Ezekiel 40:4 – “He said to me, ‘Son of man, watch and listen. Pay close attention to everything I show you. You have been brought here so I can show you many things. Then you will return to the people of Israel and tell them everything you have seen.’”
The next few chapters detail the design of a temple-type structure, and we need to hang on to verse 4 (highlighted above) as we read. Pay close attention. There are things to notice. Ezekiel was given this message for a reason.
There’s a lot of measuring going on in this chapter. (Spoiler alert: it keeps going for a few chapters…). We can’t just gloss over that. We need to ask ourselves why God would show this to Ezekiel. Why would he include it in the Bible so that we are still reading it today? What does it reveal about who God is?
Here’s your freedom for today:
God is in the details.
God is not a distant being, uninterested in the details of life. He takes a lot of time to describe intricate measurements of his temple, and he does it for a reason. Remember how much God has repeated over and over again through Ezekiel: “Then you will know that I am the Lord”? He has established himself as more powerful than any ruler. He is the King of all kings. When you have that power and when you have established that you alone are the true God, you get to dictate what your palace looks like. What a unique and rich view we have of not only an ancient type of building, but also God’s personal design of his own house! As we continue to read about it, notice how much God’s power is on display. He alone is worthy of our worship.