02.17. Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen The Courts and Gates The Courts of the Temple were three in number, as follows:—First, the Great or Outer Court, five hundred cubits square, where the people assembled to worship God. It was open to all.

Second, the Court of the Priests, three hundred cubits square. It was for the priests and their servants, the Levites, alone.

Third, the Court of the Altar, one hundred cubits square, with the altar of burnt offering in its centre. The Separate Place, whereon the Temple stood, one hundred cubits square. The Court of the Altar and the Separate Place formed what was named the Inner Court, which was surrounded by a wall five cubits thick, built of three rows of hewn stones, with cedar beams on the top. The Outer Court was elevated above the surrounding ground by flights of seven steps in front of the three gates, and the Court of the Priests was elevated above the Outer Court by flights of eight steps. The walls of the Outer Court and Court of the Priests were six cubits broad and six cubits high.

There were three gates to the Outer Court—the North Gate, the East Gate, and the South Gate. There was no gate to the west. There were three gates to the Court of the Priests, over against and corresponding to the three gates of the Outer Court. 4 These gates had two porches each. The Typical Teaching of the Courts

These courts are only mentioned in 1 Kings 6:36, and 2 Chronicles 4:9; their dimensions are fully given in Ezekiel 40:1-49. The Court of the Gentiles and the Court of the Women, said to have been connected with Herod’s Temple, were an innovation of Herod himself. There is nothing said about them in the Word of God. The Outer Court, with its flight of seven steps, may be regarded as a type of earthly and millennial rest. The Court of the Priests and the Inner Court, ascended by flights of eight steps, we may regard as typical of resurrection and heavenly rest. The arrangement of the courts also affords much valuable instruction regarding our approach to God and our nearness of communion with Him. As worshippers in the Outer Court, we simply know and realise ourselves as belonging to the people of God, the redeemed of the Lord. As ministering in the Court of the Priests, the believer is reminded of his heavenly calling, his priestly standing and privileges, by virtue of his anointing by the Spirit. The Court of the Altar, with its ever-ascending sacrifices, reminds him of the ground of his acceptance with, and access to, God.

While the Separate Place, with the sanctuary erected upon it, teaches the necessity of separation from evil, and of the need of that holiness which becometh God’s house forever, in all who draw near to commune with a holy God, in whose sight evil cannot dwell. The Cooking Places The prophet is shown a place in the priests’ court, on the “two sides westward “or “hinder part, “where the priests are to boil the trespass and sin offering and bake the meat offering [gift offering] is next brought into the outer court, in each of the four corners of which he is shown a smaller court, forty cubits long by thirty broad, in which were places for boiling the sacrifices of the people (Ezekiel 46:19-24). Sometimes the word “joined “or “attached- chamber “is rendered “parlour, “as when Samuel took Saul into the parlour and gave him the portion set for him (1 Samuel 9:22). These attached-chambers of the outer court are for the use of those who come up to worship, either for retirement, prayer, conference, or as a place in which to partake of the peace offering. In the peace offering, God accepted a part, “the food of the offering made by fire unto Jehovah” (Leviticus 3:2). All the fat that covered the inwards was burnt as incense on the altar; this was God’s portion. The priest who sprinkled the blood, and who is typical of Christ, has his portion out of the accompanying meat or gift offering; the wave breast, emblematic of sympathy and affection, and the heave shoulder, the emblem of strength and service, were given to Aaron and his sons, from off the sacrifices of the peace offerings, by a perpetual covenant (Leviticus 7:28-34). The remainder is the portion of the worshipper who offers his sacrifice of peace offering unto Jehovah. Thus we get a beautiful type of fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, and with the whole priestly family, in the one offering of Him who hath made peace through His blood.

Gallery Against Gallery in Three Storeys In the outer court, probably on the west, behind the Temple, Ezekiel was shown in vision a building consisting of attached-chambers, in three storeys, with galleries in front (Ezekiel 42:1-8). These galleries, it appears, were over against, and corresponding with, the galleries of the Temple on the north and south sides. The attached, or joined, chambers were entered from one into another, from north to south. The breadth of the Temple on the west, including the sanctuary and the side chambers on the north and south, was fifty cubits. The length of the walls of this structure, including the attached-chambers, was also fifty cubits (42:7). Before the side-chambers of the Temple, on either side, were galleries in three storeys, extending outward ten cubits north and south. Similarly, before the attached-chambers of this building, north and south, were galleries in three storeys, extending outward ten cubits on either side. Thus the galleries of the building, in three storeys, were over against the galleries in three storeys of the Temple. The expression gallery against gallery in three storeys (Ezekiel 42:3) may thus be explained. The attached-chambers connected with this building in the outer court, in contrast with the side-chambers of the Temple, decreased in size as they ascended, being probably seven, six, and five cubits respectively. The doors leading into them, from one to another, faced the north—the galleries taking out a cubit from the attached-chambers on each storey, similar to the way in which each storey of the side-chambers took out a cubit from the walls of the Temple. These attached-chambers, proceeding frori north to south, from the side emblematic of justice and judgment to that of mercy and loving-kindness, and diminishing in size as they ascend upward, teach us that, in proportion to deeper views of Divine love, and higher contemplation of Heavenly glories, self, and the space occupied by self, will diminish in equal proportion. The Priests The priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near to Me to minister unto Me, and they shall stand before Me to offer [bring near] unto Me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord God [Sovereign-Lord Jehovah]: they shall enter into My sanctuary, and they shall come near to My table, to minister unto Me, and they shall keep My charge” (Ezekiel 44:15-16). These priests appear to be typical of those who believe in Jesus in the present dispensation, when Israel as a nation have gone astray from God.

“When they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments” (Ezekiel 45:17-18). In all their ministrations, whether at the altar or within the sanctuary, nothing of woollen is to come upon them. In the worship and service of the sanctuary above, there will be the absence of all that is carnal or exciting; all will be spiritual and holy. “And when they go forth into the utter [outer] court, even into the utter court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers [attached-chambers], and they shall put on other garments” (Ezekiel 45:19). As those who ministered in the court of the priests were required to change their apparel when they went out to the people in the outer court, even so the risen saints, the heavenly priesthood, in their intercourse with earth during the millennial period, will not be seen in the same glory in which they minister in the heavenly courts above. No high priest is mentioned; the prince (not a king) takes a prominent part in providing the sacrifices (Ezekiel 45:1-25, Ezekiel 46:1-24). The Lord Jesus will unite the Kingship and High Priesthood in His own Meichisedec office. The Holy Portion of the Land

“The land is Mine, and ye are strangers and sojourners with Me, “saith Jehovah to Israel (Leviticus 25:23). “Moreover, when ye shall divide by lot the land for inheritance, ye shall offer an obligation unto Jehovah, a holy portion of the land” (Ezekiel 45:1). This holy portion is twenty-five thousand reeds square, or about sixty miles; and is divided into three parts. For the Priests and Sanctuary The first portion, towards the north, is about sixty miles long and twenty-four miles broad. “It shall be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, which shall come near to minister unto Jehovah: and it shall be a place for their houses, and a holy place for the Sanctuary” (Ezekiel 45:2-4). For the Levites

Adjoining this portion is that of “the Levites, the 192 Types of the Temple ministers of the house, “about sixty miles by twenty- four (Ezekiel 45:5). For the prince On either side of this oblation for the priests, the Levites, and the City, the prince has his portion, east and west, extending as far as the portions for the tribes extend. The Millennial Division of the Land Ezekiel 47:1-23, Ezekiel 48:1-35. In the division of the land among the twelve tribes, Levi has no part; he has his inheritance in the holy oblation belonging to Jehovah. The Levites are saints, and of the household of God, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. Seven of the tribes of Israel—Dan, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim (“Joseph shall have two portions “[Ezekiel 47:13]) Reuben, and Judah—have their portions on the north of the holy oblation; and five tribes on the south—namely, Benjamin, Simeon, Issachar, Zebulon, and Gad. The sanctuary is thus in the very centre of Immanuel’s land. Reckoning from the north seven tribes, the portion for the priests with the SANCTUARY Sanctuary in the midst is the eighth; reckoning from the south five tribes, which with the City portion and that of the Levites make seven, the priests’ portion is again the eighth. In the very centre of the sanctuary portion is the altar of burnt offering. When, in the millennial age, the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established upon the top of the mountains (Isaiah 2:2-3; Isaiah 66:23; Zechariah 14:16), and exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow into it, then the altar in the midst of the land shall not only be God’s centre for Israel, but His centre for worship for the whole earth; The Lamb on the throne is, and ever will be, God’s centre for Heaven and the universe.

God will cause the Gentiles to bring from all parts gold, silver, etc., to make the place of His feet glorious (Isaiah 60:9-14). The City Portion

Next to the portion of the Levites towards the south is the possession for the City, about twelve miles in breadth and sixty miles in length; the suburbs enlarge the City to a square of five thousand reeds. In the City of David, where Solomon had his royal palace, will probably be the residence of the prince. who will be the earthly representative of Messiah the King; Mount Zion, in Jerusalem, the centre of government and rule. “For the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem” (Micah 4:2). The gates of the City are called after the names of the tribes of Israel—three gates northward, and three at the east, the south, and the west sides (Ezekiel 48:30-35)—twelve gates. This city is literal; it may be instructive to compare with the symbolic city of the Revelation, the holy Jerusalem, the emblem of the Church in resurrection glory. The City of Ezekiel formed a square of four thousand five hundred reeds; the City of Revelation is described as foursquare, the length, breadth, and height equal; it, too, was measured by the reed, but the reed of Revelation is a golden one, the emblem of an estimate which is Divine. Also twelve gates, according to the twelve tribes of Israel (Revelation 21:9-22). Concerning the earthly City it is said, “The name of the city from that day shall be “The Lord is there “[Jehovah Shammah] (Ezekiel 48:35). So, also, of the holy Jerusalem of Revelation it is said, “The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him: and they shall see His face; and His name shall be on their foreheads. And they shall reign forever and ever. “

—Our Daily Homily