THE GREATEST TEMPLE OF ALL

5/17/18

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days. Matt. 26:61

Throughout the centuries many have gone to the temple to worship God each in their own way. They have gone in the past to offer up sacrifices, to hear the words of the Rabbi and others, who read to them from the Talmud and the Old Testament. Year after year and Sabbath after Sabbath, the crowds have gathered to hear the words of their favorite teacher and minister, and have assumed that they were going to the temple.

Many now are looking for a temple to be built in Jerusalem in the last days, and yet they will be sorely disappointed. For any building no matter if it is built in the holy city or anywhere else upon this earth, will never measure up to the building that God is doing within us. No amount of beautiful tapestries, golden altars, or incense will be pleasing to God. These are things that have nothing to do with the spiritual quality of a true temple anyway. People seem to think that whenever you use the choicest materials and luxurious stones that these things are pleasing to God, and yet nothing could be further from the truth! In fact, I think that these very things sicken the heart of the Father because He knows what is in the heart of man.

I am always reminded by the words of the prophet Nathan when King David had inquired of him about the temple that he was ready to build:

2 Samuel 7 And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the LORD had given him rest round about from all his enemies; 2 That the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains. 3 And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in thine heart; for the LORD is with thee. 4 And it came to pass that night, that the word of the LORDcame unto Nathan, saying, 5 Go and tell my servant David, Thus saith the LORD, Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in? 6 Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle. 7 In all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people Israel, saying, Why build ye not me an house of cedar?

And furthermore, the words continue:

8 Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel: 9 And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth. 10 Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime, 11 And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also the LORD telleth thee that he will make thee an house. 12 And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. 14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: 15 But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. 16 And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.

And yet Jesus said some very astounding things when He declared that our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost and that within the walls of this body, we can worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. We are that building not built with human hands but displayed through the many members of a spiritual body that is joined and built by the King of Kings.

Many were even more bewildered and dismayed when He spoke about how that temple would be destroyed and yet built back up in a mere three days. How could that be? Surely, it would take several men working eight hours a day for months to duplicate the temple that they had seen. And yet time after time, as we read His words we find out very soon that what is said in parables and in words of wisdom, that a deeper meaning was always implied.

The walls and trappings, the pillars and the curtains that were built on earth, were also being seen on that spiritual place where the true King dwelt. But the form and the material that was and is being used, is not meant to be the real temple. It again was but a template and a pattern for us to follow. Just as we are told that our faith can move mountains into the sea, we know that the mountains that we experience in this life are the many obstacles and trials that we face.

Now, just as the curtain was torn asunder and split down the middle when Jesus became our High Priest, may the curtain be even more torn asunder, so that we can grasp the true revelation of what the temple is. May we revel in the depths of our understanding and grasp the truth of Jesus “in us.” May we be changed from glory unto glory as we grasp these things. May we see and experience the eternal within us and ultimately see that temple. Then we will truly understand that the kingdom of God is within us.

Stephen Hanson