TEMPLES AND TABERNACLES
Religious structures have been around for so long that it is impossible to imagine a world without them. We can’t be exactly sure, but we think it would be safe to say that all religions in the modern world have a temple structure of some kind in which they conduct their religious services.
King David, in his travels around the Promised Land, had opportunity to observe the fine temples that his enemies had built for their Gods. In his fleshly thinking, David thought it inappropriate for his God to dwell in a simple tent otherwise called the Tabernacle of Moses. Not understanding that God does not live in a physical tabernacle or tent but in the hearts of people, David conceived the idea of building a physical house for God as we find in the following scripture:
2 Samuel 7:1-11: Now when the king dwelt in his house, and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies round about, 2 the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” 3 And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart; for the LORD is with you.” 4 But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, 5 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD: Would you build me a house to dwell in? 6 I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. 7 In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”‘ 8 Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel; 9 and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house.
2 Chronicles 6:13-23: Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had set it in the court; and he stood upon it. Then he knelt upon his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven;
COMMENTARY: At first reading, the imagery of this story seems to be very appropriate, and it is appropriate from an Old/First Covenant perspective which reveres physical things like temples, altars and religious leaders who are paid to put their religion on public display. From a New Covenant perspective, however, it is nothing more than religious showmanship that Jesus calls hypocrisy.
14 and said, “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to thy servants who walk before thee with all their heart; 15 who hast kept with thy servant David my father what thou didst declare to him; yea, thou didst speak with thy mouth, and with thy hand hast fulfilled it this day. 16 Now therefore, O LORD, God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father what thou hast promised him, saying, ‘There shall never fail you a man before me to sit upon the throne of Israel, if only your sons take heed to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.’ 17 Now therefore, O LORD, God of Israel, let thy word be confirmed, which thou hast spoken to thy servant David.18 “But will God dwell indeed with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!
COMMENTARY: Solomon has adopted his father’s dream of building a house for God. Even after he built the great temple for God to live in, however, he expresses some doubt that God will actually live in it. He sees that God is to big to be contained by a physical temple — even the temple he has built.
This story is an example of how religious people get caught up in the religious fantasies of their religious fathers and mothers. Just because their elders found it important to build religious structures, children similarly find it important to do the same. They take their cues for how to do religion from men and not from God.
19 Yet have regard to the prayer of thy servant and to his supplication, O LORD my God, hearkening to the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prays before thee; 20 that thy eyes may be open day and night toward this house, the place where thou hast promised to set thy name, that thou mayest hearken to the prayer which thy servant offers toward this place. 21 And hearken thou to the supplications of thy servant and of thy people Israel, when they pray toward this place; yea, hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place; and when thou hearest, forgive.
COMMENTARY: See Place Where God Will Place His Name for understanding of the place to which people pray.
22 “If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath, and comes and swears his oath before thy altar in this house, 23 then hear thou from heaven, and act, and judge thy servants, requiting the guilty by bringing his conduct upon his own head, and vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.
Isaiah 66:1-4: Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool; what is the house which you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? 2 All these things my hand has made, and so all these things are mine, says the LORD. But this is the man to whom I will look, he that is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word. 3 “He who slaughters an ox is like him who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, like him who breaks a dog’s neck; he who presents a cereal offering, like him who offers swine’s blood; he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like him who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations; 4 I also will choose affliction for them, and bring their fears upon them; because, when I called, no one answered, when I spoke they did not listen; but they did what was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I did not delight.”
Acts 7:43-50: And you took up the tent of Moloch, and the star of the god Rephan, the figures which you made to worship; and I will remove you beyond Babylon.’ 44 “Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. 45 Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations which God thrust out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, 46 who found favor in the sight of God and asked leave to find a habitation for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with hands; as the prophet says, 49 ‘Heaven is my throne, and earth my footstool. What house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? 50 Did not my hand make all these things?’
Acts 17:24-31: The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us, 28 for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ 29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a representation by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead.”
Revelation 21 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 of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; 4 he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the fountain of the water of life without payment. 7 He who conquers shall have this heritage, and I will be his God and he shall be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.” 9 Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And in the Spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed; 13 on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15 And he who talked to me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. 16 The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its breadth; and he measured the city with his rod, twelve thousand stadia; its length and breadth and height are equal. 17 He also measured its wall, a hundred and forty-four cubits by a man’s measure, that is, an angel’s. 18 The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, clear as glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every jewel; the first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass. 22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light shall the nations walk; and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates shall never be shut by day–and there shall be no night there; 26 they shall bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean shall enter it, nor any one who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
1-Peter 2:4-9 4 Come to him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen and precious; 5 and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and he who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 7 To you therefore who believe, he is precious, but for those who do not believe, “The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner,” 8 and “A stone that will make men stumble, a rock that will make them fall”; for they stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
1 Kings 8:16 ‘Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city in all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, that my name might be there; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.’
1 Kings 8:27: “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!
Deuteronomy 12:5-15: Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest : 14 But in the place which the LORD shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee
1 Kings 6:2-12: The house which King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. 3 The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and ten cubits deep in front of the house. 4 And he made for the house windows with recessed frames. 5 He also built a structure against the wall of the house, running round the walls of the house, both the nave and the inner sanctuary; and he made side chambers all around. 6 The lowest story was five cubits broad, the middle one was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad; for around the outside of the house he made offsets on the wall in order that the supporting beams should not be inserted into the walls of the house. 7 When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry; so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the temple, while it was being built. 8 The entrance for the lowest story was on the south side of the house; and one went up by stairs to the middle story, and from the middle story to the third. 9 So he built the house, and finished it; and he made the ceiling of the house of beams and planks of cedar. 10 He built the structure against the whole house, each story five cubits high, and it was joined to the house with timbers of cedar. 11 Now the word of the LORD came to Solomon, 12 “Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my ordinances and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father.
1 Corinthians 6:18-20: Shun immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
COMMENTARY: These verses are confusing because of the distinctions between sinning inside (i.e. against) and outside the body. It is hard to imagine any kind of sin that is not committed in the physical body because both the mind and the natural body are always involved in sinning. But that leaves us wondering what it means to sin against, or inside the body. The way we see it, the way to understand the scripture is by making a distinction between the physical body and the spiritual body that exists within the physical body. With that understanding, we can then interpret the scripture as follows:
Every other sin which a man commits is outside his spiritual body; but the immoral man sins in his spiritual body. Do you not know that your spiritual body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You spiritual body and your physical body are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your physical and spiritual body.
This interpretation helps us understand that we have two kinds of bodies, but it does not help understand sin in the spiritual body with respect to immorality. We understand literal sexual immorality in our natural bodies because it is hard to say that sexual immorality does not occur without using either the mind or physical body. But it is hard to understand immorality with respect to the spiritual body. Since the spiritual body within the physical body is God’s home, it is hard to accept that immorality occurs in the spiritual body as well as in the physical body. Even people who might practice some form of immorality with their physical bodies would not consider knowingly practicing spiritual immorality in their spiritual bodies if they knew what spiritual immorality involved.
But the scripture says clearly that the immoral person sins against (i.e. inside) his body. That means the sin occurs in the spiritual body as well as in the natural body. And because the scripture is addressed to believers in the Corinthian church, we must assume that the potential for believers to engage in immoral sin in their spiritual body is very real. If it were not a real possibility, there would be no reason for the letter to be written to the Corinthians — and to us.
We must first understand that the letter is not directly addressing literal, sexual immorality. Because everyone understands the literal meaning of immorality to be about illicit sexual intercourse or other kinds of sexual activity, there is no need to caution anyone about doing these things because there are social and legal prohibitions in place in most cultures to instruct people about this kind of immorality. What is left to conclude is that the letter is essentially about spiritual immorality which may occur in the natural body as well as in the spiritual body. It is this kind of immorality that is the subject of the letter, but it does not tell us what this kind of immorality involves.
We will not understand spiritual immorality unless we first understand the symbolism of immorality. But when we look at the definition of immorality, we see that it also means the worship of idols and idolatry. In other words, God uses the imagery of physical sexual immorality to represent spiritual sin in the spiritual body
We have discussed the nature of this spiritual sin in Sin, Evil, Iniquity, Unrighteousness, Trespasses, Transgressions, Wickedness and Lawlessness.
1 Corinthians 3:1-20: But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving like ordinary men? 4 For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apol’los,” are you not merely men? 5 What then is Apol’los? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apol’los watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are equal, and each shall receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. 10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw– 13 each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. 16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If any one destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are. 18 Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”
2 Corinthians 6:14-18 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
COMMENTARY: These verses establish the clear contrasts between Old/First Covenant religionists (i.e. unbelievers, unrighteous, darkness, Belial, infidel) and New Covenant disciples (i.e. believers, righteous, light, Christ).
16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said , I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
COMMENTARY: This scripture says that people are the spiritual temple in which God lives and through which he moves. Understanding that the temple of God is a spiritual temple and not a physical temple, we see here that anyone who is associated with a man-made temple such as a church or synagogue participates in idolatry. In other words, people who feel that they need a physical building in order to worship God do not understand that they are spiritual temples in which God lives and works.
17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate , saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
Ephesians 2:11-22: Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands– 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility,
COMMENTARY:The audience for this letter is uncircumcised Gentiles (i.e. Old/First Covenant religionists) but are now New Covenant disciples. We know that they are New Covenant disciples because they are no longer strangers to the covenant of promise which is the New Covenant.
This scripture uses circumcision as an example of religious works done by man’s hands. The broader application of the scripture includes anything that man does with his/her body that is religious in nature. See Circumcision and Baptism for understanding of circumcision.
15 by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,
COMMENTARY: Laws, commands, ordinances and precepts all come from God’s mouth. They are his spoken word. These were all present in Jesus after he was baptized. The two men symbolically represent Old/First Covenant religionists and New Covenant disciples. They are also symbolically represented in Gods at War, Sibling Conflict, AN ONGOING CYCLE OF CONFLICT AND TEMPTATION and Jesus’ conflict with religious leaders.
16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; 18 for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
COMMENTARY: See Israel, Jerusalem, Jews, Christians and Gentiles for understanding of how to think of members of the household of God.
20 built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22 in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
COMMENTARY: This says that New Covenant disciples comprise a spiritual temple in which God lives. This is a dynamic process in which individuals mature in their practices of Pure Religion while decreasing their practices of Defiled Religion.
Hebrews 3:1-11: Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession; 2 He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. 3 For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. 4 For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. 5 Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; 6 but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house -whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end. 7 Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, 8 DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS, 9 WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS. 10 “THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS ‘; 11 AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.’ ”
COMMENTARY: This says clearly that people, New Covenant disciples in particular, are God’s house. But this is only true for those who do not rebel with hard hearts. Such people have not entered into God’s rest by ceasing from their religious works and from practicing their religious traditions.