The Importance of Temple Theology
In the ancient world temples were believed to be places where the gods resided on the earth. People would then go to the temple to meet with their god and often times to offer up sacrifices and to worship. In the Bible the Jewish Temple of the Old Testament has a very similar purpose to the Israelites of that day. In this post I want to trace a very, very brief sketch of the history or theology of the temple beginning with the first place where man met with God and tracing it to the fulfillment.
In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve experienced a special meeting with God. Genesis says they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden and later it says that it was the presence of God that they hid themselves from. The point is that in the Garden the first man and women met with God, so that we might even call the Garden the prototype of the Temple. There in the Garden man met with God in a special way, but after the fall man was cast out of the Garden and was removed from that intimate fellowship with God.
The question lingering at this point is how will man ever enter into God's presence again? God promises that there will come a future Son that will crush the head of the serpent, but what about until this promised heir comes how will man meet with God?
Next we must fast forward to after the Exodus and the calf worship episode when God tells Moses that He will no longer go up in the midst of the Israelites because their sin is too great and in His holiness God would consume them. Moses responds by saying Lord if You do not go with us then do not send us; God relents and agrees to send His presence among the Israelites despite their sinfulness. Israel as God's chosen people were now promised the presence of God to accompany them on their journey.
However because they were a sinful people God gave them the Tabernacle and His presence was hidden behind the veil, and the sacrifices acted as a means for covering for the sins of the Nation so that God's righteous judgement would not consume them. The book of Exodus ends with erecting the Tabernacle and in Exodus 40:34&38 we read, "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle...For throughout all their journeys, the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel."
There at the Tabernacle the presence and glory of the Lord was with the Israelites, and it was also at this Tabernacle that they brought and offered sacrifices to cover or atone for their sins, allowing them to be reconciled to God and to worship Him. The Tabernacle of Israel remained the means of meeting with God until Solomon had the Temple in Jerusalem built. At the dedication ceremony of the Temple Solomon prayed, "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built? (1 Kings 8:27) Solomon recognized that the Temple was indeed the place where men would go to meet with God, but that God cannot be contained in a building or even in the highest heaven.
As we know the Israelites sinned and eventually the temple was destroyed, but we learn something amazing in Ezekiel about where God's presence would dwell when Jerusalem would fall. In chapter 1 of Ezekiel we read that while on the banks of the Chebar river, Ezekiel had a vision of a mobile throne chariot. There are wheels with angelic creatures by them and above the wheels is a throne, and on the throne sits one whose waist appears like, "gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around." Ezekiel continues saying, "Such was the appearance and likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of the one speaking." Just as Solomon understood, God's presence is not bound to the Temple building, and God's presence even departed from the Temple because of the Nations idolatry. In chapters 4-10 Ezekiel is told to write the name Jerusalem on a brick to represent the city which will be besieged, Jerusalem will be destroyed, the idolaters will be judged, that idolatry will take place in the temple, and then finally in chapter 10, the glory of the Lord will depart from the temple.
Then we see the mobile throne chariot again with the angelic cherubim that are posted at each of its four wheels, and in vs 18 we read, "Then the glory of the LORD went out from the threshold of the house (Temple), and stood over the cherubim." The glory has departed from the temple and come to reside on the mobile throne chariot. God is not bound to a building, even a Temple built in Jerusalem.
By Jesus' time Herod had built many additions to the rebuilt Temple complex, but Ezekiel prophesied of an even more glorious temple in chapters 40-48. Ezekiel prophesied of a future Temple with a river flowing out from it that cannot be forded. The water of the river is such that when it gets to the sea it even turns the sea into fresh water. Ezekiel's highly symbolic vision continues explaining the river saying, "It will come about that every living creature which swarms in every place where the river goes, will live... and so everything will live where the river goes" (Ezekiel 47:9). Now this Temple is also a city because at the beginning and the end of this prophecy we read, "In visions of God he brought me to the land of Israel, and set me down on a very high mountain, on which was a structure (Temple) like a city to the south." The vision unpacks of this City/Temple being measured and closes by saying, "And the name of the city from that time on shall be, The LORD Is There” (Eze 48:35).
How are we to understand this incredible vision? Is there to be a future temple with a literal river pouring out from beneath it in Jerusalem that will literally change salt water to fresh water and that brings life to the whole earth because all those who live are those that come to this river? While certainly with God this literal fulfillment is unquestionably possible, but we need to allow the unfolding revelation of the New Testament answer this question for us.
We will need to unpack this in stages, so first we see in John 2 Jesus goes into the rebuilt Temple with a scourge of chords and cleared the Temple of the money changers and overturned their tables. The Jews then came to Jesus asking Him for a sign. They wanted to understand what authority He had to clear the Temple the way that He did. Jesus responds by saying, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Of course they were appalled and said it took 46 years to build the Temple, but John clarifies for us that Jesus was speaking about His body as the Temple.
Jesus here is claiming that He is the true Temple of God, that in Him we find the fulfillment of all that the Temple stood for. In Jesus men come and meet with God. In Jesus we find the New Covenant which was brought about by His sacrifice that is to end all sacrifices (Hebrews 8-10). In Jesus is the only true means to be reconciled with God (2 Corinthians 5). And when Jesus died the Temple veil was torn in two signifying that we now have access to freely worship God and come boldly before His throne of grace (Hebrews 4). After the ascension this is confirmed in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit is poured out on all believers who now are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:16-17, 1 Cor 6:19, 2 Cor 6:16).
Remembering the incredible future Temple prophecy from Ezekiel we also find in Jesus the means by which to interpret that prophecy. The River of Life that was to flow from the temple in Ezekiel's vision is also fulfilled in Jesus. In John chapter 4 we read about Jesus telling a Samaritan woman about the living water. Jesus told her that everyone that drank from the water of the well that she was drawing from would thirst again, "but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." Again we see that Jesus is the true Temple, even the fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecy because He is the giver of 'Living Water' unto eternal life. And Jesus says that those who drink from this living water will be a spring of living water. Signifying the church as dwelling place of the Holy Spirit and those commissioned by God to take the gospel to the world.
The next layer of Temple theology is pealed back for us when Peter says, "As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 YOU YOURSELVES LIKE LIVING STONES ARE BEING BUILD UP AS A SPIRITUAL HOUSE (Temple), to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Pe 2:4-5 emphasis added). Peter sees the church as those people that are chosen by God and being build into the Temple of God. Peter continues on using language of the Nation of Israel from Deuteronomy of the church, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (1 Pe 2:9–10).
Paul also shares this understanding when he says that we the church are, "...no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him, you also are being built together into A DWELLING PLACE FOR GOD BY THE SPIRIT (Eph 2:19-22 emphasis added). Now the church is the dwelling place of God because we are "IN CHRIST."
Finally we come to see the true meaning of the City/Temple of Ezekiel, and the pinnacle of Temple theology in Revelation 21:1-3 & 22, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. ... And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb." (emphasis added)
This is the destination. This is where all the previous Temple language has been pointing to all along. God's unmediated presence with mankind once again.
As we have seen, the Temple is where men met with God, offer sacrifices, receive reconciliation and worship. Jesus is the true Temple, the one and only means by which men can come before a holy and righteous God. He is also currently building the church, the temple of the Holy Spirit, on earth to spread this message of the gospel, the Good News, that Jesus has received the punishment that was due to us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. And each time this gospel message is proclaimed and someone hears and believes, they are brought from death to life and another stone is added to the glorious building project of God which will finally be completed when Jesus returns. This is what we are waiting for, this is the hope of all nations.
In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve experienced a special meeting with God. Genesis says they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden and later it says that it was the presence of God that they hid themselves from. The point is that in the Garden the first man and women met with God, so that we might even call the Garden the prototype of the Temple. There in the Garden man met with God in a special way, but after the fall man was cast out of the Garden and was removed from that intimate fellowship with God.
The question lingering at this point is how will man ever enter into God's presence again? God promises that there will come a future Son that will crush the head of the serpent, but what about until this promised heir comes how will man meet with God?
Next we must fast forward to after the Exodus and the calf worship episode when God tells Moses that He will no longer go up in the midst of the Israelites because their sin is too great and in His holiness God would consume them. Moses responds by saying Lord if You do not go with us then do not send us; God relents and agrees to send His presence among the Israelites despite their sinfulness. Israel as God's chosen people were now promised the presence of God to accompany them on their journey.
However because they were a sinful people God gave them the Tabernacle and His presence was hidden behind the veil, and the sacrifices acted as a means for covering for the sins of the Nation so that God's righteous judgement would not consume them. The book of Exodus ends with erecting the Tabernacle and in Exodus 40:34&38 we read, "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle...For throughout all their journeys, the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel."
There at the Tabernacle the presence and glory of the Lord was with the Israelites, and it was also at this Tabernacle that they brought and offered sacrifices to cover or atone for their sins, allowing them to be reconciled to God and to worship Him. The Tabernacle of Israel remained the means of meeting with God until Solomon had the Temple in Jerusalem built. At the dedication ceremony of the Temple Solomon prayed, "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built? (1 Kings 8:27) Solomon recognized that the Temple was indeed the place where men would go to meet with God, but that God cannot be contained in a building or even in the highest heaven.
As we know the Israelites sinned and eventually the temple was destroyed, but we learn something amazing in Ezekiel about where God's presence would dwell when Jerusalem would fall. In chapter 1 of Ezekiel we read that while on the banks of the Chebar river, Ezekiel had a vision of a mobile throne chariot. There are wheels with angelic creatures by them and above the wheels is a throne, and on the throne sits one whose waist appears like, "gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around." Ezekiel continues saying, "Such was the appearance and likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of the one speaking." Just as Solomon understood, God's presence is not bound to the Temple building, and God's presence even departed from the Temple because of the Nations idolatry. In chapters 4-10 Ezekiel is told to write the name Jerusalem on a brick to represent the city which will be besieged, Jerusalem will be destroyed, the idolaters will be judged, that idolatry will take place in the temple, and then finally in chapter 10, the glory of the Lord will depart from the temple.
Then we see the mobile throne chariot again with the angelic cherubim that are posted at each of its four wheels, and in vs 18 we read, "Then the glory of the LORD went out from the threshold of the house (Temple), and stood over the cherubim." The glory has departed from the temple and come to reside on the mobile throne chariot. God is not bound to a building, even a Temple built in Jerusalem.
By Jesus' time Herod had built many additions to the rebuilt Temple complex, but Ezekiel prophesied of an even more glorious temple in chapters 40-48. Ezekiel prophesied of a future Temple with a river flowing out from it that cannot be forded. The water of the river is such that when it gets to the sea it even turns the sea into fresh water. Ezekiel's highly symbolic vision continues explaining the river saying, "It will come about that every living creature which swarms in every place where the river goes, will live... and so everything will live where the river goes" (Ezekiel 47:9). Now this Temple is also a city because at the beginning and the end of this prophecy we read, "In visions of God he brought me to the land of Israel, and set me down on a very high mountain, on which was a structure (Temple) like a city to the south." The vision unpacks of this City/Temple being measured and closes by saying, "And the name of the city from that time on shall be, The LORD Is There” (Eze 48:35).
How are we to understand this incredible vision? Is there to be a future temple with a literal river pouring out from beneath it in Jerusalem that will literally change salt water to fresh water and that brings life to the whole earth because all those who live are those that come to this river? While certainly with God this literal fulfillment is unquestionably possible, but we need to allow the unfolding revelation of the New Testament answer this question for us.
We will need to unpack this in stages, so first we see in John 2 Jesus goes into the rebuilt Temple with a scourge of chords and cleared the Temple of the money changers and overturned their tables. The Jews then came to Jesus asking Him for a sign. They wanted to understand what authority He had to clear the Temple the way that He did. Jesus responds by saying, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Of course they were appalled and said it took 46 years to build the Temple, but John clarifies for us that Jesus was speaking about His body as the Temple.
Jesus here is claiming that He is the true Temple of God, that in Him we find the fulfillment of all that the Temple stood for. In Jesus men come and meet with God. In Jesus we find the New Covenant which was brought about by His sacrifice that is to end all sacrifices (Hebrews 8-10). In Jesus is the only true means to be reconciled with God (2 Corinthians 5). And when Jesus died the Temple veil was torn in two signifying that we now have access to freely worship God and come boldly before His throne of grace (Hebrews 4). After the ascension this is confirmed in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit is poured out on all believers who now are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:16-17, 1 Cor 6:19, 2 Cor 6:16).
Remembering the incredible future Temple prophecy from Ezekiel we also find in Jesus the means by which to interpret that prophecy. The River of Life that was to flow from the temple in Ezekiel's vision is also fulfilled in Jesus. In John chapter 4 we read about Jesus telling a Samaritan woman about the living water. Jesus told her that everyone that drank from the water of the well that she was drawing from would thirst again, "but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." Again we see that Jesus is the true Temple, even the fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecy because He is the giver of 'Living Water' unto eternal life. And Jesus says that those who drink from this living water will be a spring of living water. Signifying the church as dwelling place of the Holy Spirit and those commissioned by God to take the gospel to the world.
The next layer of Temple theology is pealed back for us when Peter says, "As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 YOU YOURSELVES LIKE LIVING STONES ARE BEING BUILD UP AS A SPIRITUAL HOUSE (Temple), to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Pe 2:4-5 emphasis added). Peter sees the church as those people that are chosen by God and being build into the Temple of God. Peter continues on using language of the Nation of Israel from Deuteronomy of the church, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (1 Pe 2:9–10).
Paul also shares this understanding when he says that we the church are, "...no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him, you also are being built together into A DWELLING PLACE FOR GOD BY THE SPIRIT (Eph 2:19-22 emphasis added). Now the church is the dwelling place of God because we are "IN CHRIST."
Finally we come to see the true meaning of the City/Temple of Ezekiel, and the pinnacle of Temple theology in Revelation 21:1-3 & 22, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. ... And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb." (emphasis added)
This is the destination. This is where all the previous Temple language has been pointing to all along. God's unmediated presence with mankind once again.
As we have seen, the Temple is where men met with God, offer sacrifices, receive reconciliation and worship. Jesus is the true Temple, the one and only means by which men can come before a holy and righteous God. He is also currently building the church, the temple of the Holy Spirit, on earth to spread this message of the gospel, the Good News, that Jesus has received the punishment that was due to us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. And each time this gospel message is proclaimed and someone hears and believes, they are brought from death to life and another stone is added to the glorious building project of God which will finally be completed when Jesus returns. This is what we are waiting for, this is the hope of all nations.
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