So far in this series we have studied Solomon’s wisdom and his wealth. Today we are going to look into his God given assignment. We will focus on the temple that Solomon built for God. The story actually begins much earlier back in Exodus, when God instructs Moses to erect a tent as His dwelling place. It was called the Tabernacle. It was a mobil church that the Israelites carried with them in the wilderness. When they stayed in a place, they set it up and when they moved on they took it down and carried it with them. Exodus 40: 1-8 “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “On the first day of the first month you shall erect the tabernacle of the tent of meeting. 3 And you shall put in it the ark of the testimony, and you shall screen the ark with the veil. 4 And you shall bring in the table and arrange it, and you shall bring in the lamp stand and set up its lamps. 5 And you shall put the golden altar for incense before the ark of the testimony, and set up the screen for the door of the tabernacle. 6 You shall set the altar of burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, 7 and place the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it. 8 And you shall set up the court all around, and hang up the screen for the gate of the court.” Beginning in Exodus 35 God had instructed Moses what to make to go inside the Tabernacle. So Moses does what God commanded him to do, in making all the furniture and then the tabernacle to house them. Here is an image of the Tabernacle.
Notice the tent wall around the entire structure that created the outer court, the main tent that created the Holy Place
and then the most inner part within the Holy Place called the Holy of Holies. This is where the Ark of the Covenant was placed and the glory of the Lord
dwelt between the wings of the cherubim on the top of the Ark called the mercy seat. Inside the Ark of the Covenant
there were three things. The tablets of the 10 commandments, a jar of manna and Aaron’s rod that budded. Aaron was the brother of Moses and the first Levitical priest. God caused his staff to bud in order to show those who opposed him as a leader that God had chosen him. If you back out of the Holy of Holies, you are in the Holy Place. In the Holy Place there was three pieces of furniture. The first was the seven-branched lamp stand.
It was to give light in this area for the priests. It was in the shape of a tree and was to never go out. The priests would refill the oil twice a day to ensure there would always be light in the Holy Place. The Table of Shewbread
was the next item in this area. It held several bowls and other utensils, as well as, the shewbread. The bread was a food offering to God and was to be eaten by the priests as they entered the Holy Place. Twelve new loaves were placed on the table every Sabbath. The Altar of Incense
is the last item in the Holy Place. This altar was used for burning a unique blend of incense, once in the morning and once in the evening. Once you leave the Holy Place, you are in the outer court area. There were two items located there. The Altar of Burnt Offering, called the Brazen Altar and the Laver. The Laver
was a large container of water used by the priests to wash and cleanse themselves before offering a sacrifice and also after before entering the Holy Place.
The Altar of Burnt Offering or Brazen Altar
was the altar used to sacrifice animals as a symbolic atonement of sin for the Children of Israel.
As you can see there is a wall with an entryway that separates each area from the next. As the priest moved from the outer court toward the Holy Place and then into the Holy of Holies, he would be getting progressively closer to the presence of God. The Tabernacle was God’s dwelling place from the time Moses constructed it, for about the next 450 years. Even after Israel entered the promised land and established a permanent home for themselves, they still used the mobil Tabernacle as God’s dwelling. Then King David decides to change things up. 1 Chronicles 17:1-12 “1 Now when David lived in his house, David said to Nathan the prophet, “Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.” 2 And Nathan said to David, “Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you.” 3 But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, 4 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: It is not you who will build me a house to dwell in.” David has a desire to build a permanent structure for the house of the Lord. The tent that David mentions to Nathan was the Tabernacle. God tells Nathan to tell David that He hasn’t asked David to build a permanent house for His dwelling, because David had been a man of war and had shed too much blood. But God will allow His house to be built eventually.
1 Chronicles 17:11-12 “11 When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. 12 He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever.” It is David’s son Solomon who is chosen to build the permanent house of the Lord called the Temple. 1 Kings 6:11-13 “11 Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon, 12 “Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father. 13 And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel.” Again, as we studied two weeks ago, God reminds Solomon that he should walk according to God’s statutes. Not just believe they are true, but take action with them. To actually live by them. 1 Kings 6:37-38 “37 In the fourth year the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, in the month of Ziv. 38 And in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its parts, and according to all its specifications. He was seven years in building it.” Nothing had changed in the basic layout from the Tabernacle to the Temple. It was just constructed as a permanent building to replace the tabernacle tent. Here is an image of Solomon’s Temple
Solomon’s Temple was eventually destroyed by the Babylonians and then 50 years later a second temple was built with the same layout as Solomon’s Temple and the Tabernacle.
It was this Second Temple
that would have been in place when Jesus was in Jerusalem. It did not have the same lavish construction and gold coverings as Solomon’s original temple had...but it was impressive, nonetheless. It was at this temple that Jesus caused an uproar when He ran off the money changers In John, chapter 2. They demanded to know what gave Him the right to do such a thing. They wanted a supernatural sign of his authority. John 2:18-22 “18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.” Jesus spoke of Himself as the temple. But until His resurrection, not even His own disciples understood what He was saying. In Hebrews we learn that the tabernacle that Moses made was an earthly copy of the temple in heaven. Hebrews 8:5 “5 They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” There was a much deeper spiritual understanding that God wanted to illustrate, besides just performing ritual religious actions. Let’s examine all the ways that the pattern of the tabernacle and the temple show us a revelation of Jesus The Savior.
It begins with a very unusual statement. Just before Jesus was crucified, He told His disciples that He was going away and that they would know where He was going and to follow Him. John 14:5-6 “5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” This statement is much more than just a catchy thing for Jesus to say. He was making another reference to himself as the temple. The three entrances that led further into the temple, were known to the priests as The Way, The Truth and The Life. Notice again how Jesus says the only way to the Father is “through” Him.
Some of the next sections of this message are taken from notes by Dr J. Vernon McGee as he discusses worship. Dr McGee was a pastor who I heard on the radio as a child and his ministry continues to this day despite the fact that he passed on to heaven in 1988. His ministry of Bible teaching was known as “Through The Bible” and is still going strong today in 160 countries and over 100 languages. First, the gate of the court corresponds to Christ as “the way.” The gate led into the outer court from the outside. It was the first threshold crossed, and it separated the sinner on the outside from all within. The way to God today is by way of the cross. Christ is that way. He is the way to God. It is all important that God be approached in the right way, for there is a right way and there is a wrong way. Second, the door of the Tabernacle corresponded to Christ who is “the truth.” The door led from the outer court to the Holy Place. The priest, having made the proper offering, must pass
through the door of the Tabernacle if he would worship God. So today, God is worshiped in truth through Christ. God is worshiped today anywhere (in spirit), but the way is not just any way. He is worshiped “in truth,” which corresponds to the Holy Place in the Tabernacle. Third, the veil corresponds to Christ as “the life.” The veil separated the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place. It was the veil that was rent in twain from top to the bottom. A person who enters by faith in Christ into the Holy Place today is in the Holy of Holies. True worship now brings the worshiper into the very presence of God. But it must still be offered in truth, for the door of the Tabernacle was not rent in twain. It’s not only the entryways that represent Jesus, it is also the items within the temple as well.
The first thing a priest would do upon entering the Temple was offer a sacrifice on the Brazen Alter. A sacrifice must be made for sin. Jesus Himself became the ultimate perfect sacrifice for our sins when He died on the cross. Hebrews 10:11-12 “11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,” The next thing that a priest must do before entering the Holy Place is wash in the Laver. This is symbolic of baptism, just as the resurrection of Jesus is the symbolic raising out of the water of baptism into new life. Jesus gives us living water.
Colossians 2:12 “12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.” John 4:13-14 “13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Once we are cleansed from our sins through the sacrifice of Jesus and raised with Him into new life symbolized by baptism, we may enter the Holy Place. There we encounter Jesus again. The Lamp Stand that gives us light is how Jesus is described in John. John 1:4 “4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 8:12 “12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” The Table of Shewbread is the next thing we encounter and we see Jesus as the Bread of Life. John 6:35 “35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” The Altar of Incense is a picture of prayer, as incense represents prayer going up to God. Jesus is our mediator. He prays to the Father on our behalf continually.
Romans 8:33-34 “33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” And finally we enter the Holy of Holies and find Jesus as the Mercy Seat. The Mercy Seat was the top covering of the Ark of the Covenant.
Romans 3:23-25 “23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. The word propitiation in the original Greek means Mercy Seat. Jesus gave His blood so that we could obtain mercy from the Father. In every way Jesus has provided a new covenant and a new way for us to enter the presence of the Father. No longer is a temple required. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. You can only get to the Father through Him.
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