Many ancient civilizations in centuries past built houses to their gods in an attempt to worship through their ceremonial offerings and Israel was no different. Israel’s temple and its associated sacrificial system were linked closely with the Hebrew way of life and in return foundational to its identity. To recognize Israel’s distinctiveness, we must examine its place of worship and the ceremonial stipulations that accompanied it. What makes Israel, Israel includes the center of their worship, the role of the people in this civic adoration and the offerings related to that devotion. In this segment, we’ll be looking at the temple, its priests, and its sacrifices.
God’s Meeting Place
Prior to the building of the first temple, the Lord met with a representative of the people in various locations including Bethel or Mount Sinai. During the Exodus, Moses erected a tent outside the camp to meet with Yahweh which was called “the tent of meeting” (Exodus 33:7). This was the place where Moses met with God as mediator and often conversed with Yahweh to appeal to His mercy on behalf of rebellious Israel. Eventually, the instructions on building the tabernacle were given and the tent of meeting expanded with further attributes such as the outer court, the holy place and the holy of holies symbolizing the presence of God with His chosen people. Another important feature that was introduced to the nation was that the tabernacle was its set-up to allow for sacrifices to be made for sin offerings and burnt offerings. This portable temple would feature the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat and provide a model of the very throne room of God in heaven. The tabernacle was the place where God would deal with Israel’s unholiness and dwell among His people.
The Temple
Once Israel’s wilderness journey ended and that they settled in the land of Canaan, the tabernacle was eventually retired. Many years latter, David requested to build a house for His God in Jerusalem, but his desire was rejected and the responsibility to build the new dwelling place of Yahweh was placed upon David’s son, Solomon (2 Samuel 7:1-7; 1 Chronicles 17:1-15). The first temple was erected by King Solomon after his father’s David death. Solomon built the temple after the pattern of the tabernacle and modeled it as the place where God’s presence dwelt (1 Kings 8:27-29) and where atonement for Israel’s sins would be made. God had promised to put my name there forever (1 Kings 9:3).
The Warning
While the temple itself was symbolic of God being in the midst of the Israelites, and became the centrality of their worship, that presence was conditional upon their faithfulness. The Lord issued a warning that if they should turn away from Him and serve other gods, that this house will become a heap of ruins (1 Kings 9:6-9). Their ultimate problem was that they believed that the temple was the guarantee of God’s presence and favour, but that presence was not guaranteed in the temple, but through their obedience and holiness. The Israelites fell away from their God through the worship of other deities. Houses were built for these foreign gods, incense was burned to honour these deities, and they even sacrificed their own children on their altars. After sending prophets to plead with them to repent, they refused and the hammer of God’s judgement fell upon them in the form of the first temple being destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and Israel’s people taken into captivity (2 Kings 25:9, 13-19).
The Priesthood
Closely associated with the temple was the priesthood to undertake the ceremonial aspects of the worship. The priesthood was given to Israel through the Torah and God chose a particular line of the sons of Jacob, mainly the sons of Levi to care for this important function within the community. They were to wear holy garments (Exodus 28) and required a washing and sacrifice for their consecration (Exodus 29:1-8; Leviticus 7-8). Their main role was to offer up sacrifices on behalf of the people. They were the representatives of the people of Israel to their God. These sacrifices had their own particularities (Leviticus 1-6) with a special focus upon the covering of their sins to temporarily appease God’s wrath against them.
The High Priest & The Day of Atonement
A special priest was set apart from among these temple priests who was called the High Priest. His function was much more significant in the sense that he was the only individual who was allowed to enter into the Holy of Holies. On the Day of Atonement, which was a special day set apart yearly, this high priest would change his priestly garments, wash himself with water and offer up the sacrifice for himself and for the people. This Day of Atonement would consist of the high priest bringing two young goats before the LORD’s presence at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and cast lots to determine which goat would be offered as a sacrifice and the other as a scapegoat to carry the sins and rebellions of Israel into the wilderness (Lev. 16:10). He would enter the throne room of God to intercede of behalf of the people for their sins.
Ezekiel’s Temple
The next temple that is spoken of in scripture is described in the book of the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel’s vision of a temple was one that served to identify a time of reconciliation and renewal. The Israelites were about to be judged by the destruction of their temple and an exile. Ezekiel’s temple superseded the purpose of the original temple with the hope that God will reside among the people of Israel forever (Ezekiel 43:1-7) and that this temple would bare His Holy Name (Ezekiel 48:35). When the exile was over, and the people returned to the land of Israel, the temple was rebuilt, but it didn’t match the specifications that Ezekiel communicated in his book. The second temple, build after the return from exile, lacked the glory of Ezekiel’s vision[1]. Herod eventually renovated the temple to an even grandeur building than in Solomon’s days and its surroundings and it became the center of Jewish worship and life.
Jesus’ Interactions with the Temple
There is an interesting dynamic in how the Lord Jesus interacted with the temple. A young Jesus would spend time in the temple and demonstrated a respect for it by calling it “my father’s house” (Luke 2:49), the house of God (Matthew 12:4), a house of prayer (Mark 11:7), and the place where God dwells (Matthew 23:21). This regard for the temple eventually served as a means to condemn those in charge of the temple, mainly the elders and chief priests. He argued that they turned this holy temple where God’s presence dwelt into a den of robbers (Mark 11:17) and a marketplace (John 2:16). They had focused their entire attention upon the ceremonial and political aspects of the law but didn’t have the heart that God required to worship Him. Eventually, Jesus would declare a judgment upon the leaders and the people through the destruction of the great temple which would be left to them desolate. This and the city left in ruin would also echo a coming change of the place of the presence of God and the sacrifices. (Matthew 23:37; Matthew 24: 1-2). Before moving on, one interesting charge levelled against the Lord Jesus during His trial was that He would destroy the temple (Mark 14:58) and during His crucifixion, it became a point of taunting (Mark 15:29).
The Legitimacy of the Temple
When the Lord Jesus willingly and victoriously died, the temple’s legitimacy to offer sacrifices and the authority of its priesthood ceased (Hebrews 9 & 10). The presence of God departed from the ancient temple manifested by the curtain restricting access to the Holy of Holies being torn in two (Matthew 27:51). When the temple was eventually destroyed in A.D. 70, and its physical functions including any offering of sacrifice were dramatically shut down and the Leviticus Priesthood terminated which remains to this day.
The Greater Temple
The charge against the Lord Jesus of destroying the temple by His accusers was a fundamental misunderstanding (John 2:20-22). His claim was that if they would destroy the temple, in three days He would raise it up again. The main thrust of this saying wasn’t focused upon the destruction of the temple, but that a new and true temple would come in the form of His body. God’s Spirit was limited to the walls of the temple in Jerusalem. The “sign” that they would be given of the rebuilding of the temple was in the event of His burial and resurrection. But His death, burial and resurrection were merely the communication of the sign. Earlier John explains that a new temple was already walking among them while Jesus was in their midst. In John 1:14, the apostle states that: And the Word became flesh, and dwelt (tabernacled) among us, and we saw His glory.
Just as the glory of God filled the tabernacle (Ex. 40:34-35), so the glory of God now tabernacled in Jesus. The presence of God, formerly contained in the Holy of Holies, has begun to burst forth into the world in the form of the incarnate God, Jesus Christ.[2]
The worship of God would no longer be centralized in Jerusalem and at its temple, but through Christ, the true temple. This is where worshipping in the Spirit and truth of Christ would be experienced (John 4:21-26).
The Great High Priest & His Sacrifice
Not only would the presence of God return to a moving tabernacle, but it would be administered by a much greater High Priest. Christ is the Great High Priest of the Temple and at the same time, the Great Sacrifice of the Temple for sin. The nature of His priesthood would be different than those of the Levitical line in that it would come from a royal priesthood of the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 5:6; 6:20; 7:11, 15), an eternal priest (Hebrews 7:23), a perfect priest who is holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens (Hebrews 7:26) who offered the perfect sacrifice once and for all (Hebrews 7:27). His sacrifice presented on behalf of the people would be the offering of Himself (Hebrews 9:14). It was an offering that wouldn’t require any repetition since it was so satisfying in the eyes of God, that He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high (Hebrews 10:12). Christ continues His work as High Priest by making perfect intercession for those whom He represents and for those for whom the sacrifice was offered (Hebrews 7:25).
The Result of the Offering
His offering would be unlike the offerings under the law since it would be a sacrifice that would atone for sin (Matthew 1:21; Mark 1:21; 2:10; John 1:29) without having to be offered up again. It was different and greater than the blood of bulls and goats but a blood that would be offered without blemish. The blood of bulls and goats provided a temporary covering for God’s people because they couldn’t truly appease God’s wrath against the sin of His people. Jesus’ death would be the ultimate propitiation for the sins of His people that would actually appease the wrath of God for sin never to be ignited again against them (Romans 3:25; Hebrews 2:17; 1 John 2:2; 4:10). This, in return, would accomplish something that had never been seen prior to this event. Jesus would actually bring about a true reconciliation between God and His people (Colossian 1:20).
Expanding the Temple
After Christ’s death and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the nature and function of the temple was fulfilled and expanded. The temple no longer had a physical location but became associated with those who are “In Christ”, the true temple. To speak of the temple, was to speak of the church. Paul explicitly calls the believers in Corinth the temple of God and that the Spirit (as the presence of God) dwells internally within them (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). The reason why the church is the temple of God is twofold: (1) because the spirit of God is within believers and (2) because they are holy. This would ultimately lessen the significance of Jerusalem and its temple. God’s presence would now move through the wilderness of this world and go outside the borders of Israel to the nations!
2 Corinthians 6:16-18
To communicate to the church in Corinth the importance of purity and separating from idols, the apostle Paul exhorts believers there not to bind themselves together with unbelievers. To do so was to mingle that which is right and lawful with that which is impure and lawless. He uses the comparison of how Christ and Balial have no accord, or that the temple has no agreement with idols. Amid this exhortation, he explains that the believers in Corinth are the temple of the living God. The God who dwelt in the temple in Jerusalem no longer blessed that temple with His presence but now had moved into the dwelling place of His people. Because of this, they were to see the church as sacred, set apart from the world and that which was an afront to our Holy God and His Son. In 2 Corinthians 6:16-18, another important reality is communicated to the believers, in that we see that, in them, the promises to Israel would be fulfilled.
I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their God (Exodus 29:45)
I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people (Leviticus 26:12)
“At that time,” declares the Lord, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.” (Jeremiah 31:1)
My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people (Ezekiel 37:27)
These Old Testament quotations shouldn’t be taken lightly. The application of these promises was not fulfilled in ethnic Israel, but in spiritual Israel consisting of both Jews & Gentiles (Acts 2:39). Remember, these were promises given to physical Israel and now these same promises are applied to the Church! David’s true Son, Jesus Christ, came to build the true temple of God where Yahweh would finally dwell among His true people to fulfill the promises of 2 Samuel 7:14.
The Ongoing Building of the Temple
One other important point to note in thinking about the temple and it’s purposes under the New Covenant is that, during the period of the early church, this temple is not fully complete. We are told that God’s temple as a community was being built, with Christ being the chief corner stone (Ephesians 2:20-22). God’s spirit and presence would go throughout the earth and there would establish gatherings of worship to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This was a gradual progression and not a final accomplishment when the apostles walked the earth.
The Priests of the Expanded Temple
Not only is the church the new temple of God’s manifest dwelling, but that each individual believer would take on the privilege of becoming priests. In 1 Peter 2:5, we read that New Covenant believers are as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Peter would also refer to them as a “Holy Priesthood” (2:9), priests to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ (Revelation 1:6). Isaiah predicted the day of this new priesthood when he wrote But you will be called the priests of the Lord; You will be spoken of as ministers of our God (Isaiah 61:6).
The Sacrifices of the Expanded Temple
If believers are the temple and in return were granted the responsibility of functioning as the priests of this temple, we might ask: what are the sacrifices that New Covenant believers offer up as priests? There are, or course, various ways that we serve as priests to the living God. The apostle Paul deemed himself a priest who ministered the gospel of God to assure the sanctification of the Gentiles (Romans 15:16) and hence, some are ministers of the gospel and responsible for discipling. Others may function as deacons, evangelists etc. Whatever the Lord will have us do as priests, there is one thing that we have in common. We, as believers, whatever our role, are to offer up our bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship (Romans 12:1). We shouldn’t take this lightly since we are exhorted to offer the sacrifices of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His Name (Hebrews 13:15).
As we have seen thus far, the temple and its associated workers and works, are no longer associated with the old temple and its sacrifices or priesthood. The New Covenant speaks that these are fulfilled in Christ and in those who are in Christ.
[1] Jesus & Israel: One Covenant or Two? David E. Holwerda, WM B. Eerdmans Publishing, Page 65
[2] God Dwells Among Us, G.K. Beale and Mitchell Kim, IVP Press, 2014, Page 82