Revelation echoes this, with a twist: "Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar, and those who worship in it. Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations". That's suggestive: measurement relates to possession or ownership, perhaps? God owns it in the ultimate sense, but the temple is for the worshippers.
In Genesis there's a different kind of "measurement"; a measurement by foot, and one that puts Abraham in the place he/his is to possess. "Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you."
I have no clue what the measurement numbers are supposed to signify in Ezekiel (if it's a physical future temple, why? in light of Hebrews 10), but I like the idea that measurement might signify "we are there." Measuring is something people do, even if is only "how many of us fit."
2 comments:
I have a similar experience reading Ancient Greek texts; Herodotus for example frequently refers to distances in stadia (each stadion is 600 podes, the similarity of which to “podiatrist” will tell you is about a foot; 600 feet is close to 200 yards, so a ‘stadion’ is about the length of two football stadiums).
I see that measuring at all does suggest ownership and permanency of something, usually place.
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