Page 228 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

222 NOTES ON EZEKIEL.
us, we have a measured description chiefly of the temple
courts and their appendages, the /epoV, (as in chapter xli.,
of the i/ao'9, or 0^ 09), the porch of which alone had been
given in the chapter before, with a sequel in chapter xlii.,
which may be viewed as concluding the first part of the
description, and is important in destroying the notion
that there was, or could be, any real resemblance be­
tween the prophetic vision of Ezekiel and any temple
yet realized. The “ wall on the outside of the house
round about” (xl. 5) is not measured till we come to
the end of chapter xlii., where it is declared to be 500
reeds square, which, given as it is with the most express
exactitude, cannot be allowed to be a “ hyperbole,”
without shaking the character of the prophet, and of
scripture in general; that is, the precincts are to take
in considerably more than the entire city did. How this
can be may perhaps be shewn when we come to the
passage.
It is enough here to remark that, if true, the temple
intended by the prophet must be looked for in the
future, to which indeed all its surroundings point. One
can understand also a past tabernacle typical of present
heavenly things in Christ; but here it is a prophecy of
what will only be accomplished for Israel in their land,
when the church is changed at Christ’s coming and
reigns with Him over the earth. There is no room
therefore for the Christian or allegorical application;
that to the past Jewish we have seen to be a failure,
yea, impossibility; and the vague ideal we may dismiss
as scarce a remove from infidelity. As regards the pro­
phets, disciples now, as of old, are foolish, and slow of
heart to believe them. The future view is not only the