The Temple and the Priest

Meredith Kline, from his book Kingdom Prologue: Genesis Foundations for a Covenantal Worldview, talks about the ideas of "temple" and "priest" in their various forms in Scripture -

The conclusion appears warranted, therefore, that Genesis 2:15 contains an explicit reference to the entrusting of man in his priestly office with the task of defending the Edenic sanctuary against the intrusion of anything that would be alien to the holiness of the God of the garden or hostile to his name. From subsequent developments it is evident that Adam's priestly charge was meant to set him on guard, as at a military post, against the encroachment of the Satanic serpent. In the Zechariah 3 passage, we see the messianic figure of the Angel of the LORD fulfilling this primal priestly duty. He judicially rebukes the malicious accuser, who in effect poses in God's holy presence as one of the cherubim guardians, as though he would defend the sanctuary against the sin-stained human priest. Back at the beginning, the challenge of Satan's unholy trespass was to precipitate the critical hour of probation when man, under the priestly charge to guard God's courts, was faced with the duty of pronouncing the holy judgment of God's house against the preternatural intruder.

This judicial-military function of the office of the guardian-priest is an important aspect of the whole course of judgment executed by agents of God's kingdom subsequently in redemptive history. It is in fact the essence of holy war. Israel's conquest and dispossession of the Canaanites was carried out in fulfillment of their status as a nation of priests who were commissioned to cleanse the land claimed by Yahweh as holy to him. The priestly character of this and other such holy war undertakings was accentuated by the prominent role which the special Levitical priesthood within priestly Israel was assigned in them. Similarly, Messiah in his going forth in the great final judgment for the cleansing of God's cosmic temple, a judgment adumbrated in the temple cleansings recorded in the Gospels, is depicted in prophetic psalm and apocalypse as a priest-king leading a priestly army. Within the present age of the new covenant the function of negative consecration belongs to the church, this ecclesiastical form of it being declarative and spiritual and not applicable outside the holy covenant community.

At the level of the individual's identity as a temple of God the priestly office involves this negative, protective kind of sanctification as well as positive consecration. The judicial-military aspect of the priestly guardianship of the personal temple of God is brought out in redemptive revelation by the injunction that the armor of God be put on to defend against the hostile, defiling incursions of Satan. Since putting on the divine armor is a variation of the metaphor of investiture with the priestly glory-robes, a major biblical symbol of the imago Dei, the connection between priesthood and the image of God is again in evidence here. If the priestly privilege of beholding God is creative of the reflected image of God's Glory, possession of the dominion-glory of the image in turn equips for the priestly service of guarding God's sanctuary. Accordingly, the judicial as well as the ethical dimension of the imago Dei comes to expression in the triumphs of priestly guardianship of our personal sanctity.

To summarize, Kline addresses the various priest-temple relationships: first, of Adam as a priest within the temple of Eden, Israel as a nation of priests guarding the temple of the promised land, the Levitical priesthood ministering within the temple, the Messiah as the Great High Priest of the cosmic temple, elders and other leaders guarding the purity of the church, and finally, individual Christians as guardian-priests of their own bodily-temples. The priest-temple relationship allows us to define both the idea of holy war against Satan, beginning with the enmity between the seed of the woman and of Satan, as well as the priestly aspect of the glory reflected in our being images of God.

SDG

The Nature of God's Indwelling Presence

Just a quick thought that might help in reading the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament, God blesses his people Israel by dwelling among them - in the pillar of cloud and fire in the wilderness, in the tabernacle and temple, and in the ark of the covenant when Israel went to war with the surrounding nations. God's presence went with the people. This is the normative nature in which God interacted with his people. It was only on special exceptions in which God would actually indwell a person, and even then, only for a temporary period for a specific purpose. Think of Balaam and Saul (David's predecessor).

This changes with the coming of Christ in the NT. God becomes flesh and pitches his tent among men (literally, "tabernacled" - John 1:14). He comes to fulfill the Scripture, to slay death and sin, and to ransom a people. But he also brings his Spirit with him as a guarantee of the inheritance they will receive. Now, Jesus says that his Spirit "dwells with you and will be in you" (John 14:27). Paul would later expand on the longevity of his abiding in us in his letter to the Ephesians. He says that when we believe upon the Lord Jesus, we are "sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it" (Ephesians 1:13-14). There is now nothing temporal about God's indwelling presence within those who believe upon the Lord Jesus.

No longer does the Spirit abide in a constructed temple external to his people, where even the high priest could enter but once a year - now he dwells within the temple of human hearts, within the innermost being of his saints. He who was external and unapproachable has now become internal, personal, and the source of all joy and comfort.

SDG

Something Greater Than...

I was reading through Matthew 12 last night and came across a phrase repeated three times - "something greater than...", uttered from the mouth of Jesus to his disbelieving audience. Maybe upon a cursory read, this might not mean much, but upon closer examination, looking through the lens of the Hebrew mind that was steeped in OT language, these statements must have been shocking.

First, Jesus says to the Pharisees, "something greater than the temple is here" (Matt. 12:6), in reference to the priests' ministry in the temple on the Sabbath. He also says that he is "the lord of the Sabbath" (v. 8). A couple things must have come to the Pharisees' mind when he said this -

1. The temple is a symbol of God's indwelling presence with Israel - nothing greater than this exists.
2. The Sabbath is declared holy by the Law, and we are all subservient to the Law.

But Jesus says it. The mystery hidden for ages was being revealed right before their eyes. The "true form" (Hebrews 10:1) that Moses saw upon the mountain was the reality standing before the Pharisees that day. The tent that Moses erected served only as a shadow of what he saw on the mount (Heb. 8:5-6). With reference to the Sabbath, Jesus says that the priests themselves were profaning the temple in their service on the Sabbath, and yet, they were still counted guiltless. What the Pharisees did not see was that Jesus was the true form Moses looked upon - the "reality of the good things to come." As "lord of the Sabbath," he then authoritatively interprets the meaning of the Law concerning the Sabbath to them - to bring about abiding rest. But more particularly, the Sabbath is so associated with Jesus' presence that a chapter earlier, he could tell the crowds, "Come to me...and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). So really, the OT institution of the Sabbath merely anticipated the rest we would experience in repenting and believing in Christ.

Second, Jesus tells some of the scribes and Pharisees that "something greater than Jonah is here" (Matt. 12:41), when asked to provide a sign to them. Jesus retells the high points of Jonah's ministry - three days and nights in the belly of the fish and then, the preaching of repentance to the people of Ninevah. The words of Jesus invoked a feeling that he was similar to the prophet in both the message he preached and the fate he would suffer, but on a much greater magnitude. Jonah served merely as a type - both the message Jesus preached and the death he would die would accomplish more than anyone could ever imagine.

Finally, Jesus says that "something greater than Solomon is here" (Matt. 12:42), in reference to the wisdom with which he claimed to speak. The renowned queen of Sheba journeyed all the way to Jerusalem to hear the legendary wisdom of King Solomon - Jesus says that this queen, having heard the wisdom of Solomon, would rise up to condemn the Pharisees for rejecting someone distinctly greater than Solomon. Maybe when Jesus said this, they might have recalled Proverbs 8:22-31 concerning Lady Wisdom (probably written by Solomon himself). Wisdom is personified by the author, saying, "the LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work...when he established the heavens, I was there...when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him....and I was daily his delight." Yes, someone greater than Solomon is here - Wisdom Incarnate. He was with the Father before the creation of all things, and the Pharisees were confronted with him that day - Jesus Christ, our Lord.

SDG