2 Chronicles 6&7
True Temple Worship
In Chapter 6 the Temple has been completed and King Solomon is dedicating the Temple and praying a prayer of intersession for the nation. The Temple will be the place where the people will meet with, and relate to God and He with them.
In Chapter 7 God answers King Solomon’s prayer for the people and makes it known that the people are to come to the Temple and pray especially when they have wandered away from their relationship and commitment to God and have sinned against Him. The Temple was to be a house of prayer, again referring back to God’s plan for the world in Deuteronomy 4:6. God’s acceptance of King Solomon’s prayer was demonstrated by fire coming down from heaven that consumed the offerings and sacrifices. The glory of God filled the temple.
The Temple was to be a meeting place with God to worship Him. The people were to keep their relationship with God strong and healthy. God warned starting in Chapter 7:19 that if the people turned away there would be dire consequences for the nation and the Temple. Unfortunately that is what the people did, even making the Temple into an idol as we read in Jeremiah 7.
What we read here in Chapters 6&7 is to be a visual representation of how we as Christians are to relate to God spiritually. In John 2:13-22 Jesus cleared from the Temple the money changers and the people who were selling animals for sacrifices. There was provision for the people to buy sacrifices in Deuteronomy 6:16 but the religious rulers had made the feasts into big business distracting from God’s intent and purpose for the Temple. The witness to the other nations was corrupted by materialism. When questioned about His authority to do this and what sign He would give to prove He had the authority to cleanse the Temple, Jesus said He would destroy the temple and raise it up in three days. Verse 21 tells us that Jesus was speaking of His body.
Jesus is our Temple. Christians are called the Body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12. Peter tells us we are living stones. As we relate to, and worship our Lord Jesus we are being built into a spiritual house and a royal priesthood. 1Peter 2;1-10
Jesus is our Passover Lamb that was sacrificed for our sins. Because He was sinless death could not hold Him and He rose from the grave three days after He was crucified. Jesus promised that He would send the Holy Spirit after He ascended into heaven. This He did on the Feast of Pentecost. When the Holy Spirit was given, He came as tongues of fire resting on the disciples. The sacrifice of Jesus for our sins was received and a new spiritual temple was starting to be constructed.
At the time of the writing of Chronicles the temple Solomon built had been destroyed just as God said it would be if the people did not remain in a right relationship with their God. Another temple will be built when the people are allowed to return to Jerusalem. This temple will later be remodeled by Herod. Herod’s temple is the temple that stood in the days of Jesus. It is obvious that this temple and the worship that it was to represent to the world had been corrupted. Jesus will cleanse it one more time a week before He is crucified. We will read about that when we get to the New Testament. It will be destroyed in 70 AD and the only temple that exists today is the Temple of the Holy Spirit, the Body of Christ.
Since Christians are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, it would be good for us to reread this section again knowing that this is a physical picture of what is to be the spiritual condition in the heart of every believer in Christ. We need to pray, ask God to examine our heart, and show us anything that might be corrupting our relationship with God,
Here are some verses to guide us. 1 Chronicles 28:9; Psalm 139:23&24: Jeremiah 17:9&10; Romans 8:26&27, Psalm 32:3-5, 77:6, 119:59; Lamentations 3:40.
Pastor Dave