A few of you have been around to my house. I have to confess that it’s now been three years and I still haven’t put up most of the framed pictures I have. I suppose I still see my stay as temporary, and I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to stay in Malaysia.
But imagine for a moment that you came around to my house after I asked you to take off your shoes (I am Asian after all), you walked in to find that my floor was gold. The walls are also gold and there are beautifully ornate carvings everywhere to be seen of little angels.
Well, it’d be pretty strange, wouldn’t it?
I’ve seen a few decorations in SSF and in other furniture stores around Johor where I’ve thought to myself, that’s pretty disgusting, and gold ornaments are definitely out of fashion.
Why do we shy away from it though? Isn’t it because it’s opulent? We tend to shy away from things that show off our wealth. We don’t like those of obvious displays of wealth, do we?
But here, we see this in the Temple, and rather than shying away from it, we should see it in a different light. You see God deserves our best, and He is worthy, and so this opulence and ostentatious display of riches is somehow fitting.
Now, I’m not going to read out the two chapters, but you’re probably wondering what we can learn from these chapters filled with dimensions.
2 Timothy 3:16, one of my teenage memory verses, says “All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training”. That’s all scripture. All these measurements. All the names in the genealogies and lists of Old Testament laws. How is that useful for us now in the 21st century?
I also remember once being told that every passage in the bible can be used to teach the gospel and points to Christ. And you’d be right to wonder that as you read through these chapters this last week.
And this is where I miss Erik. I remember that he gave some great sermons on the tabernacle and the measurements of the temple and looked at the topic in a completely different way from the way I would, but I’m no architectural expert. So I’m going to take a look at a few points that we can take from these two chapters.
PRAY
John 2:13-22
Jesus Cleanses the Temple
The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple,c and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 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.
I want to come back to this passage, because the connection is not altogether clear, but hopefully will become clearer. I am going to kind of work my way backward through the passage.
Firstly, I want you to take a look at this recreation of the Temple built by Solomon. Now think of the most impressive buildings in the world today.
Here are a few:
Taj Mahal — Agra, India
Angkor Wat — Siem Reap, Cambodia
St. Basil’s Cathedral — Moscow, Russia
Sagrada Família — Barcelona, Spain
What’s the difference?
I don’t know whether you spotted what I was getting at, but the outside of the temple is positively plain, isn’t it? I am sure that the interior of each of these buildings is impressive, but the outside is what’s considered beautiful.
If we take a closer look at the measurements and the decor of the temple, we should notice that the measurements are meant to denote perfection and the decor is to show us just how special God’s dwelling place is. It’s not for showing off to the outside world. And this is an important lesson for us.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
You see, the Holy Spirit dwells within us. It is not our outward beauty that God cares about. The fruit of the Spirit is not about how nice your hair looks or how well-toned your body is. God is changing and molding us to perfection within.
The second thing I want to highlight is something I talked about two weeks ago.
Despite being the wisest man that ever lived, Solomon is far from perfect.
At the start of chapter 7, the narrative stops to give us a little information about Solomon’s palace. Here’s a diagram showing the difference. The Temple took 7 years to build, but Solomon’s palace took 13 years to build. It was about one and a half times as long, three times wider, and just as high. And then he also builds the Hall of Pillars which is the same size as his palace, and the Hall of Thrones and then another Hall for his Egyptian wife.
The bible is silent as to any judgement on these buildings, but it is clear that this insertion into chapters 6 and 7, that there is a comparison being made, and we know that part of Solomon’s failing came from his foreign wives.
You see, we all have wisdom, but the fact that we are selfish and sinful and weak means that we often give into temptation and ignore that wisdom. This is why as Christians, we have no right to lord our godliness over Non-Christians. We often know that things are wrong, and yet we still do them.
Here, we see more signs of Solomon’s weaknesses.
So, before I get to the last point, a little background.
As Craig reminded us last week, King David was not given the honour of building the temple because his hands were too covered in blood.
There is a great scene that has always stuck with me that you can read from 2 Samuel 7. David looks around and he says, “I’ve conquered all my enemies and I live in a house of cedar” God dwells in a tent. Let me build Him a great house. David was a man after God’s own heart and we see time and again the passion he has for God.
That night, God comes to him and says, you will not build me a house, I will build you a house… in which he’s referring to David’s legacy, and eventually God’s eternal king from the line of David.
And we pick it up from verse 12.
2 Samuel 7:12-16
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’”
I’m going to come back to our passage and look at Chapter 6 verse 11 and see whether you can spot the difference.
Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon, “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. And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel.”
Now immediately, if we know the history of Israel, alarm bells should be ringing in your head.
We’ve heard this before.
In fact, it’s very much an echo of the Mosaic Covenant.
Exodus 19:3-6
“Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
And then God gives Moses the Ten Commandments and the law. And what happens straight afterwards?
The Israelites build a golden calf and worship it.
So zooming out, we have this great tension between the Abrahamic covenant, where God promises to make Abraham’s people into a great nation and bless the world through them, and the Mosaic covenant, which repeats the promises, except puts a condition on it.
We get the same here. God has promised to establish the throne of David’s offspring forever, but with Solomon, he puts a conditional clause in that.
How does that work? Well, it only works if we have a God who knows what’s going to happen. And it only works if we know that there will be an offspring of David that will listen to God’s voice and not disobey his commandments. We have seen that person is not Solomon.
We know who that perfect person is.
Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
You see this temple is destroyed. And the next, and the next after that.
Jesus was talking about himself as the final and eternal temple. And this is who we are looking forward to in this promise.
Jesus IS the final and eternal temple. That is where we find the ultimate sacrifice made for us.
The Temple was where God dwelt amongst his people. The real people are not a physical race, but a spiritual family. We are spiritual brothers and sisters, and so it should not be surprising that our temple, the place where we meet God will be a spiritual place. Jesus is our temple. We make our sacrifices in Jesus, and we meet God in Jesus.
PRAY
