PART #1: TEMPLE OF GOD

The temple is one of the most complex symbols in the Bible. Most people shudder when you start talking about it. It's boring to read about, and doesn't make any sense – and anyway, why should you care? What is the temple of a done-away dispensation to you? And that's a fair question.

It's a real shame; most people are scared away from understanding the temple symbolism because no one starts by explaining the most fundamental question; they all jump right to the boring details, without first explaining the fundamental question – what does the TEMPLE symbolize!

It's probably one of the simplest symbols to explain in the Bible, and yet you wouldn't believe the wacky explanations for it that are out there. You know WHY you should care what the temple symbolizes? Because it symbolizes something you care very much about – YOU!

2 Corinthians 6:16 ... 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.

Every piece of bread, every stick of incense, every time brass is used instead of gold, every last CUBIT in that temple is about YOU! And so it is well worth your time to understand what ALL of those details mean to YOU, because they ARE you – and if you understand them, you'll understand yourself and what God is trying to do with you vastly better than you do now!

But before we get into those details (which I will try my best to make interesting!) we have to first establish exactly what the temple (or the tabernacle, which is essentially the same thing) means. Yes, it symbolizes you – you are God's temple – but what PART of you? Your brain, your heart, your works, what?

1 Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you...

None of those things. The temple DOES NOT REPRESENT YOUR HEART! I know some people say it does, but they made that up. This is what the Bible says. Demand SCRIPTURAL proof of what something signifies from your teachers – only the Bible can explain the Bible.

2 Corinthians 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

With these verses, we see that tabernacle, temple, house and building are all symbols of the same thing; your body. But you have more than one body; your present body, and your future spiritual body. Your current body is temporary; it's prone to decay. But your next body is not – it will be a permanent, enduring body.

Moses built a temporary house for God in the wilderness; It was called a tabernacle – a temporary house. It worked, but it wasn't the lasting structure God intended to build.

1 Chronicles 17:5 For I have not dwelt in an HOUSE since the day that I brought up Israel unto this day; but have gone from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another.

Notice how God contrasts HOUSE from TENT. He knows the difference! The tabernacle that Moses built was MEANT to be replaced by a better temple one day – a permanent one. And when Solomon built him such a house, it was NEVER called a tabernacle. It was meant to be a permanent house. But even that house wasn't the ultimate house God intended to build;

Acts 7:48-49 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?

And as the other scriptures answer, WE are that place; the ultimate, permanent home of God. But we're not that place yet! We are still not a permanent home for God. We are at best a temporary home – since we're only going to live a century or so if we're lucky anyway. And we're a home that is subject to decay, both physical and moral, so God can't get too attached to us, just as He wasn't too attached to the old tabernacle. Our bodies, today, are the fulfillment of the OLD tabernacle.

Our bodies tomorrow, when God's seed remains in us and we cannot sin; when we have a NEW body, we will be a NEW house for God; a house that is permanent, enduring, incorruptible; a TEMPLE, and no longer a mere tabernacle. And so the temple of Solomon represents what our bodies WILL be, just as the tabernacle of Moses represents what our bodies now are. That is a vital key, which we'll deal with in due time.

Hebrews 3:6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

For now we're just a tent to God; a nice enough shelter to go backpacking through Yosemite, but not someplace you'd want to settle down and raise a family; but IF we hold fast to the end, we will be God's HOUSE. Our bodies are His tent; our future bodies will be His house.

2 Corinthians 5:2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:

SIZE OF THE TEMPLE

Since the person we are striving to be today is essentially the person we will become, most of the things in the tabernacle and in the temple are the same. There are a few changes which all mean something, but for now let's focus on the common symbols and explain them first.

The temple was 20 cubits wide, 30 tall, and 60 long. (1 Kings 6:2). What that is in modern measurements is unimportant for now, in the units in which God measured it, its footprint was 20x60. Now lengthwise, it was divided up by the veil into the holy place, and the most holy place. The holy of holies was 20 cubits long and on the other side of the veil the rest of the holy place was 40 cubits. (verses 17-20)

It is generally agreed that Adam was created about 4000 years before Christ's death; as it happens, it was almost exactly 4000 years, but that's another article. The point being, mankind was blocked off from direct access to God for 4000 years; we didn't have a high priest touched with the feeling of our infirmities, no one to make intercession for us, and we were strictly forbidden from entering the holy of holies. Even the high priest only entered once a year, and then it was so fogged up with incense he couldn't see anything.

Hebrews 9:8 The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not YET made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: [See also verse 3]

Then, 4000 years from creation, the veil was torn right down the middle. All of a sudden, mankind had access directly to the throne room of God (Hebrews 9:3, 8). It can't be an accident that after 40 centuries of being behind a veil we broke through into the holy of holies; and that after 40 cubits in the temple, one arrives in the holy of holies.

Nor can it be an accident that 20 centuries of the New Testament era are to go by before the return of Christ and the beginning of the millennium, while the holy of holies is exactly 20 cubits long. When Christ returns we'll have no more need for a temple ourselves; we'll BE the temple. There will be a physical temple for awhile – Described at length in Ezekiel 40-48 – for the benefit of the second resurrection people, but the temple of Solomon will have been fulfilled in us.

Now in front of the temple was a porch; adding exactly 10 cubits to the length of the temple. Can it be an accident that the millennium will add 10 centuries to the previous 60, making the whole structure 70 cubits long, just as the plan of God for dealing with the firstfruits is 70 centuries long? The numbers overlay so perfectly with the plan of God that it's difficult to argue.

The temple is our body; and in the sense that all of man shares the same body, the lifespan of man is 70 centuries; can it be an accident that David says “The days of our years are threescore years and ten” (Psalms 90:10) – just as the temple, our body, is threescore and ten cubits long?