Brief account of the author's teenage discovery of Ezekiel's vision.
The Covenantal basis of this Temple in Ezekiel 37.
Ezekiel's instruction in 43:11 to transmit to the House of Israel the overall plan or layout of the Temple—particularly its system of “exits and extrances”—and the Temple rules pertaining thereto.
The carrying out of that task as the fundamental goal of this present book.
Brief survey of the Torah's sacrificial system and the role in it of the desert Tabernacle and later Temples.
For the benefit of readers who may be struggling (as the author has) to understand this Temple's physical layout, an optional diagram is included that shows the course of the initial trip through the Temple that Ezekiel records, giving the verses that apply to each Temple feature described.
The biblical motivation for associating the Temple's East-West Axis with the Covenantal promise “I will be their God” and the North-South Axis with the complementary promise, “They shall be My people.”
The biblical facts in Ezekiel's vision structured by the two axes, the E-W Axis displaying God's sovereign, saving acts on behalf of His people that they could never do for themselves, and the N-S Axis displaying the working of God's Spirit in his people to make them able and willing to worship and serve him.
The altar of burnt offering at the intersection of the two axes and its role in propitiating God's righteous anger at sin.
The actions of Ezekiel's mysterious “Prince” on both Temple axes, and his Messianic dimension as a mediator between God and his people.
How the same Temple features and Bible verses discussed in Part One are fulfilled—and even exceeded—in the Person and Work of Yeshua/Jesus.
The structural similarity of Ezekiel's Temple layout with its two axes, as described in Parts One and Two, to the individual themes and emphases of the four Gospels.
Following is a somewhat speculative demonstration, not central to the main theme of the book, that the famous four “Gospel symbols” of lion, ox, eagle, and man can be associated with particular Gospels on the basis of Ezekiel's Temple plan, along with an analysis of Ezekiel's chapter 1 vision of the moveable throne of God's glory. (Readers not interested in the possibility of identifying the “Gospel symbols” are invited to skip over to Part Four.)
Likely questions anticipated and answered, relating to whether this vision is intended for literal construction and the significance of specific features like the complicated gatehouses in chapter 40, the many priestly requirements detailed in the vision, and Ezekiel's plan for new tribal allotments in Israel.
Also questions about the influence of Ezekiel's vision on what is known of later Temple construction in Israel, culminating in the “textual temple” of the Talmud, including the consequences of rejecting Yeshua as the promised Messiah on the “layout” of that “temple.”
After a question relating to the “Covenant of Grace” in this book's subtitle, a final question asks what overall lessons can be drawn from this Temple study for 21st century Jews and Gentiles. Some of the author's personal salvation story is alluded to in the final pages.
In his life's work The Quest (2006), the preeminent archaeological architect Leen Ritmeyer documented a 500 x 500 long-cubit square in Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Possible relationships to Ezekiel's vision are discussed.
The city plan (1638) of New Haven, Connecticut, with its central square of 500 x 500 long-cubits (today's New Haven Green) is discussed in connection with a 1604 European analysis of Ezekiel's Temple and the biblical motives of John Davenport, the city's co-founder.