“Then he said to me, ““The north and south rooms facing the temple courtyard are the priests’ rooms, where the priests who approach the LORD will eat the most holy offerings. There they will put the most holy offerings—the grain offerings, the sin offerings and the guilt offerings—for the place is holy.”
~ Ezekiel 42:13
Hi James and Ellen,
Your grandmaa and grandpaa a couple of weeks ago got together over lunch with a young gal who went to Guatemala seven years ago through STEP. STEP was the acrostic that OC International used for their summer team program. Angela spent over seven weeks in Guatemala. Angela is a very sweet young gal who has a very special relationship with God. While your grandmaa and grandpaa were eating lunch with Angela, Angela began reminiscing about the twelve days that she spent in Xalbal and how she felt as she was leaving Xalbal. Xalbal is remote community in the Ixcan region of Guatemala. With the help of your grandpaa’s OC International Guatemalan missionary coworkers – Hector and Patty Pivaral, the first Programa de Educación Bíblica (Bible Education Program) was implemented in Xalbal. During the time that Angela and Sandra – another STEP participant, were in Xalbal with your grandmaa and grandpaa, your grandmaa and grandpaa co-taught the last of the forty – thirty hour modules that were to be taught through the Programa de Educación Bíblica in Xalbal. Your grandmaa and grandpaa during this time in Xalbal set up graduation activities for the Programa de Educación Bíblica students and their wives. July in Xalbal’s region is hot, muggy. Your grandmaa, grandpaa, Angela and Sandra – when they were in Xalbal, stayed in a rustic place that called itself a hotel. The walls for each small room were made from rough cut planks of wood. There were gaps in places between the wood planks. There was about a six inch space between the cement floor of Xalbal’s ‘hotel’ and where a wall of wood planks began. A couple of large toads called the place their home. The toads would hop under the walls of wood planks from room to room. The walls of wood planks did not go up all the way to the ceiling; the walls of wood planks went up about as high as your grandpaa’s shoulders. Your grandmaa and grandpaa could look over the top of the walls of wood planks into the rooms that were next to where they were staying. Xalbal’s wannabe hotel’s rooms were about two and a half meters long and about two and a half meters wide – or about eight feet long and about eight feet wide. Each room had two narrow, uncomfortable beds. Even with pushing the two beds together, there was barely enough room for the stuff that your grandmaa and grandpaa had with them.
As your grandmaa and grandpaa a couple of weeks ago were enjoying eating a lunch together with Angela, Angela asked your grandmaa and grandpaa if they remembered what she said as your grandpaa was leaving Xalbal with your grandmaa, Sandra and her. Angela told your grandmaa and grandpaa that she had said “WOW, I made it. Now I know that I can stay anyplace”. Like most guys and gals who have gone on a short term ministry trip do after returning from their trip, Angela was remembering details of her time in Xalbal as if she had just been there yesterday. Angela told your grandmaa and grandpaa that even though she was really stretched by having to use a very crude outdoor outhouse, take daily splash baths, not having privacy, a teammate who had a critical spirit and always being around guys, gals and kids – except for your grandmaa and grandpaa, who only spoke Spanish, that she really did enjoy and learn from the time that she was in Xalbal. Angela for the past seven years has been the coordinator for the short term ministry teams that have gone to Asia through Overseas Missionary Fellowship. Angela told your grandmaa and grandpaa while they were having lunch together a couple of weeks ago that she probably would not be in missions today if it had not been for the summer over seven years ago that she spent in Guatemala through STEP.
Ezekiel 42 is Ezekiel recounting a vision that he had had. In the vision that Ezekiel had had, a divine being – whose appearance was that of a guy, showed Ezekiel a new temple that will someday be built in the city of Jerusalem. This new temple will not look in any way like Xalbal’s would-be hotel. This new temple will be an absolutely beautiful, spectacular structure. This new temple will not have walls that have been made from planks of wood; this new temple will not have any flaws as it will be built exactly per God’s blueprint. Ezekiel saw the temple in his vision as being a symmetrical structure. Ezekiel had watched as the divine being measured the temple and outer court walls. The temple’s outer court walls will form a square 500 cubits long on each side. A cubit is 18 inches. Each side of the outer court wall for God’s new temple in the city of Jerusalem will be 750 feet long. The inner court of God’s new temple in the city of Jerusalem will have rooms on the temple’s south and north sides. The three levels of rooms that will be built on the north and south sides of the inner court of God’s new temple that will be built in the city of Jerusalem will be used per verse 13, “Then he said to me, ““The north and south rooms facing the temple courtyard are the priests’ rooms, where the priests who approach the LORD will eat the most holy offerings. There they will put the most holy offerings—the grain offerings, the sin offerings and the guilt offerings—for the place is holy.” The south and north area for the rooms will be 100 cubits long and 50 cubits wide – or 150 feet long and 75 feet wide. Someday – possibly real soon, the city of Jerusalem will again be hosting a temple. This new temple that is going to be one day in the city of Jerusalem will only be used to humbly worship God.
Ezekiel 42 (777)