Ezekiel 42:10
On the south side along the length of the wall of the outer court were chambers adjoining the courtyard and opposite the building,
Sermons
Separation and SocietyW. Clarkson Ezekiel 42:4-14














What did those "chambers" mean, of which we read so much in this vision? Their immediate use, as intimated to the prophet, is given in the thirteenth and fourteenth verses. They were for the personal accommodation of the priests; that they might there, in a place which was nowise profane but thoroughly holy, eat that part of the sacrifices which fell to their share; and that they might there robe and unrobe, so as to serve in sacred vestments and mingle with the people in ordinary dress. Their object, therefore, was to maintain the separateness or sanctity of the priests. It has been suggested that they also answered this general purpose by constituting places for sacred retirement and devotion; possibly for the accommodation of those who, like Anna the prophetess, "departed not from the temple, night or day" (Luke 2:37). Those who were to minister in the temple were to be provided with rooms which were separated from the commerce and the strife of the outer world, where there would be nothing to contaminate or interrupt. But what meant the "walk of ten cubits breadth" (ver. 4)? Was not this for society, as the chambers were for separation? Matthew Henry suggests that these "walks of five yards broad were for those that had lodgings in the chambers, that there they might meet for conversation, might walk and talk together for their mutual edification, might communicate their knowledge and experiences; for," he adds with characteristic good sense, "we are not to spend all our time between the church and the chamber." We learn -

I. THE DUTY AND THE PRIVILEGE OF SEPARATION.

1. That which is obligatory and constant; viz. to be separate in spirit and in sympathy from sin; to stand apart, in spirit, from all that is in any way unchristian.

2. That which is obligatory and frequent; viz. to separate ourselves much and generally from the society of the sinful. Jesus Christ was thus "separate from sinners" (Hebrews 7:26). It is the sacred duty of most good men, and of all the young, to keep aloof from the vicious and profane; to decline the society, and firmly to refuse the friendship, of those who fear not God and whose conduct is unprincipled and deleterious.

3. That which is wise and occasional; viz. to retire into the seclusion of the quiet chamber, where there is no disturbing voice to prevent our close communion with the Father and Savior of our spirits.

II. THE SERVICE OF SOCIETY. There are truths to be learned and there are influences to be gained in solitude which cannot be secured in society; but, on the other hand, there is a service which only society can render us. To meet men and to know them as they are living their daily life of toil and struggle; to come into close contact with their difficulties, their doubts, their joys, and their sorrows; to exchange ideas with them; to learn what their experience and their wisdom have to teach us, and to convey to them what we ourselves have learned in the solitary place; to be in the world, and still above it; - this is not only the true triumph of Christian principle, it is the fair and open opportunity of Christian usefulness. - C.

And there was an enlarging, and a winding about still upward.
As the temple ascended in height, so it still was wider and wider; even from the lowest chambers to the top. And this was to show us that God's true Gospel temple, which is His Church, should have its enlargedness of heart still upward, or most for spiritual and eternal things (Isaiah 55:5; Colossians 3:1). Indeed it is the nature of grace to enlarge itself still upward, and to make the heart widest for the things that are above. The temple, therefore, was narrowest downwards, to show that a little of earth or this world should serve the Church of God. One may say of the fashion of the temple, as some say of a lively picture, "it speaks." I say, its form and fashion speaks; it says to all saints, to all the Churches of Christ, Open your hearts for heaven, be ye enlarged upward. I read not in Scripture of any house, but this that was enlarged upwards, nor is there anywhere, save only in the Church of God, that which doth answer this similitude. All others are widest downward, and have the largest heart for earthly things. The Church only has its greatest enlargements towards heaven.

( John Bunyan.)

People
Ezekiel
Places
Holy Place
Topics
Adjoining, Along, Area, Begins, Breadth, Building, Cells, Chambers, Court, Courtyard, East, Eastward, Facing, Front, Length, Opposite, Outer, Outside, Rooms, Separate, South, Temple, Thickness, Towards, Wall, Yard
Outline
1. The chambers for the priests
13. The use thereof
15. The measures of the outward court

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Ezekiel 42:1-20

     5207   architecture

Ezekiel 42:10-11

     4832   length

Library
Mount Moriah
"Wherefore is it called mount Moriah? R. Levi Bar Chama and R. Chaninah differ about this matter. One saith, Because thence instruction should go forth to Israel. The other saith, Because thence should go forth fear to the nations of the world." "It is a tradition received by all, that the place, where David built an altar in the threshing-floor of Araunah, was the place where Abraham built his, upon which he bound Isaac; where Noah built his, when he went out of the ark: that in the same place was
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

Ezekiel
To a modern taste, Ezekiel does not appeal anything like so powerfully as Isaiah or Jeremiah. He has neither the majesty of the one nor the tenderness and passion of the other. There is much in him that is fantastic, and much that is ritualistic. His imaginations border sometimes on the grotesque and sometimes on the mechanical. Yet he is a historical figure of the first importance; it was very largely from him that Judaism received the ecclesiastical impulse by which for centuries it was powerfully
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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