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Ezekiel Chapter
Forty-one
Ezekiel 41
Chapter Summary
After the prophet had observed the courts, he was brought
to the temple. If we attend to instructions in the plainer parts of religion,
and profit by them, we shall be led further into an acquaintance with the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Ezekiel》
Ezekiel 41
Verse 1
[1]
Afterward he brought me to the temple, and measured the posts, six cubits broad
on the one side, and six cubits broad on the other side, which was the breadth
of the tabernacle.
The breadth —
These walls in their thickness took up as much space as the whole breadth of
Moses's tabernacle, Exodus 26:16,22.
Verse 3
[3] Then went he inward, and measured the post of the door, two cubits; and
the door, six cubits; and the breadth of the door, seven cubits.
Went he —
From the porch thro' the body of the temple, to the partition between the body
of the temple and the holy of holies.
Measured —
Either the thickness of that partition wall, or of the pilasters, which stood
one on the one side, and the other on the other side of the door.
Of the door — Or
entrance out of the temple into the oracle.
And the door —
This door was six cubits broad, and an upright bar or post on which the leaves
met, and which was of one cubit's breadth, make out seven cubits.
Verse 4
[4] So
he measured the length thereof, twenty cubits; and the breadth, twenty cubits,
before the temple: and he said unto me, This is the most holy place.
Thereof — Of
the holy of holies, which was an exact square.
Before —
Parallel with the breadth of the temple.
Verse 5
[5]
After he measured the wall of the house, six cubits; and the breadth of every
side chamber, four cubits, round about the house on every side.
After —
Having left the holy of holies, now he is come to take the measures of the
outer wall.
The house —
The temple.
Six cubits —
Three yards thick was this wall from the ground to the first story of the
side-chambers.
Side-chamber — Of
the lowest floor; for there were three stories of these, and they differed in
their breadth, as the wall of the temple, on which they rested, abated of its
thickness; for the middle chambers were broader than the lowest by a cubit, and
the highest as much broader than the middle.
Round about — On
the north, south, and west parts, on each side of every one of these three
gates.
Verse 6
[6] And the side chambers were three, one over another, and thirty in order;
and they entered into the wall which was of the house for the side chambers
round about, that they might have hold, but they had not hold in the wall of
the house.
They might —
That the beams of the chambers might have good and firm resting-hold.
Had not hold —
The ends of the beams were not thrust into the main body of the wall of the
temple.
Verse 7
[7] And
there was an enlarging, and a winding about still upward to the side chambers:
for the winding about of the house went still upward round about the house:
therefore the breadth of the house was still upward, and so increased from the
lowest chamber to the highest by the midst.
An enlarging — Of
the side chambers, so much of breadth added to the chamber, as was taken from
the thickness of the wall; that is, two cubits in the uppermost, and one cubit
in the middle-most, more than in the lowest chambers.
A winding about —
Winding stairs, which enlarged as the rooms did, and these run up between each
two chambers from the bottom to the top; so there were two doors at the head of
each pair of stairs, one door opening into one chamber, and the other into the
opposite chamber.
For the winding about — These stairs, as they rose in height, enlarged themselves too.
Round about — On
all sides of the house where these chambers were.
The breadth — Of
each chamber.
Increased —
Grew broader by one cubit in every upper chamber. From five in the lowest to
six in the middle, and to seven in the highest chamber.
Verse 8
[8] I
saw also the height of the house round about: the foundations of the side
chambers were a full reed of six great cubits.
The foundations —
The lowest chamber had properly a foundation laid on the earth, but the floor
of the middle, and highest story must be accounted here a foundation; so from
the ground to the ceiling of the first room, was six great cubits; from the
first to the second, six great cubits; and from the third floor to the roof of
the chamber, a like number; to which add we one cubit for thickness of each of
the three floors, you have twenty-one cubits for height, ten yards and a half
high.
Verse 9
[9] The
thickness of the wall, which was for the side chamber without, was five cubits:
and that which was left was the place of the side chambers that were within.
The place —
The walk and wall.
Verse 11
[11] And
the doors of the side chambers were toward the place that was left, one door
toward the north, and another door toward the south: and the breadth of the
place that was left was five cubits round about.
The doors —
The doors of the lowest row opened into this void paved space.
Verse 12
[12] Now
the building that was before the separate place at the end toward the west was
seventy cubits broad; and the wall of the building was five cubits thick round
about, and the length thereof ninety cubits.
The building —
This is a new building not yet mentioned, but now measured by itself.
Verse 13
[13] So
he measured the house, an hundred cubits long; and the separate place, and the
building, with the walls thereof, an hundred cubits long;
The house —
The whole temple, oracle, sanctuary and porch, with the walls.
The building — On
both the north and south-side of the temple.
Verse 14
[14] Also
the breadth of the face of the house, and of the separate place toward the
east, an hundred cubits.
The breadth —
The whole front of the house eastward.
Verse 18
[18] And
it was made with cherubims and palm trees, so that a palm tree was between a
cherub and a cherub; and every cherub had two faces;
Cherubim —
Generally taken for the portrait of angels, or young men with wings: yet is the
description of them very different in different places; in Ezekiel's vision, Ezekiel 1:5-14; 10:14, Isaiah's vision, Isaiah 6:2, John's vision, Revelation 4:6-8, and in Solomon's temple, 1 Kings 6:23-26.
Verse 19
[19] So
that the face of a man was toward the palm tree on the one side, and the face
of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side: it was made through all
the house round about.
Through all the house — And thus it was through the whole house round about.
Verse 21
[21] The
posts of the temple were squared, and the face of the sanctuary; the appearance
of the one as the appearance of the other.
The face —
The door or gate of the temple was square, not arched.
As the appearance — As
was the form of the gate of the temple in its larger, so was the form of the
gate of the oracle in its lesser dimensions.
Verse 22
[22] The
altar of wood was three cubits high, and the length thereof two cubits; and the
corners thereof, and the length thereof, and the walls thereof, were of wood:
and he said unto me, This is the table that is before the LORD.
The altar — Of
incense.
The corners —
The horns framed out of the four posts at each angle on the top of the altar.
The walls —
The sides.
Before the Lord — In
the temple, not in the holy of holies.
Verse 23
[23] And
the temple and the sanctuary had two doors.
Two doors —
Each had one.
Verse 25
[25] And
there were made on them, on the doors of the temple, cherubims and palm trees,
like as were made upon the walls; and there were thick planks upon the face of
the porch without.
Them —
The doors of both temple and oracle.
The temple —
Including the holy of holies also.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Ezekiel》
41 Chapter 41
Verses 1-26
He brought me to the temple.
The heavenly temple
I. The place of
this temple. You find in the 43rd chapter that this temple was placed on a
mountain. This is a figurative form of speech, to denote that Christ’s holiness
exalts us above all that we are as sinners; that Christ’s righteousness--for
“in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted”--exalts us above all condemnation.
Here every sin, every spot, every law charge, is completely banished. We shall
never live happy in our religion, and we shall never live happy with God, if we
ever lose sight of that completeness we have in Christ. There is the
exultation. And if you ask what it is that hath established the law of
holiness, how it is that this law is established, the apostle will tell
you,--that while Aaron was a priest after the law of a carnal commandment,
Jesus Christ is a priest after the order of Melchisedec; He has put away sin,
and established the law of holiness. And this law of holiness derives its
strength from Christ’s eternal priesthood; so that my holiness that I have in
Him will fail when Christ’s priesthood shall fail, but not before; our
justification, our peace with God, and God’s approbation of us and dwelling
with us, will cease when Christ’s righteousness shall fail, but not before; and
when the Saviour can be conquered, but not before.
II. The forms and
fashions of this house. The Lord said to Ezekiel, “If they be ashamed of all
that they have done,” and brought to see and feel that their righteousness is
as filthy rags, then “shew them the form of the house,” etc. First, let us see
if we can find out the form; and if it is a form that you approve, I shall be
very glad of it, because it will prove that you are ashamed of all your own
doings, renounce the whole, and that you fall in, by faith, and understanding,
and love, with what the Lord has done. I go to the first chapter of the
Hebrews, and there I get the form. Jesus Christ is the form of the house; He is
the form to which everything must be conformed. What think you of this
mediatorial form, this sacrificial form, this form of everlasting life, this
form of mercy, this form of grace, this form of truth? Canst thou say that thy
soul fails in with it? If so, then you are a part of this temple. “Growing into
an holy temple”--where? in yourselves? No, “in the Lord; fitly framed together
in Him for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” There is the form. But
then there is the fashion--“Shew them the fashion.” Well, I will now notice the
fashion. It is a good fashion that I am going to name--a fashion that is very
much gone out now in the professing world, but it is a gospel fashion; it is s
fashion that will never change while time shall last. What is the fashion? We
must go to the 2nd of Mark to get at what the fashion of this house is,--that
is, what God’s manner of dealing with men is; that is the meaning of the fashion.
I know it is a fashion that will make you very singular. People will say, Dear
me, that man is very singular in his fashion. As John Bunyan somewhere says of
his pilgrims, They wore a foreign robe, that this world knew nothing of;
therefore the people stared and thought they were very singular in their
fashion and in their taste. But so it is. “Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners.” Such is the fashion. Solomon, in his prayer, speaketh of the
stranger, the poor Gentile stranger, or whoever he might be, that might come
unto God’s holy temple and call unto Him: such was the fashion there, that
there was a sacrifice for sin; there was a mercy seat, and there was a God that
delighted in mercy. So, then, show them the form, and show them the fashion
also.
III. The fulness of
the house. Take first the 6th of Isaiah. The prophet says, “I saw the Lord
sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.”
Jesus Christ died, and God highly exalted Him; and by Christ’s death and by His
exaltation there came in a train of promises and a train of blessings--blessing
after blessing, until the whole temple is filled with blessing. Every Christian
shall thus be filled with blessing. That is the train--the train of promises
and the train of blessings that follow the Saviour’s humiliation and
exaltation. Who can despair that is blessed with saving faith in such a gospel
as this, such a God as this, such a Christ as this? Then in the 43rd of Ezekiel
you will find the same things repeated. Ezekiel saith, “The glory of the God of
Israel came from the way of the east.” Now the east was the place of the
sunrising; we will read it so; “The glory of the Lord came from the way of the
sunrising.” And so the glory of the Lord comes into the house by the
resurrection of Christ. “With great power bare they witness of the resurrection
of Christ, and great grace was upon them all.” “And His voice,” in coming in,
“was like a noise of many waters.” Is not that a beautiful description? What
can you have to equal it? Was not the voice of God by the apostles as the voice
of many waters? Take the many waters to represent the mercies, the blessings,
of the everlasting gospel. “Many waters”; so it is many mercies, many
blessings. “And the earth shined with His glory.” Was it not so? Did not the
Lord command the light to shine into the souls of men? He gave them the hearing
ear, to hear these many waters--the sound of abundance of rain, the sound of
those mercies; and then light came to show them the way to these living waters;
they drank, lived, and shall live forever. “And the house was filled with the
glory of the Lord, the presence of the Lord.” One more Scripture--the 15th of
the Revelation. “The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and
from His power.” What a happy place is every assembly when it is filled with
the fragrance of His name, from the glory of the Lord, from the glory of our
great High Priest! He offers much incense with the prayers of the saints. The
house was filled with the fragrance of His blessed name, “from the glory of
God, and from His power.” Jesus exercised omnipotent power when He wrought
salvation, casting the enemy out, and bringing His glory in. (James Wells.)
The Church of God as a temple
I. The living
temple of the living God will exhibit the characteristics of unity and
diversity. The Father of our spirits has made none of His intelligent creatures
in all respects alike. There is as much difference in their gifts and
characteristics as there is in their personal identity, and this variety must
border upon the infinite. The idea of a temple involves the bringing together
of a great variety of materials, each kind being adapted to serve a special
purpose in the building.
II. The Church of
God will be the abode of purity. The word temple involves this idea. A temple
is a building set apart, consecrated to a religious use. This temple is
represented as being surrounded by a wall of separation. But the living temple
will be one of spiritual and conscious purity. The distinctive element in it
will be (Revelation 21:27).
III. This Church of
the future will included what was symbolised by the temple of the past. In the
beginning of a human life there seems a very little of the spiritual, a great
preponderance of the material. But as the child grows, the intellectual and
moral part of the man develops itself, until by and by, if the ideal manhood is
reached, the animal part of the man is swallowed up in the spiritual part.
IV. The dimensions
of this spiritual Church can be taken by heavenly measurement only. Solomon’s
temple could be measured by a human hand, the temple of Ezekiel’s vision needed
an angel of God to measure it. Its size could not be rightly estimated by an
inhabitant of earth or by earthly measures. The Church of the redeemed will
consist of a multitude which “no man can number” (Revelation 7:9).
V. This temple of
purity is the dwelling place of God. The living spirit inhabits the human body
so long as that body remains in a certain state of purity and unity, viz., so
long as it can, by the retaining of its animal life, resist the decomposition
which sets in immediately after death. The living spirit is a temple for the
living God. (A London Minister.)
The Christian Church
This description presents to us--
I. The extent and
latitude of the Church under Christ. He measured the gate to the east, and the
east side, to show that the eastern people should be of the Christian Church.
And the north, south, and west sides, to assure us that the people of those
parts should come to Zion. Christ sent His apostles to all nations. The Church
of Christ is all the world over.
II. The stability
and firmness of the Church. The temple here measured was a perfect square. Such
buildings are most firm and lasting. Such is the Church; “the gates of hell
cannot prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). It is built upon Christ
the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20), and is established in
righteousness (Isaiah 54:14).
III. The beauty of
the Church. Such a building Ezekiel saw. The Church is the most beautiful and
comely thing in the world to such as have spiritual eyes. When the bride of a
great prince hath on her royal apparel, is she not beautiful and glorious? Such
is the Church, “arrayed with fine linen, the righteousness of saints” (Revelation 19:8; Revelation 21:10; Revelation 12:11).
IV. The sanctity of
the Church. The Church of God is a company called oat from the world. The
Corinthians were “called” to be saints (1 Corinthians 1:2). The Macedonian
churches gave themselves to the Lord (2 Corinthians 8:5). See also 1 Peter 2:9. As a wall of separation
was built around this temple, so God hath set a wall of discipline between the
world and the Church. (W. Greenhill, M. A.)
All life planned and measured
Then consider that life is a plan. It is not a cloud; it could be
more perfectly illustrated by geometry than by clouds and mist or vapour. It
has its four points, its main boundaries, its architectural shape; its
elevation, imposing, and all its appointments detailed with scrupulous care
towards the education and spiritual comfort of the inhabitant. Work on that
plan, and all will be right. Ask for the plan every morning; go into the little
office, and have a look at the paper. Here is the great skeleton building with
all its anatomy of scaffolding and planking: what is that little house or
wooden shed outside? That is where the plan is kept. Why do men go in there now
and then? To look at the plan. Can they not carry the plan in their heads? Not
well. Can they not make the plan as they go on? No. Architecture is not
conjecture. It is settled, designed; every little part mapped out, and put down
and set to scale. And art thou, poor fool, building a life house without a
plan? The only man who has ever grasped life in all its bearings and
relationships and issues is the Son of God. You can hew away at this old book
called the Bible as much as you please, you cannot get away from this living
and all-dominating fact, that no man known to history has so laid hold of life
in all its depth and length and breadth and height, in all its pain, tragedy,
agony, destiny, in all its discipline, education, and culture, with such grasp,
such clearness, and such wisdom, as it has been realised and provided for by
the Christ of God. There are other religions, and many of them fine, fantastic
speculation, beautiful, cloudy, rainbow-like dreaming; but for culture of the
soul, for discipline of the will, for stirring the whole nature into benevolent
impulse towards other men, Christianity stands alone. To that Christ I ask my
fellow men; to that Christ I would go every day and say, Lord Jesus, what is
the next thing to be done? and tell me how to do it, and never leave me one
moment to myself; measure out the thousand cubits, tell me which is the north
side, the south side, the west side, the east side, and if it comes to a great
fight, show me how to stand, how to move, how to stretch: Lord, be with me all
the time, till “the hurly-burly’s done,” till “the battle’s fought and won.”
Given a young man who goes out to make his own fortune and his own destiny, and
you have an image of folly: given a young soul who says, As everything else is
meted out, measured, adjusted, and balanced, mayhap my poor little life is
treated in the same way; I will go to the Divine measurer, and He will tell me
within what lines to work, where to stop and how to live--and in that young
soul you have an image of Wisdom. (J. Parker.)
The temple of the future
I. The
characteristics of the kingdom of God.
1. It is sacred. The selection of portions of time for Sabbaths, of
families of men for priests, seems to have been chiefly designed to teach what
is meant by setting apart of time or men to high and holy purposes, so that
afterwards we may learn how all time and all men may be so set apart. So the
setting apart of one building as a temple, teaches how spaces and places and
services may be devoted to high and holy purposes. Its rich and its poor, its
cultured and its ignorant, its art, its science, its commerce, its festivals, are
all to be sanctified.
2. It is conspicuous. This temple stands on a very high mountain, and
so standing is of course prominent and widely seen. How true an emblem of the
kingdom of God! for goodness, like its Incarnate Pattern and Inspirer, cannot
be hid.
3. It is vast. Not only has it many gates and is thus accessible from
every quarter, but it is reckoned that the measurements of the temple and land,
as seen by Ezekiel, would give a temple larger than all Jerusalem, and a
Jerusalem larger than all the land of Canaan. So we have a beautiful indication
of the growing influence of the kingdom of God.
4. It is complete. The particularisation of the details of the temple
Ezekiel saw, is so minute, that, excepting as we judge it by similar minute
particularisations in his other visions, we should be compelled to consider it
must be literal. But it is rather an emphatic method of showing Divine
knowledge of and care for every, even the smallest detail of the kingdom of
truth amongst men.
5. It is sacrificial. Of course we find in the delineation of the
temple, altars, and in the ritual for the house, directions for priests and
arrangements for slaying animals for sacrifice. And in the great temple of
truth and goodness, though now there is no need for sacrifice for sin, since
the propitiation for the world’s sin has died, there is, and there will ever
be, for discipline and for development of the highest life, the many altars of
daily self-denials, the high altar of complete self-sacrifice.
6. It is beautiful. Amongst the adornments Ezekiel described, were
the cherubim, the symbol of ideal creature life, and the palm trees, the boughs
of whose feathery foliage, beautiful in themselves, were the chosen signs of
victory. So morally “strength and beauty,” the Strength of the sterner and the
beauty of the gentler virtues, “are in the sanctuary” of God’s kingdom.
7. It is God-inhabited. The return of God to dwell in the temple is
the climax of the vision, the crown of all its glory. “We have the mind of
Christ.” He walks in the midst of the Churches, inspires all, and reigns over
all.
II. The
qualification for having to do with this kingdom. With a simplicity and
directness that make it very clear even in midst of so strange a vision, there
is here proclaimed the condition on which men may have the detailed plan of
this future temple given to them. They are to have a glance at the house as a
whole, and if they are fascinated with its glory, and begin to glow with the
hope of enjoying its privileges, they will surely begin to be ashamed of their
own sins. The Divine order and purity and goodness will shame their disorder,
impurity, and evil. Then, if they are truly humbled by a sense of God’s loving
kindness to them in giving them a pledge of His presence in their great unworthiness
of it, they become fit to study His designs for their own and the world’s
salvation. Repentant men are the men to whom, for themselves and for others,
are revelations of duty, and inspirations of earnestness and hope. (Homilist.)
And the door, six cubits.
A wide way to God
The porch, at which was an ascent to the temple, had a gate
belonging to it. This gate was six cubits. Now, some may object, and say, Since
the way to God by these doors was so wide, why doth Christ say the way and gate
is narrow? Answer. The straitness, the narrowness, must not be understood of
the gate simply, but because of that cumber that some men carry with them, that
pretend to be going to heaven. Six cubits! What is sixteen cubits to him who
would enter in here with all the world on his back? (John Bunyan.)
And there was an enlarging, and a winding about still upward.
Enlargement upwards
As the temple ascended in height, so it still was wider and wider;
even from the lowest chambers to the top. And this was to show us that God’s
true Gospel temple, which is His Church, should have its enlargedness of heart
still upward, or most for spiritual and eternal things (Isaiah 55:5; Colossians 3:1). Indeed it is the nature
of grace to enlarge itself still upward, and to make the heart widest for the
things that are above. The temple, therefore, was narrowest downwards, to show
that a little of earth or this world should serve the Church of God. One may say
of the fashion of the temple, as some say of a lively picture, “it speaks.” I
say, its form and fashion speaks; it says to all saints, to all the Churches of
Christ, Open your hearts for heaven, be ye enlarged upward. I read not in
Scripture of any house, but this that was enlarged upwards, nor is there
anywhere, save only in the Church of God, that which doth answer this
similitude. All others are widest downward, and have the largest heart for
earthly things. The Church only has its greatest enlargements towards heaven. (John
Bunyan.)
The altar of wood was three cubits high.
The enlarged altar
That for incense, whereof see Exodus 30:6, but here of a much larger
size. See in chap. 12:1. This altar of wood, and four-square, was a type of
Christ (not of the Cross), in whom our prayers come before God as incense, and
He is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:2; Exodus 30:1; Psalms 141:2; Revelation 5:8). The largeness of this
altar above that of old, showeth that the saints under the Gospel would make
much more improvement of the Lord Jesus in prayer, and make use of His
mediation and intercession by faith in their heavenly supplications, than the
saints of old were ordinarily wont to do. (J. Trapp.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》