LIFE-STUDY OF EZEKIEL
Read and pray: “Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
THE GATE
Praise the Lord, for He is not only the wall but also the gate. As the wall, He excludes and condemns us, but as the gate, He brings us into God’s building. If today we are in the sphere of God’s building, it is because Christ, as the gate, has brought us in.
Christ is our gate, our entrance. In John 14:6, the Lord Jesus tells us that He is the way to the Father. Apart from Him, no one can come to the Father. Christ is the entrance for us to enter into God and into God’s interests, God’s building, and God’s kingdom.
We may realize that Christ is the gate, the entrance, but we may not know Christ as the gate in a detailed way. However, Ezekiel saw the details concerning Christ as the gate.
The Measurements
The depth of the gate, from its front to the rear, is fifty cubits. The width of the gate, from side to side, is twenty-five cubits. These numbers are both multiples of five, the number of responsibility.
A Stairway of Seven Steps
In front of the gate, there is a stairway of seven steps. The steps going up are quite high, indicating that in order to enter the building, we need to ascend. Whenever a person believes in the Lord Jesus, he has the sense of going up.
However, when we participate in certain worldly amusements, we have the sense of going down. Whenever we come to the Lord Jesus, we feel that we are on a stairway going upward.
Composed of Four Sections
The gate is composed of four sections: the outer court, the passage, the inner court, and the porch. There are three courts: the outer court, the inner court, and a passage between the two that may be considered a corridor.
The middle part, the passage, is also called a court, but to help our understanding, we may use the word passage. Thus, we have here the outer court, the passage, the inner court, and the porch. The porch is, in some way, similar to an antechamber to the temple.
By passing through the outer court, the passage, the inner court, and the porch, a person can enter into the temple. Then the person must ascend another flight of stairs. This ascent is even greater, being eight steps instead of seven.
The Entrance of the Gate
Referring to figure 2, which is a detailed drawing of the gate, we can see that within the gate is its entrance, which is exactly ten cubits. It is significant that the opening of the entrance is ten cubits wide.
In the Bible, the number ten refers first to the Ten Commandments. Everything that the Ten Commandments require, the entrance of the gate fulfills. The width of the entrance is exactly the extent of the Ten Commandments. This indicates that the Lord Jesus fulfilled all the requirements of the Ten Commandments.
When we are confronted with the Ten Commandments, we are excluded by them. However, the Lord Jesus was able to fulfill every commandment, and He became the gate for us to enter into God’s building. Considering that the entrance (or opening) of the gate is ten cubits wide, the gate itself is thirteen cubits.
On both sides of the gate, the wall measures one and a half cubits. Adding them together, we have three cubits. Three is the number of the Triune God and also the number of resurrection. Here the three is divided, with one and a half on each side. I ask you to remember that in the tabernacle, the standing boards were each one and a half cubits wide and that two boards form a unit of three cubits.
All these numbers are significant. They indicate that the Lord Jesus, who fulfills all the requirements of the Ten Commandments, is the Triune God who became a man, was condemned to death, and resurrected. In His death Christ was “split” into two parts and then resurrected.
The Court
After the gate comes the court, which measures six cubits by ten. Putting all these numbers together, we can see that Christ was the Triune God (the number three), who became a man bearing the number six. He was “split” in His death and resurrected, fulfilling all the requirements of the Ten Commandments. In this way, He opened the gate.
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