Scripture Daily

Context No. 3198 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 40:17-23: in context

17Then he brought me into the outer court. Behold, there were rooms and a pavement made for the court all around. Thirty rooms were on the pavement. 18The pavement was by the side of the gates, corresponding to the length of the gates, even the lower pavement. 19Then he measured the width from the forefront of the lower gate to the forefront of the inner court outside, one hundred cubits, both on the east and on the north. 20He measured the length and width of the gate of the outer court which faces toward the north. 21The lodges of it were three on this side and three on that side. Its posts and its arches were the same as the measure of the first gate: its length was fifty cubits, and the width twenty-five cubits. 22Its windows, its arches, and its palm trees were the same as the measure of the gate which faces toward the east. They went up to it by seven steps. Its arches were before them. 23There was a gate to the inner court facing the other gate, on the north and on the east. He measured one hundred cubits from gate to gate.

Ezekiel's guided tour of the visionary temple continues into the outer court, with its thirty chambers and its pavement, the gates measured, the steps counted, one hundred cubits from gate to gate. It is another passage of careful measurement.

To exiles with no temple standing, this exact architecture was itself a promise: God's house would be rebuilt to a precise and glorious plan. But there is a devotional thread here too. The many chambers and gates, the ordered courts, speak of a place prepared with great care for the worship of God and the dwelling of his people. God is not careless about the place of his presence; he plans it in detail, room by room. And it points ahead to the true temple, and to the many rooms Jesus said he goes to prepare for his own. The God who measures out every chamber is preparing a place.

Do I trust that God prepares, with care and exact purpose, a place for his presence and for his people, both now and in the end?

Sources