Day 252. Ezekiel 40-42

We had an occasion to note awhile ago that Ezekiel was a priest in the Jerusalem temple before he was taken into captivity with the first group of Judean exiles. In spite of his brilliant vocation as a prophet, the lost temple was never far from his consciousness.
This hopeful, longing vision of a restored and resplendent temple is dated April 28, 573 B.C., about fourteen years after Solomon's temple had been destroyed by the Babylonians. The LORD's house in Jerusalem is a scorched ruin. Its furnishing and vessels have been carried off to Babylon as plunder. Now Ezekiel is carried in a vision back to the land of Israel and set down on "a very high mountain" (40:2)—there is no indication that it is Mount Zion where Solomon's temple stood. There he is met by a heavenly being, a sort of angelic surveyor, whose appearance "shone like bronze" (40:3). Who has been assigned to guide him through the visionary temple—the temple of the future that already exists in the mind of God. The angel carries a handy measuring reed in length "six long cubits"--each cubit being 20.5 inches.
Using this device, he ascertains that the thickness of the walls of the heavenly temple is the same as its height—about ten feet (40:5)—and we know immediately that this is going to be an odd building indeed. But aside from its strict symmetries it is very plain. Ezekiel, who is capable of lavish description, gives us only the sketchiest account of its ornaments. The palm tree pilasters (40:26) recall the decorations of Solomon's temple (1 Kings 6:29), but the prophet avoids depictions of human or animal forms which might encourage the idolatry (see Exodus 20:4) that had invaded the old temple before its destruction.
But in the midst of a myriad of measurements, he does pause to tell us that chambers provided face north "for the priests who have charge of the altar." These, we are told, "are the descendents of Zadok, who alone among the descendents of Levi may come near the LORD to minister to him" (40:47). Zadok was a descendent of Aaron, and Israel's first high priest (Exodus 29:26-29), and only priests of his family were allowed to perform the most sacred of duties. The prophet, always concerned with good order, supports the claims of the Zadokite priests and provides a place for them in the heavenly sanctuary. Otherwise there is no mention of personnel in this visionary temple—or furnishings. It seems to be largely empty.
The temple building itself has three sections—an entrance area or vestibule (we Lutherans would call it a narthex), the principle room or "nave," and an inner room, the Holy of Holies--the angelic surveyor, who acts a little like a realtor on a house tour, calls this "the most holy place" (41:5). (There is no mention of the Ark of the Covenant, which had been the principle furnishing of the Holy of Holies and had been carried off as part of the plunder of Solomon's temple.) The decorations on the walls of the nave and holy place recall the cherubim of Ezekiel's earlier vision of the divine chariot (1:5-14). These cherubim are guardians, functioning as servants of the LORD.
All in all, especially compared with the temple of Solomon, this building is very austere indeed. All the gorgeous ornamentation in gold and precious stones lavished upon the former temple is missing from the description of this sanctuary. Its strict geometry, however, is representative of divine perfection. This temple is completely pure and without profanation or uncleanness. And to underline this, the whole of the sanctuary complex is surrounded by a high wall, "five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide," expressly intended "to make separation between the holy and the common" (42:20).
There is no evidence that this heavenly temple reflects any building ever built. It exists only as a vision in the mind of Ezekiel, the prophet-priest, who longs to minister in it. It is an uncorrupted sanctuary, unblemished by sin and idolatry—it is what the temple should have been, not what the temple ever was. In that, Ezekiel's visionary temple is like the Church we long for, free of its sordid past and ambiguous present—the Church that exists for us in heaven, but nowhere else.