When you allot the land as an inheritance, you are to present to the LORD a portion of the land as a sacred district, 25,000 cubits long and 20,000 cubits wide; the entire area will be holy. – Ezekiel 45:1

Today's Scripture Reading (August 30, 2023): Ezekiel 45

Pelham Bay Park is a municipal park in the city of New York. It is the largest park in New York City and is more than three times the size of Central Park in Manhattan. Historically, the land was part of Anne Hutchinson's colony. Hutchinson's colony existed in rebellion to the religious beliefs about the concept of grace that existed in that day. However, conflict existed between the First Nations groups native to the area and the British colonies under the leadership of Willem Kleft. Anne Hutchinson maintained good relations with the area's original inhabitants, but those positive relationships couldn't save her. In 1643, a band of First Nation warriors destroyed the colony and killed Hutchinson and her family at Pelham Bay.

Pelham Bay was also the site of a Civil War Battle that ended with a British Victory in 1776. Essentially, the area included an archipelago of Islands divided by salt marshes and beaches. Pelham Bay Park was created in 1888 and covers 2,772 acres inside the City of New York.

Ezekiel specifies how the Temple was to be laid out. Both Solomon's Temple and Zerubbabel's Temple existed as a district within the city of Jerusalem. As a separate area in Jerusalem, Temple Mount covers about 35 acres, almost a hundred times smaller than Pelham Bay Park. However, if Ezekiel's new Temple was supposed to be part of an urban environment, the size of Ezekiel's holy district is massive.

Ezekiel specifies that the length of the Temple Area for the new Temple would be 25,000 cubits, meaning the east/west dimension of the holy district would be 13 kilometers (8 miles) long. The width of the Temple area was to be 20,000 cubits, which would indicate that the north/south dimension of the holy district would be 11 kilometers (6.5 miles). So, in comparison, as we have already mentioned, Temple Mount itself, if you occupy every inch of the area, is 35 acres. Pelham Bay Park covers 2,772 acres in the City of New York, and Ezekiel's Holy Area covers 35,336 acres. Ezekiel's Holy District is more than ten times bigger than Pelham Bay Park and a thousand times larger than the top of Temple Mount. Even Disney World, which comes in at a vast 25,000 acres, would be significantly smaller than Ezekiel's Holy District.

Going to the Temple would be an all-day experience for those in great shape. And if it were built today, it would require a mass transit system just to get people around the Temple complex.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 46