Ezekiel 42:15-20: a reflection

15Now when he had finished measuring the inner house, he brought me out by the way of the gate which faces toward the east, and measured it all around. 16He measured on the east side with the measuring reed five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed all around. 17He measured on the north side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed all around. 18He measured on the south side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. 19He turned about to the west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. 20He measured it on the four sides. It had a wall around it, the length five hundred cubits, and the width five hundred cubits, to make a separation between that which was holy and that which was common.

Ezekiel's vision of the temple concludes with the man measuring its outer boundary on all four sides, and the purpose of the measurement is stated plainly: there was a wall around it to make a separation between the holy and the common. The whole temple complex was marked off, its boundaries clearly drawn, so that what was sacred would be distinguished from what was ordinary. The wall did not exist to keep people out arbitrarily but to preserve the distinction between the holy and the everyday.

This concern to separate the holy from the common runs through much of Scripture. God is holy, and the things dedicated to him are not to be treated as ordinary. The wall in Ezekiel's vision is a physical expression of a spiritual truth: there is a real difference between the sacred and the common, and that difference is to be honored, not blurred. To lose the sense of the holy, to treat everything as merely ordinary, is to lose something precious.

We live in an age that easily flattens the distinction between the sacred and the common, treating nothing as holy. But God calls his people to preserve a sense of the sacred, to honor what is set apart for him. This does not mean despising ordinary life, but it does mean not letting the holy be swallowed up in the casual and the common. Guard a sense of reverence in your life, a wall, so to speak, around what is sacred, so that your worship, your devotion, your dealings with God retain the holiness they deserve.

Lord, in Ezekiel's vision a wall marked off the holy from the common, honoring the difference between the sacred and the ordinary. In an age that treats nothing as holy, teach me to preserve a sense of reverence. Help me not to let the sacred be swallowed up in the casual, but to honor what is set apart for you, keeping my worship and my dealings with you holy. Amen.