MEASURE OF THE TEMPLE
In the first verse of the eleventh chapter of Revelation we learn something of the nature of the work in which the Lord’s people are to engage after the close of the twenty-three hundred days: “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.” The measurement of those who worship in the temple is not a literal measurement of stature, for “God is no respecter of persons.” While men look on the outward appearance, “the Lord looketh on the heart.” The measurement of the worshipers in the temple must be for the purpose of discovering to them their true standing before the Lord,-of discovering to them their defects in character, that these may be put away,-canceled by the blood of Christ our Saviour. This “rod” by which the people of God are measured must be none other than the moral law of God; for, as stated by the apostle Paul, “by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Again, “I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.”LDT 176.2
This people came to the time of the sounding of the seventh trumpet, when “the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament.” The ark in the typical sanctuary was called the ark of the testament, because it contained the ten commandments, the testimony which the Lord spoke with a “loud voice,” on Mount Sinai, in the audience of all Israel. “And He gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.” “And He [the Lord] wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the Lord spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the Lord gave them unto me. And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the Lord commanded me.” LDT 177.1
This sanctuary, with its furniture, is said by the apostle Paul to be a “pattern,” “shadow,” and “figure” of the sanctuary in heaven, where Christ, our High Priest, “ministers for us.” So when the twenty-three hundred days ended, and the seventh trumpet began to sound, the time had come for the opening of that apartment of the heavenly sanctuary which contained the ark, as the time had arrived for the cleansing of the sanctuary. The believers then began to see, by faith, the ark of the testament. They saw in that ark the original of the law, of which only a duplicate was placed in the ark constructed by Moses. Here, then, they obtained the “reed like unto a rod”-the rule of life by which men’s hearts or motives were to be measured. Here, also, they began to receive the light on the third angel’s message, which says, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” LDT 178.1
As before stated, the measurement of the temple is not a literal measurement in cubits, for there is no report made of the dimensions. It is unlike the measurement of the New Jerusalem, mentioned in Revelation 21: for in that measurement, there is a definite report of the size of the city in furlongs, and the height of the wall in cubits. That, then, is a literal measurement of a literal city. But the measurement of the worshipers of Revelation 11 is figurative, meaning character; so also is the measurement of the temple (sanctuary), and the cleansing to be made at the end of the twenty-three hundred days. Just this light made the past all plain, and demonstrated to the Advent believers the accuracy of the proclamation, “The hour of God’s judgment is come,” and, “Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Christ had entered upon the work of cleansing the sanctuary, and the judgment of the righteous dead had begun.LDT 178.2