Ezekiel 43:13 And these are the measures of the altar after the cubits: The cubit is a cubit and an hand breadth; even the bottom shall be a cubit… "And these are the measures of the altar." That was the point at which I became excited. Whilst he was measuring gates and posts and porches I cared little, but when he began to measure the altar, who could but pause? And then came this disappointment, "after the cubits." I thought he was going to measure the altar. And what is a cubit? said I. And he mocked me with this reply: "A cubit is a cubit, and a hand breadth." Ah! that undefined hand breadth; that plus quantity that is in everything. "And from the bottom upon the ground even to the lower settle shall be two cubits, and the breadth one cubit, and from the lesser settle even to the greater settle shall be four cubits and the breadth one cubit. So the altar shall be four cubits; and from the altar and upward shall be four horns. And the altar shall be twelve cubits long, twelve broad, square in the four squares thereof." Do you understand that? No man ever understood the altar. Remember that and be calm. The altar is not to be understood. There are some places at which we can only pray, and wonder, and weep, and wait. It is the man with the foot rule in the church that I dread! He tells me, forsooth, how long I preached. Can any man preach with that person in the audience? The use of the measureable is to point to the immeasurable. The measureable is algebraic, symbolic, indicative. The foot rule means the sky, the sky, God. At first we are greatly taken by bulk, by magnitude, and we talk of the great mountains and the great seas. It fits our age well, we shall outgrow it. Great mountains! Why, a child, give him time, can climb to the top of any one of them, and wave a banner there. No height at least can keep a child back; there may be ruggedness of way, but of that we are not speaking, but of mere height, mere greatness. How great you used to think those houses down in your village — you did! I did! We passed the great house, ivy-covered, with a kind of suppressed but not wholly unconscious awe. Then you came to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, London, and went back, and you said, "Where is that great house?" Ay, where? "That is it!" "No." "It is!" "No, no!" "Certainly that is the house!" "I thought, it was so large and had so many windows in it, and that it reared itself among all the other houses, very important and almost majestic." That is it — come down. Why? Because of the greater sights you have seen, the greater houses that have passed before your vision. And thus all life goes down in that sense and yet up in another. The man who has communed with God fears no opponent. Goliath looked so huge when I saw him from the human standpoint, but after five minutes with God I sought him and he could not be found. So you tabernacle with God, live and move and have your being in God, walk in the heavenlies, then when you come down to earth, with its battle and stress and cross and pain and need, you will understand what the Apostle meant when he said, "If you look at affliction from one point it seems intolerable, often beyond words and imagination, but if you look at it from another point you will say, 'Our light affliction is but for a moment.'" How so? Why, we look not at the things that are seen; not at the cubits, but at the altar; not at time, but at eternity; not at the present, but at the future. It is heaven that must one day explain the earth. (J. Parker, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And these are the measures of the altar after the cubits: The cubit is a cubit and an hand breadth; even the bottom shall be a cubit, and the breadth a cubit, and the border thereof by the edge thereof round about shall be a span: and this shall be the higher place of the altar. |
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