RESTORATION OF TEMPLE

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King David is described as a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22). His one
desire was to see the Ark of God’s presence
returned and installed in Jerusalem, and it
was for this reason that he pitched the tent
that came to be known as the Tabernacle of
David. But just as a tent is temporary, so this
tabernacle was seen to be temporary. David’s
driving desire was to see a permanent structure
built, a Temple that would house the glorious
presence of God. David’s dream was finally
brought to reality during the reign of
Solomon,* his son.
Read 1 Kings 8:6-13
At the inauguration of the Temple, the cloud
of God’s glory descended upon the Holiest of
All with such intensity that it overspilled the inner sanctum, filling the Holy Place
and the Outer Court, and resulting in the priests being unable to fulfill their priestly
duties.
Although larger than the tabernacle of Moses, the Temple had the same basic
dimensions as its predecessor, and also the three essential divisions:
Ü The Outer Court
Ü The Holy Place
Ü The Holiest of All
Read Acts 7:44-47
In just a few brief paragraphs, Stephen summarizes the whole of Israel’s history
from Moses to David, ending this historic snapshot with the words: “But it was
Solomon who built the house for [God].” Then Stephen strikes home with his
message. His words in Acts 7:48-50 are also significant for our understanding of
5
The Restoration of the Temple
Types and Shadows
s
s
A Tapestry of Types
The Tabernacle of Moses
The Tabernacle of David
The Sacrificial System
The Restoration of the Temple
The Gates of Jerusalem
The Feasts of Israel
Two Mountains
The High Priest
The Torn Veil
* For this reason, the First Temple is often called Solomon’s Temple.
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what the Temple represents:
“However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet
says: ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house
will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be? Has
not my hand made all these things?’”
God made provision for his glory to have a “dwelling place” on earth, yet no physically
building can really house the fullness of God. The only way we can really
understand the import of the Temple is to see its fulfillment in the New Covenant.
Type and Antitype
Like the Tabernacle of Moses, and the Tabernacle of David immediately preceding
it, the Temple was “a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality,
however, is found in Christ” (Colossians 2:17). In the New Testament, the
Temple is fulfilled in not one but two antitypes:
Christ
Read John 2:19-21
Jesus described his own body as the Temple of God’s presence. In Colossians
1:19, Paul sheds further light on this by saying:
“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in [Christ].”
And in Colossians 2:9, Paul echoes this same thought:
“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form...”
In Christ, “all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (NKJV) was expressed for people
to see, hear and touch (1 John 1:1-2). The cloud of God’s glory – the manifest
presence of God – resided in Christ. This is the significance of Jesus’ words describing
his body as being the Temple of God.
The Church
Read 1 Corinthians 3:16-17*
Yet as the Body of Christ, the Church is also described as being a Temple of God’s
Spirit. In Ephesians 1:23, we too are described as being:
Ü “...the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (New King James Version).
Ü “...the fullness of him who fills everything in every way” (New International
Version).
Ü “...filled by Christ, who fills everything everywhere with his presence” (New
Living Translation).
* Paul is speaking here of the corporate Body of Christ being the temple, not the individual Christian (as he does in
1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Thus when he issues his warning against the person who would destroy the temple, he is not
talking about a person destroy their own body, but rather someone who is instrumental in destroying the Church.
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Ü “...[the place in which] lives fully the one who fills the whole wide universe”
(The New Testament in Modern English).
Ü “...Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything
with his presence” (The Message).
Ü “...the fullness of Him who is filling the all in all” (Young’s Literal Translation).
Ü “...the fullness of Him Who fills all in all...the full measure of Him Who makes
everything complete, and Who fills everything everywhere [with Himself]”
(The Amplified Bible).
As the New Century Version describes it so simply:
“The church is filled with Christ, and Christ fills everything in every way.”
Read Ephesians 2:19-22
Here we find the principal passage that draws a clear parallel between the Old
Testament type (the Temple) and the New Testament antitype (the Church). As
The Message expresses this passage:
“God is building a home. He’s using us all...in what he is building. He used the
apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in
brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds
all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy Temple
built by God, all of us built into it, a Temple in which God is quite at home.”
The New International Version phrases it this way:
“In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy Temple
in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling
in which God lives by his Spirit.”
God’s Plan for a Spiritual Temple
The Church was not an afterthought, a “Plan B” that God concocted when all else
had failed. The Church – the “called out” company of God’s redeemed people,
both Jew and Gentile – was in the mind of God from before the creation of the
world! (Ephesians 1:4). God’s plan is for his Church to be:
Ü Radiant (Ephesians 5:26)
Ü Holy (Ephesians 5:25,27)
Ü Blameless (Ephesians 5:27)
Ü Sanctified (1 Corinthians 1:2)
Ü Victorious (Matthew 16:18)
Ü Diverse (1 Corinthians 12:28)
Ü Mutual edifying (1 Corinthians 14:26)
Ü Growing up into Christ (Ephesians 2:21-22; 4:13)
Ü An extension of Christ’s authority (Ephesians 1:21-22; 5:23-24)
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Ü The pillar and foundation of truth (1 Timothy 3:15)
Ü The fullness of God expressed on earth (Ephesians 1:23)
God’s plan is still being outworked in the Church. Satan, in opposing the plan of
God, seeks to undermine each of these aspects, crippling the Church and stripping
her of her call and inheritance.
A Snapshot of Church History
The history of the Church, in overview, can be divided into four stages:
A glorious birth
Acts 4:31-35 describes the dynamic of church life existing in the first century:
“After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And
they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. All
the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his
possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great
power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,
and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among
them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them,
brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was
distributed to anyone as he had need.”
The Church of God was birthed in the power of the Holy Spirit and had a dynamic
impact on the community of that day.
A period of decline
In 2 Thessalonians 2:3, Paul warns the believers of his day of a coming apostasy.
The Amplified Bible interprets Paul’s meaning with these words:
“Let no one deceive or beguile you in any way, for that day will not come
except the apostasy comes first – that is, unless the [predicted] great falling
away of those who have professed to be Christians has come.”
From the moment of the Church’s inception, Satan began an immediate program
of attack against God’s Church, outworked on two levels:
Ü Persecution
Ü Deception
Even in the time of the first century Church, errors had begun infiltrating the
Body of Christ. Most of the epistles of the New Testament are letters of correction,
readjusting doctrine and purging heretical concepts (note in particular Revelation
2-3).
A period of restoration
In Acts 3:19-21, Peter spoke to the Jews of his day concerning the restoration of
everything spoken of by the prophets. His words are also applicable to us today:
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“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that
times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ,
who has been appointed for you – even Jesus. He must remain in heaven
until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago
through his holy prophets.”
The decline of the Church as a whole reached rock bottom during the Dark Ages,
where the Church was hardly recognizable as the same holy, dynamic company
birthed by God on the Day of Pentecost. Even then, however, there were always
true believers, lights shining in the darkness of apostasy.
But then God began to raise up people of God – the “Lights of the Reformation” –
who rebuilt, layer by layer, the foundations of the Church. We are now at the
finishing stages of this work of restoration.
A glorious finalé
In Romans 8:18-23, Paul describes the “grand finalé” – the goal toward which
God is taking his Church:
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory
that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the
sons of God to be revealed. For the creation will be liberated from its bondage
to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We
know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth
right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the
firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as
sons, the redemption of our bodies.”
At the time of Christ’s return, “the mystery of God will be accomplished” (Revelation
10:7), and God will bring his plan for the Church to its climax. As the
Church becomes the spiritual Temple God has designed her to be, the earth will
indeed “be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover
the sea (Habakkuk 2:14).
This cycle of a glorious birth, a period of decline, a period of restoration and a
glorious finalé can be seen in typical form in the lifecycle of the Temple.
Symbolic of Things to Come
In Zechariah 3:8, the prophet Zechariah made an insightful statement to his
contemporaries:
“Listen, O high priest Joshua and your associates seated before you, who are
men symbolic of things to come.”
His words were spoken at a time when the Temple of Solomon lay in ruins. Because
of gross wickedness and violation of the Covenant of Law, God had allowed
the Babylonian armies to sweep through the land, laying siege to Jerusalem, deOnline
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stroying the Temple and carting off the people into exile.
Yet God had not rejected his people forever. Seventy years later, under the leadership
of Zerubbabel, a remnant of approximately 50,000 returned to Jerusalem.
They returned under the protection of a decree from Cyrus, king of Persia,
to rebuild the Temple (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1,13; Jeremiah 29:10-14; 2 Chronicles
36:22-23).
Read Ezra 1
The high priest Joshua was one of the key players at the time of the rebuilding of
the Temple in Jerusalem. Zechariah regarded Joshua as “symbolic of things to
come.”
Read Zechariah 3:1-9
In their being cleansed from sin, Joshua and his priestly associates prefigured the
future cleansing of the nation of Israel – a cleansing linked with the coming of the
Sin-Remover, who was given three messianic titles:
Ü My Servant (Isaiah 42:1 è Matthew 12:17-21)
Ü The Branch (Isaiah 4:2; 11:1-5; Jeremiah 23:5-6)
Ü The Stone (Isaiah 8:13-14; 28:16; Psalm 118:22-23 è 1 Peter 2:6-8)
The result of the coming of the Messiah would be that God would “remove the sin
of this land in a single day.” It was this removal of sin that Joshua and his associates
were symbolic of. In fact, Joshua himself is referred to as “the Branch” – a
type of the true Branch to come (Zechariah 6:12-13).
Not only that, but the very rebuilding of the Temple itself was to prove to have
lasting symbolic value. Let’s take a closer look at what the actual restoration process
involved.
The Restoration of the Temple
The rebuilding of the Temple was completed in four stages:
Ü The altar of sacrifice (Ezra 3:1-6)
Ü The foundation of the Temple (Ezra 3:7-13)
Ü The rebuilding of the Temple proper (Ezra 6:14-16)
Ü The worship of the Temple (Ezra 7:1-20)
These four stages parallel God’s present work in the restoration of His Church.
The Altar
The first thing to be re-established was the altar of sacrifice, which represents
our restored relationship with God. This was the brazen altar in the Temple’s
Outer Court. As we saw in the last lesson, there were five sacrifices to be restored,
and each of them has a spiritual equivalent:
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Ü The guilt offering (Romans 5:8)
Ü The sin offering (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Ü The fellowship offering (Hebrews 13:15)
Ü The grain offering (Philippians 4:18)
Ü The burnt offering (Romans 12:1)
The restoration of the Church also began with a restoration of each Christian’s
individual relationship with the Lord.*
The Foundation
The next stage of restoration involved the re-laying of the foundations of the
Temple. The New Testament reveals that the Church is founded on a four-layer
foundation:
Ü Jesus Christ himself (1 Corinthians 3:11)
Ü Apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:20)
Ü Essential principles of the Gospel (Hebrews 6:1-3)
Ü The lifestyle of holiness (2 Timothy 2:19)
One of the key elements in the laying of a firm foundation of today’s Church is the
restoration of the modern ministries of apostle and prophet (note Ephesians
4:11-13). These two functions can be seen clearly in the restoration of the natural
Temple. The prophets spoke and stirred the people, and the apostles acted on the
word of the Lord and directed the work (see Haggai 1:13-14; Ezra 5:1-2).
The Temple Rebuilt
Under the encouragement of the prophets and the direction of Zerubbabel, the
Temple was finally completed. This is a wonderful picture of the spiritual construction
work that is going on even now, as the Lord builds us into a spiritual
Temple that can house his presence.
As 1 Peter 2:5 says:
“...you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a
holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus
Christ.”
The Worship of the Temple
The final act of restoration involved the reinstitution of Temple worship (Ezra
6:13-18), together with a purification of the lifestyle of the people. These two
things always go together, since worship is not just an outward form, but a matter
of the heart. Worship is much more than just singing – it is your whole life, expressed
through all the spiritual sacrifices that we offer to God.
Read John 4:23
* Of interesting note, the very first thing to be restored to the Church during the Reformation was the truth of justification by
faith (not by works). This is the very essence of the spiritual meaning of the guilt and sin offerings.
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Opposition
Yet not all was plain sailing. As the Jews began rebuilding the Temple, opposition
to the work of restoration immediately arose. Ezra 4:1,4 reveals:
“When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building
a Temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, they...set out to discourage the
people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building.”
The enemies of Israel used three principal means to try to deter the work of
restoration:
Ü Mixture (Ezra 4:2-3)
Ü Discouragement (Ezra 4:4-5)
Ü Open opposition (Ezra 4:6-24)
The result of this concerted opposition was that after the foundation of the Temple
had been laid, the work of restoration came to a standstill for 15 years (Ezra
4:23-24). But into this lull came the voice of the prophets.
Read Ezra 6:14
The Lord spoke to the people of Israel through two prophets – Haggai and
Zechariah. Their words of rebuke and encouragement apply just as much in
present restoration times as back in the days of Zerubbabel.
Haggai
Haggai was an older prophet, and much of what he had to say compared the second
Temple with the former one.
Ü 1:2-9 – The challenge comes to rebuild the house of the Lord, to come out
of their “paneled houses” to which they had retreated after the standstill.
Their work of restoration had become redirected from the Temple to their
own residences.
Ü 1:13-14 – The restoration work is recommenced (see Ezra 5:2).
Ü 2:3-9 – The glory of the latter house (this Temple) would be greater than
that of the former (note Ezra 3:10-13). Hebrews 12:26-28 applies this
prophecy to the Church today.
Ü 2:11-14 – The principle of defilement by the unclean. As the Church, we
too have allowed the unclean to encroach upon the Temple of God’s Spirit
(2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1).
Ü 2:23 – Zerubbabel is described as the Lord’s signet ring. A signet ring functioned
as a royal signature, a guarantee of the full payment of everything
the king had promised (Ephesians 1:13-14).
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Zechariah
Zechariah was a younger prophet, born, like Zerubbabel, during the exile.* His
prophecies look forward to what is to come, and from chapter 7 onwards are
messianic in content.
Ü 1:3 – The theme of Zechariah: “Return to me...and I will return to you.”
Ü 2:1-5 – A measuring line is used to measure Jerusalem. This is similar to
Revelation 11:1-2, but note that the altar that John is told to measure is
not the altar of sacrifice, but the altar of incense, which represents the
prayers of God’s people (Revelation 8:3-4).
Ü 3:1-8 – New clothes are given to Joshua the high priest to replace his filthy
ones (see Revelation 19:8), the focus of Satan’s accusation. Joshua is also
given the turban of the high priest, which has inscribed on it “HOLINESS TO
THE LORD” (Exodus 28:36-37; see also Zechariah 14:20-21). In our day,
the Lord is replacing the filthy clothes of his Church with the “fine linen” of
righteousness and the turban of holiness.
Ü 4:1-14 – The anointing of the Lord and the Spirit of God is the key to
restoration.
Ü 5:1-4 – A flying scroll is sent into the house of the hypocrite and the thief.
God’s word, when sent out, actually accomplishes what it is sent to do (Isaiah
55:11). God is purging hypocrisy and dishonesty from His Church (1 Peter
4:17).
Picture of the Locust
Read Joel 1:4
God pictures apostasy as like the work of a locust swarm. A plague of locusts
covers the land, stripping it every green leaf – every appearance of life. This is a
vivid picture of the condition of the Church during the Dark Ages. But just as a
tree that has been stripped by locusts is still alive, and begins to put forth green
shoots again, so the hidden life of the Church is breaking forth.
Read Joel 2:25
There are two parts to the restoration process:
Ü Repentance on our part
Ü The act of restoration on the part of the Holy Spirit.
Zechariah 1:3 describes these two aspects of the restoration process:
“Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to
me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord
Almighty.”
* Zerubbabel means “offspring of Babylon.”
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Double Portion
Read Isaiah 61:7
God does not simply restore what was lost. He always restores with a double
portion! The early Church is not our standard; Christ is! (Ephesians 4:13). God
never finishes on a lesser note than on what He began (Haggai 2:9). He always
leaves the best wine till last (John 2:9-10). Like Elisha, the last day Church will
have a double anointing of the Holy Spirit (2 Kings 2:9), so that God’s glory will
fill this earth even as his glory fills his Church.
As Proverbs 4:18 declares:
“The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter
till the full light of day.”
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Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations from the Bible are from the New International Version, copyright © 1973,
1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.