The Living Temple

The Temple, along with its intricate system, originally served as a shadow-picture of greater realities yet to come. It was never meant to embody those future realities in their fullness but rather to foreshadow them. The Temple where Yehovah placed His name functioned as a prophetic image in the temporal, visible realm, embedded with a divine language that He Himself designed.¹ This system pointed toward what Yehovah would ultimately bring about at “the end of the olam.” Olam is often translated as forever or the ages, marking the culmination of divine Purpose and Order. Thus, the temple system was a true foretelling of future realities, beginning as a symbolic image yet literally constructed from stone and materials of this created, material world.

The earthly Temple represented a shadow-picture, complete with visible signs and an internal symbolic language. Yeshua the Messiah came to unveil this understanding to all humanity by walking out Yehovah’s plan of pointing us to a reality distinct from the earthly, material Temple. The religious authorities of the first century, entrenched in that earthly order, were unprepared to transcend it: the destruction of the temple system was their wake-up call. Those having the faith of Yeshua² began to comprehend a new order,³ an order with transcendental, supernatural qualities — a structure not from human effort, akin to a stone cut out (but not by hands) from a mountain.⁴ Early Believers (the Messianic Notzerim) recognized that we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit.⁵

Over time, however, ignorance has prevailed. Modern teachers of Scripture are not so unlike those in Messiah’s day who embraced misaligned concepts of the Temple system. While seekers of Messiah’s Truth rise to the idea of transcending the earthly realm and becoming Yehovah’s Temple, Western Christianity has succumbed to a blindness similar to that of ancient times. Just as the old order pointed to superior truths beyond the veil, this “new order” binds itself to customs and traditions that ultimately obscure those unseen realities.  

In essence, the spiritual Temple we embody in Messiah operates on a higher realm, yet we have not attained its fullness, as future revelations await. What exists now — and what is coming — is that we are the living Temple, cut without human hands, speaking a living language that declares our present identity and our future destiny, the destiny we inherit when Yehovah descends to dwell with humanity. This is the reality He reveals today: In the New Jerusalem, there will be no temple, for Yehovah and the Lamb will be its Temple, dwelling directly with mankind.⁶

We attempt to articulate cryptic truths, expressing them in a prophetic language that some, lacking deeper understanding of the Temple’s essence, do not comprehend. Yet, if we speak prophetically or with interpretation, we make sense to the uninitiated. This, I believe, is the context Paul addresses in his teaching on languages.⁷

When Yeshua poured out the Spirit on Shavuot (Pentecost), the disciples spoke this living language, proclaiming Yehovah’s wonderful plans for a future Living Temple and the Divine Blueprint for His people.⁸

In Jacob’s vision of messengers ascending and descending a “staircase,” he named the place Beit-El, the “House of God.”⁹ Notice that the messengers (elohim, or “angels”) were first ascending because they were assigned to the earth to watch and protect that holy space between the temple in Heaven and the temple on the earth, “until Heaven and Earth pass away.” The temple mount will be holy, as a testimony forever, until we who are living stones in a spiritual temple are also sacred space, proclaiming what is now and what will come in the future, when there will no longer be a temple but only the new Jerusalem and Yehovah’s mishkan with mankind. The temple in Jerusalem only represents the Temple below, while we who are of Messiah represent the Temple above. The one hundred forty-four thousand — those firstborn chosen from the twelve tribes of Israel — will have the blessings of both realms. While in vision, Yochanan (John) saw an uncountable multitude in Heaven ministering before Yehovah; so there are those who will literally be with Yehovah day and night, ministering before Him in the Millennial Reign.

The “Day of Atonement” means something different than what we’ve come to understand: Yom Kippur, which comes from the root kafar (כָּפַר), means “to cover.” The golden cover on the Ark of the Witness (or, Covenant; or, Testimony) represents Yehovah’s kindness and mercy: When His presence manifests without blood, it manifests Yehovah’s judgment as wrath. But with blood, He judges with mercy, where the blood of the Messiah awaits to be revealed and the covenant confirmed, according to Daniel chapter 9 (and, as per Ron Wyatt’s testimony and the teachings of Michael Rood). But kipper, in its atoning form, actually means “to strip away,” as in stripping away the “varnish“ — the stain of our sins — so that Yeshua’s blood washes us clean. That’s our hope in the Messiah.

Though the day he confirms his covenant is yet to come — that Day of Hope, when we are gathered in his name — we are now by faith, not by our own vigor, that actual Temple he’s building without human hands: We’re those living stones, speaking a living language that may sound foolish to most (Zephaniah 3:9, I Corinthians 2:6-16). But prophecy or interpretation brings it home, tearing away false “temples” (doctrines, traditions, teachings) until they fall, convicted. We must focus our prayers so they have the surrender that true humility, true worship, brings, instead of them having the “leaven of presumption” (such as “human timing” versus Yehovah’s order and appointed times).

The temple Ezekiel saw is, I think, the third and final one. It’s Yeshua’s giving everyone one last opportunity to grasp its significance, not just as history but as a pointer (“throwing the finger”) to the Messiah’s blood atonement, thereby fulfilling the Father’s will. Think of Moses, who so very much desired to see Yehovah’s face, the face no one can see and live. We, as did Moses, may see Him from behind instead, if we are protected in the cleft of the Rock, Messiah. We cannot bear Glory’s imminent fullness, but we can grasp it through experiencing our walk of faithful obedience and, ultimately, the transformation into our spiritual bodies at the Resurrection. We can, like Moses, (a prototype of those hidden in Messiah, between the cleft of the rock), upon understanding the beginning, declare that which is yet to come.

The earthly, temporal temple in Jerusalem will exist for those Yehovah grants yet another opportunity to understand Him and the supreme responsibility taken up by the Messiah, those who dedicate their lives to faithfully obeying His torot (instructions).