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When God Lived in a House of Stone

a sermon on 1 Kings 8.22-43

by David C. Mauldin

Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Alabama

Tuesday will mark the one-year anniversary of hurricane Katrina. In the aftermath of Katrina’s destruction, government at all levels was criticized for responding slowly. One of the changes that resulted from that criticism was a new hotline giving the governors of every state fast, direct access to the Federal Department of Homeland Security and FEMA. Now when a disaster strikes, help is as close as lifting a receiver. … Naturally, however, things are never that simple. Back in June, the governor of Delaware complained because although the hotline used a secret number and was for emergency use only, it was constantly tied up by telemarketers! [Chuck Shepherd’s “News of the Weird,” July 23, 2006] Now, I had always assumed that telemarketers who pestered the government would disappear mysteriously, never to be heard from again—or at least have their taxes audited. Not so. Do you know what they did? They added the hotline number to the national Do Not Call registry. At least you and I have recourse to the same solution the government has. Isn’t that about par for the course in this crazy world?

I have always been fascinated by the idea of a hotline. When I was a kid, the mayor of Gotham had a red phone just so he could reach Batman. During the cold war, a hotline linked the White House and the Kremlin, just in case things got too tense. Everyone needs a hotline. Have a problem you can’t handle, just pick up the red phone.

A hotline means access to someone who can help. Even when it’s not needed, it is a comfort to have around. Wouldn’t you like a hotline to God? Direct access, all the time. Not just prayer, but a place—a place you could go and count on God meeting you there. A place that, even though you cannot be there, you can look toward and know that God will hear. For the Ancient Jews, that is what the Temple in Jerusalem was. It was access to God.

This sermon is about the Temple in Jerusalem. I am going to give you the basics about it, share a little of its history, and try to help you understand what it meant to Jews while it was standing. But, I am not trying to teach you history. Before I am through I will ask the question, “What about us?” And the answer will show you how relevant the Jerusalem Temple is to your life today. So pay attention to the details up front, and you will be rewarded in the end.

What was the Temple? When King David united the tribes of Israel into one kingdom, he captured the city of Jerusalem and made it his capital. He built a palace there, and it was his dream to also build a Temple for God. His motivations were no doubt both selfish and pious. By building the Temple next to the palace, he was claiming once more that God had chosen him and his descendants to rule God’s people. The Temple made a political statement. More than that, however, was the question of how to honor God. From the time the children of Israel had made the Tabernacle in the wilderness, the symbol of God’s presence and the place his people went to worship had been a tent. If the king had a house, surely God should have one too.

David, however, did not get to build the Temple. He came up with the plan and began to set it in motion. His son Solomon would be the one to actually build it. Our scripture reading today is part of the prayer Solomon prayed when the Temple was dedicated. The Bible is careful, in reporting all this, to show how God was sovereign and gracious. God chose the site for the Temple. God allowed it to be built. It was because God chose to associate his name with the Temple that it could be what it was supposed to be.

Solomon built the Temple more than 900 years before Christ. It became the focus of Israel’s worship. Many of the psalms were composed for Temple worship. The Temple was also where sacrifices were offered. For the ancient Israelite, it was the center of the universe, the place where heaven and earth met. It was the house of Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

In 587 b.c. the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and did what most Jews thought God would never allow: They destroyed the Temple. This was a crisis of faith for many, but the prophets said God was not finished with his people. Sure enough, about sixty years later, many of those taken to Babylon as captives returned under Persian rule and rebuilt the Temple. This was the so-called Second Temple. Much later, King Herod tried to make himself the legitimate king of the Jews by rebuilding the Second Temple on a grand scale. In fact, his construction was still going on when Jesus visited the Temple. Those of you who went with the Wednesday Wheelers to the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Exploreum will remember the computer-generated model of the Temple as it was in Jesus’ day. This beautiful Temple did not last long. The Jews rebelled against Roman rule, and the Romans destroyed the Temple in a.d. 70. It has never been rebuilt.

The ancient Temple in Jerusalem was different from synagogues or churches of today. For one thing, most people never got to go inside. Only the priests did. The people worshiped in the Temple courtyard around the main building. The idea was, the Temple lets you get close to what is holy, but not too close. Holiness, after all, is dangerous. God must be treated with reverence and awe. So the people stayed outside, and the priests took care of business.

The business of sacrifices was done outside. Burnt offerings of various kinds were offered on the altar, which stood in front of the Temple building. Other business was done inside. The main Temple building was divided into three parts—three rooms, one behind the other. The main entrance faced east. The first room inside was the forecourt or entrance. This seems to have functioned mainly as transitional space. It was inside, but the stone walls were not paneled, as the two inner rooms were. The priests moved from the outside into the sanctuary through this forecourt.

The next room was directly behind it. This was the sanctuary, where most of the action happened. Here priests burned incense on a special altar. They placed something called the Bread of the Presence on a golden table. Lamps burned on ten lamp stands. The walls and floor were paneled in wood, which was covered in gold. The walls were adorned with carved figures: palm trees, flowers, lions, oxen, and angels.

The innermost room was the Holy of Holies. No one ever entered here except the High Priest one time per year on the Day of Atonement. In this sanctuary was the Ark of the Covenant, considered God’s footstool. Above the Ark were golden angels—cherubim—with wings spread over the Ark. This was considered God’s throne. Unlike their pagan neighbors, the Israelites did not attempt to represent God with a statue or something like that. They made a throne room where the invisible God could dwell.

This layout of the sanctuary reflects the purpose of the Temple. It was both a dwelling place for God and the place where he would meet his people. The holiness of God was honored, yet his people could draw near. God was with them, and nothing said that better than the Temple.

Having described the Temple and given you the briefest overview of its history, let me move on to something more important—what the Temple meant to God’s people. I’ve already dropped clues. What did the Temple do for people? How did it touch their hearts and minds?

The Temple meant God was with them. This is the first and most basic thing. Of course they knew that no building—not even the entire world—could contain the Living God! Solomon acknowledges this in his prayer: “Even heaven and highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built.” It was enough for Solomon that God’s name would dwell there. This was the house of Yahweh. The point of the Temple was never, “OK, great, we have God in a nice little box, like a genie in a bottle.” From time to time God’s people got careless and made that mistake. The prophets constantly warned them against the danger of taking God for granted. Jeremiah told them not to expect the Temple to save them from judgment. We never have God in our power. That was not what the Temple was about. Instead, it stood as a concrete reminder of the promise that God would be with his people. God had graciously condescended to be present in the Temple.

The Temple meant that God’s people knew where to find him. Where do you turn when things go wrong? Where do you look when you have made a mess and need a fresh start? When you need justice or peace? Where do you go when things go wrong? The ancient Jews went to the Temple. Solomon’s prayer—and I only read part of it—asks God to hear when his people pray to him in the Temple, or if they are not there then when they pray toward the Temple. Remember how Daniel prayed three times daily toward the Temple? The Temple was a red phone sitting on the desk. It meant God was listening.

The Temple also meant God had chosen them. This was important for the king. The king of Israel called himself the Lord’s anointed. The palace and the Temple were all part of one big complex. It screamed, “God has chosen David’s descendants to rule Israel.” Beyond this, however, it reminded Israel that God had chosen them. The Ark of the Covenant, which went back to Moses, was in the Temple. God is one, and he has but one Temple, and it is where he has chosen it to be, in the midst of the people he has chosen. That is what it meant. In Solomon’s prayer we get a reminder that God chose Israel not for Israel’s sake but for the world’s. The prophets dreamed of a time when all the nations would flock to Jerusalem to learn about God. Solomon included foreigners in his prayer. He asked God to respond to anyone who came to the Temple in faith and prayed.

The Temple meant their world was stable and orderly. What can you count on when all else fails? God. And where is God? The Temple. This is why the destruction of the Temple was such a crisis of faith, and why rebuilding it was so important. As long as they knew that God was in his Temple, all the world was right. The Temple was a concrete symbol of God’s sovereign rule.

The Temple meant they had a chance to start again. Solomon knows the people will sin. He knows there will be consequences. He prays that the Temple will put things right between God and Israel, and thus restore peace, health, and justice. Most of his prayer is given to this topic as he tries to cover all contingencies. God’s people will need mercy and rescue. That is why the Temple is there. He doesn’t mention the sacrifices prescribed for sins. Not all sacrifices were because of sin. Some were to thank God or for other purposes. But sin was dealt with in the Temple, through the sacrificial system—not because God could be bought off, but because this was how God had chosen to express his grace. So God’s people connected with him in several ways through the Temple, not the least of which was repentance. The Temple meant forgiveness.

Finally, the Temple was, for them, the physical and spiritual center of the universe. It was literally the place where heaven and earth met. Biblical faith knows God as the creator of this world. God made it, and he loves it. It was appropriate, therefore, that a physical space be set aside to be God’s dwelling on earth.

In summary, the Temple meant a lot to ancient Jews. It was a tangible expression of everything they believed. In time, it became the basis of their whole relationship with God. They knew there was a time before the Temple. God was not bound to it, but while it stood, it was the mediator between God and humanity.

Interestingly, one particular Jew had an ambiguous attitude toward the Temple. He didn’t deny its role in God’s plan, but like the prophets before him he threatened judgment against it. Like Solomon, he claimed an authority over it. And unlike anyone else, before or since, he seemed to think that people could get everything the Temple offered and more … by coming to him. I’m speaking, of course, about Jesus. And now at last we are ready to ask: What about us?

As we reflect on what the Temple meant to God’s people of old, we ought to realize how wonderful it was. It offered the possibility of a relationship between God and anyone who would look to it in faith. I’ve just scratched the surface. We cannot really grasp all that it meant to them. And when we think about that, we might wish for those things ourselves. We might lament the loss of the Temple and wish that it might be replaced.

Christianity claims that it already has! In fact, it was replaced while it was still standing—by Jesus. No longer do we meet God in a place. Now we meet God in a person. Most of the New Testament Book of Hebrews is devoted to telling how Jesus is superior to the old system. The Temple system relied on fallible priests. The new system relies on the Great High Priest Jesus Christ. The old system required continual sacrifices. Jesus offered himself on the cross once and for all—the complete and perfect sacrifice. The Temple was a type or a shadow of the perfection that came in Christ. Everything the Temple did for God’s people then, Jesus does for God’s people now.

The Temple was a tangible reminder of God’s presence and love. Jesus was God in the flesh. He made God’s presence and love tangible and real. Looking for God? Look to Jesus. Need assurance that God will hear you? Pray in the name of Jesus. Need forgiveness and a fresh start? I think you see the pattern. Even the Temple’s function of drawing all peoples to worship the God of Israel is carried on by Jesus Christ. Solomon prayed, “When a foreigner comes …” Jesus said, “Go, therefore, into all nations …”

You may also be aware the New Testament sometimes talks about the church—and by that it doesn’t mean a building, but rather the community of people who belong to Jesus—it talks about the church as the temple of God. When it does so it basically has two things in mind: First, through the Holy Spirit God dwells in us. We are his earthly residence, the place he has chosen to put his name. Second, we have the same purpose as the Temple in Jerusalem with respect to an unbelieving world: to bring glory to God and so draw the people of the nations to faith. For these reasons scripture speaks of the church as God’s temple. However, it is Jesus alone who replaces the Temple in Jerusalem and fulfills its various functions.

In all of this you can recognize God’s overwhelming love for you. He gave his people of old a Temple, and it was a wonderful gift of grace. But its true purpose was to prepare them for God’s greater gift. This greater gift is his Son, and now that he has come and done his saving work, we who know him have access to God that the Temple in Jerusalem never offered. We are not separated from God. There is no little room we are forbidden to enter. No door or veil hides God’s glory from us. Earlier in chapter 8 of 1 Kings, when they begin to dedicate the Temple, a cloud fills the sanctuary, so that even the priests could not enter, and the glory of the Lord filled the place. Solomon exclaimed: “The Lord has said that he will dwell in thick darkness.” With the coming of Jesus, the darkness is gone. The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. A red phone sitting on the desk is good, but better still is the person who can help you sitting right by your side.

God wants you to know him. God wants a relationship with you. God wants to forgive and heal you. God wants you to draw near to him with awe and reverence. God wants you to worship him, because when we worship our creator we become more like him. His people of old had the Temple. Now his people have his Son. God reaches down to us and speaks to us in words we can understand and gives us things we can see and hear, so that we might know him. How exciting is that! Christ is risen! He lives today! Through his Holy Spirit he lives in all who belong to him. Our destiny is God’s kingdom, pictured in the Book of Revelation as a city—the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven. But in this city there is no Temple, because there is no need of one. Its Temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. Amen.

August 27, 2006


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