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Ezekiel 42

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1 And he brought me forth into the outward court by the way that leadeth to the north, and he brought me into the chamber that was over against the separate building, and over against the house toward the north.

2 In the face of the north door was the length of a hundred cubits, and the breadth of fifty cubits.

3 Over against the twenty cubits of the inner court, and Over against the pavement of the outward court that was paved with stone, where there was a gallery joined to a triple gallery.

4 And before the chambers was a walk ten cubits broad, looking to the inner parts of a way of one cubit. And their doors were toward the north.

5 Where were the store chambers lower above: because they bore up the galleries, which appeared above out of them from the lower parts, and from the midst of the building.

6 For they were of three stories, and had not pillars, as the pillars of the courts: therefore did they appear above out of the lower places, and out of the middle places, fifty cubits from the ground.

7 And the outward wall that went about by the chambers, which were towards the outward court on the forepart of the chambers, was fifty cubits long.

8 For the length of the chambers of the outward court was fifty cubits: and the length before the face of the temple, a hundred cubits.

9 And there was under these chambers, an entrance from the east, for them that went into them out of the outward court.

10 In the breadth of the outward wall of the court that was toward the east, over against the separate building, and there were chambers before the building.

11 And the way before them was like the chambers which were toward the north: they wore as long as they, and as broad as they: and all the going is to them, and their fashions, and their doors were alike.

12 According to the doors of the chambers that were towards the south : there was a door in the head of the way, which way was before the porch, separated towards the east as one entereth in.

13 And he said to me: The chambers of the north, and the chambers of the south, which are before the separate building: they are holy chambers, in which the priests shall eat, that approach to the Lord into the holy of holies: there they shall lay the most holy things, and the offering for sin, and for trespass: for it is a holy place.

14 And when the priests shall have entered in, they shall not go out of the holy places into the outward court: but there they shall lay their vestments, wherein they minister, for they are holy: and they shall put on other garments, and so they shall go forth to the people.

15 Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he brought me out by the way of the gate that looked toward the east: and he measured it on every side round about.

16 And he measured toward the east with the measuring reed, five hundred reeds with the measuring reed round about.

17 And he measured toward the north five hundred reeds with the measuring reed round about.

18 And towards the south he measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed round about.

19 And toward the west he measured five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed.

20 By the four winds he measured the wall thereof on every side round about, five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits broad, making a separation between the sanctuary and the place of the people.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 486

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486. And the angel stood by, saying, "Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there." This symbolizes the Lord's presence and His command to see and learn the state of the church in the New Heaven.

The Lord is meant by the angel, here as in nos. 5, 415, and elsewhere, since an angel does nothing of himself but is impelled by the Lord. That is why the angel said, "I will give power to my two witnesses" (verse 3), when they were the Lord's witnesses. The angel's standing by symbolizes the Lord's presence, and his speaking symbolizes the Lord's command. To rise and measure means, symbolically, to see and learn. We will see below that to measure means, symbolically, to learn and investigate the character of a state.

The temple, altar, and those who worship there symbolize the state of the church in the New Heaven - the temple symbolizing the church in respect to its doctrinal truth (no. 191), the altar symbolizing the church in respect to the goodness of its love (no. 392), and those who worship there symbolizing the church in respect to its formal worship as a result of those two elements. Those who worship symbolize here the reverence that is a part of formal worship, since the spiritual sense is a sense abstracted from persons (nos. 78, 79, 96), as is apparent here also from the fact that John is told to measure the worshipers. These three elements are what form the church: doctrinal truth, goodness of love, and formal worship as a result of these.

[2] That the church meant is the church in the New Heaven is apparent from the last verse of this chapter, where we are told that "the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple" (verse 19).

This chapter begins with the measuring of the temple in order that the state of the church in heaven might be seen and learned before its conjunction with the church in the world. The church in the world is meant by the court outside the temple, which John was not to measure, because it had been given to the gentiles (verse 2). The same church is then described by the great city called Sodom and Egypt (verses 7, 8). But after that great city fell (verse 13), it follows that the church became the Lord's (verses 15ff.).

It should be known that the church exists in the heavens just as on earth, and that the two are united like the inner and outer selves in people. Consequently the Lord provides the church in heaven first, and from it, or by means of it, then the church on earth. That is why the New Jerusalem is said to come down from God out of the New Heaven (Revelation 21:1-2).

The New Heaven means a new heaven formed from Christians, as described several times in the following chapters.

[3] To measure means, symbolically, to learn and investigate the character of a thing because the measure of something symbolizes its character or state. All the measurements of the New Jerusalem (chapter 21) have this symbolic meaning, as does the statement there that the angel who had the gold reed measured the city and its gates, and that he measured the wall to be one hundred and forty-four cubits, the measure of a man which is that of an angel (verses 15, 17). Moreover, because the New Jerusalem symbolizes the New Church, is it apparent that to measure it and its component parts means, symbolically, to learn its character.

Measuring has the same symbolic meaning in Ezekiel, where we read that an angel measured the house of God: the temple, the altar, the court, and the chambers (Ezekiel 40:3-17; 41:1-5, 13-14, 22; 42:1-20, and 43:1-27). Also that he measured the waters (47:3-5, 9). Therefore the prophet is told:

...show the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and they shall measure the pattern... and... its exits and its entrances, and all its patterns..., so that they may keep its whole design... (Ezekiel 43:10-11)

Measuring has the same symbolic meaning in the following places:

I raised my eyes..., and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. So I said, "Where are you going?" And he said to me, "To measure Jerusalem...." (Zechariah 2:1-2)

He stood and measured the earth. (Habakkuk 3:6)

(The Lord Jehovih) has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and gauged heaven with a span... and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. (Isaiah 40:12)

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? ...Who determined its measurements? ...Or who stretched the line upon it? (Job 38:4-5)

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.