Two Tabernacles
- Michael E.B. Maher
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
The first tabernacle
1 Corinthians 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”
God views our bodies in a light that is completely different to the way natural man sees it, for in the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul teaches us that our bodies are in fact God’s temple. The Lord Jesus was the first one to introduce us to this concept when He referred to His own body as a temple (John 2:19), and the reason He did that was because when Jesus came to the earth, for the first time God dwelt in a physical human body. Before the Lord Jesus came to the earth, under the old covenant God’s presence resided in a temple made with human hands (Exodus 25:22). But at our Lord’s crucifixion the veil of that temple was torn in two, and so God’s presence no longer resides in a temple made with human hands. God could not dwell in the bodies of the old covenant saints however, because none of them had been born-again yet and they were still spiritually dead people. The new covenant saints however are born-again, because of which they are spiritually alive unto God, and so God now dwells within each one of His children, just as He dwelt in Jesus when our Lord walked this earth. This is the reason that the Lord requires us to present our bodies holy and acceptable to Him, because our bodies are in fact His temple in the earth today. The reason that our bodies are God’s temple is because our bodies are the temple of our own spirits, and the Holy Spirit dwells within our spirits.
Acts 7:44-45 “Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen, (45) which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David.”
The concept of our body being the temple of God was never taught under the old covenant, because as we have already mentioned, it was not possible for the old covenant saints to have the Spirit of God dwelling in them as they were not yet born-again. In the Old Testament there were numerous types and shadows recorded of that which is experienced in reality by the saints in the New Testament. As mentioned in the above quoted passage of scripture, one example of a type and shadow of that which was to come was the tabernacle that God instructed Moses to construct, which was not a permanent structure, for it was a tent (Exodus 26:7). We have already seen earlier that the Holy Spirit refers to our mortal bodies as tents. And so we see that just as the first temple of God was a tent, so the current temple of God (the bodies of the saints) is also a tent, for our bodies are mortal and not immortal. Under the old covenant God used the first tabernacle while the Israelites were in the wilderness before they entered into their promised land i.e. Israel. And so in the same manner God dwells within our mortal bodies while we are pilgrims in this world, before we enter into our promised land i.e. the New Jerusalem.
The second tabernacle
1 Chronicles 28:6 “Now He said to me, 'It is your son Solomon who shall build My house and My courts; for I have chosen him to be My son, and I will be his Father.”
God used the first tabernacle from the time of Moses until the reign of King Solomon, for as we can see in the above quoted passage of scripture God instructed Solomon to build Him a temple. The second temple that was constructed however was no longer a tent but rather a permanent structure. And so we see that the temple that Solomon built was a type and shadow of that which is still to come, for it was a type and shadow of our resurrected bodies which will be immortal and thus they will be permanent temples which God will dwell in for all eternity. Under the old covenant God only allowed the permanent temple to be built when Israel had finally taken possession of her promised land and there was no more war. In the same manner the saints will receive their resurrected bodies when our Lord Jesus returns to reign on the earth and there will be no more wars.
1 Corinthians 15:51-54 “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed-- (52) in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (53) For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. (54) So, when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory.”
As believers we look forward to the day when our Lord Jesus returns to reign in glory, for we know that at that time these mortal bodies which we now dwell in will be swallowed up in immortality, and we will receive the glorious resurrected bodies that our heavenly Father has predestined for us to inherit. The word immortal means no longer subject to death. But that is not all, for not only will our resurrected bodies never die but they will also never age, never get sick, and never grow weary, for they will be incorruptible. In other words the resurrected bodies of the saints will be perfect temples for God to dwell in.
Michael E.B. Maher
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