“Revelation Chapter 11—MEASURING THE TEMPLE” by Roger Roth
(Note: Chapter exerpt from the author’s book entitled “The Revelation of Jesus as Seen from the Third Heaven”)
As we begin Chapter-11, let us do a quick review of the Book of Revelation and its intended purpose within the reader. The first chapter of this book, John is in the Spirit and he testifies of the intent of this writing. He is in the Spirit, what is occurring is not from his earth realm but his heaven realm. He reveals information about the book’s author (Jesus) and purpose (the Revelation of Jesus within the reader and eventually within all mankind).
Chapters 2 and 3 are a picture of the Church. Although it is placed in the time of the first century, the seven-part message to the Church is a message for all time. It is for any church in any time period that has not been fully transformed into the image of Jesus. We see the answers that are provided to the church are applicable in any time for any church. Much of the imagery is repeated throughout the upcoming chapters.
Chapter-4 is a transition chapter taking the reader into the throne room – war room of heaven. John was in the Spirit in Chapter-1, but in Chapter-4 while in the Spirit, he is taken up into the throne room from which emanates the spiritual activity of heaven. He goes to a higher spiritual place within his experience, his understanding and in his thinking.
In Chapter-5, we have further information on the throne and the sealed scroll whose seven seals opened in Chapter-6 through the middle of Chapter-8. These are followed by the trumpets primarily described in Chapter-8 through 11. The seven bowls of wrath follow coming forth from the last trumpet are depicted as seven severe judgments in Chapter-16.
In chapters 14 through 18, Babylon is the primary focus. It is the City of the earth, the City that is opposed to God. With its destruction comes a transformation into the City of God and a restoration of all things. What happened to Israel naturally is now being unlocked for the readers so that they can participate in their spiritual transformation. The story of the Hebrew people is a transformation from one of faith, to promise, to family, into the bondage of flesh, through the wilderness, into the promised land, into deliverance from confusion and finally into the restoration of Jerusalem.
It mirrors the eight transitions of the spiritual path of Jesus through which all believers traverse. Conception, birth, life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and glorification.
The book of Revelation often illustrates the spiritual retelling of events that occurred to the Israelites. Abraham was given promises that through faith manifested into a family. This family went into bondage through the wilderness and into the promised land. This is like the first half of the Book of Revelation. The historical events of Israel from the promise to Abraham through Israel’s entrance into the promised land are recorded in the first six books of the bible.
The second half of the book of Revelation can be likened to Israel being taken into and delivered from Babylon (confusion). They temporarily lost the benefits of the promised land as they were taken to Babylon. Through Zerubbabel, Ezra, Esther and Nehemiah they were once again returned to Jerusalem, the City of God. These were natural events that will become source material for the readers understanding of their spiritual transformation in the second half of the Book of Revelation.
God delivering His people out of the old covenant brought an end to the Hebraic Age. God delivering the Church out of a mixed covenant will bring the end of the Church Age (not an end to the Church) and God’s deliverance into the maturity found in the full image of Jesus will deliver us into the Kingdom Age.
Remember how Chapter-8 dealt with the priesthood. Your priesthood and the priesthood of believers, the Melchizedek Priesthood. We learn the spiritual from the natural. Jesus’ natural miracles awaken us to the great spiritual miracles to which they point. We learn to pray spiritually by evoking prayer patterns spoken in the Bible, such as the Our Father. We learn to minister as Melchizedek priests by the patterns displayed in the natural Levitical Priesthood.
We will see in Chapter-11 that the primary focus is not on the lost wayward world but on the transcending Body of Christ. The natural Kingdom of the World without will become the Kingdom of the Christ of the Lord that has been transformed within; 1 Tim 6:15; Rev 17:14. He is the King, we are the kings. He is the Lord, we are the lords – the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We could say He is the Ruler over His Rulers of His realm and the Governor over the Governors of His government.
Verse One: And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
“Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up,” said Jesus. What temple? It is the temple of His Body. You and I, as we have seen, are this temple. And on the third day, He arose again according to the Scriptures. We are approaching this third day when He will rise again. This time He will rise in the presence of His Body who are the Sons and Daughters of the Most High.
This temple composed of the spiritual Holy Place and Most Holy Place speaks of a heavenly temple, made without hands built with the lively stones which are His dwelling place, His house; 1 Pt 2:5. Jesus, in flesh, was the Temple of God in fullness and perfection. God was not in Herod’s Temple but it is where religion sought to find Him. Religious people are bound to a natural meeting place until they find the spiritual temple located in His Body.
The Temple in Jerusalem in the First Century was made with hands. It was symbolic of the earthly house, what the religious mind associated with the presence of God. This Temple was to be destroyed in a few short decades. The religious mind was and still is, at odds with Jesus; Rm 8:6-8. Their religious minds asked, “How can you be greater than our father Abraham? “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up,” said Jesus. “Then you will come to see how I can be greater than Father Abraham.” Their religious mind could only see naturally. It was not yet awakened.
It took 46 years to build Herod’s Temple but Jesus said, if you destroy this Temple, which they did, in three days He would raise it up; Jn 2:18-22. The Greek word translated raise it up in this verse in other places is translated, “lift up,” “wake up” and to awaken. He is waking up His Body. The awakened (the remnant) are beginning to see themselves and God’s plan differently. It is His death on the Cross that awakens the spiritual man. To the natural man, the Cross is a fable, to the religious man the Cross is a relic and point of worship but to the spiritual man it is the power of salvation; 1 Cor 1:17-19; Rm 1:16.
Jesus was speaking not only of His natural Body, but also to His greater spiritual house; Heb 3:3-5. They put him to death. Three days later He arose. For the past two thousand years He has been building His Body, the Church. Now we are transitioning into the third day, the third millennium, the Kingdom Age and He is raising up His Body. This is a perfect illustration of the dimensional progression of God’s Word. The Word of God can be understood in at least three levels or dimensions; the natural, the supernatural and the spiritual.
The natural level is understanding the temple only by what is apparent in the physical realm or by the limitations of the earth. The supernatural level could be likened to the temple of His physical Body – this is the power of God housed within human flesh. The spiritual level would be understanding the temple as His greater spiritual Body. This is the highest temple and place of God’s presence.
Jesus of course revealed Himself to mankind in all three levels. To the natural man He was just a man walking the earth to whom they gave little notice. Religious mankind however recognized His teaching as being different, being confirmed by supernatural events and demonstrations. However, only a few, at least at first, understood Him by the Spirit—that Spirit could reside within them just as He did within the flesh of Jesus.
‘And’ is a conjunctive word connecting this verse with the verses of Chapter-10. This angel would then be the same angel as in Revelation Chapter-10, which is Jesus. (See RV 10:1 note.) Of course, we are told in RV 1:1 that Jesus would show the message of this book by His angel. This is a great mystery, as will become apparent in Chapter Twenty-two. Jesus would not show this message by a natural man, nor would He come down in flesh to minister this message. No, the Revelation would be brought by the messenger of His Spirit.
John is told to ‘rise and measure.’ To rise is to get up or to raise yourself up to a higher position. Once you awaken, once your eyes are opened, once the sluggishness of the transition to a new day begins, you need to get up from a slumbering horizontal position and metaphorically rise to the new day. If John measures the temple, he needs to rise to a higher place.
He is going to measure three things. 1. The temple; 2. The alter and 3. Those who worship. To understand where a person or a Body is spiritually all three need to be measured. The temple is the corporate body and has individual significance as well. The altar is the place of worship and those that worship therein (counting the portion of corporate body that worship) are also able to be measured.
What is being measured here? It is the Temple of God. This is not some brick-and-mortar edifice in Jerusalem, no, but something much higher and grander. You are this temple; 1 Cor 3:16. We collectively are this temple. It is clear from 1 Cor 3:1 that the Apostle is not just speaking to the individual but rather to the greater Body of Christ. Defiling the temple has most often been taught as some personal failure that is contrary to God’s commandment that makes us an imperfect vessel for God’s dwelling, which has an element of truth. However, if the Lord’s indwelling requires human perfection, then there was only one person in whom He could dwell. To measure the temple is to measure our maturity and growth; Eph 4:13,14.
May I suggest that the greater defilement of the Temple are things that abuse and debase the Body of Christ? Things that are contrary to the great commandment; Jn 13:34,35; Mt 22:38,39. Now John is given a reed – a measuring devise. He, not the angel, will measure the Temple. He must determine its size and the extent of its construction. The Book of Revelation is about His revelation within us as He was in John. We likewise need to measure these things within ourselves and within the Body. How do we measure up to the perfect standard of Jesus?
Since God does not dwell in temples made with hands this temple is a Spiritual Temple made up of His people; Act 17:24; Mk 14:58. The religious leaders and their followers accused Jesus of saying he would destroy their temple, but He did not say that. What He said was that they would destroy the True Temple; Jn 2:19-21. On the third day, He would raise it up. It is the dawning of the third day since Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus is raising up this temple constructed out of the perfected lives of His followers. We have come to Mt Zion (the heavenly Jerusalem). Our entrance is only determined by our faith, and our faith is our willingness to awaken to this higher reality.
Measuring allows for an assessing of an amount or portion of an item. When we measure, we want to know how much there is or how much something has grown or diminished. Measurements are always comparisons. How tall are you compared to another is a measurement of height. How materially prosperous one person is compared to another is a measurement of natural wealth. How old are you compared to another is a measurement of age.
The measurement of the Temple, its altar and its worshipers can only be properly measured in comparison to Jesus. He is the only proper standard of spiritual measurement. To measure ourselves or the Body by any other standard is not wise; 2 Cor 10:12. John was told to measure the Temple, that’s us. Among other things, there has been given to us a measure of faith (RM 12:3), a measure of rule (2 Cor 10:11-15), and a measure of grace (EP 4:7).
What is being measured is the spiritual growth and maturity of the Body of Christ (EP 4:11-16). Measuring allows us to gauge ourselves, not according to others, but according to Jesus. There are many points of measurement in the Bible—PP 1:2-11 being a clear example. Ezekiel is instructed to take a reed and measure the temple, EZ 40:2-5. He was doing exactly what John did over fifteen centuries earlier. In these verses, God allows John to measure. We will see later in Revelation Chapter-21, the measurement of full growth.
The Measuring reed parallels Ezekiel’s vision of measuring the Temple with a reed. The Temple exists in the unity of the souls of believers, but for our discussion, it is our soul (mind) that inhabits the dwelling of God. Jesus in MT 12:20, quotes IS 42:1-3 about a bruised reed that He will not break until He sends judgment for victory.
Moses also was hidden among the reeds. Jesus spoke of The Baptist as a reed shaken in the wind. The reed then is the measure we have of Christ. Those who are progressing toward God will not be broken but obtain victory. So, our temple which houses God, is measured by our growth into the image of Christ.
“I was given,” refers to John the Beloved. If I don’t see myself as the beloved, it is hard to understand what God is doing in me or in the world. So, God is taking a measurement of: 1st—me; 2nd—altar (altar of incense—communication with Him); and 3rd—of its worshipers. This is the Body, but also the three areas in my life with which I worship Him.
- A Temple is a place of worship, activity and interaction with a deity.
- An Altar is the place within a Temple where communication and an offering of some
kind is made.
- Those that worship therein, are those that participate in the activity of the Temple.
They are the House, so to speak, of the deity being worshiped.
Our individual body and the Body of Christ of which we are a part, are temples for His worship. This Body provides for us a place to worship. A place to apply the blood, to make sacrifice, to offer prayer, to perform the miraculous. The Body of Believers is not just a group of likeminded people, but a Temple in which we perform service to God and experience His Presence.
Moses’ tabernacle and the Hebrew temples fashioned after its pattern were earthly temples built by the hands of men. God also established this pattern within us. We are the temple of God and our bodies are therefore designed in a similar fashion. Like the tabernacle and temple, the human body has three compartments, each housing organs that are types of the furnishing of the Temple.
The Apostle John, and we by extension, are to measure the Spiritual Temple, its Altar, and those that worship therein. We are measuring the House that God is building. He is the architect and we are the materials; 2 SM 7:7,12,13; HE 3:4; 1 PT 2:5; MT 16:18. The people were allowed in the outer court as they brought their sacrifice to the tabernacle, but only priests were allowed into the Holy Place. The measurement of those that worship at the Altar is the measurement of the Priesthood; EX 19:5,6; RV 1:6; 5:10.
The above is an excerpt from the Author’s verse by verse study of the Book of Revelation.
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Roger Roth Sr. is a ministry son of Dr. Mark Hanby. Together with his wife Karen, they are the set ministry of a local church in Northeastern Wisconsin, and oversee the Bloodline Network Newsletter. They consider it an honor to work with Dr. Hanby for many years, helping to oversee the ministry of Papa Mark’s extended family—”The Father’s Heart.”
so good
Thank you!!!