In Herod's speech to the Jews, recorded by Josephus (Antiquities, book XV), Herod proclaims that the original builders of the Second Temple were limited by the Persian king to a Temple only 60 cubits high, while he, Herod, promised to raise it to a the appropriate height of 100 cubits.The reconstruction was done gradually, without interrupting services, so Herod's temple is still regarded as the 2nd temple. Or the 3rd: it is controversial. The temple described by Ezekiel is much larger than Herod's temple.
The Orthodox Jewish explanation is that Ezekiel provide instructions for the 2nd temple, as did Moses for the 1st. But actually building it was contingent.
This Temple of Herod was no simple beautification project. Herod removed Ezra's Temple, stone by stone, right down to the ground, and then removed the foundations and built an entirely new Temple of his own. Herod enlarged the Azora (Inner Courtyard) which was forbidden by Halacha without a Sanhedrin of 71 judges, a Jewish King, and the Urim and Tumim (the oracle of the High Priests Breastplate). Herod, who was not Jewish, had murdered all the members of the Sanhedrin; the Urim and Tumim had not existed since the destruction of the First Temple. In effect, the Second Temple described in the Mishna and the Rambam was an illegal structure, doomed to destruction from the very day it was built.The Preterist view is similar: Ezekiel describes the temple that should have been built, but the Jews were disobedient, and the 2nd temple was built in disobedience. (And there is no future temple.)After Herod's Temple stood for 30 years, the red string that miraculously turned white on Yom Kippur to show that God had forgiven the Jewish people, stopped turning white. Around the same time, the Kohanim (priests) stopped blessing the congregation with God's Four-Letter Name pronounced as spelled. Then havoc began to sweep through the Temple. The High Priest's office became a political job, sold by the Roman overseers to whoever would pay the price. Fifty High Priests in a row failed to make it through Yom Kippur. Some say they died one after another in the Holy of Holies because they were unworthy to enter. Others say each one was simply replaced by another who was willing to pay more for the job.
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If we would simply shift our primary focus from the Temple of the past, Herod's Temple, to the Temple of the future which is described in the last chapters of the Book of Ezekiel, the confusion would begin to dissolve. We perpetually beat ourselves up over a 2000 year old tragedy while ignoring a bright hope for a future that could take place tomorrow, even today.
http://www.jewishmag.com/111mag/temple/temple.htm
In order for this Temple to be built, the Jewish people had to put away their harlotry: “Now let them put away their harlotry and the corpses of their kings far from Me; and I will dwell among them [in the Temple] forever.” (Ezekiel 43:9) Of course, the Jews did not forever put away their harlotry as implied in Revelation 17 (see Revelation 17: A Preterist Commentary). Likewise the Jews had to be ashamed of all that they had done in order for the design to be made known: “If they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the house, its structure, its exits, its entrances, all its designs, all its statutes, and all its laws.” Were the Jews ashamed of what they had done?
The dispensationalist (and Tim LaHaye) view is also similar in that Ezekiel describes the temple to be built in the Millenial Kingdom. Why would they need a temple and sacrifices? The explanation is that like the Lord's Supper, this temple is a memorial (or even transubstantiation) for the Jews. To support this, while this temple has animals and sacrifices, it is missing many features of the Pentateuch worship. For instance, there is no veil, no ark, no High Priest, no king, no silver, no gold.
There is also a symbolic or apocalyptic view, where the temple so carefully measured is not literal for any age, but a description of a fantastic new age in mythic language. I will not consider this view. The entire tone of Ezekiel's record is of something real, and not spiritual.