Reflections on Ezekiel 42

Ezekiel 42 (Contemporary English Version)
1. After the man and I left the temple and walked back to the outer courtyard, he showed me a set of rooms on the north side of the west building. This set of rooms was one hundred seventy feet long and eighty-five feet wide.
   
2. (SEE 42:1)
   
3. On one side of them was the thirty-four feet of open space that ran alongside the temple, and on the other side was the sidewalk that circled the outer courtyard. The rooms were arranged in three levels
   
4. with doors that opened toward the north, and in front of them was a walkway seventeen feet wide and one hundred seventy feet long.
   
5. The rooms on the top level were narrower than those on the middle level, and the rooms on the middle level were narrower than those on the bottom level.
   
6. The rooms on the bottom level supported those on the two upper levels, and so these rooms did not have columns like other buildings in the courtyard.
   
7. To the north was a privacy wall eighty-five feet long,
   
8. (SEE 42:7)
   
9. and at the east end of this wall was the door leading from the courtyard to these rooms. There was also a set of rooms on the south side of the west building.
   
10. (SEE 42:9)
    
11. These rooms were exactly like those on the north side, and they also had a walkway in front of them.
    
12. The door to these rooms was at the east end of the wall that stood in front of them.
    
13. The man then said to me: These rooms on the north and south sides of the temple are the sacred rooms where the LORD's priests will eat the most holy offerings. These offerings include the grain sacrifices, the sacrifices for sin, and the sacrifices to make things right.
    
14. When the priests are ready to leave the temple, they must go through these rooms before they return to the outer courtyard. They must leave their sacred clothes in these rooms and put on regular clothes before going anywhere near other people.
    
15. After the man had finished measuring the buildings inside the temple area, he took me back through the east gate and measured the wall around this area.
    
16. He used his measuring stick to measure the east side of this wall; it was eight hundred forty feet long.
    
17. Then he measured the north side, the south side, and the west side of the wall, and they were each eight hundred forty feet long,
    
18. (SEE 42:17)
    
19. (SEE 42:17)
    
20. and so the temple area was a perfect square. The wall around this area separated what was sacred from what was ordinary.
    
    

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    Ezekiel continues to be led in a vision by "a man whose appearance was like bronze." The man is showing him the new temple that is yet to be built in Jerusalem. Though it will resemble Solomon's temple, it will be a part of God's new covenant with His people. This last section of Ezekiel, which begins with chapter 40 and continues to the end of the book, is considered to be one of the most difficult portions of scripture in the whole Bible. Jews do not allow any to read it until the age of thirty and assert that those who do read it will not be able to understand it all. And so I join the ranks of those who confess confusion at the full meaning of these closing chapters of Ezekiel.
    
    In chapter 42 Ezekiel was toured, in his vision, through the priest's quarters which are to be located north and south of the temple. It will be in these areas that the priests will eat the most holy offerings and keep the sacred garments used for administering these offerings. "Once the priests have entered, they must not go out from the holy area to the outer court until they have removed the clothes they minister in, for these are holy. They are to put on other clothes before they approach the public area." (42:14)
    
    Verses 15-20 give the outter measurements of the temple complex, which is to be a square, 875 feet on each side. This outter perimeter will have a wall which is to "separate the holy from the common." (42:20) Or, as we might say, to separate the sacred from the secular.