- I am very excited to announce that
we are starting with a new series, entitled - The seven Temples of
God.
This might interest you that there was and is going to be seven
temples in total. Within the next couple of weeks we are going to
discuss these seven temples in detail and see what we can learn
from them.
First of all, let us start with the interesting facts of where
the first and the second Temple were built.
You all know the Biblical event where Abraham was asked by God
to sacrifice his only son Isaac. He was supposed to offer Isaac on
Mt Moriah (Genesis 22:2). God was in fact only testing him, He
would never have allowed Abraham to sacrifice his only son. God
provided a ram in the nick of time and Abraham could make this
offering to Him there on the altar he built to offer his son
on.
A second Biblical event of significance is where King David took
a census of the size of his army (1 Chronicles 21). It was a sin in
God's eyes, as it meant that King David was depending more on the
size of his army than on God helping them. God therefore gave King
David a choice between three punishments, either three years of
famine, three months of being given into the hands of his enemies
or three days of punishment from God. King David chose the latter
and God started to inflict the people with a plague. The plague
only stopped three days later, but unfortunately with 70 000
casualties. When the Lord instructed the angel to restrain his
hand, he stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Then the Lord commanded Gad to tell David to go and erect an
altar to the Lord at this threshing floor of Ornan. So David went
immediately and bought the threshing floor from Ornan for 600
shekels of gold. He built the altar and offered burnt and peace
offerings to the Lord there. The Lord answered him with fire from
heaven on the altar of burnt offerings. Then the Lord commanded the
angel, and he returned his sword to its sheath and returned to
heaven.
Now the reason I highlighted these two events is because this is
exactly the same place that both these events took place. And also
the place where the Temple was built:
"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." 2 Chronicles 3:1
Isn't that interesting? It is the same place where the patriarch
of the Jewish family, Abraham made an offering and also the place
where the Jews' greatest King, David also made an offering to the
Lord.
And today we are part of their heritage. We are also children of
Abraham in the faith (Galatians 3:7) and we are also descendants of
King David, because of Jesus living within us and He was a direct
descendant of King David.
What can we learn from them today? Both of them understood their
dependency on God. They both knew that He was in charge, and they
both followed His voice and offered burnt offerings to Him on an
altar. Today we needn't make burnt offerings on altars anymore,
because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice for us and atoned for our
sins. But in a sense we still have things to offer to God at the
altar of His grace. We need to offer our future to Him, all our
future plans should be placed in His hands. We need to offer of our
time, we need to set aside all our ambitions and plans and give
honour and glory to God Almighty. We should offer our family to Him
as He knows best. We should offer our future to Him and place our
lives in His hands. We need to have an eternal Temple perspective
as we approach Him, our Holy God. We need to understand our
dependence on God as Abraham and King David did. We need to
internalize that He is in charge and that He knows best. We need to
let go and let God as we learned last week.
Total dependency is what God wants. We will discuss His Temple
furthermore in the coming weeks, but know the main aim of the
Temple was that God wanted them to come to Him with everything and
He wanted to live amongst them to bless them. And today the
principle is the same. He wants us to come to Him with everything
and allow Him to be God in our lives. Are you ready to give over
today?
Father, we give over. We surrender.
We want to offer You everything that is important in our lives. We
want to offer our future to you and we want to offer our lives into
Your wonderful capable hands. You are the God of more than enough,
and we trust in You. We walk deliberately in Your footsteps. We
love and praise You. Amen