The building of the temple was a landmark event for Israel. It had been 480 years since the Exodus, as the author notes, and the temple is the final step to Israel being fully established in the land which God had promised to bring them to. The temple represented the centrality of Israel’s covenant with God; it basically put God in the centre of life, in a symbolic way. The imposing place that the temple occupied in Jerusalem would forever remind the people of who they were and what they were called to be. The temple was seen as a kind of portal which connected heaven and earth. Through the temple the people communed with God and God communicated his blessing to his people. Jesus also built a temple. It is called the church. It is not the building, but the people. We are the parts, that when brought together, become a temple of God, a portal through which heaven comes to earth. There is a sense in which we are each a temple of God, but it is really in our togetherness that we form the New Testament temple. It is a very healthy way to see yourself lest you think it all depends on you. God is already doing things, he just wants us to come together and be the vessel through which he can pour out his blessings in the world. You don’t have to make things happen. You just have to join in on something that is already happening. Devote yourself to seeing the church become all that God has designed it to be. Build yourself in and remain solid and dependable.
Think about how you can further build yourself into the church.
Read 1 Kings 6.
