The purpose behind the Temple architecture was simple and clear- the layout, protected by careful demarcation, created a safe and holy space to which the Lord’s glory could dwell. The Temple was to be a place with orderly and sharp boundaries between the holy and the common. This is emphasized in numerous different ways—the wall around the complex, the holy rooms to store the priests’ garments, and the Most Holy Place that is so sacred that access is limited.The priests were also to serve to the same purposes: “You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the LORD has spoken to them by Moses” (Leviticus 10:10). Early in Ezekiel, the priests are condemned for failure to carry out one of their functions: “Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them” (Ezekiel 22:26).

Through the architecture of the Temple as well as by the function of the priests, Israel was being shown a distinction between the holy and the common. A huge point of understanding the distinction is related to a basic grasp of holiness. Holiness pertains to being set apart. Along with the status of holiness is a recognition of being set apart for something as well as being set apart from something. The calling to be holy begins with an acknowledgement that life is to be lived out by being set apart for the LORD and His purposes and therefore being set apart from the things that are displeasing to the LORD. Thus, the status of holy is to be displayed through a lawful life. An unlawful life fails to display that it is set apart. Such an unlawful life profanes the LORD, who has called his people to be set apart. 

The remedy to an unlawful life that profanes the LORD was found in the operations of the Temple and through the activities of the priests: "The north chambers and the south chambers opposite the yard are the holy chambers, where the priests who approach the LORD shall eat the most holy offerings. There they shall put the most holy offerings—the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering—for the place is holy. When the priests enter the Holy Place, they shall not go out of it into the outer court without laying there the garments in which they minister, for these are holy. They shall put on other garments before they go near to that which is for the people” (Ezekiel 42:13-14). The priest’s work of offering sacrifices served the purposes of purifying the people so that they could be cleansed, going from unholiness to holiness. The work of the priests and the operations of the Temple, that were so crucial to the Old Covenant being maintained, find their fulfillment is the purifying work of Christ: “For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own…But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 9:24-25; 10:12-14). Christ has set His people apart, cleansing and purifying us so that now we can live set apart for the LORD’s purposes and therefore set apart from the things that are displeasing to the LORD.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe