Joel M Bradshaw

13I [Solomon] have indeed built a magnificent temple for you [God], a place for you to dwell forever.”–1 Kings 8

He [Nebuchadnezzar] carried to Babylon all the articles from the temple of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the Lord’s temple and the treasures of the king and his officials. They set fire to God’s temple and broke down the wall of Jerusalem; they burned all the palaces and destroyed everything of value there. (2 Chronicles 36:18-19)

Jesus answered them [the temple crowd], “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken. (John 2:19-22)

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.  (Acts 17:24)

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? (1 Corinthians 6:19)

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm. (Revelation 11:19)

1. Solomon built a place for God’s glory to dwell. He firmly expected this to the eternal resting place of God.
2. But Nebuchadnezzar later destroyed that Temple. Did God therefore lose and the other gods win? This would have been a real theological tension back then.
3. Jesus considered Himself the full dwelling place or Temple of God. Jesus is God in the flesh. When Jesus ascended to Heaven, did this mean that God would no longer be with His people?
4. Paul reminded the crowd in Athens that God is not limited to simply dwell in a building that people can make. The Greeks and Romans, who were known for their temples, would have been shocked to hear this.
5. Paul even wrote that followers of Jesus are now the temples or dwelling places of God. In his context, he was warning against sexual immorality, which was a sin directly against a person’s body.
6. John saw a vision of the Heavenly Temple, which still existed, even though the earthly one was destroyed. Even as John saw the vision of the end of days, he knew that God still ruled and reigned.
7. I have given you here a short, but thorough history of the Temple in Scripture. But, what do you do with all of this? The news lately has been horrifying. Is God still sovereign even though He doesn’t have a physical Temple on earth like Solomon built? Do you still trust God and approach Him with faith even in your most difficult situations?–JMB