WHEN MOSES built the Tabernacle in the wilderness and Solomon built the Temple on Mount Zion it was designed as a replica of a Temple existing in heaven. Nothing was left for men to design. Every aspect was given to his servants.
The Pattern of the Tabernacle
God told Moses expressly:
“Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it” (Exod.25:8-9).
God was insistent that the Tabernacle be made exactly as He showed Moses on Mount Sinai. He said:
“And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount” (Exod.25:40).
Why was it so important to keep to the pattern Moses saw? Because every part of the Temple spoke of Christ and God’s plan of salvation.
The Holy of Holies was a replica of the throne of God where the cherubim continually declare the holiness of God while the path to the throne depicts the only way that we can approach God.
There is only one door to the court where the sin offerings were offered. Christ is the Lamb slain to make atonement for our sins.
Within the Tabernacle the 7 golden candlesticks depict Christ as the perfect light of the world to whom the Father gave the Holy Spirit without measure.
The unleavened shewbread revealed Christ as the bread which came down from heaven. God took on human flesh and blood to be the Saviour of the world.
The incense reveals Christ as the great intercessor who ever lives to make intercession for us.
Within the Tabernacle it is all gold depicting the deity of Christ whether it was in the candlestick, the table of shewbread or the altar of incense.
Solomon’s Temple
David received the design of the Temple from God and gave it to Solomon. We read in 1Chron.28:11-12:
“Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlors thereof, and of the place of the mercy seat, And the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, of the courts of the house of the LORD, and of all the chambers round about, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things”.
Nothing was left for David to decide. He was even given the design “in writing” (1Chron.28:19). How the Holy Spirit did this we do not know but there must be a reason.
Ezekiel’s Temple
During the millenial reign of the Lord Jesus there will be a Temple built and it is specified in great detail in Ezekiel’s prophecy chapters 40 to 43.
In each of these instances we find that God intended to dwell among His people. In the Tabernacle and Temples there was a place called “the holy of holies” where the presence of God was manifest.
Above the holy of holies in the Tabernacle there was the visible evidence of God’s presence day and night. By day a cloud rose up from the Tabernacle and by night a pillar of fire for all Israel to see and be reassured that God was among them.
When Solomon dedicated the Temple at Jerusalem the glory of God appeared like a bright shining light and was so evident that the priests could not enter the Temple. We read:
“Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the house. And the priests could not enter into the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled the LORD’s house” (2Chron.7:1-2).
The glory of God continued in the holy of holies until the reign of King Zedekiah and Ezekiel described the departure of the presence of God from His Temple before the Babylonians carried the Jews away captive to Babylon in 586BC. The Temple that Solomon built was burned and the throne of David ceased in 586BC (Ezek.21:25-27).
When Christ returns after the Tribulation the millennial Temple will built; the throne of David will again be established and Christ will sit upon it. The glory of God will be so evident in Jerusalem that it will outshine the sun. We read:
“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee… And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising… The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory” (Isa.60:1-20).
The Tribulation Temple
There will also be a Temple built and operating in the Tribulation. Two prophets will minister in that Temple for 1,260 days which is the first half of the seven-year Tribulation (Rev.ch.11). We don’t read that the glory of God’s presence will appear in that temple which may indicate that it will be built before Israel is converted.
There are many Jews today who want to build a Temple on the Temple Mount and would if they were permitted. The Temple Institute has already made all the instruments and priests garments in anticipation of the day when the Temple will be built. For more than 20 years the Jews have be collecting the “holy half shekel” (Exod.30:14-16) that was used for the service of the Tabernacle.
It is most likely that the Tribulation Temple will be built while the Jews are still rejecting Messiah. It could even be before the Rapture of the Church of Jesus Christ or soon after the Rapture.
Israel has been without a Temple and the presence of God in their midst since AD70 when the Romans burned the Temple. Since then God has put Israel aside and has been taking out from the Gentiles “a people for His name” (Acts 15:14).
The Church is the Temple of God
Israel was an earthly people with an earthly kingdom but the Church is a heavenly people.
“For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name” (Heb.13:14-15).
Christendom has built many cathedrals and “holy” places based on the design of the Jewish temple. Christendom has copied Israel under the old covenant with a priestly system, with rituals and garments that set them apart from the common people and claiming to intercede for the people.
Paul described the Church as a holy temple built “upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Eph.2:20- 22). It grows as individuals trust in Christ and are added to the number in the Church. Peter described the Church as living stones built into “a spiritual house” (1Pet.2:5).
The Apostles never built cathedrals or wore priestly garments. There were no “holy places” in the time of the Apostles.
The Holy Spirit indwelling the Church is the presence of God equivalent to the glory of God in the Temple of Solomon. The evidence of the glory of God in the Church is a multitude of transformed lives of sinners who have been tranformed into saints by the power of the Holy Spirit; by the miracle of regeneration.
Israel was a nation and Jerusalem was the only place on earth where God chose to place His name (Deut.12:21). But the Church is different to Israel and Paul wrote:
“For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come” (Heb. 13:14).
The city that the Christian identifies with is the heavenly city; the New Jerusalem that Jesus went to prepare (John 14:2-3) and where we will dwell in the New Heavens and New Earth for all eternity. Paul wrote:
“According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon” (1Cor. 3:10).
Paul told the Ephesian Christians: “Now therefore ye are … built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” (Eph.2:19-20).
The Church is also the Bride of Christ and when John was shown the New Jerusalem descending from heaven to the new earth an angel said: “Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife” (Rev.21:9).
Then John saw “that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God: … And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (Rev.21:10-14).
The Temple in the Old Testament
In the Old Testament the Hebrew word translated ‘temple’ is also translated ‘palace’ in a number of places in the KJV.
- In 1Kgs 21:4 we read of Ahab’s palace
- In 2Kgs20:18; Isa.39:7; Dan.1:4 it is the palace of the king of Babylon.
- In Ezra 4:14 it is the king of Persia’s palace
- King’s palaces are referred to in Ps.45:15; 144:12.
Thus we may conclude that the temple of the Lord was God’s palace and throne from which He reigned over Israel as her king. The sovereignty of God is thereby implied.
Before Saul was crowned “the Lord was their king” (1Sam.12:12).
The Temple in the New Testament
In the New Testament there are three Greek words translated temple in the KJV.
naos – meaning the place where the presence of God was manifested.
This word is used in the following locations
- Luke 1:9,22 when Zacharias ministered as a priest before the Lord.
- Matt.23:16,21 the Jews swore oaths by the holy place “and Him that dwelleth therein.”
- John 2:19-21 Jesus spoke of His body as the temple where God’s presence dwelt. The Jews accused Him of saying the material temple would be destroyed and rebuilt in three days at His trial and used the same Greek word in Mk.14:58; 15:29.
- When the vail in the temple was rent, naos is used.
It is clear that the Holy Spirit wanted to distingwish between the general word for temple and the place where God’s presence dwelt.
In the Book of Acts the Apostles went up to the temple and the word hieron was used but when we come to the epistles where we read of our bodies and the Church being the temple of God indwelt by the Holy Spirit the word naos is used. See 1Cor.3:16,17; 6:19; 2Cor.6:16; Eph.2:21.
God’s dwelling place on earth is now in each believer and in the Church universal.
When Antichrist sits in the temple and claims to be God, naos is used (2Thess.2:4) because he will dwell in the holy of holies and will claim to have the presence of Almighy God.
Another word is used to translate the word Temple. It is hieron– meaning the temple where the Jews came into the courts of the women, Gentiles and where Jesus and the Apostles preached. They did not enter into the holy place which was naos in the Greek, meaning the holy place where the presence of God was found. Only Jewish priests could minister in the holy place and the high priest alone could enter the holy of holies.
oikos – meaning house or dwelling.
The Holy Spirit chose the appropriate Greek word when giving the scriptures to the Apostles and we miss the significance of this when we read our English translation.
The Temple in Heaven
Finally throughout the Book of Revelation we read about the Temple of God in heaven where the throne of God is located. There the Old Testament saints are seen led by 24 elders (1Chron.24) seated on 24 thrones around the throne of God.
When John writes of the throne of God in heaven he always uses naos and never the word hieron. From Rev.3:12 to 21:22 there are 16 mentions of the Temple in heaven and it is always where God dwells.
Application
“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1Cor.6:19-20).
Since every believer’s body is indwelt by the presence of Christ we are to live holy lives separate from sin. Our bodies are the temple of God and the Church universal is the temple of God on earth. If we allow sins to control us we offend the presence of God within our own lives and among His people.
The example Paul gives in 1Cor.6 is the sin of fornication. While a believer can never lose his salvation he can lose the sense of the Lord’s presence and thus lose his testimony.
The consequences can be very severe and Paul warns that some in the church at Corinth had been sick and some even died. He wrote:
“For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world” (1Cor.11:30-32).
It is because God loves His children that He chastens us if we embrace sin.
When Israel sinned and set up idols in the Temple of God He sent the heathen to destroy the nation. He kept His covenant with Abraham and David and never abandoned His people but he punished them for correction.
Likewise God deals with us today. The path of obedience is the path of blessing for His people.
-John Ecob