The Inner Temple

 

Ezekiel 41:1-12

 

February 10, 2024

 

The Inner Temple

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.  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.”

Then he measured the wall of the temple, six cubits thick, and the breadth of the side chambers, four cubits, all around the temple.  And the side chambers were in three stories, one over another, thirty in each story. There were offsets all around the wall of the temple to serve as supports for the side chambers, so that they should not be supported by the wall of the temple.  And it became broader as it wound upward to the side chambers because the temple was enclosed upward all around​ the Temple. Thus, the temple had a broad area upward, and so one went up from the lowest story to the top story through the middle story.  I saw also that the temple had a raised platform all around; the foundations of the side chambers measured a full reed of six long cubits. The thickness of the outer wall of the side chambers was five cubits. The free space between the side chambers of the temple and the other chambers was a breadth of twenty cubits all around the temple on every side.  And the doors of the side chambers opened on the free space, one door toward the north, and another door toward the south. And the breadth of the free space was five cubits all around.

The building that was facing the separate yard on the west side was seventy cubits broad, and the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its length ninety cubits.

 

When you read this, your first thought is what detail, what precision God is giving meticulous instruction on how His Temple was to be built.  As one who is a follower of Christ, you are a temple that God has sent His Spirit to live in; has He not done the same with you?  As we have explored the Scripture, have you not seen your true identity in Christ?  In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So, glorify God in your body.” You find that God has done a precision job in your temple, and it is a place where you learn how to be still and listen to that quiet voice of the Holy Spirit.  He will never tell you that you deserve anything, and He will never tell you that you have little value. When you hear those voices that sound like your voice, it is not from God's Spirit, but from the one that John 10:10 tells us has come to kill, steal, and destroy. 

 

God used the apostle Peter to give us insight into our true identity, in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

 

That is grace, not earned, but freely given from God to all who have received Jesus by faith.  Now do not stop reading, for that old flesh did not die with the old you, the new you in Christ has, for all those years learned how to get its needs met outside of Christ, Scripture calls that flesh.  And that is why we are told not to allow it to rule over us.  1 Peter 2:11, ^“Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.”  He refers to your flesh and the world system that is under the control of the devil.  In Ephesians 6:10-13, the apostle Paul gives us this warning: ^“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.  Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.”

 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

 

 

Chambers for the Priests / The Vestibule of the Temple

 

Ezekiel 40:43-49

 

February 9, 2024

 

Chambers for the Priests

On the outside of the inner gateway, there were two chambers in the inner court, one at the side of the north gate facing south, the other at the side of the south gate facing north.  And he said to me, “This chamber that faces south is for the priests who have charge of the temple, and the chamber that faces north is for the priests who have charge of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, who alone among the sons of Levi may come near to the Lord to minister to him.”  And he measured the court, a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits broad, a square. And the altar was in front of the temple.

The Vestibule of the Temple

Then he brought me to the vestibule of the temple and measured the jambs of the vestibule, five cubits on either side. And the breadth of the gate was fourteen cubits, and the sidewalls of the gate were three cubits on either side.  The length of the vestibule was twenty cubits, and the breadth twelve cubits, and people would go up to it by ten steps.  And there were pillars beside the jambs, one on either side.

This I know, it's going to happen, the vision was for a time to come, and it has not been built at this time, but it will.  Once more, I went to “Got Questions” for their insights.  

Most who expect a literal fulfillment of Ezekiel’s temple expect it to be erected in the millennial kingdom, a 1,000-year reign of Christ upon the earth. During the millennium, glorified saints from the present age will live in contact with natural human beings who will still need to make a decision for Christ in order to be saved, and many will choose not to trust Him. The sacrificial system described in Ezekiel cannot be for the forgiveness of sins, for Christ has accomplished that once and for all (Hebrews 10:1–4, 11–14). In this interpretive approach, the sacrifices are seen as memorials of Christ’s death or as rites for the ceremonial cleansing of the temple, but not as a means to forgive sins.

In the figurative view of Ezekiel’s temple, the prophet’s vision simply reiterates that God will once again dwell with His people in a perfect relationship. This relationship is described in the language that the people of the day (and especially for Ezekiel as a priest) would have understood—a Jewish temple of magnificent proportions, with regular, perfect sacrifices, with the Messiah presiding, and with the glory of God visibly evident. In later visions to other prophets, God revealed more about how He would accomplish this with the Messiah Himself replacing the temple, the sacrifices, and the land. The presence of God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit would be more immediately evident than ever before. The fulfillment of Ezekiel’s temple could thus be realized in the church age to some degree and, in the age to come, to perfection.

Regardless of which approach is taken, the vision of Ezekiel’s temple says that God has not forsaken His people and that His relationship with them will be restored and elevated to a new, never-before-conceived glory and intimacy. Present circumstances should never cause one to doubt the promises of God.” (Taken from Got Questions)

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

One Man act may you show-up with a Dead Spirit

 

 

What would the world look like without:

Deception, Lies, Hate, and Evil?

 

Can you even grasp such a place? You would not sign a contract that a lawyer had drafted to ensure that both sides honor the agreement.  You would not have to lock your doors or have an alarm system.  There would be no reason for worrying about pedophiles or someone harming your child.  There would be no one teaching your child that God made a mistake when He made them a boy or a girl. There would be no prison, nor crooked politicians.

 

It would be a place where love and truth would be all you knew, a world I would like to live in.  Maybe this will come as a shock, but that was God’s design: that the world He made for the first man and woman was to live in a world void of all the things we deal with in our present age.  A world void of evil, of putting self before others, of hate, anger, and all the other things listed above.

 

I enjoy pies, and when I see a pie on the counter, I use logic to understand it did not get there without a pie maker.  So, I’ve used the same logic to a vast universe that I live in must also have a designer, and He must be God.  

 

If God is the creator, and out of the vast universe, He chose a planet,​  He called Earth, to make it where it would support an environment with life.  He begins the account in a book called Genesis.  He introduces us to Himself. 

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day.

The first five verses tell about the first day of Creation. Now I'm sure you want to learn about day two, well, get a Bible and read about days 2,3,4,5.

 

But I do want to share the 6 day with you, “And God said, 'Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so.  And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”  And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.  And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.  And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.”

Can you allow your imagination to go there, a world where you have dominion over the other life forms?  That would be a paradise, and God called it Eden.  If you're still with me and are reading chapter 2:7, you are going to experience God creating man.  Verse 7, “Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”  I know this is redundant, but if a pie needs a pie maker, a man needs a creator.

Now, this might be a shock to many in 2025, but God made man to work.  Let's explore that, in Genesis 2:15-17, we not only see that truth, but the one thing man was not to do; ^“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,  but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Note: Not a physical death, but a spiritual death.  And every person since Adam has the same problem.  We all showed up with a dead Spirit.

 

What happened to this perfect world? You and I sure did not experience such a place.  Man would not have broken the one thing God, his Creator, told him not to do, would he?  Well, that's where it gets interesting.  Picking up the account in Genesis 2:20-23, ^“The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him.  So, the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.  And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”

 

Now pay attention to verse 24-25,  ^“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.  And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”  That was before that old serpent deceived Eve and got her to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  The first act was to hide from God and make a garment to hide their nakedness.  And then lie and blame Eve and the serpent. The book of Revelation, chapter 12:9, exposes that old serpent: “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”  Now that old devil and his angels were also once in heaven, and the devil was the most of the most, and he was also a creation, and full of self and pride, wanted to be like God.  He has been messing with you and me and everyone since his fall, and yet a day is coming when he will be bound up for a thousand years, and Jesus will be on the earth as Lord of Lords, and King of Kings.  You find that in Revelation 20:2, “And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,”

Now, a God who could speak a universe into being, make man out of dust, and breathe life into his earth suit, must know that Adam and Eve are going to mess up this perfect world, so why did He create man?  I could show you many verses that explain why, but Scripture tells us that God is Love, not that He knows how to love, but that He is Love.  And neither you nor I would have made a man when we knew that a day would come when He would ask His Son, His only Son, to step out of being worship, and take on the form of a baby, born of a virgin, and be rejected by God’s chosen people, Israel, and die for people that despised Him.  John 3:16-20,  ^“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.  This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.”

 

I have a sign on our back porch that reminds me that God loves sinners and messes like me.  “Smile, you Rascal, God knows all about you, and He loves you anyway”.  And He knows all about you, too.

 

From our Back Porch,

Bob Rice

The Outer Court

 

Ezekiel 40:17-23

 

February 7, 2024

 

The Outer Court

Then he brought me into the outer court. And behold, there were chambers and a pavement, all around the court. Thirty chambers faced the pavement.  And the pavement ran along the side of the gates, corresponding to the length of the gates. This was the lower pavement.  Then he measured the distance from the inner front of the lower gate to the outer front of the inner court, a hundred cubits on the east side and on the north side.

What detail, it is believed the timeline for chapter 40 is 573 BC, and King Solomon began the building of the temple in 966 BC and completed it in 959 BC. The Second Temple, which was built in 538 BC, was the one that Herod built.  

The North Gate

As for the gate that faced toward the north, belonging to the outer court, he measured its length and its breadth.  Its side rooms, three on either side, and its jambs and its vestibule were of the same size as those of the first gate. Its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth twenty-five cubits.  And its windows, its vestibule, and its palm trees were of the same size as those of the gate that faced toward the east. And by seven steps, people would go up to it and find its vestibule before them.  And opposite the gate on the north, as on the east, was a gate to the inner court. And he measured from gate to gate, a hundred cubits.

Our Father is such a detailed God; He let Ezekiel see this and tell the people long before they were allowed to return to Jerusalem.

 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

The East Gate to the Outer Court

 

 

Ezekiel 40:5-16

 

February 6, 2024

 

The East Gate to the Outer Court

And behold, there was a wall all around the outside of the temple area, and the length of the measuring reed in the man's hand was six long cubits, each being a cubit and a handbreadth in length. So, he measured the thickness of the wall, one reed; and the height, one reed.  Then he went into the gateway facing east, going up its steps, and measured the threshold of the gate, one reed deep.   And the side rooms, one reed long, and one reed broad; and the space between the side rooms, five cubits; and the threshold of the gate by the vestibule of the gate at the inner end, one reed. Then he measured the vestibule of the gateway, on the inside, one reed. Then he measured the vestibule of the gateway, eight cubits; and its jambs, two cubits; and the vestibule of the gate was at the inner end. And there were three side rooms on either side of the east gate. The three were of the same size, and the jambs on either side were of the same size.  Then he measured the width of the opening of the gateway, ten cubits; and the length of the gateway, thirteen cubits. There was a barrier before the side rooms, one cubit on either side. And the side rooms were six cubits on either side.  Then he measured the gate from the ceiling of the one side room to the ceiling of the other, a breadth of twenty-five cubits; the openings faced each other.  He measured also the vestibule, sixty cubits. And around the vestibule of the gateway was the court.  From the front of the gate at the entrance to the front of the inner vestibule of the gate was fifty cubits.  And the gateway had windows all around, narrowing inwards toward the side rooms and toward their jambs, and likewise the vestibule had windows all around inside, and on the jambs were palm trees.

 

I took this from “Got Question.”

The use of weights and measurements was common in ancient times, just like it is today. The problem is that the words used for various measurements were usually specific to that culture. Today, most people don’t know what a “shekel” is or what the difference is between a “furlong” and a “fathom.” Some Bible translations have replaced the archaic words with modern equivalents or approximations. Other translations simply transliterate the Greek and Hebrew words for the measurements.

Below are several terms and their approximated equivalents in both metric and imperial measurements. Since some ancient terms varied by area, we have differentiated Greek and Hebrew measurements.

A REED WAS 10 FEET, and the distance between the thumb and outstretched finger to the elbow is a cubit, sometimes referred to as a “natural cubit” of about 1.5 feet. This standard seems to have been used in the Roman system of measures as well as in different Greek systems.

 

Some scholars suggest that the longer dimension was the original cubit, making it 20.24 inches for the ordinary cubit, and 21.88 inches for the sacred one, or a standard cubit from the elbow to the end of the middle finger (20′′) and a lower forearm cubit from the elbow to the base of the hand (12′′).

 

At 20” a cubit = to reed would be 6 cubits or 10 feet.  After looking at all these scholars' opinions, I went to “Got Question,”  and it seemed to agree with the Scriptures; Ezekiel’s Cubit (found in Ezekiel 40:5):
Reed (6 of Ezekiel’s cubits)
   3.1 m
   10 ft, 2.4 in.
Cubit (7 handbreadths)
   0.5 m
   20.4 in.

 

The point is not what a reed or cubit is, but that God is into giving prescriptive details on how His temple was to be built.  The people of Ezekiel's time had a clear understanding of both a cubit and a reed, as you do on a foot or yard, if you live in the USA, and elsewhere it is the metric system, or sometimes referred to as an imperial system.

 

From The Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice

Vision of the New Temple

 

 

Ezekiel 40:1-16

 

November 20, 2024

 

Vision of the New Temple

In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was struck down, on that very day, the hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me to the city.  In visions of God, he brought me to the land of Israel and set me down on a very high mountain, on which was a structure like a city to the south.  When he brought me there, behold, there was a man whose appearance was like bronze, with a linen cord and a measuring reed in his hand. And he was standing in the gateway.  And the man said to me, “Son of man, look with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart upon all that I shall show you, for you were brought here so that I might show it to you. Declare all that you see to the house of Israel.”

Ezekiel was born into the priestly line (Ezekiel 1:3), but he served God as a prophet. The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there. (Taken from Got Question)

The East Gate to the Outer Court

And behold, there was a wall all around the outside of the temple area, and the length of the measuring reed in the man's hand was six long cubits, each being a cubit and a handbreadth in length. So, he measured the thickness of the wall, one reed; and the height, one reed.  Then he went into the gateway facing east, going up its steps, and measured the threshold of the gate, one reed deep.  And the side rooms, one reed long, and one reed broad; and the space between the side rooms, five cubits; and the threshold of the gate by the vestibule of the gate at the inner end, one reed.  Then he measured the vestibule of the gateway, on the inside, one reed.  Then he measured the vestibule of the gateway, eight cubits; and its jambs, two cubits; and the vestibule of the gate was at the inner end.  And there were three side rooms on either side of the east gate. The three were of the same size, and the jambs on either side were of the same size.  Then he measured the width of the opening of the gateway, ten cubits; and the length of the gateway, thirteen cubits.  There was a barrier before the side rooms, one cubit on either side. And the side rooms were six cubits on either side.  Then he measured the gate from the ceiling of the one side room to the ceiling of the other, a breadth of twenty-five cubits; the openings faced each other.  He also measured the vestibule, sixty cubits. And around the vestibule of the gateway was the court.  From the front of the gate at the entrance to the front of the inner vestibule of the gate was fifty cubits.  And the gateway had windows all around, narrowing inwards toward the side rooms and toward their jambs, and likewise the vestibule had windows all around inside, and on the jambs were palm trees.

I believe it is helpful to understand that a reed was used in measuring in feet, about 10 feet.  A Cubit was about 1.5 feet, so you do the math, it you want to find the answer to how big this new Temple was going to be.

 

But the real question is, has this Temple already happened, and I would agree with the majority that it is still in the future.  So once again, I looked at Got Question to see how they handle the subject.

 

Most who expect a literal fulfillment of Ezekiel’s temple expect it to be erected in the millennial kingdom, a 1,000-year reign of Christ upon the earth. During the millennium, glorified saints from the present age will live in contact with natural human beings who will still need to make a decision for Christ in order to be saved, and many will choose not to trust Him. The sacrificial system described in Ezekiel cannot be for the forgiveness of sins, for Christ has accomplished that once and for all (Hebrews 10:1–4, 11–14). In this interpretive approach, the sacrifices are seen as memorials of Christ’s death or as rites for the ceremonial cleansing of the temple, but not as a means to forgive sins.

In the figurative view of Ezekiel’s temple, the prophet’s vision simply reiterates that God will once again dwell with His people in a perfect relationship. This relationship is described in the language that the people of the day (and especially for Ezekiel as a priest) would have understood—a Jewish temple of magnificent proportions, with regular, perfect sacrifices, with the Messiah presiding, and with the glory of God visibly evident. In later visions to other prophets, God revealed more about how He would accomplish this with the Messiah Himself replacing the temple, the sacrifices, and the land. The presence of God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit would be more immediately evident than ever before. The fulfillment of Ezekiel’s temple could thus be realized in the church age to some degree and, in the age to come, to perfection.

Regardless of which approach is taken, the vision of Ezekiel’s temple says that God has not forsaken His people and that His relationship with them will be restored and elevated to a new, never-before-conceived glory and intimacy. Present circumstances should never cause one to doubt the promises of God.

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice

A sacrificial feast for the birds and beasts

 

 

Ezekiel 39:17-24

 

February 5, 2024

 

A sacrificial feast for the birds and beasts

 

“As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord God: Speak to the birds of every sort and to all beasts of the field: ‘Assemble and come, gather from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood. You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth—of rams, of lambs, and of he-goats, of bulls, all of them fat beasts of Bashan.  And you shall eat fat till you are filled, and drink blood till you are drunk, at the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you.  And you shall be filled at my table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all kinds of warriors,’ declares the Lord God.

“And I will set my glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid on them.  The house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God, from that day forward.  And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they dealt so treacherously with me that I hid my face from them and gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they all fell by the sword.  I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgressions and hid my face from them.

 

God is telling Ezekiel to call the birds and beasts of the fields to come and have a feast.  When the nations come against Israel, God will send Michael the Archangel, and the prince of Israel to fight and kill the nations that come against Israel.

 

What is going to require us as a people to believe what is written and act on it?  We have seen the report of the six-day war, where many nations thought they would destroy Israel, and it was clear that God fought for Israel, and once more He is going to do so.

 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice