““Concerning this Temple you are building, if you keep all my decrees and regulations and obey all my commands, I will fulfill through you the promise I made to your father, David. I will live among the Israelites and will never abandon my people Israel.” So Solomon finished building the Temple.”
1 Kings 6:12-14 NLT
It has always been curious to me that God would concede to “living among the people.” As an infinite God, he is not bound to space and time the way that we are. In point of fact, this is not how he wishes to be worshipped. He instead wishes to be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth. We also know that he is not limited to territory like the gods of the region. He was supreme no matter where he was. Therefore, we have to fight understand that the temple was less a place for God and more a place for men. In this context, it makes sense that he prefaces his indwelling with a edict that people must obey him. He didn’t want the Jews to misunderstand that the temple, as a platform for worship, was not the guarantee of relationship with God. As we see in Jewish history, this is something they didn’t understand. They famously built the temple into a doorway to God that included a steep admission fee and confused the people. This is a large portion of what Jesus practically fought against. It is also why he presented himself as a better temple and his body as it’s building blocks. In this way, the temple itself would have a much harder time becoming an idol again.
JOSH McGARY. COM 