The Geometry of Holiness Text: Ezekiel 42:15-20
Introduction: God's Blueprint for a Holy World
We come now to the end of a long and detailed architectural tour. For several chapters, the prophet Ezekiel has been led by a celestial guide, a man with the appearance of bronze, through a visionary temple. He has been shown gates, courts, chambers, and tables. He has had every dimension meticulously measured out for him. To the modern reader, particularly the evangelical reader who is often allergic to details and structure, this can seem tedious. We want the soaring spiritual principle, not the cubits and the reeds. But God does not deal in abstractions. He is a God of glorious, concrete particulars. He is a builder, an architect, and He has a blueprint.
This vision of the temple in Ezekiel 40 through 48 is one of the great mountain peaks of Old Testament prophecy. And we must be clear on what it is. This is not a literal blueprint for a third temple to be built in Jerusalem, complete with a reinstitution of animal sacrifices. To believe that is to read the New Testament with your eyes closed. The book of Hebrews shouts from every page that the shadows have fled and the reality, Jesus Christ, has come. The blood of bulls and goats is a canceled currency. No, this temple is a symbolic vision of the Christian church. It is the New Jerusalem, the bride of Christ, the dwelling place of God by His Spirit. And this vision shows us the nature of the church and her relationship to the world.
The passage before us today is the final measurement of the exterior of this temple complex. After seeing all the intricate details of the inner house, Ezekiel is brought outside to see the grand perimeter, the great wall that defines the entire sacred space. And in this final measurement, we are given a foundational principle for the life of the church in every age: the absolute necessity of the distinction between the holy and the profane.
Our generation despises distinctions. We are a people committed to blurring every line God has drawn. We want to erase the line between male and female, good and evil, truth and falsehood, and most certainly, between the church and the world. We want a church that is "relevant," which usually means a church that is indistinguishable from the culture around it. But God's blueprint calls for a great wall. Not a wall to keep the nations out, but a wall to define the center from which holiness flows out to heal the nations. This is not about isolation; it is about consecration for the sake of transformation.
The Text
Then he had finished measuring the inner house; he brought me out by the way of the gate which faced toward the east and measured it all around. He measured on the east side with the measuring reed 500 reeds by the measuring reed. He measured on the north side 500 reeds by the measuring reed. On the south side he measured 500 reeds with the measuring reed. He turned to the west side and measured 500 reeds with the measuring reed. He measured it on the four sides; it had a wall all around, the length 500 and the width 500, to divide between the holy and the profane.
(Ezekiel 42:15-20 LSB)
The Final Measurement (vv. 15-19)
The tour of the interior is complete, and the angel brings Ezekiel out to measure the exterior boundary.
"Then he had finished measuring the inner house; he brought me out by the way of the gate which faced toward the east and measured it all around. He measured on the east side with the measuring reed 500 reeds by the measuring reed. He measured on the north side 500 reeds by the measuring reed. On the south side he measured 500 reeds with the measuring reed. He turned to the west side and measured 500 reeds with the measuring reed." (Ezekiel 42:15-19)
Notice the methodical, almost repetitive nature of the language. East, north, south, west. Each side is measured, and each side is the same: 500 reeds. A measuring reed was about 10.5 feet long, making each side of this square about 5,250 feet, or just under a mile. This is a massive area. The old temple of Solomon could have fit comfortably in one corner of this visionary complex. This is a temple on a cosmic scale.
The shape is what is most significant. It is a perfect square. In Scripture, this kind of perfect symmetry symbolizes divine perfection and completeness. This is not some haphazard arrangement. This is divine geometry. Where else do we see this? We see it in the Holy of Holies in Solomon's temple, which was a perfect cube. And we see it at the end of the Bible, in the New Jerusalem, which is also a perfect cube, its length and width and height being equal (Revelation 21:16). Ezekiel's temple area is the foundation, the footprint, of the final city of God. This tells us that what God is building in His church is something perfect, complete, and gloriously ordered according to His design.
The measurement is comprehensive, "all around," on all "four sides." This signifies that the holiness of God's house is total. It is guarded from every direction. There are no unguarded approaches, no back doors for the world to sneak in. The number four often represents the earth, the four corners of the earth, the four winds. This temple, this church, is situated in the midst of the world, facing all four directions, but it is distinctly and completely set apart.
This act of measuring is an act of claiming and defining. What God measures, He owns. What He defines, He consecrates. This is His property, His sacred space. The world does not get to set the boundaries for the church. The culture does not get to define what is acceptable within her walls. Christ, the man with the measuring reed, defines His own house.
The Great Wall of Separation (v. 20)
Verse 20 gives us the explicit purpose for this massive, perfectly square boundary.
"He measured it on the four sides; it had a wall all around, the length 500 and the width 500, to divide between the holy and the profane." (Ezekiel 42:20 LSB)
Here is the central lesson, stated with unmistakable clarity. The purpose of the wall is "to divide between the holy and the profane." The word for holy, qodesh, means set apart, consecrated, dedicated to God. The word for profane, chol, means common, ordinary, that which belongs to the world outside. This is one of the most fundamental distinctions in all of Scripture.
Israel's great sin, the very sin that led them into the exile where Ezekiel was prophesying, was their failure to maintain this distinction. The priests were specifically charged "to distinguish between the holy and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean" (Leviticus 10:10). But they failed. They brought the ways of the nations into the courts of the Lord. They treated the holy things of God as common. Ezekiel earlier condemned the priests because "they have made no distinction between the holy and the profane, and they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean" (Ezekiel 22:26). Their worship became a syncretistic mess, and God judged them for it.
Now, in this vision of restoration, the very first thing God establishes at the grandest level is this non-negotiable wall of separation. This is not a suggestion; it is the foundational architecture of the new people of God. The church is, by its very nature, a called-out assembly. We are in the world, but not of the world. And there must be a visible, tangible, and theological wall that makes that distinction clear.
What does this wall look like for us, the church, the temple of the Holy Spirit? It is not a physical wall of stone. It is a wall built of sound doctrine, holy sacraments, church discipline, and godly living. It is the wall of baptism, which separates the visible church from the world. It is the wall of the Lord's Table, which separates the penitent believer from the unrepentant. It is the wall of preaching that refuses to compromise with the spirit of the age. It is the wall of a distinct Christian culture that shapes our families, our work, and our fellowship in a way that is recognizably different from the profane culture around us.
When the church tears down this wall in the name of being seeker-sensitive, or culturally relevant, or non-judgmental, she ceases to be the temple of God and becomes just another community center with religious flavoring. She loses her saltiness, her light, her very identity. A church that does not distinguish between the holy and the profane is a church that has forgotten her God.
The Purpose of the Division
We must be careful here. This wall is not for monastic retreat. It is not for creating a holy huddle that hides from the world. Remember the larger vision of this temple. In chapter 47, a river of life flows out from under the threshold of this temple. It starts as a trickle and becomes a mighty, uncrossable river that flows out into the desert and heals the Dead Sea. The waters teem with fish, and trees grow on the banks whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.
The separation is for the sake of mission. The holiness is for the sake of healing. The church must be distinct from the world so that it has something to offer the world. If we are just like them, what healing can we bring? If our water is just as polluted as theirs, how can we heal the salt sea of their despair? The power for world transformation is generated within the consecrated space of the church. The worship of the triune God, the preaching of the pure gospel, the fellowship of the saints, this is the nuclear reactor of holiness. The wall contains and concentrates that power so that when the river of the Spirit flows out, it has the force to change everything it touches.
So this is a postmillennial vision. This is not a picture of the church being squeezed into a smaller and smaller corner until Jesus comes to rescue a defeated remnant. This is a picture of a glorious, massive, perfectly ordered church, a holy city on a hill, from which the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will flow out to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. The wall defines the center of the coming Christian world order. It is the capital city of the kingdom of God on earth.
Living Within the Blueprint
What does this mean for us, here and now? It means we must take the holiness of the church seriously. We must love the distinctions that God has made. We must not be ashamed of the wall.
First, this applies to our corporate worship. Our worship should be holy, set apart from the common entertainment of the world. It should be ordered by God's Word, not by the latest fads. It should be reverent, joyful, and distinctly Christian. We are not putting on a show for the profane; we are meeting with the holy God.
Second, this applies to our personal lives. As living stones in this temple (1 Peter 2:5), we are called to be holy as He is holy. We are to be a people set apart, not in a grim, legalistic way, but in a joyful, wholehearted devotion to Christ. Our ethics, our entertainment, our speech, and our ambitions should be marked as belonging to God, not to the world.
Third, this applies to our mission. We must recover the confidence that comes from knowing who we are. We are the temple of the living God, the center of His plan to redeem the cosmos. We do not go out into the world apologetically, as if we have nothing to offer. We go out with the healing waters of the gospel, flowing from a source that is pure, holy, and powerful. We do not negotiate with the profane; we call it to repentance and faith, inviting men and women to come inside the city of God.
The angel measured the temple. It was vast, it was perfect, and it was walled. That wall was there for a reason: "to divide between the holy and the profane." Let us ask God for the grace to be the church He has designed. Let us rebuild the walls, not of stone, but of faithful obedience. For it is only from within that holy space that the river of life can flow, bringing healing to our families, our communities, and the nations.