God's Temple

A couple years ago I stopped doing verse-by-verse studies on my own time, preferring to get a broader scope of the Scripture through a more traditional Bible-in-a-year program.

I still do my can't-see-the-forest-for-the-trees studies, but generally in line with what I'm doing in Bible study at church or other groups. I have found not surprisingly that they sometimes coincide, and so I've had some reinforcement over the past couple years that I've done this.

But this blog entry isn't about that.

It's about a somewhat different topic—God's temple. I don't have time to do much justice to the temple, but I noticed something when reading in 2d Chronicles a couple nights ago:

Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? And they have lived in it and have built for you in it a sanctuary for your name, saying, ‘If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you—for your name is in this house—and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.’ (2Ch 20.7–9)

Jehoshaphat's prayer comes when Judah is being attacked by a confederation of several nations with an army that they cannot withstand. What caught my eye in this prayer is that he specifically references the temple, "a sanctuary for your name." Jehoshaphat is really making covenant demands here; his prayer is humble, one of complete dependence upon God, but it is full of reminders of how God's people upheld their end of the bargain—they did not attack these nations because God told them not to; they lived in the land he gave them (I see in this a fulfillment of their responsibilities under the covenant); they built him a temple. In response, he should execute judgment on their enemies.

The narrative continues with a climactic defeat of Judah's enemies in fulfillment of God's promises to Abraham and to David.


As I read this, I was struck by the New Testament discussion of the temple: "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" (1Co 3.16). Paul also writes, "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price" (1Co 6.19,20) and "For we are the temple of the living God" (2Co 6.16).

There is an important subtext to these passages from the letters to the Corinthians: first, the edification of the body (1Co 3) and the war against the flesh (1Co 6, 2Co 6). The temple is spoken of in both a corporate sense (describing the church, it seems) as well as an individual one (we are each temples).

I mention this primarily because I think there is an important lesson to be learned here, and that is that the defense of the temple—this place that God has chosen to put his name and to dwell—is not up to human effort. There are enemies without and within, both doctrinal error and sinful desires that "war against the soul" (2Pe 2.11). Like the Israelites, we sometimes wage war in the strength that God provides, and we sometimes must admit our utter inadequacy in the face of those raging armies and throw ourselves on the covenant faithfulness of God.

In the end, whether we are strong against our sins (a rare occasion for me, personally) or weak, we always rely on God's promise that he will defend his temple against its enemies. I find some comfort in knowing that I can legitimately remind God of his promises to me. He is our shield and refuge, a very present help in time of trouble.