1 Kings: Walk Before Me FaithfullySample

Having finished the building of the temple, the key item to be brought in is the ark of the covenant. While the other vessels and equipment are new, the ark is old and comes from the tabernacle built by Moses. The ark is the footstool of God’s throne (Psalm 132:7), above which, in the space between the cherubim, God dwells enclosed by the cloud of his glory. The ark is overlaid with gold from tabernacle times and matches the Most Holy Place, which is also covered with gold. In the ark are the tablets of the Ten Commandments from Moses’ day (v. 9). 

The tent of meeting and its old utensils are also brought into the new temple (v. 4), showing that this temple subsumes the function of the old tabernacle. The culmination of all of this is the cloud filling the house. This matches the completion of the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34–38) and is, in fact, the first time we can be sure that God endorses this temple of Solomon. 

The cloud hides the presence of God but this indicates that God is present. While not limiting God’s presence to this house (8:27), nonetheless there is something special and gracious about God dwelling in the midst of a sinful people who can only approach him by animal sacrifice. 

Sometimes Christians call their church buildings a tabernacle or temple or house of the Lord. Such names could represent a danger of misunderstanding the trajectory of sacred buildings through the Bible. Jesus himself is the living temple and believers are being built into him as living stones. No longer is sacrificial worship limited to a particular building, but worship of God through Jesus is for anywhere and everywhere. Believers have therefore a high privilege of being a temple of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. Where the temple was filled with a cloud of glory, now by the Spirit believers are being transformed from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Reflection

How and where is God present in our world and lives now – in the time after Pentecost?