Leviticus 22:26-23:44; Numbers 29:12-16
1 Kings 8:2-21

Long ago, the Jewish sages created reading calendars to be read annually throughout all the synagogues every sabbath. They are the Parsha (from the Torah, the first five books of the Bible), and the Haftarah (selected readings from the prophetic books of the Old Testament). Today, I continue my series exploring the Messiah in each of these portioned readings that was planned and scheduled in ancient days and appointed for our present days. For October 8 this year, the readings are cited above. I would encourage you to read those passages first before you read my post, or at least read them in tandem.

As I mentioned in my last entry, a tabernacle, booth, or tent is used Biblically as an image of the physical body, which is a temporary dwelling place for the soul. Similarly, the Tabernacle of God was a temporary dwelling place for the presence of God until Solomon built a temple “where you [God] can live forever” (1 Kgs. 8:13). Today, no temple remains, but one day it will be rebuilt, according to the Scriptures.

John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The words “dwelt among us” can be translated literally as “tabernacled among us.” Jesus’ body on earth was the special presence of God, like the tabernacle that held the special presence of God. In John 2:19, Jesus says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews thought He was talking about the literal temple building, “But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken” (vs. 21-22). Tabernacle or temple, both are used to describe Jesus’ body, the resting place of God’s special presence on earth.

When Solomon dedicated the temple, “[a]nd when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord” (1 Kgs. 8:10-11). The sign of the special presence of God is a cloud. In Mark 14:62, Jesus tells the Sanhedrin, “I am [the Christ, the Son of the Blessed], and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” Jesus is connecting his identity with that of God Himself. When Jesus comes back, His abode on earth will be forever, 1,000 years on this present earth and then for eternity in the new heaven and earth. Just like the cloud in 1 Kings signaled God’s presence in a permanent structure, the Temple, Jesus will come on the clouds to signal His permanent dwelling on earth in Jerusalem as King. He will be in His resurrected body on earth as He is in His resurrected body in heaven right now, his “building” “eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1). That “building” or glorified body in the heavens will one day come back down to earth on the clouds, signaling His permanent dwelling here. Describing the new heaven and earth, Revelation 21:22 says, “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.”

God says to David, “your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name” (1 Kings 8:19). Jesus is the Son of David, and while Solomon, the son of David, built a temple, the Temple of Jesus’ body is greater. When the soul of a person is knit to the body, they don’t build their body. They don’t choose that body. But Jesus is different. Philippians 2:5-7 says, “Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Jesus made a conscious decision to put on a body, and God designed it himself. When Gabriel told Mary she would have Jesus, Mary asked how it would be possible, and Gabriel told her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God” (Lk. 1:35). One day, the King, the Lord of Hosts, Jesus, will take the seat of His father David and reign forever, just as the Scriptures promised. The King of Zechariah 14 is clearly God because people will worship Him (Zech. 14:17), and the Scriptures promise a Son of David to rule on his father’s throne forever (1 Kgs. 2:45). This can only be possible in Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man. Amen. Happy Sukkot.