EZEJUEK - CHAPTERS 40-43 - THE GLORIOUS TEMPLE (2026)
(The Glory of God)
Ezekiel 40-43
Tuesday, May 20, 2008; May 12, 2026
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
This chapter begins the final section of Ezekiel which deals with the TEMPLE and GOD’S GLORIUS HOUSE. The emphasis is on the permanence of the Glory of the Lord! It climaxes and crowns the experiences of Ezekiel. His book begins with a vision of God’s Glory and concludes with the vision of the same.
Ezekiel is honored with a sight of the glories of the upper world in the visions of the Temple and the Glory of God.
Matthew Henry: “The dimensions of this visionary temple are so large that it plainly intimates, as Dr. Lightfoot observes, that these things cannot be literally, but must be spiritually understood. This is a vision of the Gospel Temple erected by Jesus Christ and His Apostles. Under the type and figure of a temple and altar, priests, and sacrifices, is foreshown the spiritual worship that should be performed in gospel times, and perfected at last in the Kingdom of Glory, in which these visions will have their full accomplishment.” He says, “some think” and I want to say, “I think”, these visions will have their full accomplishment in the gospel church on this side of heaven in the latter days.”
The movement of the vision is from the sanctuary outward to the people and the land, just had been the case with the revelation of the Tabernacle of Moses. So, in Chapters 40-42, we see a New Temple. In chapters 43-46, we have a New Worship and in 47-48 a New Apportionment.
Matthew Henry says, “Because it is hard to be understood we must humbly search it, get as far as we can into it and as get much as we can out of it, and when we despair of satisfaction in every difficulty, bless God that our salvation does not depend upon it, but that things necessary are plain enough.”
There are four major views of interpretation regarding this Temple. I will be consistent and teach it from the Christian-Spiritual view. I will mention the other three for those who have studied under those teachings:
1. Historical-Literal – According to this view, Ezekiel just delineated what he had seen of Solomon’s temple at Jerusalem, to preserve its memory so that the returning captives might rebuild it as nearly as they could.
2. Historical – Ideal – This says the pattern exhibited to Ezekiel by vision was different from anything that previously existed and was the pattern of what the people should have constructed after returning to the land, though it was never built.
3. Jewish-Carnal – Those who hold this view contend that Zerubbabel and his contemporaries actually followed this pattern, as did Herod the Great. But they hold also that the Messiah Himself will see to it that the plan is carried out to perfection. This is similar to the traditional dispensationalist’s view that this Temple is a literal future sanctuary to be constructed in Palestine.
4. CHRISTIAN- SPIRITUAL - This is the typical view, according to which the whole representation was not intended to find either in Jewish or Christian times, a literal realization, but was a grand and complicated symbol of the blessings God had in reserve for His CHURCH, especially under the coming dispensation of the Gospel. From the Fathers downwards, this has been the prevailing view in the Christian Church, especially the Reformers. The truth is that this Temple is His People, His church, perfected and Glorified.
Rev. 21-22: I saw no temple therein; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple in it. The city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
1. the vision itself had an ideal character, with laws and ordinances differing from the Law of Moses.
2. The dimensions offered here are much greater than Mount Moriah! Ezekiel’s temple is larger than Jerusalem and Ezekiel’s Jerusalem is larger than Canaan.
3. There was a stream from the Temple all the way to the Dead Sea. Ez. 47:1-8: The man brought me back to the entrance of the temple. There I saw a stream flowing east from beneath the door of the temple and passing to the right of the altar on its south side…This river flows east through the desert into the valley of the Dead Sea. The waters of this stream will make the salty waters of the Dead Sea fresh and pure. (NLT).
4. The traditional view of restoring animal sacrifice is a direct insult to the words of Jesus in John 4: 19-24: Jesus said unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship, you know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth.” Also, the clear teaching of Hebrews that His sacrifice was once for all, and never to be repeated!
5. The nature of the prophecy holds consistently with the symbolism of the rest of Ezekiel’s prophecies (Chapters 4, 20, 28 & 29).
6. Ezekiel was known for his details.
7. Ezekiel provided a pattern of Divine order from a priestly view. These chapters reveal Ezekiel’s priestly origins.
8. God has not ordained the rebuilding of a natural temple in Jerusalem! There are two Greek words for Temple, “Heiron” and “Naos.” “Heiron” is used all through the Gospels and the book of Acts and 1 Cor. 9:13 to describe a natural building that was in Jerusalem until 70 A.D. “Naos” is used in every other New Testament reference to describe the “real, Inner Sanctuary which we are as His Church! “Naos” is used in 1 Co. 6:19; 2 Co. 6:16; Eph. 2:21; 2 Th.,2:4; and in Revelation! “Know ye not that you are the temple (naos) of God. 1 Co. 3:17: If any man defile the temple (naos) of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple (naos) of God is holy, which temple (naos) you are.
Bill Britton: “Now we begin to see a vision of the Temple of God…Solomon’s Temple had been burned to the ground…there was no semblance of order, or life, or spirituality in all of Israel. The Temple that He shows him is not the Temple that Ezra and Nehemiah came back to restore. It was not Herod’s Temple that was there in the days when Jesus was on the earth, because those temples were all temporal…Jesus said, Do you see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down. “Don’t put your hope in this physical, religious system that is symbolized by these great buildings.” I’ve heard the predictions for years that the Temple is going to be rebuilt and the Jews are going to go back to blood sacrifices, and God is going to set it up and order it… but the Word of the Lord has says:
Heb. 9:11-15: But Christ being come a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building: Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctified to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot of God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
You are living stones, put together, fused together without the sound of a hammer, without man-made religious systems trying to organize you, brought together by the Spirit of God into a relationship and a unity which only God can do…this is the Temple that Ezekiel saw. This is the temple that had a river running out of it…a river of life, clear as crystal. John on the isle of Patmos saw it, and Ezekiel saw it…You also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. To offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ… (BB)
I saw it in my vision of New Jerusalem when he told me to preach New Jerusalem as purity. I saw it, when I was swimming in that golden river holding onto a twig before I let go.
This vision opened up in the Jubilee Year (around 572 B.C. (Lv. 25). In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, at the beginning of year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was captured, on the very same day the hand of the LORD was upon me, and He took me there. In the visions of God He took me into the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain; on it toward the south was something like the structure of a city. The Day of Atonement (Lev. 16). The very high Mountain is Zion, the mountain of the Lord’s Temple which is to be established as chief among the mountains (Isa. 2:2; 17:22). This is the Mountain of Vision to which all prophets will be brought with Visions of the Lord. Upon which was the frame (structure) of a City (Rev. 21). The temple that he saw was as large as a city. The Measuring Man is the Lord (Eph. 4:13, Rev 11:1-2). Here Jesus measures the outer court, but in New Jerusalem the outer court is not measured. I believe that is because the Holy Ghost came at Pentecost and those who have not received Him, will not be measured. Rev. 11:1: Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, “Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there. But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it…”
40: 2-3: In the vision of God, He took me into the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain; on it toward the south was something like the structure of a city. He took me there, and behold, there was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of bonze. He had a line of flax and a measuring rod in his hand, and he stood in the gateway. A man whose appearance was like bronze; with a linen cord and a measuring rod and he stood in the gate. Brass speaks of judgment and flax or linen speaks of righteousness. The gate is the East Gate.
Ezekiel 40:6: Then came he unto the gate which looks toward the east, and went up the stairs thereof, and measured the threshold of the gate which was one reed broad; and the other threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad.
The stairs of verse six were seven in number. For when we go to worship God, we must ascend
The measurements were exact to show that the promise is certain; they are equal, to denote harmony; and they are vast, to speak of majesty and grandeur. He begins with the East Gate, because that was the usual way of entering into the lower end of the temple, the holy of holies being at the West end.
Verse 5 tells us the enclosing wall, denoting separation, like the linen fence about the Tabernacle of Moses. The reed for the Temple is measured by a man’s HAND beyond what a man can do! (six cubits plus a hand).
40:10: And the little chambers of the gate eastward were three on this side, and three on that side; and three were of one measure: and the posts had one measure on this side and on that side.
Thye measurement of the East Gate is described in 40: 6-16.
Matthew Henry: The little chambers were for those who attended the service of the house. The chambers were very many; for in our Father’s house there are many mansions. Some make these chambers to represent the particular congregations of believers which are parts of the great temple, the universal church.” These were the guard chambers of the Levites.
Note the four directions their meaning throughout the study of the Temple:
1. The North = judgment, tribulation, trials.
2. The South = blessings, prosperity, growth.
3. The East = the Glory of a new day.
4. The West = the memories of a previous day.
God is measuring the Temple (43: 1-12). The temple is in the City. It is to be measured by the Pattern revealed in the Heavenlies. Heb. 8:5…who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle…make all things according to the pattern shown to you in the mount. Ex. 25:8: According to all that I show you, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall you make it.
40:16: There were narrow windows to the little chambers, and to their posts within the gate round about, and likewise to the arches; and windows were round about inward; and upon each post were palm trees.
The Palm Trees of verse 16 symbolize righteousness, praise, and victory.
The outer Court (our salvation experience is here measured). (40:17-19).
The North Gate is measure 20-23; and the south gate 24-26.
The Inner Court 27-43.
The windows of verse 16 were to let the light (revelation) in. The narrow windows reveal the principle of discipline (and the windows that look to the East in verse 22 reveal a new day. These are the windows of the heart and teach us that here will be an eternal unfolding of the Person of Jesus Christ! There were thirty chambers for the priests upon the pavement, revealing the path to maturity and ministry is by way of the cross (17). These chambers were also storage places for the salt, the wine, the oil, and the tithes. There was also the lower pavement, revealing the path of humility (18). The Outer court was lower than the Inner court. The Seven Steps up into the Outer court in verses 22 and 25, when added to the eight steps up into the inner court in verse 31, constitute a total of fifteen steps, and point to the Songs of Degrees found in Psa. 120-134. The seven steps are also found in 2 Peter 1: 1-11 and Rev. 2-3 (seven steps to the Throne). I am going to preach soon on the Seven Steps to the Throne. Ezekiel was brought into the inner court by the South Gate (blessing) (28). the offerings are first mentioned in verses 38-39.
1. Trespass offering – our sins.
2. Sin Offering – the sin nature.
3. Peace Offering – Service
4. Burnt Offering – total consecration.
The eight tables of verse 41 speak of the covenant in resurrection and a New Day or Beginning – eating a fresh word. These tables were of wood. Add to them the four tables of stone in verse 42 for a total of twelve tables, the number of divine government. The hooks of verse 43 were end-irons or perhaps hearthstones. Verse 44 mentions the chambers for the singers (Heman, Asaph, Merari). We will discuss the Sons of Zadok in chapter 44. The Sons of Zadok are a teaching unto themselves.
Chapter 41 - The Appointments of the Temple –
This chapter should be studied in the light of 1 Kg. 6-7: 6:12-13: Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments to walk in them, then will I perform my word with you, which I spoke unto David your father. I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people, Israel.
It is remarkable that silver and gold, which are so prominent in the Mosaic Tabernacle and Solomon’s temple, should not be mentioned in Ezekiel’s Temple.
The House itself is described in the first fourteen verses. The Holy Place (41: 1-2) and the Most Holy Place (3-4) are described. There is no allusion to the ark, mercy-seat, high priest, or tables of the law. All these are to be superseded by the manifest Divine Glory. Verses 15-26 provide the interior details.
These internal measurements are the same as Solomon’s temple. The side chambers were three stories high. (6, 16). Bro. Britton likens the top chamber to the Holy Ghost, letting in the light, and the second chamber to Jesus Christ, the door, whose side was opened. And the bottom chamber as the Father or foundation chamber. There were thirty in order and reveal the number of maturity, even as Joseph and David came to the Throne at the age of thirty.
These chambers enlarged or broadened as they went up and the winding upward reveals the truth of Song 2:14: O my dove that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs… Verse 8 shows that our foundations require a full measure! A full reed of six great cubits. The wall (salvation) were five (grace) cubits think (9). The number 100 (fullness) is prominent in verses 13-15. The galleries were probably balconies. The interior was ceiled, or overlaid, paneled, wainscoted. The paneling was ornamented with alternate carvings of palm trees and two-faced cherubim (unlike the four-faced cherubim in Chapter 1 and 10). These cherubim are three-dimensional. There is one point of interest I am pondering is the face of a cherubim, the face of a man, and the face of a young lion. 41:18: It was made with cherubims and palm trees, so that a palm tree was between a cherub and a cherub; and every cherub had two faces; so that the face of a man was toward the palm tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side. It was made through all the house round about. But verse 21 reads, “the posts of the temple were squared, and the face of the sanctuary; the appearance of the one as the appearance of the other.” Rev. 21:3: Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” Also, the Palm Trees point to the Feast of Tabernacles. “The righteous shall flourish like a Palm Tree in the courts of God’s house.” The altar of wood in verse 22 was the altar of incense. Bro. Britton feels that the two-doors of verse 23 reveal the principle of moving in progressive revelation from door to door.
2 Co. 3:18: We are all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the LORD, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the LORD.
Ezekiel 42 – chambers of the TEMPLE.
This chapter reveals the measuring of the chambers of the court. It emphasizes the Holiness of God and the principle of separation. The cell building (the members of the body of Christ in particular, each constituting a mansion for the Father are called HOLY (saints) and are set forth in verse 1-14.
The separate Place of verse 1 is the place He has gone to prepare (Jn. 14: 1-3: I go to prepare a place for you. There is a walk of ten cubits (a walk of responsibility), which is a walk of fifteen feet (a walk of rest) (42:4). The chambers of verse 4 and 13 contained dining-rooms for the priests and baths, for no priest could enter upon his daily ministry without having first bathed (Ex. 30:17). The wall of verse 7 was 50 cubits (number of anointing) as well as the length of the chambers that were in the outer court. These chambers are holy which are before the separate place, they are holy chambers, where the priests that approach unto the LORD shall eat the most holy things…for the place is holy. Rev. 2:17: To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written… We will cover the garments in Chapter 44. We can rejoice that there will come a time or an end of the measuring of the inner house (15). Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, and brought me forth toward the gate whose prospect is toward the east, and measured it round about…. (verse 20) there is a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place.” Until this separation is made, we will not experience the Glory of God.
Chapter 43 – VISION OF THE GLORY OF GOD FILLING THE TEMPLE
Chapter 43 is a key, for it records the return of the Glory of the Lord to the real Temple, God’s Church! When you enter this church that is the presence of the Lord that you experience. He has not left us these years since the visitation in 1989. That is when he named the church, The Eastgate, in the home of Ann Wright. By hindsight, I now know that there was a visitation of many ministries with that same Glory during that season.
43:1-2: Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looks toward the east. And , behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east; and his voice was like a noise of many waters; and the earth shined with his glory. And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city; and the visions were like the visions that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my face. And the glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east.
The prophet is given a view of the gospel church in purity separated from all that is profane. He has seen the temple, spacious and splendid, then the Lord gives him a vision of the Glory of God.
Here in chapter 43, Ezekiel sees the temple filled with the Glory of God. After he patiently surveyed the temple of God, he is honored with a sight of the glories of Heaven. When he saw this glory, he fell upon his face (verse 3) in humble and reverent adoration. But the Spirit took him up, (Verse 5) “So the spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold the glory of the Lord filled the house.”
“This is to have its accomplishment in that divine grace which shines so brightly in the gospel church and fills it. Also consider The Lord Jesus (God’s Glory) being brought to the temple to be circumcised and dedicated (Luke 1-2).
In Verse 6, the measuring man, Jesus Christ, “I heard him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by me. And he said unto me, Son, of man, the place of my throne…He is here revealing to him the place of God’s throne. (Psa. 68:18: You have ascended on high; you have led captivity captive; you have received gifts for men; yea the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.” It will be forever. (Rev. 21:3) “And I heard a great voice of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
The wall of verse 8 is the veil. “In their setting of their threshold by my thresholds, and their post by my posts, and the wall between me and them, they have even defiled my holy name by their abominations.”
The chapter can be divided into three main divisions: the Lord’s entrance into the sanctuary (1-12), the size of the altar of burnt offering (13-17), and the ceremonies in the dedication of the altar (18-27).
It is significant new thing.
43-43 – reveal that the Glory returned from the East and not the West—God’s Glory returns from the dawning of a New Day and not from any previous movement or method. It is the purpose for Ezekiel’s Temple:
1. 42: 1-20 – To demonstrate God’s holiness.
2. 43:1-17 – To provide a dwelling-place for the Divine Glory.
3. 43:7 – To provide a center for the Divine government.
4. 43: 18-27 – To celebrate His finished work on the cross for us.
To this point, we see the complete exclusion of man from the design of the Temple shows the inability of man to determine the standards of Divine holiness. Its entire design was a caricature of the holiness and the perfection of God.
10-12: You son of man, show the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern. If they be ashamed of all that they have done, show them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the going out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof and the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them. This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy, Behold, this is the law of the house.” The specifications of the minute detail reveal that nothing is unimportant to the Lord. Ezekiel is to show the head of the house to the Body of the House. The Lord Jesus is the pattern (blueprint). 9heb. 8:5b) “See says he that you make all things according to the pattern shown to you at the mount.” The form and fashion of the house reveals the need to submit to the Pattern. This is the formation (Isa. 43:1) of the More Excellent Ministry (Heb. 8: 1-6). The King-Priest minister after the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 7) this is a man in the throne with a ministry without prejudice. (11 Cor. 5:17-21). The law of the whole house is most Holy. (Rev. 21:27) “And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defiles, neither whatsoever works abomination, or makes a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
We must put away the Kings (kingdoms) or idols in verse 9. (11 Cor. 6: 14-18). The altar of Verse 13 is the altar of burnt offerings. It speaks of a fresh access to God. The word for “altar” in verse 16 is “harel” and means the hearth, the mount of El.”
The verses that follow reveal the ordinances for the dedication of this altar. The Zadok priesthood is linked to the young bullock in verse 19.
The Eighth day in verse 26 is the number of new beginnings of eternity.
The Lord showed me once that Angel of Glory walks beside me. He told me that wherever I go I am to declare the Glory of God. This I do whether I preach the Old Testament or the New Testament. I have one message, The Glory of God.
Taught by: Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture quotes from KJV, text from Principles of Present Truth, Matthew Henry, and F. F. Bruce Bible Commentary