The Temple in the Bible

The Meaning of the Temple: Where God Dwells With His People

The temple in the Bible is the place where God chose to dwell with His people. It was the house of His name, the place of sacrifice where sin was atoned, the house of prayer where the nation and the stranger came to seek Him, and the meeting place where heaven and earth touched. Its deepest meaning is the longing that runs through the whole of Scripture: that God would live among people. That longing is answered fully in Christ and in the city where God dwells with His people for ever.

The psalmist names the one desire the temple was built to satisfy:

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.Psalm 27:4 (KJV)

A place to dwell

From the beginning God's purpose was to dwell with people. He walked with Adam in the garden. He gave Moses a tent so that He might dwell among Israel. He gave Solomon a temple as the fixed and glorious form of the same desire. The temple was, above all, a house of dwelling. It answered the oldest ache of the human heart and the oldest promise of God: I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God.

This is why the temple mattered so much to Israel. It was not merely a national monument or a place of ceremony. It was the assurance that the God who made heaven and earth had come near, had put His name in one place, and could be sought and found there.

The place of sacrifice

The temple was also the place of sacrifice. Day by day and feast by feast, the blood of bulls and goats and lambs was offered on the great bronze altar in the court. This was not cruelty or superstition; it was God's own appointed way of dealing honestly with sin. The message written into every sacrifice was that sin is real, that it costs life, and that God provides a way for guilty people to be forgiven and to draw near.

The whole system said two things at once: that God is holy and cannot simply overlook sin, and that God is merciful and has made a way of atonement. The temple held both truths together, and it held them for centuries, teaching Israel to long for a final and perfect sacrifice that the blood of animals could only picture.

The house of prayer

The temple was a house of prayer. Solomon prayed that when anyone turned toward this house and prayed, God would hear from heaven. The prophets carried the vision further: God said through Isaiah, mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people. It was never meant to be only Israel's; the court of the Gentiles was space set aside so that the nations too could come and seek the true God.

The Psalms are full of the joy of that place. I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD. One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life. For the faithful in Israel, the temple was not a duty but a delight, because it was where God was.

The meeting place of heaven and earth

Above all, the temple was the meeting place between God and man. In the holy of holies, above the mercy seat, God met with the high priest once a year on the Day of Atonement. It was the one point on earth where the veil between heaven and earth grew thin, where the glory dwelt, where God had promised His eyes and His heart would be. Every stone declared that God and humanity were not meant to be strangers, that reconciliation was possible, that there was a way in.

Yet the temple also declared the distance. Only the priests could enter the holy place; only the high priest could enter the holiest, and only once a year, and never without blood. The very structure that promised nearness also guarded a barrier. The temple both invited and warned, and in doing so it set the stage for the one who would finally open the way.

The limit the temple confessed

The deepest honesty of the temple was that it knew its own limits. Solomon, at the very dedication, asked aloud, But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded? No Israelite who understood the faith thought that God was contained in a box of stone. The temple was the place God had chosen to put His name, not a cage for His being. It pointed to a presence far greater than itself.

The prophets guarded this truth fiercely. When the people began to treat the building as a charm, chanting, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, as though its mere presence would save a corrupt nation, Jeremiah warned them not to trust in lying words. Centuries later Stephen would remind his hearers that the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, and Paul would tell the Athenians the same. The temple's own witness was that it was a sign and not the end, a means and not the meeting itself. It taught Israel to long for a nearness that no building could give, a longing that only Christ, and then His indwelling Spirit, would finally satisfy. The greatness of the temple was that it made the human heart ache for something greater than the temple.

How it points to Christ

The New Testament gathers up every meaning of the temple and gives it to Jesus. He is God dwelling with us, for the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. He is the sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, offered once for all. He is the house of prayer, for He called the temple His Father's house and drew all seekers to Himself, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. And He is the true meeting place of God and man, the one mediator between God and men, in whom heaven and earth are reconciled.

So the temple was never an end in itself. It was a long, God-given picture of a person. Everything it meant, dwelling, sacrifice, prayer, and meeting, is fulfilled in Christ, and through Him poured out into His people, who are now called the temple of God, and at last into the new Jerusalem, where the Lord God and the Lamb are the temple, and God dwells with His people face to face for ever.

This is why the meaning of the temple is not a piece of ancient history but a living invitation. The dwelling, the sacrifice, the prayer, and the meeting were never abolished; they were gathered into a person and offered to you. To come to Christ is to come to the true temple, to find in Him the God who dwells with His people, the sacrifice that takes away sin, the ear that hears every prayer, and the meeting place where you are welcomed home. The whole long story of the temple was God's way of teaching the world what He was preparing to give: Himself, in His Son, to all who will draw near.

A note for all traditions: the history above (the temples, their building, their destruction, and the rebuilding) is told as Scripture and the record present it. Where the New Testament states plainly that the temple is fulfilled in Christ, that is named as fulfilment; where a connection is a reflection rather than a direct statement, it is offered as such. The one Lord of the whole story, from Solomon to the new Jerusalem, is Jesus Christ, and every believer is called to draw near to God through him.

Read on: Solomon's temple · Christ our temple · The church as God's temple · The Temple in the Bible