What does the Bible say about the temple?

• Exodus 25:8-10, "And have them make me a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among them."
• Exodus 40:34, "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle."
• 2 Samuel 7:6, "I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle."
• 1 Kings 8:1, the ark of the covenant is brought out of the city of David
• 2 Chronicles 7:1, 3, "When Solomon had ended his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the temple."
• Psalm 5:7, "But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house, I will bow down toward your holy temple in awe of you."
• Psalm 65:4, "Happy are those whom you choose and bring near to live in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple."
• Isaiah 6:1, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple."
• Jeremiah 7:3-4, the Lord asks the people to change their ways that he may dwell among them
• Ezekiel 47:1-2, vision of the temple
• Zechariah 6:12-13, "he shall branch out in his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord."
• Malachi 3:1, "See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple."
• Matthew 12:6, "I tell you, something greater than the temple is here"
• Matthew 21:12-13, Jesus overturns the tables in the temple
• Matthew 27:51, "At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom"
• Mark 13:1-2, Jesus says that the temple will be thrown down
• John 2:18-21, Jesus predicts that the temple will be destroyed and then rebuilt in three days
• Acts 2:46, "Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts"
• 1 Corinthians 6:19, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?"
• Revelation 21:3, "the home of God is among mortals"
• Revelation 21:22, "I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the LordGod the Almighty and the Lamb"

Sermon ideas about the temple

The best way to grasp the full meaning of the temple is to see how the term develops through the biblical story. The following points will trace that illuminating trajectory.

Temple and creation

In recent decades biblical scholars have increasingly recognized how the story of creation in Genesis 1-3 can best be understood through other ancient Near East (ANE) writings. This has led scholars like G. K. Beale (The Temple and the Church's Mission) and John Walton (The Lost World of Scripture) to recognize the creation story as the building of a temple for God to dwell with God's creation.

In this light, an especially striking feature is that in all temples there is an image or icon of the god who dwells there. In Genesis 1 the temple image of God is human beings, who are made in God's image and likeness. This emphasizes that humans represent God as vice-regents in God's creation and have God-like powers and responsibilities. This becomes especially important in looking forward to Christ, the new and perfect human perfectly united with God. In Christ, God takes his rightful place in the temple of creation, and becomes that temple.

Christ, the temple of God

The fundamental issue surrounding the temple in Scripture is God's stared desire to dwell with his people. The problem, of course, is that God is holy and his people are marred with sin. How can holiness dwell in the midst of unholiness? The temple, all aspects of its architecture, and worship are God's answer to that divide. The tabernacle's (or temple's) placement in the center of the Israelite encampment at Sinai, the design of its architectural movement from the camp to the Holy of Holies, and sacrificial worship displays how God can and will live among unholy people. In this way, we see how the temple points directly to Christ, the temple of God.

True purpose of the temple

One of the dangers the temple poses for Israel is that it can become a symbol of national pride by which God's people assume God is with them. That is the point of the temple sermon in Jeremiah 7, in which Jeremiah castigates Israel for saying with pride of ownership, "This is the temple the Lord" while they practice injustice and sin.

Ezekiel has a grand vision of the magnificent temple in the midst of Jerusalem, with four rivers flowing from the altar alongside which plants and trees grow in abundance (Ezekiel 43 - 47). This vision wonderfully anticipates the New Jerusalem in Revelation, where God finally and fully dwells with God's people and from which the "river of the water of life" flows: "On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations" (Revelation 22:2).

Jesus, the divine and human true image of God, spends a great deal of his time in and around the temple in Jerusalem. Already as a boy he calls it "my Father's house" (Luke 2:49). He is deeply disturbed by the atmosphere of business there and drives out the money changers: "`My house shall be called a house of prayer'; but you are making it a den of robbers" (Matthew 21:13). Jesus even prophesies that he will be destroyed and rebuilt in three days (John 2:18 - 21), referring both to its destruction in 70 a.d. and to his own death and resurrection. Jesus will become the new temple, and by his perfect sacrifice he will make sinful people holy so they may dwell with God.

At the moment of Jesus's death, the curtain of the temple rips apart from top to bottom, exposing the Holy of Holies to view (Matthew 27:51). In this epochal moment the fulfillment of the temple's purpose is also exposed. In Jesus's sacrificial death for sin, all humanity can now be made holy through the forgiveness of sins. Now the holy God and sinful humanity can dwell together in peace through the blood of the cross.

Not only is Christ the new temple by which we can dwell with God, but those who are in Christ by faith are temples of the Holy Spirit, with God dwelling in them (1 Corinthians 6:19 - 20). Christ's sacrifice makes us holy; now we are called to live as holy temples of God. The church is also a holy temple in which we are like living stones: "Let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter2:5).

The Bible closes with the picture of God having accomplished his purpose: "`See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away'" (Revelation 21:3 - 4). And there is no need of a temple there, "for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb" (Revelation 21:22 - 23)