31 July, 2023
Post By : Admin
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DIGGING DEEP NO. 996 August 01, 2023 The Tabernacle and the Temple of GOD… Your Body Is a Temple. 2 Chronicles 15:3-6 NKJV
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3 For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law;
4 but when in their trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel and sought Him, He was found by them.
5 And in those times, there was no peace to the one who went out, nor to the one who came in, but great turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the lands.
6 So nation was destroyed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity.
Desired Learning Objective:
- What is the significance of the Temple of GOD amongst HIS people?
- What similarities are present between the three-tiered design of creation and the three-part design of Solomon’s temple?
- What are the consequences for those who deny the majesty of GOD and His creation or defile GOD’s temple?
- If it took King Solomon seven years to build GOD’s Temple, why did the Jews confront Jesus saying “it took 46 years to build this temple”?
QUESTION #1: What is the significance of the Temple of GOD amongst HIS people?
Exodus 25:1-9 NKJV
Offerings for the Sanctuary
25 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring Me an [a]offering. From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take My offering. 3 And this is the offering which you shall take from them: gold, silver, and bronze; 4 blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen, and goats’ hair; 5 ram skins dyed red, [b]badger skins, and acacia wood; 6 oil for the light, and spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense; 7 onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate. 8 And let them make Me a sanctuary,[c] that I may dwell among them. 9 According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it.
ANSWER #1: The Temple of GOD operates as a method of divine technology, a physical structure that allows for spiritual communication between GOD and His people. Since we couldn’t go to heaven, GOD came down to us, as He did in the Garden of Eden, so that GOD may dwell among his people [Genesis 3:8].
BONUS QUESTION #1: What are the significances and differences between altars, tents, tabernacles, temples, and shrines?
Suggested further Bible passages – Gen.12: 1- 8; Gen.28: 10- 17; Ex.33: 7; 2Kgs.17: 29- 36.
BONUS ANSWER #1: The tents and tabernacles were pitched; assembled and temporary.
Altars, temples, and shrines were built, meant to be permanent and a spiritual technology that allowed for communication between the physical and spiritual realms. Temples are structures that sacred structures that allow for the sacrificing, worship, and reverence of a deity. Shrines MUST enclose idols, figurines, images, artifacts, and sacred items necessary to perform rituals to a deity.
QUESTION #2: What similarities are present between the three-tiered design of creation and the three-part design of Solomon’s temple?
Genesis 1:26-27 NKJV
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over [a]all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Genesis 2:1-3 NKJV
1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
Suggested further Bible passages – 1Kgs.5: 13- 14; 1Kgs.6: 1- 4; 9- 14; 16; 29- 30; 38; 1Kgs.8: 22- 23; 26- 30; 2Chron.7: 1-9.
ANSWER #2: Some similarities are the three-tiered design of creation (sky, land, and sea) that GOD completes on the seventh day (Genesis 1:1-2:2) with the three-part design of Solomon’s temple (Holy of Holies, the Holy Place, and the Courtyard/Outercourt) completed after seven years (1 Kings 6). What took GOD seven days to complete took Solomon and his men seven years to complete. With seven days for the dedication of the altar and seven days of feasts. The number seven is very scary to GOD.
Just as the walls of the temple of GOD, both the inner and outer sanctuaries were layered with carved figures and images of heavenly (cherubim) and earthly depictions (palm trees, blossomed floors, and gold) of GOD’s majesty. So also, are the evidences of GOD’s majesty clearly visible in all creation, from the cosmos to the creations on the earth? And if you decide to enter and stay in GOD’s presence, you cannot help but appreciate the evidence of his majesty in all creation; but the unrighteous can see all his creation, but they cannot perceive GOD’s majesty within all created things.
QUESTION #3: What are the consequences for those who deny the majesty of GOD and His creation or defile GOD’s temple?
Suggested further Bible passages – 2Chron.7: 12- 22; Jh.2: 13- 22; Rom.1: 18-32; 1Cor.3: 16- 17.
ANSWER #3: Anybody who denies GOD’s majesty in His temple, on earth, or amongst creation, He will leave them to the “lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves”. As such, the doctrine of “my body, my choice” that the world preaches is demonic and a clear sign that these people have been denied by GOD because they chose to deny His majesty within His temple.
However, if any believer defiles the temple of GOD, which is their body (under the new covenant “New Testament” of Jesus Christ) GOD, the Father Himself, will “destroy” that person!
SIDE REMARK: Remember John 10:10; Satan only shows up to “steal, kill, and destroy”. But because Satan knows the scriptures and he knows that nobody can destroy better than GOD, including himself, Satan’s goal isn’t against believers is to have them defiles the temple of GOD and if we fail to humble ourselves, confess our sins, ask for GOD’s forgiveness and repent from our wicked ways then the “accuser of the brethren” will compel GOD to act on His word (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).
QUESTION #4: If it took King Solomon seven years to build GOD’s Temple, why did the Jews confront Jesus saying “it took 46 years to build this temple”?
The history of the temple in Jerusalem is very interesting and complex. First, God had Solomon build the temple. The temple Solomon built was constructed over a seven years (actually seven years and six months) period from 967 BC to 960 BC.
But after many years of putting up with the people of Israel’s disobedience, the Lord brought judgment upon the nation of Judah by permitting the Babylonians to destroy Solomon’s temple in the year 587 BC. At that time the people of Israel were also carried away captive into Babylon.
After a grievous 70-year period, the Lord turned again the captivity of His people Israel as Cyrus, the king of the Medes and the Persians took the kingdom of Babylon in the year 539 BC. One of Cyrus’ first tasks was issuing a proclamation that set the Jews free and allowed them to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. It was during this time, the time after the captivity that the temple was rebuilt by a man named Zerubbabel.
The temple Zerubbabel was tasked to build faced many obstacles, including many adversaries of the Jews that did not want to see the temple rebuilt at all. A few years after the temple reconstruction began in the year 537 BC, the enemies of Israel wrote a letter to a new king of the Medes and Persians. A king that was not as favorable towards Israel. They made several accusations against the Jews and the king sided with them and commanded that the temple’s construction be halted
Suggested further Bible passages – Ez.4: 20- 24; Ez.5: 1- 17; Ez.5: 16; Jh.2: 19- 21; Ez.4: 1- 5.
ANSWER #4: It took 46 years to build GOD’s temple in Jerusalem because it was the temple built by Zerubbabel under the command of King Cyrus (Medes and the Persians) and King Darius (Persia).
REVIEW Desired Learning Objective:
- What is the significance of the Temple of GOD amongst HIS people?
- What similarities are present between the three-tiered design of creation and the three-part design of Solomon’s temple?
- What are the consequences for those who deny the majesty of GOD and His creation or defile GOD’s temple?
- If it took King Solomon seven years to build GOD’s Temple, why did the Jews confront Jesus saying “it took 46 years to build this temple”?
QUESTIONS?