Ezekiel 40

1 In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day the hand of the LORD was upon me, and brought me thither.

In the Jewish calendar, the beginning of the year is the 7th month, this is the month of Tishrei. The 10th day of the 7th month is Yom Kippur. The euphemism "the selfsame day" is also used for the day of Yom Kippur. This day has special significance in relation to the Third Temple. On the 10th day of Tishrei, the consecration of the altar of the Third Temple should be completed.

The consecration of the altar of the Third Temple is not limited to certain sacrifices of animals that must be performed within a few days in accordance with the instructions set forth in the 43rd chapter of the book of the prophet Ezekiel. Since the true Sacrifice that sanctifies us, coming to God, is Jesus Christ, the main sacrifice for the consecration of the Third Temple is the saints of all nations, "chosen from the four winds," who will enter the Third Temple through the Eastern Gate. Jesus Christ is today on earth in the bodies of holy righteous people who believe in Him. Therefore, the act of solemn entry into the Third Temple through the Eastern Gate of the envoys of churches from around the world is equivalent to entering the Temple of Jesus Christ Himself, this is the sanctification of the altar of the Third Temple. According to the prophecy of Ezekiel, the sanctification of the altar of the Third Temple should take place within 10 days, on the 10th day the East Gate will be closed forever. Thus, to the three feasts of the Lord that were performed during the First Coming of Jesus Christ, and the Pentecost, which was carried out by the Church,will be added the implementation of two more feasts of the Lord: Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

2 In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain, by which was as the frame of a city on the south.

Here we read at once about three important things:

"into the land of Israel" – Ezekiel served as a priest in the Jerusalem Temple, he was familiar with Jerusalem, but Ezekiel could not identify the place shown to him. The Third Temple should not be built on the site of the former temples in Jerusalem, but this new Temple should be built somewhere " into the land of Israel".

"set me upon a very high mountain" – If you have ever been to Jerusalem, you have seen that there is no high mountain in Jerusalem, there are no mountains at all, just a hilly terrain. This is a confirmation of what we begin to suspect from the very beginning of this verse of prophecy: Ezekiel saw the new Temple in a new, unknown place to him.

"the frame of a city on the south" – On the southern slope of this high mountain was the Third Temple, Ezekiel saw the buildings of the temple complex. The First and Second Temple stood on the northeast side of the hill of Zion. This is the third indication that the future Temple should be built not where the previous temples were built.

3 And he brought me thither, and, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate.
4 And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall shew thee; for to the intent that I might shew them unto thee art thou brought hither: declare all that thou seest to the house of Israel.

Christians must understand that they, like Jews, have a very direct relationship to the "house of Israel". Those Christians who do not want to accept this prophecy about the future material Temple risk being cut off from God.

5 And behold a wall on the outside of the house round about, and in the man's hand a measuring reed of six cubits long by the cubit and an hand breadth: so he measured the breadth of the building, one reed; and the height, one reed.

The prophet Ezekiel was shown the process of measuring the wall surrounding the temple complex from all sides.

"by the cubit and an hand breadth" – In Jewish measures of length, there are two  main types of cubit. The main measure is the cubit, which consists of 6 handbreadths. This measure of length is defined as the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. There is also another kind of cubit, when the distance is measured from the elbow bend to the end of the palm, which is folded into a fist. This type of cubit is called a "short cubit". It is believed that the "short cubit" consists of 5 handbreadths.

There is no other cubit. There is no cubit, which would consist of 1 ordinary cubit and 1 more handbreadth, that is, out of 7 handbreadths!

Therefore, please accept the fact that the length of the cubit that was used in the measurements in Ezekiel's prophecy is 48 centimeters.

Of the two rabbis' opinions on the length of the cubit, from Rabbi Noah's point of view and the opinion of Hazon Ish, only the length of the cubit indicated by Rabbi Noah, 48 centimeters, is suitable for carrying out the measurements of the holy allotment in accordance with the prophecy of Ezekiel. We can be sure that with a cubit length of 47 cm or 49 cm, the Third Temple would be impossible to build, because then we could not find the mountain on which the Third Temple should be built.

When the prophet Ezekiel calls the cubit as "a cubit and an hand breadth," he y contrasts "a cubit with an hand breadth"  with  a short cubit that would be properly termed "a cubit without an hand breadth".

The length of the reed, which is also used in the measurements in Ezekiel's prophecy, is 6 cubits, that is 288 centimeters.

The height of the wall, which is measured in the prophecy of Ezekiel, is 2 m 880 mm when measured from the outside, if you measure the wall from inside the temple complex, its height will be less – 1 m 872 mm.

6 Then came he unto the gate which looketh toward the east, and went up the stairs thereof, and measured the threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad; and the other threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad.

"The threshold of the gate" is the ledge of the wall in front of the gate. If we assume that one threshold was measured on one side of the gate and the other threshold was measured on the other side of the same gate, then the question arises, and why measure both sides of a symmetrical building? But this can not be a proof that both thresholds were measured on one side of the gate.

Confirmation of our conjecture that the two protrusions of the gate building, which were measured in the prophecy of Ezekiel, were on one side of the gate, there may be a coincidence of the total width of the gate opening (10 cubits), plus the total width of the two pillars at the gate (2 + 2 = 4 cubits) and 4 thresholds of the gate (2 on the right and 2 on the left, 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 = 24 cubits), which is 38 cubits, – with the total width of the gate building measured in the following verses of the prophecy: 25 cubits inner width of the hall, plus 6 + 6 cubits the inner width of the guard rooms, total is 37 cubits, and to this one must add wall thickness in the guard rooms (It is unspecified in prophecy)  (obviously, 1/2 cubit + 1/2cubit = 1 cubit), total  38 cubit.

The advantage of such a large width of the gate building is the possibility to place staircases inside this building for climbing onto the balcony above the gate. The presence of such a balcony from the outside of the gate is a logical consequence of the fact that in front of the gate there are pillars with palm decorations at the top, close to the wall, so to place the palm leaves there should be a free space of the balcony at the top. The balcony itself can be used by the Levites to blow into the shofar.

7 And every little chamber was one reed long, and one reed broad; and between the little chambers were five cubits; and the threshold of the gate by the porch of the gate within was one reed.  
8 He measured also the porch of the gate within, one reed.