Purpose.—The vision is important. Those that have eyes to see and ears to hear, must set their heart upon all that the Laodicean steward shows them, “for to the intent that I might show them unto thee, art thou brought hither.” (40:4.) The hearers are to declare all that they see, to professing Christians (house of Israel), that they may be ashamed of former beliefs and practices, and in complete consecration seek to conform themselves to all the Divine standards.—Ezek. 43:10-12; 44:4-6; 47:6.
The Measures.—The standards of the Kingdom will be the fulness of the Word of God (the reed of 9 feet of six “great cubits,” each about 18 inches, or of a 15-inch cubit and a handbreadth) (Ezek. 40:3, 5), and the standard of Divine righteousness.—Ezek. 40:3, 47:3.
An interchangeable decimal system of dry and liquid measures is given, symbolic of just and righteous dealing. An ephah (dry measure) equals a bath (liquid measure), and ten of either is a homer or cor. The homer is about 75 gallons and the ephah and the bath, one tenth of a homer, or 7-½ gallons each. (Ezek. 45:10-11).
The measures of volume are to be used chiefly in connection with the sacrifices—so many ephahs of wheat or baths of oil as a meat or drink offering with a bullock, etc.
Symbolisms of Numbers.—Numbers are used as symbols of completeness or perfection, or their opposite. The common conception of the symbolisms of numbers is:
One—Unity, self-sufficiency.
Two—Duality, couples.
Three—That in itself complete, invisible, infinite.
Four—That in which God reveals Himself completely, as the four cherubim, the four-sided altar, and the cubic shaped Most Holy.
Five—Used in connection with ten, completeness in the stage, degree, or power attained or ordained; a symbol of Divinity.