SIGNIFICANCE of the LOCATION for God’s TEMPLE!
May 2
Bible Reading: 2 Chronicles Chapters 1-3
SIGNIFICANCE of the LOCATION for God’s TEMPLE!
"Now Solomon began to build the house
of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his
father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of
Ornan the Jebusite. And he began to build on the second day of the second month
in the fourth year of his reign." (2 Chron. 3:1-2)
From the
above passage we can understand that Solomon constructed God’s temple on Mount
Moriah that was located north of the ancient City of David. Mount Moriah was
one summit of a range of hills which went under the general name of Zion. The
name “Moriah” is used only one other
time in the Bible, in connection with “the
land of Moriah” where Abraham was told by God to take Isaac and sacrifice
him as a burnt offering (Gen. 22:2). This was the very place where Abraham
showed his willingness to sacrifice Isaac, and was later renamed as “Yahweh-Yireh” or “The-Lord-Will-Provide” (Gen. 22:14).
We need to
also realize that the Temple was built on the very site where God had
demonstrated His presence to David by igniting his burnt offering with fire
from heaven (I Chron. 21:26), in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. David
had received explicit instructions from the Lord that the very site that he had
purchased from Ornan, and where he had already built an altar, should be the
location of the future temple (1 Chr. 21:18, 26). Mount Moriah is known today
as the temple mount and the site of the Muslim Dome of the Rock. It is a hill
directly north of Mount Zion, the location of David’s tabernacle (1 Chr. 15:1).
There is a great significance of the location that
Solomon had chosen to lay the foundation of God’s temple. From the incident of
Abraham willingly sacrificing his son Isaac in this location, we can infer the
following five points of significance:
- It was a place of obedience: Abraham had traveled for three days
to reach this place that God had told him (Gen. 22:3-4), and signifies total
obedience on his part to the command of God.
- It was a place of faith: When Isaac asked his father for the
lamb needed for the burnt offering, Abraham replied by faith that “God will provide for Himself a lamb for a
burnt offering” (Gen. 22:6-8). This was certainly a place where Abraham’s
faith was displayed.
- It was a place of consecration: Upon reaching the designated place,
Abraham built an altar and placed the wood in order. After this, Abraham bound
Isaac and laid him on the altar upon the wood (Gen. 22:9). We do not see Isaac
struggling with his father, but totally surrendered to the wishes of his father
willingly and thus signified that
this was a place of consecration.
- It was a place of sacrifice: Abraham stretched out his hand and
took the knife to kill his beloved son (Gen. 22:10). This place speaks about a
father being willing to sacrifice his joy, his love, his hope and above all his
most precious beloved son to the command of God.
- It was a place of redemption: God did not allow Abraham to kill
his son Isaac, but instead provided a ram that redeemed the life of Isaac and
was offered for a burnt offering instead of Isaac (Gen. 22:13).
Today, our
bodies are the temples of God, as He dwells inside of us. There is a great
significance of the location of God’s temples, which are our bodies. Can we use our physical bodies to be
instruments of obedience, faith, consecration, sacrifice and redemption as we
present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God?
"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? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." (1 Cor 6:19-20)
