25th December, 2010       But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.  (Hebrews 9:11-12)       The History of Mankind in the Image of One Man     In John chapter 2 we read how Jesus said to those who are merchants and the money changers “Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” Then Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (verse 19). The people who were there at that time did not know what this meant, but the Bible explains that “He was speaking of the temple of His body” (verse 21).     The temple is a building, but it may also be compared to a body. There are times when the image of a woman is used to explain the history of Israel. Also, the image of a body?the statue that Daniel saw in a vision?is used to explain the history of the Gentiles. As we read about the history of Israel, through the many incidents that arose within that history and amongst the twelve tribes, we can consider how God has formed the human body and how He maintains it. The temple is also similar to this. When we consider the temple we need first to think about history. The temple was definitely constructed and people worshipped God in that place.     Man was created in the image of God. So there are many similarities between our bodies and the history that appears in the Bible. The Bible tells us that Christ is the head, “from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body” (see Ephesians 4:15-16). The history of mankind, beginning with Adam, has continually been connected through Abel, then Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and so on. Just as a single cell in a mother’s womb divides and divides again until it forms a body, the story that begins like a seed in Genesis grows more and more.     We can consider the temple in the same way. In our bodies, we have one long spinal cord and the most important organs of the body are centered around that spinal cord. In a similar way, within the Bible as a whole, there flows one theme that can be seen as the most important. It is true that the temple was built by the hand of King Solomon. Just however, at the center of the long history of Israel?the things the Israelites did, the kingdoms they established, how they were destroyed and then restored again, and how they turned against God?it is revealed to us how we can meet God through Jesus, who was born within that history of the Jews. Through the image of the temple, we can think about the Bible as a whole. If the image of the temple is omitted, Israel, as it is revealed to us in the image of a human being, would lack substance and appear merely as the empty shell of a person.   When Adam sinned, God asked him, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” (Genesis 3:11). Even though Adam had made himself a covering of fig leaves, God said that he was naked and asked him this piercing question. Then He clothed him with garments of skin. It is a fact that God must have slaughtered an animal and made these garments. At that time, however, the significance of the blood that was shed by this animal was not yet apparent. When Abel offered the firstborn lamb and its fat, God respected it (see Genesis 4:4). In such ways, the traces of the blood of animals that were slaughtered at the beginning of the history of mankind have been hidden away within the Bible. Also, when Noah came out of the ark, he offered sacrifices of animals and birds, God was pleased and He smelled a soothing aroma (see Genesis 8:20-21).     After that, many people built the Tower of Babel in an attempt to avoid being scattered, but God still scattered them, and then He called a man by the name of Abraham, who was living a long way away, and led him to the land of Canaan. There, God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his son who had been born to him in his old age. Just as Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac, God provided an animal that He Himself had prepared.     When Isaac was old, he had two sons. In order to receive the blessing of the patriarchs of Israel, Jacob, the younger son, went in to his father, taking with him the food that his mother had prepared and covering his own body with the skin of a goat. Having received the blessing in this way, Jacob later had twelve sons. Then he went down to Egypt with these twelve sons, and when their descendants left Egypt after four hundred years, the lambs of the Passover were slaughtered. When, after that, the Israelites went out into the wilderness, God gave the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai and introduced the tabernacle, which was to be the place through which the Israelites would be able to meet God.     Just as the history of mankind has gradually been unfolding, beginning with the very first verse of the Bible, when it comes to the history of the Israelites, we see the appearance of a certain person. The history of the offering of sacrifices has followed alongside the history of man. We could think of the tabernacle and the temple as merely being places where sacrifices were offered in order to please God. However, at the very heart of the tabernacle and the temple, there was the Most Holy Place. God had said that He would meet with man between the two cherubim that were in the Most Holy Place. He had said that, once Moses had gone through the Holy Place and behind the veil into the most Holy Place, He would meet him there in the heart of the tabernacle between the two cherubim as they faced one another. God spoke these solemn words to Moses.     The Tabernacle and the Temple?Two Images of Christ     During the forty years in which the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness, they carried the tabernacle on their shoulders with them as they went. Then they entered the land of Canaan, and, after that, there is no mention of the tabernacle for a long time. Then in First Samuel, we read how the tabernacle was moved from one place to another, and after the time that King David appears on the scene, the precise location of the tabernacle is revealed. David was a man after God’s own heart (see Acts 13:33), and he protected the tabernacle right to the end, trying to bring it to the place where God was to be worshipped. His efforts are recorded in Second Samuel and in the latter part of First Chronicles. Also, in the Psalms that David wrote, we find references to “the tabernacle of the LORD,” “the house of the LORD,” and “the sanctuary of the LORD.” For the earlier references, He was referring to the sanctuary on this earth, but he was also expressing his longing for the true sanctuary. Also he talks about the city of God located in Mount Zion on the sides of the north (see Psalm 48:2).     King David spent his entire life making the preparations for the building of the temple, so that the work might be accomplished and the tabernacle placed inside the finished building. The amount of gold alone that he gathered in order to build this temple was colossal. Nevertheless, David was not able to build the temple. When he was young, David had been a shepherd and had fought with wild animals in order to protect his flocks, even to the point of prying the sheep out of the mouths of these animals. In this sense, he was a shadow of Jesus, who went through suffering and persecution in order to protect us. So, even though David prepared everything for the building of the temple, he remained with the tabernacle until the end. Inside the tabernacle, everything was overlaid with gold, and the candles were always burning, so it must have been dazzling, but on the outside it was covered with badger skins to protect its contents from the dry desert winds and it seemed like a poor figure. The tabernacle remained within the history of Israel as an image of Jesus Christ who was to come in the lowly state of a man.     David’s life came to an end in this way, and then the temple was built by the hands of Solomon, who appeared before Israel as the king of wisdom, the king of judgment. Within the history of Israel, we find an image of Jesus Christ, who first suffered and then later will come in His glory as King of kings and as Judge.     In First Chronicles, however, we find a record of David’s words as he commanded Solomon to build the temple.       “‘As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever. Consider now, for the LORD has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be strong, and do it.’ Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the vestibule, its houses, its treasuries, its upper chambers, its inner chambers, and the place of the mercy seat; and the plans for all that he had by the Spirit, of the courts of the house of the LORD, of all the chambers all around, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries for the dedicated things; also for the division of the priests and the Levites, for all the work of the service of the house of the LORD, and for all the articles of service in the house of the LORD. He gave gold by weight for things of gold, for all articles used in every kind of service; also silver for all articles of silver by weight, for all articles used in every kind of service; the weight for the lampstands of gold, and their lamps of gold, by weight for each lampstand and its lamps; for the lampstands of silver by weight, for the lampstand and its lamps, according to the use of each lampstand. And by weight he gave gold for the tables of the showbread, for each table, and silver for the tables of silver; also pure gold for the forks, the basins, the pitchers of pure gold, and the golden bowls--he gave gold by weight for every bowl; and for the silver bowls, silver by weight for every bowl; and refined gold by weight for the altar of incense, and for the construction of the chariot, that is, the gold cherubim that spread their wings and overshadowed the ark of the covenant of the LORD. ‘All this,’ said David, ‘the LORD made me understand in writing, by His hand upon me, all the works of these plans.’”  (1 Chronicles 28:9-19)       The temple was built on the basis of the tabernacle, and the tabernacle was constructed in accordance with the instructions that God showed Moses in the wilderness. Then, when a kingdom was established and it was time for the temple to be built, the hand of God came down and showed David everything related to the construction of the temple. The tabernacle that had been covered with skins was now to be built of stone. The fence of white linen that had surrounded the tabernacle was now made of stone and wood and was the outer court of the temple, known as the court of the priests. Words such as these flowed on, and Solomon, built the temple.     The dimensions of the temple are recorded in First Chronicles chapter 6. Its length was sixty cubits, its width was twenty cubits, and its height was thirty cubits. So, the length was about twenty-seven meters, the width about nine meters, and the height about thirteen and a half meters. The tabernacle may have looked shabby, but the temple was spacious and glorious in accordance with the designs that God had shown. Nevertheless, the fundamental nature of the temple and the things to be found inside it were very similar to the tabernacle. Inside the temple, there were ten lampstands, and there were also ten tables, and so on. So unlike the tabernacle, there is a difference in the number of the items, but the basic design does not depart from that which God showed to Moses.     Now we turn to First Chronicles chapter 6 verse 7.       “And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.”       In other words, the stones were not brought to the construction site to be hammered and piled up there. The stones were finished at the quarry before they were brought to the construction site, so there was no hammering noise to be heard at the site.     From the account of Solomon’s temple that we read in First Kings, we may conclude that the temple has already been built. However, Bible does not say that “were built together,” but “are being built together.”       “Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”  (Ephesians 2:20-22)       We consider this process of construction as applied to our own lives, we sense a need to be careful. It says that the stones that had already been finished were brought to the construction site and there they were built up together quietly, with no sound of hammer or chisel to be heard. This holds connotations of the many commands given to the Church as described in the letters in the New Testament, commands such as, “that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Corinthians 1:10). We are people who have decided to walk the path that God desires, spreading the gospel together with the brothers and sisters, whether or not the people of this world recognize what we are doing or anyone praises us for this work. It is as the Bible verse says, “as unknown, and yet well known” (2 Corinthians 6:9). No hammer or chisel or any iron tool is to be heard amongst such people as they are living their lives together.     This does not mean that we should all just sit around quietly and meekly. Through passages like this, we need to consider how we ourselves are. The gospel is spread in many places, people are finding salvation, and there are many people rejoicing through fellowship, but we cannot know all of these things that are going on. Neither can we know about all the battles that take place in the midst of these things. Invisible battles take place within the spirits of individuals and amongst us all as a group, but since Jesus is with us, we proceed in accordance with His will and along the path upon which He has decided.     There are times when we argue while discussing this work, but I am not referring to such moral issues. First we need to consider what state our hearts are in. God caused the stream of water to flow so that the stones would be worn smooth, and He gave these stones to David, who picked them up and used one of them to kill Goliath. When Jesus trains us, too, if we take a careful look at the way in which He lived and closely examine His words, the jagged edges in our hearts are hammered out so that our hearts are shaped in such a way that we might be used by God.     Stones cannot be built up without a cornerstone, neither can they be built up without other stones above, below and beside them. In the story of the building of Solomon’s temple, we can see how the stones must be put together to construct one whole building, and we can also find this amongst ourselves as we are living in this present time. We ourselves do not know what shape of stone we are or where we are placed, but in our lives, our breath and our actions, we are living upon the rock by the name of Jesus.     Nevertheless, we often forget this fact. Outer space is filled with many different gas molecules, but just combining them will not make breathable air. Such air is only permitted on the earth. Similarly, the fragments of my thoughts are floating around in my mind as though in space, and when Jesus gives the command, they all come together and are put in order. Also, while spending time together with the brothers and sisters, we learn to obey without making the noises of a hammer or chisel or iron tool, and we come to understand the meaning of these tremendous words, recorded by the apostle Paul: “But in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself” (Philippians 2:3). This process becomes a part of our individual lives, and when such lives are gathered together, they become part of the temple as it is being built up. We can find an image of this in the Old Testament.       “Then the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying:  ‘Concerning this temple which you are building, if you walk in My statutes, execute My judgments, keep all My commandments, and walk in them, then I will perform My word with you, which I spoke to your father David.’”  (1 Kings 6:11-12)       Here it says, “building” and “execute.” God did not say He would give Solomon all kinds of blessings because Solomon was building the temple; He said, “Concerning this temple which you are building, if you walk in My statutes, execute My judgments, keep all My commandments, and walk in them.” God was telling Solomon about his responsibility as king to observe and execute God’s statutes and judgments in the place where the temple was being built.     These words are also given to each of us individually. As we are amongst the ranks of those who are being built up together to become the dwelling place of God, it is not for us to dismiss our responsibilities, saying that we are already part of the Church, or that we are already born again and have been forgiven for our sins. So, it would be alright. God explains in various ways how each of us should live within these ranks as a born-again person and what we should do. This is repeated in the New Testament. If we only read the New Testament without understanding the Old Testament, we would not be able to see such things, and the Bible would appear to be simply a book of ethics or a book of laws. When, however, I fully understand my position and role in this fellowship to which I entrust my thoughts and my spirit and in which I walk hand in hand with the brothers and sisters, and I look at the words of the Bible through the Old Testament, many words in the New Testament become a path and a signpost to me. If I only read the Bible without understanding any of this, I would begin to think that I was holy and start judging the brothers and sisters around me. When we take a careful look at the Old Testament, we can see that God teaches each one of us without exception, scolding our hearts severely but with a loving voice.     When God, who had spoken all these words, stood before the temple in human form, He saw how the people were selling animals there to make a profit. Then, after overturning their tables, making a whip of cords and driving them out of the temple, He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” As the Lord of Creation, He created the human body and planned the history of Israel. And He had in His grasp the work of sacrifice which extended through that history like the spine in a human body. So when He saw all this going on in the temple, He was deeply grieved.     What decisions am I making right now? What thoughts do I have in regard to this fellowship? What pride do I have? And what attitude do I have towards the brothers and sisters? If we are determined to live before God, He will definitely be looking at us through the words of Jesus and the words of the Old Testament. God is not going to say, “I am so pleased with you,” just because I may think that I have had a good heart before Him during a particular day. It is important to find out through the Bible whether our hearts, ac

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