Ezekiel’s Vision of the Temple, Part 1

Ezekiel 40-42

            Ezekiel’s culminating vision concerns a new and rebuilt temple. The instructions are very detailed, and one can find pictures online that demonstrate that detail. Some think that this is the temple Zerubbabel should have built after the exile. Some think it will be built in the future—both Jews and some Christians. Probably the whole thing is an idealized vision. A few details confirm that judgment. First, notice that Ezekiel envisions temple courts that are a perfect square, suggesting maybe a symbolic description. Second, in chapter 47, we’ll read about a river flowing out the temple, a geographic feature that never existed on the top of Mt. Zion. Probably we are to think of this temple as an idealized vision and the lesson in its detailed description is that, if the temple is ever rebuilt, Israel must treat the temple as holy, unlike the desecrations of the earlier chapters.