Day 176

“11 Then there was given to me a measuring rod like a staff; and someone said, “Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar, and those who worship in it. ² Leave out the courtyard which is outside the temple and do not measure it, because it has been given to the nations; and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months.” REV.11:1,2 (NASB)

In Revelation 10:11 John was told, “You must prophesy again to many peoples, nations, languages and kings.” The important word in this text is ‘again.’ The message John has prophesied throughout the book of Revelation is that Jesus is returning. The message of the interdenominational cohort of preachers (spearheaded by the Baptist preacher William Miller) prior to 1844 was that Jesus was returning. Christ had made it clear that there was to be no time-setting for His return. With a loud voice we are to proclaim THAT WE ARE LIVING IN THE TIME OF THE END. The final events are taking place, and soon Jesus will come in the clouds of heaven with the angelic host to gather His people.

Revelation 11:1-2 pictures the measuring of the old temple (which didn’t exist in John’s day because it had been destroyed in AD 70). The Jerusalem temple was magnificently huge. Gentiles were free to circulate around the outermost courtyard (the word translated “nations” in the NLT is also the word for Gentiles). But close to the temple building itself a stone fence was clearly marked, “Any Gentile passing beyond this point will be responsible for his own death, which will surely follow.” It didn’t take long to figure out that Gentiles’ access to the God of this temple was extremely limited.

Inside the Gentile barricade was the Court of the Women. All Jews were welcome here, but that was as far as Jewish women got. Only Jewish men could enter the innermost court in front of the temple building itself. Even Jewish men had their limitations. Only priests could enter the temple building itself, and even they were not permitted to enter the innermost room of the temple, the Holy of Holies. That could be entered only once a year by the High Priest and by him alone.

These levels of access taught important lessons about the holiness of God and the barriers that sin creates between God and the human race. Relationship with God is not a “buddy-buddy” sort of thing for human beings. We must approach Him with the humility that is appropriate to sinners. There is no room for arrogance in our relationship with God.

Amazingly enough, these lessons in humility were often distorted into arrogance. People interpreted their right to closer entrance as a license to think of themselves as superior to others. To make matters even worse, in Jesus’ day the one part of the temple that Gentiles could enter was defiled by a cruel and greedy marketplace. Jesus reacted to the situation with fury, casting the sellers and money changers out of the Court of the Gentiles. Nothing makes Jesus angrier than when well-meaning religious people set up unnecessary barriers to others who want to come to Him.