WHO NEEDS THE HOUSE? Part 1 of 2

  As is often the case, scripture deals a double “whammy.” Ezekiel describes in detail what was likely the Second Temple which replaced the original Solomon’s Temple. Throughout scripture, “temples” are where the Glory of God resides. The earliest “Temple” of God was the central part of the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:9). There were other temples of God. One that comes to mind is Salem.
  Let’s think of “Salem” for a moment. It means “peace.” On the other hand, the same city in later times was Jerusalem which means “foundation of peace.” In that Melchizedek was King of Salem, he was Prince of Peace since God used the terms “prince” and “king” interchangeably. Not only was Melchizedek the Prince of Peace, but Priest of the Most High God. Jesus is also identified as Prince of Peace and a Priest on the order of Melchizedek (Heb 7:1-3). With that background, the city of Salem was God’s abode, and thus His Garden Temple.
  Since Jerusalem means “foundation of peace,” why only a foundation? Because the place of peace was no longer there. Sometime between Adam leaving the Temple of the Garden and soon after Abraham’s encounter with Melchizedek, the character of Salem changed. I believe that in the interim, Paradise was lost. Not that it no longer existed, but its nature changed. The Garden of Eden that God made was replaced with man-made structures. God’s “Temple” had been torn down, just waiting a replacement!
  Remembering that God did not want a House, explaining, “I have not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt, even to this day, but have moved about in a tent and in a tabernacle” (2 Sam 7:6). It seems that God’s Tent was in the midst of those tabernacled around Him.
  Think about that for a moment. The Garden of Eden with its canopy of trees were what Tabernacle worship was copied after! The Tree of Life’s canopy was in the midst of the individual trees, or tree canopies around the Tree of Life.
   Although God explained that he required no house from Moses time until then, He did not deny that He had a House preceding Moses. Why would that matter. God lived from the beginning to Moses’s time in men’s hearts. That was His Plan all along. Where does God lived today? “Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you” (2 Cor 13:5)? Unless people are not qualified. Of course, “qualification” is “born again” (John 3:7).
  The true First Temple, therefore, was in the hearts of the prophets. They were the foundation of the Real Temple of God – the invisible universal Church, as is written:

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord… (Ephes 2:19-21)

  Why did God not need a House? Because His Home were in the hearts of the prophets. The idea of what “prophet” means is ambiguous. Prophets were not fortune-tellers or seers, but those who understood God entirely. When they were in the Glory of God, they saw Jesus; false prophets did not, and the average Hebrew did not. Moses saw Jesus in the Burning Bush and saw him write the Ten Prescriptions with his finger! Likewise, Abraham “saw” Jesus when he was willing to sacrifice his only remaining son. Theologians acknowledge only a handful of prophets, but even Rahab the harlot surely saw Jesus in what she was doing.
  The first occasion of people seeing Jesus was when Adam and Eve encountered the Voice of God walking in the cool of the evening (Gen 3:8). “God with us” is Immanuel. When God was with them, His manifestation is always Jesus. We find from John 1 that the Voice encountered in the Garden of Eden was in fact Jesus!
  During the Exodus, the Hebrews became “the traveling Church.” Jesus traveled with them as a cloud by day and a fire by night to lead them the Way. Jesus kept the Hebrews safe from Pharaoh (the priest of Satan) until they were saved in the Promised Land. Their “salvation” was conditional in that they were required to take their “antidote” for eternal health; which were Jesus’s “Ten Words” which theologians have mislabeled “commands!” Jesus came to save the nations, and the “Ten Prescriptions” were the protection which they were willing do for eternal health.
  Because God was in the hearts of only a few, God needed a Tabernacle (Tent) to be available to many! God Himself took his own “medicine:”

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Mat 28:18-20)

  What did Jesus do with himself in the wilderness? The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, was God going to the nations. The wilderness journey was “traveling Christianity” teaching all the nations between Hell (Egypt) and Paradise (Canaanland). Why did God prefer a Tabernacle to a House (Temple)? Because of the Great Commission of Matthew 28. That was Jesus’s Way of doing things. He preferred taking “Israel” to the World rather than the World coming to Jerusalem!
  Tabernacle worship was God’s Tent surrounded by the individual tents of the households of the Hebrews. They could stand at their tent and see the Glory of God in the Tent of God. Only a few could worship in the tent, but the majority were not worthy until they endured in the wilderness. They could only see Jesus from a distance, whereas the priests saw Jesus close-up. At that time, no one could see God’s face, but worshiped God’s face in absentia. They really saw Jesus in God, but only a few realized that! Moses certainly did, and likely Aaron.
  David insisted on building a House for God because he had a house himself. Because David had shed innocent blood, he was an unworthy builder. Solomon was selected as the architect of the Temple, but David still planned it. Neither understood that God did not need a house, although the Spirit of God already resided in David! He had Jesus, and failed to realize that’s who lived in him. Is it not ironic that God had a “House” in David, but David still insisted on God’s House being in the Temple?
  That background leads up to Ezekiel’s vision wherein God is the Architect and Planner of the Second Temple, and perhaps the Temple in the City of God in the Day of the Lord.
  Keep in mind that God’s Throne is in heaven, wherever that is, and His footstool is in the earth. He never needed a House and did quite well without one until David came along. However, we are not God and He knows that we need houses. The House that God prepared for his creatures was the canopy of the Garden. That was suitable for two people, but in the end, the Garden requires homes for more people. God’s Plan for us is:

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:1-3).

  Marvel not; that was His Plan for us all along:

Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. (Exod 23:20-21). 

  That seemed to be Israel, but was there further meaning? Compare the two passages. Plan A in the Exodus is Plan A for the rapture of the Christians. God’s Plan remains unchanged and the Lead “Actor” in both is Jesus the Messiah! “Angel” is capitalized in the previous passage because God refers to the Gospel message of Jesus. Then God validates that with “My Name is in him.” God IS Jehovah, but He is called “Jesus” as Jesus is “God With Us” (Emmanuel).
  Jesus – God in the Flesh – came to make the Way for our destiny to the House that God has prepared for those worthy of His Architecture. “Worthiness” is defined therein as obedience to His Voice (Jesus) and not to provoke God, obviously by denying Jesus. Jesus must be Lord for anyone to be worthy of eternal life, or a return to Paradise.



(Continued tomorrow.)