V) The Abode of God

No 1

This is the first of several studies we will be doing on the place where God lives. Well you say, God is in heaven; you’re right, He is in heaven. But in the Bible we are taught that He dwelt in tabernacles, in temples and now, His Spirit dwells in the hearts of true believers. We will look at the significance of each of these places and see how they work out in God’s plan for His people. We will also look at the details that God gave for the building of these various places of worship beginning with Moses in the wilderness, then Solomon’s temple endeavour and its different stages over the centuries in the past and how it will be in the future. You see, worship is far more important to God than service. In Isaiah 6, we read of a vision that he saw of the glory of the Lord and we read “1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2 Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.” These seraphim or angels demonstrated the fact that worship is more important to God than service. Each angel had 6 wings – 4 for worship (face and feet) and 2 for service (flying). A similar vision was seen by John in Revelation 4 verses 8, 9 “And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” Our God is awesome and we are His worshippers “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:24.

No 2

(The Tabernacle Part 1)

The word tabernacle means “a temporary dwelling, a tent”. In Jewish times, it was a movable tent-temple which Moses erected for the service of God according to the pattern that God Himself gave him. It was meant for worship and a meeting place for God. In Exodus 29:42b, the Bible says “…at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD: where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee.” The plan or pattern of the Tabernacle was given to Moses but he entrusted the actual building of it to Bezaleel and Aholiab who were specially gifted with wisdom and artistic skill (Exod 35:30-35). Moses asked the people to contribute to build the Tabernacle and they were so generous that: “Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing. 7 For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much.” (Exod 36:6,7). About the Tabernacle was a court or enclosure that contained the Altar of sacrifice and the Laver. Inside the Tabernacle, there was the Golden Altar of incense, the Golden Lampstand with its seven lamps, the Table of Shewbread, and lastly, the Ark of the Covenant that contained the two tablets of the Law, the pot of manna and Aaron’s rod that budded. How joyous it must have been for God to see His people so dedicated and thankful for bringing them out of Egypt. When the building of the Tabernacle was finally completed, Moses and the people of Israel witnessed something grand and magnanimous: “34 Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 35 And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.” (Exodus 40:34,35). What an awesome God we have!!

No 3

(The Tabernacle Part 2)

When the Tabernacle was completed (Exod 32), the Jews were at the foot of Mount Sinai. The Lord had anticipated moving His people around so the Tabernacle was made as a portable worship centre. When the Jews arrived at the wilderness of Zin near the land of Canaan they did not want to go in because they listened to ten spies that had been sent by Moses to spy the land. The ten spies had found its inhabitants to be giants and were afraid. Their problem was not fear, they just did not trust God to deliver them; the other two spies, Joshua and Caleb wanted to go in and conquer the land because they trusted God. Of the 12 spies, one from each tribe, we remember only the names of Joshua and Caleb; can you name just one of the other 10 spies? So, from that point, they wandered for forty years in the wilderness and had made camp in about forty different locations. Can you just imagine the logistics of more than a million people moving around and camping in the wilderness? Only God could have done that; unfortunately, He did it to get rid of those who had not trusted Him back at Zin “But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.” (Numbers 14:32, 33). The Tabernacle had to be portable and the tribe of Levi had the charge of moving it from one place to the next; this in itself was not a small task. There were several wagons of utensils, cloths, boards and pillars to move. Some of the items such as the Ark of the Covenant, the table of incense, the table of shewbread, etc had to be carried on foot with staves. The Tabernacle was God’s portable abode until His people were finally able to go into the Promised Land and build Him a permanent place of worship called the Temple.

No 4

(The First Temple)

Once David had conquered the land that God had promised he would conquer, David’s thoughts turned to the fact that God had no permanent dwelling – the Bible says “And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the LORD had given him rest round about from all his enemies; That the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains” (2 Samuel 7:1,2); David wanted to build a suitable house for the God of Israel. The Tabernacle, Israel’s centre of worship had moved around during the various battles since Joshua’s time and the Ark of the Covenant had even ended up in the hands of the Philistines (1 Samuel 5). Phinehas’ wife, who gave birth to a son during that time, named him Ichabod which means “The Glory is departed from Israel”. All these thoughts weighed heavily on David’s mind so he consulted with Nathan the prophet and they both agreed that building a house for God was a good idea “And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in thine heart; for the LORD is with thee.” (2 Samuel 7:3). During that same night, the Lord spoke to Nathan in a dream and told him to say the following words to David “And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. “He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.” (2 Samuel 7:12, 13). Some time went by and David spoke these words to his son, Solomon “But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight.” (1 Chron 22:8). Solomon was to build the permanent house of God.

No 5

(Solomon’s temple)

As we saw in our last study on this subject, David wanted to build the house of God but because he had shed blood (1 Chron 22:8), Solomon was given the task by God (2 Sam 7:13). However, David made many preparations and amassed much material for the eventual temple that was to house the Shekinah glory of God. We see in 1 Chronicles 22 exactly what David gathered “2…..he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God. 3 And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the joinings; and brass in abundance without weight. 4 Also cedar trees in abundance: for the Zidonians and they of Tyre brought much cedar wood to David. 14 a hundred thousand talents of gold, and a million talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight”. This wasn’t to be just some ordinary house, it was to be the house of God; no expense was spared. When David declared Solomon king, he gave him instructions that had served him well during his lifetime. “I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man; 3 And keep the charge of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest” 1 Kings 2: 2,3.

Solomon began building the temple with the help of Hiram, king of Tyre who was David’s good friend and who supplied him with cypress logs and hewn stones. The actual building began “in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel” 1 King 6:1. Solomon built the temple on Mount Moriah, north of the ancient city of David according to the plans that David had given him (1 Chronicles 28:11-13). Solomon made sure that the location of the temple was free from noise; it was to be a holy place “And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.” 1 Kings 6:7. He made sure that the house of the Lord was worthy for Him to occupy it; it took him seven years to build it (1 Kings 6:38).

No 6

(The beginning of the end of Solomon’s Temple)

Solomon with the help of Hiram of Tyre and 183,000 workers built the temple using local limestone, cedar from Lebanon and very large amounts of silver and gold in seven years (1 Kings 5 to 9 and 2 Chronicles 2). Unfortunately, the demise of this magnificent building began when Solomon turned to idolatry and adultery. He would build idolatrous structures for the many foreign wives and concubines that he had “And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.” 1 King 11:3. Not long after this, the kingdom of Israel was divided – 10 northern tribes and 2 southern tribes; the temple was located in Jerusalem in the southern kingdom. Pharaoh Shishak of Egypt stole much gold and silver from the temple (1 Kings 14) in 910 BC. In 835 BC Joash king of Judah repaired the temple and brought a period of revival to the southern kingdom. Later, king Ahaz of Judah dismantled the temple and placed Syrian altars in the temple (2 Chron 28). Good king Hezekiah restored the temple in 716 BC and also brought a period of revival in Jerusalem but he later stripped the temple of gold to pay Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:16). King Josiah repaired the temple and brought about a semblance of national religious reform. The real end of Solomon’s temple came when King Nebuchadnezzar invaded Jerusalem and plundered and destroyed the temple. He stole the sacred vessels from the temple, he burnt the city and carried a remnant of princes into captivity to Babylon. The sacred vessels were placed in the temple of his god in Babylon (Dan 1:2). The great Jehovah God had blessed Solomon with wisdom and riches more that any other king ever “And men of all nations, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom, came to hear the wisdom of Solomon” (1 Kings 4:34). God has only one standard – HIS. Solomon did not obey this standard and he became a cynical and broken person. He is most likely the author of Ecclesiastes and in this book, we read of the vanity of worldly goods and the futility of pursuing them. He learned his lesson well because at the end of this book he gives one final piece of wisdom – “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. (Eccl 12: 13,14)

No 7

(The Second Temple)

The Babylonians who had plundered and destroyed Solomon’s temple were defeated by the Medo-Persians in 539 BC. We are now at a point in our study where the Jews have been in Babylon for 70 years and in Daniel 9, we read that this exile period was coming to an end. In the year 536 BC, the Medo-Persian king allowed the Jews to return to the land of Israel to build a second temple under the leadership of Zerubabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah and Joshua, the son of Josedech, the high priest (Hagg 1:1). “ 3 In the first year of Cyrus the king the same Cyrus the king made a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, Let the house be builded, the place where they offered sacrifices, and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid; the height thereof threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof threescore cubits; 4 With three rows of great stones, and a row of new timber: and let the expenses be given out of the king's house: 5And also let the golden and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took forth out of the temple which is at Jerusalem, and brought unto Babylon, be restored, and brought again unto the temple which is at Jerusalem, every one to his place, and place them in the house of God.” Ezra 6 : 3-5. Amid fierce opposition and delays, the second temple was finished after a 15-year delay in 515 BC. The Greeks defeated the Medo-Persians in 331 BC and Alexander the Great permitted that the city of Jerusalem with its temple be spared; unfortunately, not much information is available about the second temple. After the death of Alexander, many wars ensued and the kingdom of Greece was divided by into 4 parts according to 4 generals: Selucus, Ptolemy, Cassander and Lysimachus. In 175 BC, the Seleucid throne was taken by treachery by Antiochus Epiphanes and he desecrated the temple by killing a pig on the altar and sprinkled the juices throughout the sanctuary. In the apocryphal book of Macabbees, we read that the Jewish priests, under the leadership of Judas Maccabaeus, cleansed the temple and restored animal sacrifice in 165 BC.

No 8

(Herod’s Temple)

In our last study on the temple, we looked at the second temple that the Maccabees cleansed after Antiochus Epiphanes, the Greek had defiled it with impure sacrifices. The cleansing was completed in 164 BC and the temple actually served as a fortress against the Romans. The Jews were able to resist the siege of Pompey for 3 months in 63 BC. The building of Herod’s temple began in 19 BC and this gesture was more an attempt to reconcile the Jews to their Idumaean king than to glorify God. It was a magnificent structure made of cream-coloured stone and much gold.

The attitude of Jesus toward this temple was composed of two opposing features. On the one hand, Jesus considered it to be the house of His Father “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,” Matt 21:12. Jesus also preached that the temple and all that is in it was sanctified by the presence of God. “Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.” Matt 23: 17,21. On the other hand, Jesus relegated Herod’s temple to a very subordinate position in comparison to Himself. In Matthew 12:6, we read “But I say unto you, that in this place is one greater than the temple.” Jesus was by far greater than the temple because it had become the cover for the spiritual emptiness of Israel and Jesus said that His rejection by the Jews would bring about its destruction. “And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here! And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? ....there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” (Mark 13 :1,2). As history records, Titus and his armies destroyed the temple by fire in 70 AD and as the fire raged, it melted the gold inside the temple and the soldiers broke every stone to get at the gold leaving only a part of the foundation. This foundation remains even until today in Israel but there is an Islamic mosque built on it called the Dome of the Rock. The only place left for the Jews today is the Wailing Wall next to the mosque where they come to pray. Today, the Lord’s real temple is in a much more sacred place.

No 9

(The Present-day Temple)

Up till now we have seen that the God of the universe and the Creator of all things visible and invisible had dwelt in buildings made by man. The only visible sign of these buildings that is left today is the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem where devout Jews go to pray and to make supplication to God. Jesus changed the emphasis of the physical building to a spiritual one when He came to earth and preached the Gospel. As we know, His message was not welcomed by those who were in charge of spiritual things in those days in Israel – the Scribes, the Pharisees and the High Priests, so Jesus gave the new location of the temple of God to a woman of Samaria who had many husbands and was probably a prostitute. The Bible says in John 4: 21-24 “Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” God’s new abode was to be the hearts of believers.

Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, scolded them because they were misusing their bodies in impure practices and rituals “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” 1 Corinthians 3: 16, 17.

We sometimes forget that God indwells us and our conduct as His temples do not always reflect this reality. May we be as Paul who did realise this and said to the Corinthians “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” (1 Cor 9:27)

No 10

(The Tribulation Temple or Third Temple)

God’s present temple is in all believers as we saw in our last study. He is, of course, in heaven but when the Church, the Body of Christ will be raptured as indicated in 1 Thess 4: 13 – 17, an actual physical temple will be erected in Jerusalem as in Old Testament times. In the book of Daniel in chapter 9:27 the Bible reads “…And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease…” The “he” referred here is the antichrist who will come into the picture after the Rapture and for him to cease the sacrifices and oblations, this activity must be going on; otherwise the passage makes no sense.

Just as in the days of Haggai, the Levitical sacrifices of the Second Temple looked forward to the coming Messiah, in the days of the Third Temple, the book of Leviticus will look back in remembrance of the blood sacrifice of Christ. The next Jewish Temple must be built by the midpoint of the seven year tribulation period as indicated above. The antichrist will stop the kosher Levitical sacrifice of the Biblical Jews at that time and they will flee into the wilderness for the last part of the tribulation.

There is only one spot on which this temple can be built. When Israel won the six-day war and re-took the part of Jerusalem where the original temple was built, there was a question asked “Should we re-build the Third Temple?” Unfortunately, the third holiest place of Islam is located on the temple mount – the Omar Mosque or the Dome of the Rock. This edifice would have to be torn down and we all know what that means – all-out war in the Middle East. How will this happen?? When will this happen? These are questions even the best politicians aren’t able to answer. There is really only one sure thing – God has a plan and it will come to pass whatever the circumstances.