Jerusalem Temple

Today there is mounting conflict over the Jerusalem temple. The Israeli and Arab world are at odds over the possession and destiny of the temple mount.

Israel remains divided, with some desiring the temple to be rebuilt, others willing to abandon it entirely to the Arabs. The secular Israeli government feels that religious control of the temple would render them obsolete, thus in time dismantling the secular government.

The temple has been a center of Jewish activities since the time of Moses (Exodus 25)when he was instructed to build the temple according to the pattern shown in the Mount. Perhaps the battle for the Jerusalem temple by Jews, Arabs and Christians could learn from the original plans given to Moses.

The pattern for the tabernacle was a heavenly one, not an earthly one. However, a few years removed from the wilderness of Sinai, men have reversed God's pattern and opted for the shadow versus the pattern as a guide for the temple.

However, one thing is certain, the pattern shown to Moses in the Mount was not a previously existing earthly structure of any kind.

While David sought to build God a permanent house (temple)which Solomon fulfilled, Isaiah made it clear that the Most High does not dwell in temples made by man's hands.

"Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the Lord, Or what is the place of My rest? Has My hand not made all these things? (Isaiah 66:1, 2; Acts 7:49.

Jerusalem temple history records the first temple (stationery building) for Moses' was truly the first, desecrated by idolatrous worship, (Ezekiel 8) was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian army in 586 B.C. Lying in ruins following the return to Jerusalem after 70 years of captivity, Zerubbabel, the governor and Joshua, the high priest begin the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. This is called the "second temple" and accords with Herod's temple of the New Testament,in which the latter had engaged in a 46 year renovation and embellishment project.

Nevertheless, in the days of Ezra and the prophet Haggai, the Jerusalem temple construction met with mixed emotions. The old men wept because of it paled in comparison to Solomon's temple and the young men, in total bliss of the former, extolled its virtues.

However, Haggai prophesied that "in a little while" God would shake all nations and destroy heaven and earth, covenantal terms for yet another destruction of Jerusalem, while they were in the very midst of rebuilding the "second temple." (Haggai 2:6-8). He asks who had seen the glory of the former temple, i.e. Solomon's? Then he stated that the glory of the latter temple would exceed that of the former's glory.

In other words, the new temple which the Lord would build (not man) would far exceed the glory of Solomon's unlike Zerubabbel's temple. This presents a huge dilemma for the third temple in Jerusalem" advocates.

For example, Randall Price, author of "The Coming Last Days Temple" acknowledges the "Trouble in the Temple" syndrome of man made structures. He draws a pattern of desecration from Solomon's temple, through the Zerubabbel-Herodian temple to the newly proposed third Jerusalem temple. Neither of them, according to his views escapes the desecration.

How then could the glory of the so-called third Jerusalem temple (if built) excel the glory of Solomon's. It's impossible.

Thus, we search for a more consistent view of Scripture.

Perhaps we should look more carefully upon the words of Christ who said, "Destroy this temple (meaning that of his own body) and in three days I will raise it up. (John 2:26). John tells us that Jesus as the Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us (first century disciples) who beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.

Any study of the temple/tabernacle typology must take into consideration the words spoken of Jesus.

As in the type of Moses' temporary structure and transient structure, Jesus' dwelling in the flesh, tabernacling among the people of God was temporary, foreshadowing a greater presence yet to come. Further, his death was a cutting off of his relationship to Israel in the flesh, to take up a new relationship with them in the Spirit. God did not cut Israel off but redirected Israel to the realm of the Spirit, a type of the promise land brought into being through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Thus, following Jesus' death, Israel could know Jesus' no longer after the flesh, (2 Corinthians 5:16). That Jesus had in mind all along, the rebuilding of a more glorious temple not made with hands is evidenced in his conversation with the woman at the well.

In their debate over which place was the divinely mandated place of worship, the woman offered Mt. Gerizzim being of Samaritan descent. In so doing, she challenged the Jews claim to worship in the temple in Jerusalem.

Jesus responded by saying woman the time is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth for the Father seeks such worshipers to worship him. Thus he told her neither in this mountain (Gerizzim) nor yet in Jerusalem would men worship God."

The solemn warning of and fate of the Jerusalem temple met with destruction by the Roman General Titus in A.D. 70. (Matthew 24:3, 34, 21:20-22) This temple is confused with a so-called third temple for an imagined last days battle. Zionists, are you listening? Physical Jerusalem is not the sought out place to worship God any more than Harlem or the ghettos of South America.

We see throughout the epistles that a transition has occurred. The church is the new Jerusalem temple of God. God dwells in the church. Jesus Christ is the chief corner stone. But it all comes clear in the book of Revelation. Speaking of the new temple mount in Jerusalem, the holy city which comes down out of heaven from God, the angel says the tabernacle of God is with men. (Revelation 21:3).

As John surveys the city, he saw no temple within it for the God and the Lamb are its temple. (Revelation 21:22). This temple has the glory of God. Question, can the glory of Moses, Solomon or Zerubbabel/Herod's temples exceed and surpass the glory of God? Then none can exceed this glory of the temple made without hands. God wants each of us to know that He is our temple.

Jesus raised up his body to establish Himself as the new spiritual temple of God which cannot be desecrated by man. When we are in alignment with this temple, we will cease to be troubled by the temples of man. The real issue is not the trouble of the Jerusalem temple, but trouble between the temples, that is, of man's thinking when it is misaligned with the words of Scripture.



See more on the Jerusalem temple.