God Is a Holy Temple: Temples and Sacred Space

The scriptures identify a number of temples and temple structures,[1] all of which serve to reveal the lord Jesus Christ and His mission, attributes, and divine character.

Many temples are formal structures built by human hands, such as the Mosaic Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple; others are natural places like the Garden of Eden, Mount Sinai, and mountain settings; still others include the Temple in Heaven, God Himself, and man and woman. These various temples and temple structures are identified in the accompanying chart.

All temples and related components serve God’s divine purposes and exist for the salvation of the human family. There is a formal connection among all temple types—God (Himself a holy temple) reveals sacred laws and rituals to His children (who are holy temples) in holy temple buildings or within natural temples. That is to say, temple buildings and natural temples accommodate God and His children in spaces that are holy, or separate, set apart from the world and from profane things.

Furthermore, various components of the tabernacle foreshadowed aspects of Jesus Christ’s divine ministry and atoning sacrifice. These components include the tabernacle furniture (laver of brass, altars, lampstand, mercy seat), sacrifices, foods (shewbread), sacred objects (jar of manna, two tablets of stone, rod of Aaron), and various parts of the tabernacle (veil, horns of the altar). The rituals and performances (i.e., anointings, washings, sprinkling of blood, laying on of hands), too, typified Jesus Christ and His mission.

Perhaps most importantly, even the tabernacle itself represented the lord’s body. In Ezekiel the lord told the Jews, who were scattered among the nations, that He would be “as a little sanctuary” to them (Ezek. 11:16). The Psalmist records Moses’s prayer: “lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations” (Ps. 90:1). In his epistle to the Hebrews, Paul called Jesus “a greater and more perfect tabernacle” (Heb. 9:11). And the lord Himself compared Himself to the temple when He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews, who thought that He referred to the temple of Herod responded, “Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body” (John 2:19–22). Jesus’s resurrected body became a new and perfect Tabernacle.