God will raise
This is the 25th study in a series of studies about shadows in scripture
“ ‘…the city will be rebuilt on her ruins, and the palace will stand in its proper place. From them will come songs of thanksgiving and the sound of rejoicing…’ ” In the days to come you will understand this. Jeremiah 30:18-19, 24 (NIV)
The temple is where Jeremiah and Jesus meet – either in the prediction of its destruction (Luke 21:5-6; Jeremiah 7:14) or in its restoration. Both emphasised that there was no inherent sanctity in a physical place. Jeremiah warned those in Judah against this false confidence and that security lay in a change of heart: “ ‘Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place…’ ” (Jeremiah 7:4-7).
About 600 years later Christ stood in the restored temple and decried what it had become, ‘a den of robbers’, directly echoing Jeremiah (Matthew 21:13, Jeremiah 7:11). And later he predicted its second destruction; the first by the Babylonians – and witnessed by Jeremiah, the second by the Romans and witnessed by many early Christians. These people had heard from Paul when he explained that their bodies were the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). He is more explicit in his epistle to the Ephesians when he says, ‘Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord…’ (Ephesians 2:19-21 NKJV).
Jeremiah writes an agonisingly painful account in Lamentations of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple that begins, ‘How lonely sits the city That was full of people!’ (Lamentations 1:1). But he has also talked of its restoration – that it will be raised up again and there will be, ‘…songs of thanksgiving and the sound of rejoicing’ (Jeremiah 30:18-19) – words of comfort in a desperate situation. Jeremiah is speaking beyond the restoration of Jerusalem under Zerubbabel and Nehemiah, when he looks ahead to a ‘new covenant’ where the law is in peoples’ ‘minds’ and ‘hearts’. The writer of Hebrews looks back at Jeremiah and sees this new covenant as having been established and mediated by Christ by his sinless life, shed blood, and resurrection. (Hebrews 9:11-15)
Prayer
Heavenly Father, let your words of truth be in our minds and in our hearts as we become part of your temple, where the Holy Spirit dwells. Amen.
Study by Maggie Mitchell
Maggie Mitchell attends the Market Harborough congregation of Grace Communion International
Local congregation:
GCI Market Harborough
9 The Point
Rockingham Road
Market Harborough
LE16 7QU
Meeting time:
Sunday 4.00 pm
Local congregational contact:
Sinead Henderson
Email: sinead.henderson@gracecom.church
Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church