John was given a reed like a rod and was told to get up and measure the temple, the altar, and them that worship in it. Men used different standards to measure their activities to justify themselves. One common approach is to measure ourselves and compare ourselves to others that are like us or worse than us (2 Cor. 10:12). This is not a smart practice as we can always find someone like ourselves and while we may be no worse than anyone else and be socially accepted among our peers, they are not the standard of measurement.
The Jewish nation was crooked and perverse (cf. Acts 2:40, Matthew 17:17). A precedent had already been set with God’s covenant with Israel and they were found lacking and had not kept the covenant they had made with Jehovah (Deut. 32). Perverseness has been seen previous to this generation, but the time had come for the new Jerusalem built around a new covenant. Its grandeur and glory is unmatched by any previous building. Here, John is told to measure the temple to prove it is unfit and justified to condemn. The temple had four walled courts that surrounded it, with each being more exclusive as one gets closer to the temple. First, the court of the Gentiles included the outer court which was not deemed holy by the Jews. This would have been where Jews set up a market of doves to sell for sacrifices. Jesus calls it a “den of thieves” and a “house of merchandise” (Mat. 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-17). While the Jews treated it as a commonplace, the Lord seems to have considered this outer court to be a part of the holy temple and therefore, to be treated with respect. Next, comes the inner court, built twenty-two feet higher than the outer court with stairways leading up to its platform. A stone wall surrounded it on which were placed inscriptions in Latin and Greek forbidding non-Jews from entering. John was told to leave the outer court from being measured because it had been given to the nations and the holy city would be treated underfoot for 42 months. This forty-two month reference is the same time as the Jewish revolt (3 1/2 years, 67-70). The text reads, “They shall tread under foot forty-two months”, but to whom does the pronoun “they” refer? The antecedent of the pronoun seems to be the nations, yet the Jews were the ones who trod the holy city underfoot. Josephus reports how Ananus, the high priest, wished he had died before seeing the temple so “full of abominations and sacred places trod on at random, filled with the feet of blood-shedding villains” (Wars, IV, iii, 10). Another High Priest was Jesus, the son of Gamaliel. He addressed the Idumeans on the nature of the zealots who had seized the temple, “If you were to examine them one by one, every one of them would be found to have deserved ten thousand deaths; for the very rascality and offscouring of the whole county, who have spent in debauchery their ow substance and, by way of trial beforehand, have madly plundered the neighboring villages and cities, in the upshot of all, have privately run together into this holy city. They are robbers, who by tier prodigious wickedness have profaned this most sacred floor, and who are the be now seen drinking themselves drunk in the sanctuary, and expending the spoils of those whom they have slaughtered upon their insatiable bellies” (Wars, IV, iv, 3). These two high priests believed that the zealots were guilty of trodding the holy city underfoot. From what occurs, it is clear that the Romans did not trod the city during the siege, but the Jews, themselves.
Already noted, the outer court was already profaned by Jews who had made it a marketplace for profit during their yearly festival. Josephus reports political battles in the high priesthood in which fear of violence or plunder, as well as the use of money, was used to procure positions of power. The first century was noted for men in the priesthood who were not of the tribe of Levi. Josephus concludes, “Our city was greatly disordered, and all things grew worse and worse among us” (Antiquities, XX, ix, 4). Therefore, even while the high priests condemned the seditious Jews, they were guilty of the same violations. They acted as if they were exempt from the very things they demanded of others (cf. Rom. 2:1-5).