Temple 2.0

Solomon's magnificent temple was destroyed by the Babylonians along with the rest of the city of Jerusalem. While the Old Testament theocracy would never be restored, God did promise that 70 years later that the city would begin to be rebuilt and the people restored from exile. Part of that would involve the construction of a new temple.

The rebuilding of the walled city was an arduous task, and it is perhaps understandable that work on the temple was deferred, but at some point the delays indicated that priorities were misaligned, and through the prophet Haggai God chastised the people for giving considerable effort to building their houses while neglecting the house of God.

For those of advanced years that could remember when Solomon's temple had stood, the idea of recreating it may have seemed daunting for the people and resources that remained. Yet, to them God gave a promise that the glory of the latter house (the second temple) would be greater than the former.

In physical terms, this did not prove true, but careful consideration of the promises associated with Haggai's text will show that the glory referred to was not about the magnificence of the physical structure. Even the use of the word "glory" should point the reader in a different direction. How is "glory" used with regard to the other structures that predated the second temple?

When Moses and the people completed the tabernacle in Exodus 40, the glory of God in the form of a great cloud of smoke and fire filled the dwelling. When Solomon dedicated the temple upon its completion, the same appearance of the glory of God occurred. However, with the completion of the second temple there was no comparable physical manifestation of the glory of God recorded.

At least, no exactly comparable manifestation. However, a greater presence of God's glory would come to the second temple, when the true temple would come, the Word that became flesh and pitched his tent among us.  With the arrival of Christ, one temple toward which all of the Old Testament structures had pointed had arrived in veiled glory. Though veiled by human flesh, it should be noted that Christ fulfilled not only the intention of the temple type -- he was the true temple -- but also of the priesthood -- he was the true high priest -- and the sacrificial system -- all of the sacrifices pointed ultimately to him.  How did the glory of the second temple exceed what had come before? It was to that temple that the true temple, the true high priest, the true propitiatory sacrifice would come.

This is also the reason that the destruction of the second temple in 70 A.D. did not result in the building of a third, because Christ's coming and triumph rendered all of the typological markers of the Old Covenant obsolete. There was no need for a new temple, new priesthood, or further sacrifices, because the fulfillment of all of these had come.

All of this brings us back to a consideration of the subject that this study began with: Ezekiel's temple vision. That will be the subject of the next post.