The Temple

1 Kings 6

The account of Solomon’s temple being built highlights something about God’s heart: his desire to be with all people. After seven years of building, every detail executed to the smallest thread, the temple was finished. The Lord spoke to Solomon, promising that He would dwell among the children of Israel and not forsake his people (1 Kings 6:11-13). What an incredible promise: a Holy God ensuring he could dwell with his people in this set apart place. 

There was a part of the temple called the Court of the Gentiles, an area set aside for those outside of God’s people to also come and worship. Even though at this point in redemptive history those who were Gentiles could not come as close as Israelites, the beautiful details for God’s temple still included a place for all nations. When Jesus comes into Jerusalem before his crucifixion (Matt 21:12-17), he visits the temple and finds this court of the Gentiles overrun with booths selling animals to sacrifice - essentially turning the one place these people could come to worship into a shopping mall on December 24th. Righteously angry Jesus quotes Isaiah 56:7 

these I will bring to my holy mountain,

and make them joyful in my house of prayer;

their burnt offerings and their sacrifices

will be accepted on my altar;

for my house shall be called a house of prayer

for all peoples.”

and cleanses the temple so right worship can continue. 

The Temple was always intended to be a place where people of every nation, tribe, and tongue could come to worship, and in Christ’s death and resurrection, we see that he “has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility” (Eph 2:14). 

Prayer:

Jesus thank you for the power of your blood to reconcile us to God and to one another. 

Question to Consider:

Read Revelation 7 and consider the beauty of all nations being included in the worship of God.