By Dr. Bill Jones
Part 1 of a 6-part series.
Back to the Beginning
From the time of King Solomon, the Temples of Israel have been given an important place in the Scriptures.
We study with great intensity the tiniest of details about the Temples, both past and future. Why such fascination with buildings long since destroyed, or those not yet even built? To understand, we must go back to the beginning – the Creation – in the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis.
From the time God created Adam and Eve, it was always His purpose, plan, and desire to dwell in the presence of the human race. Each day, we are told, He would walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the Garden (Genesis 3:8).
However, sin quickly entered the picture when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command not to eat the forbidden fruit. Because of their sin, they were separated from the presence of God.
During the course of the following centuries, God would give every man and woman the opportunity to re-stablish the kind of relationship that would allow God to once again dwell in the presence of humanity. But, again and again, the sin of the human race would prohibit this.
A Place for God’s Presence
This situation would not change until Moses brought the Israelites out of Egypt to the foot of Mount Sinai. It was there that God provided a way for His presence once again to dwell in the midst of His people.
First, He gave them the Law. It was immediately apparent that they could not – and would not – keep it. In fairness, we must point out that no one was able to keep that Law except for One – the Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore God – in His infinite grace and mercy – gave them another means of experiencing the presence of the living God. He gave them instructions for building the Wilderness Tabernacle, a priesthood, and a sacrificial system.
The latter is the shedding of innocent blood for the temporary covering of the sins of the people It is not difficult to understand the need for special mediators – priests – to stand in the gap and serve between God and humanity.
It is so clear that the sacrificial system was a necessity for the covering of the sins of the people. However, it was only a covering – not a removal of sins – and thus sacrifices had to be created year after year, century after century.
Because of this temporary covering, God was able to once again dwell in the presence of His people. He did this in the form of His Shekinah (which means “Presence of God”) glory cloud, which dwelt above the Ark of the Covenant. The necessity of a priesthood and sacrificial system is clearly obvious.
While it was a place God chose for the visible symbol in which His presence could dwell, there had to be more to it than that. After all, God does not need a physical building in which the glory of His presence can dwell.
The Purpose
What, then, was the purpose?
I submit that the Tabernacle was a daily, physical, visible object-lesson reminder that the God whose presence dwelt in their midst was the promise-keeping God.
Beginning with Genesis 3:15, God would promise again and again that He would send the Messiah – the One who would deal with humanity’s sin problem – once and for all. The coming of the Messiah was truly the hope of Israel. In would be in the Tabernacle that every detail of the coming Savior – His life, ministry, and work of salvation – would be foreshadowed and typified.
But for the Jewish people, the Tabernacle would take on another important role – a role that would be transferred to the Temples which would later be built. Coming out of the degradation and humiliation of Egyptian slavery, the people needed something to give them an identity and worth as a people.
It would be through the giving of the Torah – (the Law, or Books of Moses) – and the Tabernacle that they would find what they were looking at.
We know from the New Testament that the Law was given primarily to show humanity its need for a Savior (Romans 7:7-8). But the Law given by God to the Jewish people went far beyond the moral law, or what we call the Ten Commandments.
There were ceremonial laws, dietary laws, sacrificial laws, laws dealing with criminal matters, and much more. In fact, the Israelites counted no less than 613 laws.
Because these laws were given to the Jewish people, and were unique to them (Romans 3:1-2), they took a certain pride in being the recipient of these laws. In was, in fact, in these laws that a formerly enslaved people gained a respect as a people, race, religion, and even a nation.
This was of paramount importance to them, and it was illustrated, typified, and presented by the Tabernacle – and later the Temples. This is why Jesus would one day admonish the Jewish people for giving greater emphasis to the Temple than to the God of the Temple (Matthew 23:16-22).
The “Important” Tabernacle
These structures would come to symbolize all that the Jewish people held dear, much the same way many Americans revere the American flag because of all that it symbolizes.
For the Jewish people, however, their reverence for these buildings was far, far greater than any feelings we have for the flag. This is still true for many Orthodox Jews today, which is why the Temple Mount in Jerusalem remains the most cherished piece of acreage in the world.
There are 50 chapters of Scripture devoted – in part or completely – to the Tabernacle. In studying the Bible, there is something known as the “principle of intentional selection.” This means the Holy Spirit intentionally selected how much space the Bible would devote to any topic.
Selecting 50 chapters for the Tabernacle tells us there is great importance attached to it. After all, this is far more Scripture than is devoted to all the magnificent Temples of Israel, past and future.
All of this reinforces the concept that the Tabernacle served a very important purpose. As mentioned earlier, every intricate detail of it illustrated or typified some aspect of the coming ministry and work of the Messiah in accomplishing salvation. Without the promise of that work, God could not dwell in the presence of sinful people.
Many books have been written about the typology of the Tabernacle, relating the tiniest details of that structure to the life and ministry of Jesus. It is not the purpose of this series to explore all those wonderful truths. Rather, it is a prelude to understanding the future Temples of Israel, their importance, history, destruction, and lessons.
It all began with the Tabernacle.
In the following parts of this series, we will see how the Tabernacle prefigured the coming Messiah and the significance of replacing it with magnificent Temples.
Dr. Bill Jones was a longtime teacher / writer with Zion’s Hope.
Zion's Hope 
5 thoughts on “The Temples of Israel, Part 1: Introduction”