I looked up diagrams but none showed THREE gateways in the eastern wall:
Ezekiel 40
[SUP]10 [/SUP]In the eastern gateway
were three gate chambers on one side and three on the other; the three
were all the same size; also the gateposts were of the same size on this side and that side.
Revelation 21
[SUP]13 [/SUP]three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west.
so if we don't have to establish that the temple described in Ezekiel 40-43 is the same as the Heavenly Jerusalem in Revelation 21...I guess we can look to Revelation to explain the symbolism.
Ez. 42
[SUP]20 [/SUP]He measured it on the four sides; it had a wall all around, five hundred
cubits long and five hundred wide, to separate the holy areas from the common.
Revelation 21
[h=3][/h][SUP]22 [/SUP]But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. [SUP]23 [/SUP]The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it,[SUP][
j][/SUP] for the glory[SUP][
k][/SUP] of God illuminated it. The Lamb
is its light. [SUP]24 [/SUP]And the nations of those who are saved[SUP][
l][/SUP] shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.[SUP][
m][/SUP] [SUP]25 [/SUP]Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there).