The Temple Plan

The story of the Bible is the story of God’s redemption of a wayward people. Though this process of redemption actually begins much earlier, let us start with what is the most significant part of the Jewish faith, and what is the largest of spiritual types in the Bible: the Temple. The Temple is the center of all Jewish worship. It is a place to be forgiven of sin. A place where things are made right between man and God. A holy place. It is even the symbolic dwelling place of God Himself.

The Tabernacle of the Wilderness

The Temple actually started out as a big tent, called the Tabernacle. The plans of its construction were given to Moses at Mount Sinai along with the rest of the law. The Israelites could the could strike and move the Tabernacle with the camp as they wandered in the wilderness. All the important elements of the Temple were present in the Tabernacle. There are numerous spiritual symbols to be found in the Temple, but I want to focus on three.

The Jewish Temple During Solomon's Reign

The Jewish Temple During Zerubbabel's Reign

The Jewish Temple During Herod's Rule

Firstly, there was an altar. That altar was used to sacrifice animals to atone for sins that a person had committed. When a Jew had sinned, he would bring his sacrifice – carefully specified in the law according to his sin and his financial capacity – and the priest would dress it and cook it on the altar. The fragrance of the cooking flesh was pleasing to God, and this is another type that we will examine in a moment. Another important thing that happened at the altar is that some of the blood from the sacrifice was saved for use on the Mercy Seat. Again, more on that in a moment.

Secondly, there was a gigantic bowl of water called the laver. The laver was used to wash the hands of the priest after he had dressed the sacrifice and placed it on the altar.

Thirdly, there was the Mercy Seat. Inside both the Tabernacle and the Temple, there were a couple rooms where only the high priest could go. Past the altar, past the laver (always in order to the west), there was the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. In the Holy of Holies stood the Ark of the Covenant, in which Moses had placed the tablets of stone upon which were inscribed the 10 Commandments. Anyone who has seen Raiders of the Lost Ark has a good idea of what the Ark looked like. In actuality, there was a space between the angelic figures on top that made a seat, of sorts. That seat was the very Throne of God on this earth.

Once a year, the high priest would offer an atonement for all of Israel. He would sacrifice a spotless, one-year-old lamb on the altar, then wash in the laver, and then take a bit of the blood of the sacrifice into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle it on the Mercy Seat. This would roll the sins of Israel forward for that year. In essence, the sacrifice couldn’t remove sin, it could only postpone judgment.

Then came the Messiah. The death of Christ took away all sin, past and present. It removed all the sin that had been rolled forward through the yearly Temple sacrifice, and it made payment for all the sins to come after. Jesus was our “perfect” Lamb, slain to make propitiation for every sin every person would ever commit. The reason that Jesus was the perfect sacrifice wasn’t just because He knew no sin, it was because He had the choice to sin, and didn’t. (A lamb is also innocent, but it’s not an innocence of choice.) But the paradigm shift introduced by Jesus didn’t stop with His death, nor even with His resurrection…

Footnote: The images of the Tabernacle and the Temple were taken from the New International Version Study Bible by Zondervan publishing. Though I don’t use it for everyday reading, I cannot recommend another bible study aid more, besides a concordance. By the way, the best bible I have ever seen is the Dugan Topical Reference Bible.

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