The Temple in the Old Testament, New Testament, and Eternity

 Lesson August 11, 2025, I Kings 5 through 8: Solomon builds and dedicates temple

The literature called this lesson, “Work with Wisdom” as a follow-up to Solomon’s request for wisdom.

Despite Solomon’s failures we discussed last week, this passage and the ones in II Chronicles 2-7 (same information but some additions) tell of his highest achievement, the building of the temple that came to be known as Solomon’s temple, which was destroy in 586 B.C. Since it was completed in 957 (or so) BC, it stood for almost 400 years. It is distinguished from what were called:

Zerubabel’s temple, finished in 516 B.C. after the exile (70 years after destruction of Solomon’s temple). From Got Questions.org

“As the second temple was being built, there was a group of Jews in Jerusalem who were rather disappointed. Older Jews who recalled the size and grandeur of the first temple regarded Zerubbabel’s temple as a poor substitute for the original. To their minds, it did not even begin to compare with the splendor of Solomon’s temple. It was true that Zerubbabel’s temple was built on a smaller scale and with much fewer resources. Also, Solomon’s temple had housed the Ark of the Covenant, which was no longer in Israel’s possession. And at the first temple’s dedication, the altar had been lit by fire from heaven, and the temple had been filled with the Shekinah; attendees at the second temple’s dedication witnessed no such miracles. Even so, Haggai prophesied that the second temple would one day have a magnificence to outshine the glory of the first (Haggai 2:3–9). Haggai’s word was fulfilled 500 years later when Jesus Christ arrived on the scene (Luke 2:22, 46; 19:45). Zerubbabel’s temple was not as outwardly impressive as Solomon’s, but it had a greater glory: the Messiah Himself walked the courts of the temple that Zerubbabel built.”

Herod’s temple - “Over the next four hundred years [after Zerubabel’s temple built], a series of Gentile rulers alternatingly built up and defiled the second temple. The cycle culminated in a 39 BC battle in which King Herod took control of the temple, slaughtering many of the priests and defenders in the process, but also keeping the Roman soldiers from entering the sanctuary. Herod proposed to renovate the temple in 20-19 BC, his reason being the post-exilic temple was sixty cubits shorter than Solomon’s original. Despite the Jews’ fears that he meant to tear it down and never rebuild, the main work on the temple was completed in one-and-a-half years, and the outer courtyard in eight years. Finishing touches continued until AD 63. [It]] was a restoration and expansion of Zerubbabel’s second temple.”

This one was destroyed in 70 AD, which Jesus prophesied when his disciples pointed out how magnificent it was.

Read I Kings 6:1-13

I. The Temple in the Old Testament

A. A permanent replacement for the tabernacle that the Israelites had moved along with themselves since Exodus.

1. God instructed how to build it in great detail.

2. Architecture and items (furniture) were symbolic but also holy in themselves.

3. The Bible spends far more chapters on how to worship than on how God created the world. Why?

B. David’s desire but Solomon’s accomplishment.

C. While there are not direct instructions about how to build the Temple, it is based on the tabernacle, although it was far more gold-filled, and its proportions twice as large (ex., 90 cubits v. 45 cubits long).

D. What was the purpose of the Temple?

1. A centralized place for worship (no more “high places,” ideally, although Solomon

himself violated this command)

2. A house for God to dwell. Really? Well, yes and no.

a. I Kings 8:27-30 Solomon clearly states that God doesn’t really occupy or “be contained in” the Temple, which would be a pagan concept. God is not a tribal or local deity.

b. The Temple was symbolic of his glory and presence being with Israel, the Immanuel Principle that is so central to our faith. He is omnipresent but he is with us.

c. I Kings 8:27, Acts 17:20.

d. “The Lord’s presence was to be the focus of the temple dedication and celebration,” not Solomon, the festivities, or the work of any builders or Levites.

II. The Temple in the New Testament

A. Jesus visited it many times as a Jewish man.

B. Jesus, however, had a different viewpoint towards it from his followers

1. Cleansed it because profit became the motive

2. Prophesied its destruction

3. Implied his body was the real temple

4. Seemed to say that worship was to be radically transformed from the idea of the Temple, John 4:24 to Samaritan woman

C. It figured in the crucifixion: temple torn in two top to bottom; no more need for sacrifices

D. Early church: disciples still met there in Acts, but transitioned away over time to homes

E. Paul and Peter teach that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit

1. I Corinthians 3:16 the church is the temple – naos, the inner sanctuary.
“The word for "you" here is plural, not singular. He is asking his readers, as the local church in Corinth, if they understand that they together are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in them.
This would likely have been an unusual idea to those living in this area. Those who had seen it would likely have pictured the massive, sprawling Jewish temple in Jerusalem, truly an impressive structure. By comparison, the church in Corinth likely had no building of their own, meeting instead in smaller groups in the homes of various members. How could they possibly be God's temple?
Paul's answer is to the point: God's Spirit lives in them (1 Corinthians 2:12; 6:19). To be clear, God's Spirit lives in each believer individually, but Paul shows here that in this way the Holy Spirit occupies the collected believers known as the church. Thus, they become the temple of God, even without a physical structure to meet in. . . "the church" is the people, not the building.”

2. I Corinthians 6: the individual is the temple (hieron, the temple complex, outer court)  Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

3. I Peter 2:4-5.

III. The Temple in Eternity – Revelation 20-21:5.

I tend to think of the history of the Temple as the history of how God has taught his people about himself and their relationship. We should understand the Temple because it teaches that worship is never, ever to be taken for granted or done with anything but love and excellence. We are to prepare for it in our hearts, to treat the act and time and place of it as sacred, and set time aside for it individually and together with others. It is a time and an act that calls for repentance and purification. It is not so much a matter of following the “rules” but of asking, “how does God want me to be in this time?”