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A sanctuary complex that serves as a symbol of God’s presence with His people is a governing motif throughout the entire Bible. This theme begins in the creation account, in which the garden of Eden serves as a sanctuary where God meets with Adam, who is to labor as a priest. After the account of mankind’s fall into sin, God’s presence with His people is symbolized by various types of sanctuaries, such as the tabernacle and the first temple erected under Solomon. The Levitical priests serve and lead the worship of the Lord in these set-apart complexes. The Lord meets with His people there, often taking on the appearance of the glory cloud (Ex. 40:34–35). Simply put, the theophany of the shekinah glory dwelling in a temple is a picture of God dwelling with His people.
Unsurprisingly, the prophets of Israel employ this temple motif in their teaching of the people of their day (forth-telling) and in their predictive preaching (fore-telling). A good example of this type of thematic proclamation can be seen in the book of Ezekiel.
judgment in Ezekiel
Like many of the other prophets, Ezekiel pronounces that judgment would come soon upon the kingdom of Judah because of the people’s sins. A sign of that coming judgment is the departure of the glory cloud from the temple in Ezekiel 9–11. In Ezekiel 9:3, we read that the glory cloud leaves the Most Holy Place from on top of the ark of the covenant and then stands on the threshold of the Holy Place (see 10:4). From there, the glory cloud departs to the east gate or entrance to the outer part of the temple complex (vv. 18–19). Finally, the shekinah glory lifts up and hovers over the mountain east of the city of Jerusalem, which is the Mount of Olives (11:22–23). In other words, the prophet Ezekiel portrays the glory cloud’s leaving the sanctuary and Jerusalem as a sign that the temple and the city have ceased to be the seats of the gracious presence of the Lord with His people.
In Ezekiel, the presence of God remains on the top of the Mount of Olives while judgment comes upon the city in the form of the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in 586 BC.
restoration in Ezekiel
Ezekiel’s prophecy, like that of many of the other writing prophets of Israel, begins with a message of judgment but concludes with a proclamation of restoration. Part of the revival predicted by the prophet is that a new Davidic King will arise, an everlasting covenant will be enacted, and a new and final temple will appear (37:24–28). As a sign of that renewal, the prophet prophesies that the glory cloud will return in the same way that it had left, coming from the Mount of Olives in the east through the eastern gateway into the Most Holy Place. There the glory of the Lord will fill the temple (43:1–5). God’s presence will one day return to His people. Other Old Testament prophets, such as Haggai and Zechariah, make similar predictions of a future, final temple in which God will eternally be present with His people (Hag. 2:6–9; Zech. 6:9–15).
fulfillment of the restoration prophecy
Reformed theology understands that the fulfillment of the temple-restoration prophecies has been inaugurated in the first coming of Jesus Christ and will be completed at His second coming. This is often called “the already and the not yet” eschatological view. In the first coming of Christ, Jesus identifies Himself with the temple (John 2:18–22) and in fact declares that He is greater than the physical temple of Herod in Jerusalem: “I tell you, something greater than the temple is here” (Matt. 12:6). He is the restored temple that is housing the divine presence. The Apostle John declares that Jesus “became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory” (John 1:14). The Greek word for “dwelt” is the common word for “tabernacled”; Jesus is now the tabernacle in which God manifests His glorious presence, and in a greater way than God ever did in a physical sanctuary. He is the true presence of the Almighty God. During the entire church age, between the first and second comings of Christ, the church is envisioned as a new temple of God throughout the earth (1 Cor. 3:16–17; 2 Cor. 3:16). The church is a spiritual temple both in its performance, such as worship, and in its construction (it is yet being built; 1 Peter 2:4–5). Although the Apostle Paul applies the temple concept to each believer (1 Cor. 6:19), the dominant application in the New Testament is to the church in covenant (Eph. 2:19–22). The church, in other words, is a holy dwelling place for God’s glory.
These initial fulfillments of Old Testament temple prophecy in Christ and in the church culminate in a climactic realization in the new heavens and the new earth. In his visions of the eternal city of Jerusalem, the Apostle John sees this final sanctuary: “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Rev. 21:22–23). John further says that in his vision he heard a loud voice coming from the throne in heaven, saying: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (v. 3). Thus, the biblical temple motif finds its glorious climax in a new Jerusalem where an eternal temple—that is, the very presence of God—will be located.