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| Corp-mesaj (pentru a fi introdus): | Corp-mesaj (pentru a fi introdus): |
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Linia 1: |
| − | COURTS
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| − | who are entirely devoted to him. The heart atti-
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| − | tude of each one thus favored by the Most High
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| − | God was prophetically declared for Jehovah’s record :
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| − | **Q Jehovah, God of hosts, . . . better is a day in thy
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| − | courts than a thousand, I choose rather to stand at the
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| − | threshold in the house of my God than to dwell in the
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| − | tents of lawlessness.’’—Ps. 84: 8,10, Roth.
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| − | In the vision given by Jehovah to his prophet Eze-
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| − | kiel an outer and an inner court were scen as the state-
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| − | ly approaches to the magnificent temple.
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| − | According to the God-given record, Ezekiel followed
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| − | his guide, taking careful note of his measuremenis.
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| − | This would indicate that God’s remnant people, whom
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| − | Ezekiel foreshadowed and who walk humbly, are be-
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| − | ing careful to follow their guide and are making note
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| − | of the divine requirements and showing diligence in
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| − | eomplying with such requirements.
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| − | At this point let the reader carefully consider the
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| − | scriptural aecount, Ezekiel 40, verses 17 to 23, show-
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| − | ing the situation and arrangement of the outer court.
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| − | The platform of the outer court was seven stcps
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| − | higher than the ground outside of the temple wall,
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| − | and this would indicate that those who occupy this
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| − | outward court would be completely removed from ali
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| − | things terrestrial. This court was the place where the
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| − | non-Levitical tribes come to worship Jehovah and
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| − | where the non-priestly Levites carry on their activi-
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| − | tics. (See Ezekiel 44: 10-14; 46: 9, 21, 24.) The pricsts
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| − | were under orders not to appear in their priestly vest-
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| − | ments in this outer court before the eyes of the peo-
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| − | ple. ‘‘And when they go forth into the utter [outer,
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| − | R.V.] court, even into the utter [outer] court to the
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| − | people, they shall put off their garments wherein they
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| − | ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, and
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| − | they shall put on other garments; and they shall not
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| − | sanetify the people with their garments.’’—Ezck.
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| − | 44:19.
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| − | The chambers made in the court round about were
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| − | for the Levites, or non-priests. This would indicate
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| − | that God has a place for them in his organization.
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| − | The pavement mentioned in verses seventeen and
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| − | eighteen (Ezekiel 40) was called ‘‘the lower pave-
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| − | ment’’. It was seven steps above the outside, but was
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| − | Jower than the pavement of the inner court, which is
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| − | utilized by the priesthood. The lower pavement shows
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| − | the position of the ‘‘great multitude’’, the people per-
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| − | mitted to come into this outer court. The statement
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| − | in The Revelation that the ‘‘great multitude’’ ‘wash
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| − | their robes in the blood of the Lamb’ shows that they
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| − | are approved by Jehovah by manifesting their abid-
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| − | ing faith in Christ Jesus’ shed blood at the time the
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| − | test comes upon them. The ‘‘great multitude’’ will Le
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| − | in the court of God’s organization, but not high up
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| − | ‘in the mountain of the Lord’s house’. Agrecable to
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| − | this it is written, in Revelation 7:15: ‘‘Therefore are
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| − | they before the throne of God, and serve him day and
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| − | J vie are permits only those to enter his house
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| − | night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne
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| − | shall dwell among them,”’
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| − | The ‘‘great multitude’’, by reason of coercion ex-
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| − | ercised by unfaithful shepherds, and by reason of fear,
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| − | is held for a long while in ‘‘prison cells’’ of Satan's
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| − | organization. Before the Armageddon battle they are
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| − | released from these prison cells and brought into the
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| − | ‘outer eourt’’ or place of refreshment and blessings of
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| − | God’s organization: ‘‘They shall hunger no more,
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| − | neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light
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| − | on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb, which is in the
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| − | midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead
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| − | them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall
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| − | wipe away all tears from their eyes.’’ (Rev. 7: 16, 17)
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| − | “They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall
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| − | be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst ;
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| − | neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that
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| − | hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the
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| − | springs of water shall he guide them.’’ (Isa. 49: 9, 10)
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| − | Those of the ‘‘great multitude” are likened unto sheep
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| − | brought back into the Lord’s fold. Ezckiel pictures
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| − | tue faithful anointed company that is shown these
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| − | things now before they come to pass, and this is for
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| − | the encouragement of the anointed to continue with
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| − | zeal and faithfulness in doing their assigned work in
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| − | connection with carrying food to the ‘‘prisoner’’ class
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| − | in the present time.
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| − | Tizekiel’s guide then takes him along the pavement
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| − | of the outer court toward the south gate, that he mvy
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| − | observe the measurements there. ‘‘After that he
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| − | brought me toward the south, and, behold, a gate to-
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| − | ward the south: and he measured the posts thercof,
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| − | and the arches thereof, according to these measures.’’
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| − | (Ezck. 40:24) Ezekiel stéod on the pavement in the
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| − | outer court and observed the gate and its measure-
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| − | menis from the outside of the way leading into the
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| − | inner court. But Ezekiel did not enter there. (Ezek.
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| − | 40: 27-31) Then Ezekicl was led by way of the lower
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| − | pavement to the east gate leading into the inner cout.
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| − | ‘“And he brought me into the inner court toward the
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| − | east; and he measured the gate according to these
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| − | measures, ’’—-Ezek. 40: 32.
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| − | The inner court was eight steps higher than the
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| − | “lower pavement’’. (Ezek. 40:31, 34) This was one
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| − | step more than in the stairway used by the people in
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| − | ascending from the outside to the lower pavement.
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| − | This calls attention to the higher or loftier position
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| − | of God’s priesthood ‘in the mountain of the house of
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| − | the Lord’ that is established ‘‘in the top of the moun-
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| − | tains’’, (Isa, 2:2) This position of glory Jehovah
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| − | gives to none outside of the royal pricsthood, his ‘eleet
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| − | servant’, (Isa, 42:8) This inner court is the place of
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| − | the closer position of its oceupants to Jehovah God.
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| − | This inner court, according to the measurements, is a
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| − | foursquare court. ‘‘So he measured the court, an
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| − | hundred cubits long, and an hundred cubits broad,
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| − | foursquare, and the altar that was before the house.”’
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| − | 174
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