Ezekiel 40:1-27

content/bible_journal/ezekiel_40:1-27.md

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+title = "Ezekiel 40:1–27"
+date = "2023-07-02"
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+
+### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Ezekiel40.1-27)
+
+Long after Jerusalem was destroyed, Ezekiel receives a vision of a restored
+city with the temple built on Mount Zion as it was before. In the vision, he is
+taken on a grand tour by an angelic guide. This guide has a cord and a reed,
+surveyor's tools to measure the temple. The angel instructs Ezekiel to pay
+attention to all he sees and hears during this vision, to meditate on them, and
+to tell them to the house of Israel.
+
+Why would Israel need to hear about this? If they wanted to recreate Solomon's
+temple, they have the bill of materials and something like blueprints in 1
+Kings. But at this time they were still exiled in Babylon, and it would be
+another 50-ish years before Cyrus would let them return and rebuild the city.
+Hearing how large and well-appointed the temple would some day be would give
+them hope for the future and a trust in the Lord to see it through.
+
+At six long cubits long, the angel's measuring reed is very close to ten modern
+feet long. He measures the platform on which the temple complex sits,
+containing the outer court, the inner court, and the temple proper. The
+stairways up the platform and the vestibule of the gateway are measured, along
+with three guard rooms on either side of the vestibule. The court and its
+decorations are described, and the north and south gates identical to the east
+gate. Palm tree decorations, like the pomegranates on Solomon's temple before,
+evoke images of natural beauty. They remind the worshippers of the Garden of
+Eden where God first lived with Man.
+
+* * *
+
+Your love of beauty brings us delight, and we are grateful you share it with
+us.