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Solomon’s temple was preceded by the tabernacle. The two structures occupy a significant place in the Old Testament. Between them, they account for some forty chapters in the Old Testament, just concerning their construction and the plans for them. But the tabernacle, built after the exodus, had disappeared by the time of David. The temple built by Solomon was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC. Both were built as a representation of God’s dwelling in the midst of His people. At the beginning of His instructions for the building of the tabernacle, God said, “Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst” (Ex. 25:8). At the beginning of the account of the building of Solomon’s temple, God said, “I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel” (1 Kings 6:13). Solomon confirmed this in his opening statement as he prepared to dedicate the completed temple: “I have indeed built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever” (8:13).
Yet neither structure was more than a representation of God’s dwelling among Israel. Solomon recognized this in his dedication of the temple. First, he called into question the adequacy of the temple when he said: “Will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built” (v. 27). He then confirmed that heaven was God’s true dwelling place by saying, “Listen in heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive” (v. 30).
Why, then, the tabernacle and the temple? If they were to be no more than temporary representations of God’s dwelling with His people, why have them at all? For all the time from Adam to Moses, there was no such representation constructed, because God did not order one to be made. The purpose for both the tabernacle and the temple is found in the fact that it was at this point that God called a particular nation to be His own. This nation God identified as His firstborn son (Ex. 4:22). God dwells with His son, and the two structures represent that reality. The tabernacle served that purpose as long as Israel was on the move in the wilderness and as Israel was settling in the land of promise. Once God had brought the nation to a peaceful settlement, completed by the time of the reign of David, the time had come for the temple, a more permanent representation of God’s dwelling among His people.
before the tabernacle and the temple
The tabernacle and the temple represent God’s dwelling among His people. There is more to the representation than that simple idea, however. Consider the tabernacle. It was a tent, reminding the people that God dwelled among them. But it also restricted the people’s access to God. The Levites and the priests served as representatives of the people. But even their access to God was limited. Their service was restricted to the court of the tabernacle and the Holy Place. The Most Holy Place was separated by a curtain. Only the high priest could enter behind that curtain, and only on the Day of Atonement. That curtain, or veil, was made with cherubim worked into it (Ex. 26:31). A similar veil was part of Solomon’s temple (2 Chron. 3:14). That fact takes us back to the garden of Eden after Adam and Eve had been sent away. God placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden to block the way to the Tree of Life. From Adam to Moses, the way of direct access to God remained blocked. God reached out to those whom He chose, but there was no easy, regular way of access. The veil in the tabernacle, and later the temple, represented first that the way to the presence of God was still partially blocked. But the fact that the high priest was able to enter behind the veil indicated that there was a way to enter God’s presence. It was just that the way was not yet fully open.
from solomon’s temple to christ
The way to God’s presence was in a sense blocked for Israel by the destruction of Solomon’s temple. While Israel was in exile in Babylon, the sacrificial system was dead. That system was restored after the exile by the building of the second temple. Unlike Solomon’s temple, the dedication of the second temple was not accompanied by the visible presence of God (compare Ex. 40:34 and 1 Kings 8:10–11 with Ezra 6:16–18). This was to prepare Israel for the end of the sacrificial temple system. The people of Israel were left to look forward to a new and different administration of the presence of God with His people.
This change in administration is also foreshadowed in the vision given to Ezekiel of a new temple where God dwells among His people forever (Ezek. 43:7, 9). There are several views of what Ezekiel’s new temple refers to. Some hold that it was Ezekiel’s reflection on Solomon’s temple. Others think Ezekiel’s vision was intended to be a blueprint for the second temple. Still others think that it is a blueprint for the temple to be built during the millennial reign of Christ. There is clearly an eschatological aspect to the vision. The eschatological temple is not, however, intended to be a physical representation of God’s dwelling among His people. Instead, it represents a spiritual reality that was yet to come in Ezekiel’s day.
christ and the church
That spiritual reality is embodied in Christ. John makes this clear early in his gospel: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father” (John 1:14). As the glory of God appeared in the tabernacle (Ex. 40:34) and in Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 8:10–11), so the glory of God’s only Son appeared in Christ. It is no longer Israel alone that is God’s firstborn, but Israel embodied in Christ. Further, Christ Himself makes this identification after cleansing the temple, when He speaks of the temple of His body (John 2:18–22).
Other New Testament authors built on this idea, identifying the church not only as the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12) but as the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16). Also, the church is identified as the temple of God, built on Christ the cornerstone with the foundation of the Apostles and the prophets (Eph. 2:18–22). Peter also referred to the church as the temple of God, built out of living stones wherein are offered spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:4–10). It is in this passage also that Peter identifies the church as the continuing Israel, applying the same terms to the church that were applied to Israel when God met with the people at Sinai (compare 1 Peter 2:9 with Ex. 19:5–6). It is this reality to which Ezekiel’s temple vision points.
the new heavens and the new earth
In the final chapters of Revelation, John links together all these images of God’s dwelling with His people. The new Jerusalem comes down out of heaven having the glory of God (Rev. 21:10–11). The new Jerusalem fulfills the city in the closing chapter of Ezekiel, for the name of that city was “The Lord Is There.” But there is no temple in that new Jerusalem. The time for physical temples is gone. The time for representations of God’s dwelling among His people is gone. Those were a shadow of things to come, but the substance is Christ (Col. 2:17). The reality of God’s dwelling among His people arrives with the new heavens and the new earth.
In the final chapter of Revelation, John links the beginning to the end, also showing the true fulfillment of Ezekiel’s final vision. For there in the new heavens and the new earth, the river of the water of life is flowing (compare Ezek. 47:1–12 with Rev. 22:1–2). What was lost in the original garden of Eden has been not only restored but expanded. God no longer walks in the garden in the cool of the day, for there is no night there (Rev. 22:5). God is constantly present with His people. There will no longer be a cloud obscuring the vision of God, but His people will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.
In the beginning, in the garden, man was driven from the presence of God because of his sin. Yet God held forth the promise of restoration in the promise of the seed of the woman. He strengthened that promise with His presence in the tabernacle and the temple. He brought it to the beginning of the end in the first advent of Christ. We now await the fulfillment of it all in the new garden, in the new city where there is no temple.