THE GATES OF EZEKIEL’S TEMPLE Discourse by Bro. Ric Cunningham
| ezekiels_temple_introduction.mp3 |
If you are following along in your Bible, we will spend most of our time in Ezekiel 40th. Chapter.
We will read and mention a few things about the measurements, but we will be focusing our attention on the POSSIBLE symbolic lessons. Most of what we might be able to determine is based upon our understanding of the Divine Plan of the Ages, as well as our Tabernacle Shadow studies.
Explain the chapter verse divisions.
Vs. 5 outer wall of Temple complex.
Vss. 6-16 Eastern gate-house through Outer wall from outside into the Outer Court.
Vss. 17-19 Outer Court with 30 Chambers on a lower pavement.
Vss. 20-23 North Gate-house through Outer wall into Outer court.
Vss. 24-27 South Gate-house through Outer wall into Outer court.
Vss. 28-31 South Gate-house through Inner wall into Inner court.
Vss. 32-34 East Gate-house through Inner wall into Inner court.
Vss. 35-37 North Gate-house through Inner wall into Inner court.
Vss. 38-43 chambers, tables and instruments for offerings.
Vss. 44-46 two chambers for Priest – singers on Inner Court.
Vs. 47 Inner court.
Vss. 48, 49 Porch and steps to Temple.
We have learned that PLACES = CONDITIONS.
- The Temple = The divine nature, God, Jesus and the Church.
- Theinnercourt=Thespiritnature,theGreatCompany.
- The outer court = The restored perfect human nature including the Ancient
Worthies and mankind.
That ELEVATIONS = DIFFERENT NATURES.
- 7 steps up to the gate-house leading to the outer court.
- 8 steps up to the gate-house leading to the inner court.
- 10 steps up to the porch entrance to the Temple.
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That PEOPLE = CLASSES.
- Priests =The Christ in glory, as the Great Mediator.
- The Levites = the Great Company that assists the Mediator in the spirit-
realm. - The Prince = the Ancient Worthies who assist the Mediator on earth.
- Israel = the restored world of mankind.
READ: 40:2-4 Explain. Temple complex. Include 41:18-20 Lion and Man,
Palm tree Psa. 92:12.
READ: 40:5 Explain. Outer wall of Temple complex = The New Law Covenant.
READ: 40:6-16 Explain. Eastern Gate through Outer wall leading into the Outer Court.
There are three gates from outside into the Outer Court and a corresponding three more gates from the Outer Court into the Inner Court. They were of the same dimensions.
These are gate-houses as it were. They pass through the Outer wall. They sit upon the Lower Pavement.
These long gate-houses = being a place represents the CONDITION of the process of mankind walking up the Highway of Holiness. This is also showing the Mediatorial phase of the Kingdom, or the peaceable kingdom.
You enter these gates by going up 7 steps = perfect humanity, not that humans are perfect just by walking up these steps, but rather it starts them in the way to achieve perfection.
The gates are as long as the Lower Pavement is wide – 50 cubits. Humans passing through these gates represents the process of each one
learning what the LORD expects of them as well as overcoming sin within themselves. This is all meant to lead them on to consecrate themselves to the LORD. Not to sacrifice, but to live righteously, just as demonstrated repeatedly in the OT, and summed up in the NT by the two great commandments, love God supremely and your neighbor as yourself – Golden Rule.
There are 6 rooms within the gate-house. They are 6 cubits by 6 cubits or four square (perfect by God’s measure), three on each side of the center passage.
Now we want to offer some suggestions on what these might represent:
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In Rev. 20:12 “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before the throne, and BOOKS were opened, and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the BOOKS, according to their WORKS.”
Books are the books of the Bible, both OT and NT. The instructions from the Word of God is perfect for assisting humans to achieving perfect works.
Now 6 is man’s number, but beyond this, why are there 6 rooms?
We want to read Rev. 4:8 “And the four living creatures had each of them six wings about, and they were full of eyes within and they rest not day and night, saying: holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is and is to come.”
Explain – 6 wings = 3 pairs. Balance. Remember Rev. 12:14, the two wings of a great eagle bearing up the Church. The OT and NT. Balance, like the Sun and the Moon.
Also, full of eyes within = the Word of God is full of wisdom that gives us understanding.
3 divisions of the OT – History books Genesis through Esther, Poetical books Job through Song of Solomon, Prophetic books Isaiah through Malachi.
3 divisions of the NT – History of Jesus and the Apostles, Matthew through Acts, the Letters or Epistles Romans through Jude, Prophetic book the Revelation.
Added together 3 + 3 = 6. Three rooms on each side of the center passage in the gate-houses.
They balance and compliment each other.
These rooms had windows. Oddly, they were narrower on the inside and wider on the exterior side. This suggests that they were really designed for someone outside to view how those on the inside were progressing. This might represent that The Great Mediator is watching how each human is progressing in their development. Consider I Cor. 4:9 in part: “…for we are made a spectacle unto the world and to angels and to men.”
Furthermore, windows let in light = the enlightenment of truth found in the Books of the Bible. Windows also let in air (like the air passage ways in the Great Pyramid Kings chamber and Queens chamber), denoting LIFE. Think of the breath of life.
There were four posts that were carved with Palm Trees. See Psa. 92:12 “The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree..”
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Yes, the Temple Complex represents God’s provisions for mankind to be able to reapproach Him and attain the relationship, only better then, as God and Adam had in the garden of Eden before sin entered.
The inner porch of the gate-house = fully resurrected, anastasis to a full perfect standing before God (through the mediator until the 1,000 years are over).
There are doors front and back, so to speak, to pass through. Passing through the first door = starting up the Highway of Holiness, passing out the second door = graduation to perfect human nature, life eternal, shown by their entering into the Outer court. Since Jesus is the “door” and the “gate”, it represents that for a person to start on the Highway of holiness – pictured by going us the 7 steps and through the first outer door – they have to accept that Jesus is the only way to approach God.
READ: 40:20-23. Explain. North Gate to Outer Court. READ: 40:24-27. Explain. South Gate to Outer Court.
READ: 40:17-19 Explain. The Lower Pavement was 50 cubits wide. The outer wall was built upon it, the outer gates passed over it, and we read that there were 30 chambers or rooms upon it.
This pavement surrounded or enclosed the outer court, which was most likely compacted earth, while the pavement was just that, a paved surface, most likely paver stones. This reminds us of how Jesus is the foundation upon which we are to build our structures ( I Cor. 3:11). Steadfast like a rock, compared to shifting sand.
As the Outer wall which represented the New Law Covenant was supported by this pavement, it represents that the NLC is supported by the Ransom Jesus provided, he was the surety of the New Covenant.
And as the outer gate-houses were supported by the lower pavement, it is the merit of Jesus’ ransom that provides TENTATIVE JUSTIFICATION for mankind as they learn and develop to become actually JUST – perfect humans, depicted by successfully passing through the entire gate-house and out into the Outer Court.
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On this I will read from Rpt. 5959 “Justification -What? When? How?” from Sept. 15, 1916.
“The world’s justification will not be an instantaneous one, but will progress during the thousand years – the Millennium. The world might then be said to be TENTATIVELY JUSTIFIED through the Mediator and his kingdom, but their justification will be accomplished only in their absolute perfection at the close of the Millennium, when they will be presented to the Father and accepted by Him. “It is God that justified,” and He receives to everlasting life and to his family on any plane of existence only those who are perfect.”
On the lower pavement were the 30 rooms. These might represent a series of Class rooms in which various life lessons are taught. We remember that Jesus was 30 years old when he was considered to be the equivalent of Adam – a perfect man.
We can see that there are 6 groups of five rooms, two groups of five on a side, five on each side of a gate-house, showing again the numbers of 6 – lessons on becoming a perfect man, 10 on a side showing completeness (10 fingers and 10 toes), and the ten divided into two, showing a balance – two matching parts, to the series of life lessons. This is similar to the gate-house – 3 on each side.
We read that the distance between the inside of the outer gate to the outside of the inner gate was 100 cubits, that is Jesus’ number. Jesus as a perfect man is both mankind’s example and standard. Remember in Ex. 27:16, 18 we learn that the Gate to the Court was 20 cubits by 5 cubits or 100 cubits in dimension.
READ 40:28-31 Inner Court Gate-house on the south side.
Note the same dimensions and construction. Note the eight steps. The Inner court = spirit nature of the Great Company, a step higher that what mankind had to walk up, reminds us of Hebs. 2:6, 7 “…what is man, that thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels, thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands.”
NOTE: all the inner court gates were of the same dimensions. For times sake we will not read all those verses.
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READ 40:47-49 Explain:
The Inner court was 100 cubits by 100 cubits – a perfect square. Again, we see Jesus’ number emphasized. The alter in the midst of it = Jesus ransom.
Going up to the Temple porch was 10 steps up (see Rotherham and other translations). This would be only for the priests, The Christ Head and Body, the 144,000. These receive the divine nature, so much higher than the mere spirit nature of the Great Company and angels, not just a “little higher”. Three classes, three elevations.
Additional lessons on the gates. READ 46:9 – Explain, the alter cannot be ignored = the Ransom of Jesus cannot be forgotten, even as we daily pray thanking God for Jesus’ ransom. Phil. 2:9-11 “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and things in heaven and things in the earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
READ 43:1-7 the glory of the LORD travels westward, passing through the East gate. This Temple will never be defiled.
READ 44:1-3 Outer East gate shut. Rpt. 3625 = The Christ complete. The Door to the Marriage is shut. Only the Princes = AW will be able to sit at and communicate with the Spiritual phase of the Kingdom.
READ 44:4 the glory of the LORD filled the Temple from the NORTH OUTER Gate view = The Christ all in glory in the spirit-realm.
READ 46:1 Inner East Gate. Shut 6 working days, open on 7th. Princes = AW. 6,000 years of sin and death followed by the Millennial Sabbath, gate open during the Mediatorial phase for the restoration of Mankind.
The New Moon = the New Law Covenant will be for the restoration of mankind.
AW are closest to the Spirit-realm, they represent in the flesh what The Mediator desires to communicate to humans. Isa. 2:3 “…READ.
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General comment on approaching God. Eden, Sun rise and set, the Tabernacle, Solomon and Zarubbal Temples, Only East gates and doors – one way- heading westward during the Ages past and the Gospel Age. Ours is the Narrow Way that leads to Spiritual Life.
In Ezekiel’s Temple, there are aspects that ARE MEMORIES OR THE HISTORY OF EVENTS PAST, DURING THE GOSPEL AGE.
For example the Altar = Jesus ransom already given at Calvary. Once for all time.
The east outer gate = the laying down of our imputed justified human life in sacrifice and the lessons learned in our Narrow way experiences.
The east inner gate = the New creature life of New Man, in our minds, and all of our experiences that we as New Creatures pass through.
These eastern gates are the Memories of what the great Mediator passed through as the Head and the Body members were being developed in their lives.
This reminds of how we use the lessons of the memories or histories of the AW to assist us in our development.
There is a possible symbolic picture of the Church having the ability to visit with loved ones from the spirit-realm, 42:14, 44:17-19.
We think of Jesus during the 40 days appearing only to his beloved disciple, women and men.
Br.David Stein – 44:25, humans still considered dead until anastasis testing (Little season perhaps), but to loved and immediate family members, they could appear!
End.
MAYBE……Burnt offering = like the Tab. Shadows page 93 Chapter VI, “Sacrifices subsequent to the “Day of Atonement”. “The sacrifices offered by the THE PEOPLE (Israel – the world) on their own individual account, after the Day of Atonement sacrifices, typified by the general offerings ofIsrael,belong to the next age, and will then be presented to the glorified royal priesthood.”
Canadian Bible Students 