If you’re like me, your eyes can start to glaze over when it comes to reading about the construction of the temple. There are a couple online video renderings of Solomon’s temple that can help to make sense of it. The detailed work and number of laborers is astounding. One comments that intrigues me is in 6:7 (ESV), “When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built.” I don’t know any construction workers who can manage that. It was an incredible structure that was built as God’s dwelling place in Israel, but it didn’t stay that way. The temple got destroyed and rebuilt and then destroyed again as Jesus prophesied in Matthew 24:2.
There is now no physical structure that is the singular dwelling place of God. Rather, he dwells in all people who are his children by faith. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple” (1 Cor. 3:16–17). The question is, how well are we caring for God’s temple today? I don’t mean just physically, though that is important, but spiritually. Are we pursuing holiness in order to honor God with our temple? Are we regularly participating in worship? Are we presenting our bodies as living sacrifices and renewing our minds with God’s Word (Rom. 12:1–2)? Are there things we should start or stop doing so that others may see God’s presence in our lives? What is one thing you could change this week?
“For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Tim. 4:8).
Dawn C. Rutan
