The history of the system of types and shadows began at the gate of the garden of Eden, where our first parents brought their offerings and presented them before the Lord. Abel showed his faith in the promised Savior by bringing an animal. He not only presented the shed blood of the sacrifice, but he also presented the fat to the Lord, showing faith in the Savior and a willingness to put away his sin. (Gen 4:4, Heb. 11:4)
Before the people of God went into Egypt, their worship was simple. The patriarchs lived near the Lord, and did not need many forms or ceremonies to teach them the one grand truth that sin could be atoned for only by the death of One who was sinless. They needed only a rough altar and an innocent lamb to connect their faith with the infinite Sin-bearer. As the patriarchs journeyed from place to place, they set up their altars and offered their sacrifices, and God drew near to them, often showing His acceptance of their offerings by sending fire from heaven to consume the sacrifices.
Of all the sacrifices recorded in the book of Genesis, none comes so near the great anti-typical offering as the one required of Abraham when God called him to offer his only son. The test of faith was not simply in the fact that Isaac was his only legitimate son, but Abraham understood that through Isaac's posterity the long-promised Messiah was to come; and in offering Isaac, Abraham was cutting off his only hope of salvation, as well as that of the world. But his faith wavered not. He believed that the same God who had performed a miracle in giving him a son, could bring that son from the dead to fulfill the promise that He had made. (Heb 11:17-19)
The Lord chose the exact spot for the offering of Isaac. He said to Abraham, “Get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” (Gen. 22:2) As Abraham and Isaac went on that memorable journey, they were directed by the Lord to Mount Moriah; and when they came to the place, Abraham built an altar and bound Isaac upon it, ready to sacrifice him; but the Lord stayed his hand. The spot where such loyalty to God was shown was ever afterward honored by the Lord.
But the devil as well as the Lord watched over this place. He knew it was sacred to Jehovah, because there God had tested the faith of the man He honored by calling him His friend. (James 2:23) For more than four hundred years after the children of Israel entered the promised land, Satan held this place. It was the stronghold of the Jebusites in the midst of Israel, but it was finally captured by David, who made it the capital of his kingdom. It is Jerusalem, and is also called the “City of David.”
The threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, where the angel of the Lord appeared to David, was on this same spot. The prophet told David to erect an altar on the threshing-floor, and there David made a special consecration to the Lord. A few years later the temple, which was erected without sound of hammer, occupied this same plot of land. (2 Chron. 3:1) God had conquered, and He designed the place should ever be hallowed by His presence.
But His people were unfaithful, and when the Lord of light came to His own temple, He was despised and crucified. The holy city and temple were destroyed; the site passed into Roman and eventually into Muslim hands. Satan is guarding this spot vigilantly, intending never to relinquish it. But the time is coming when, in spite of Satan and all his host, the same Savior who was rejected in His own temple shall place His feet upon the Mount of Olives, (Zech. 14:4) and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, making a very large valley and the entire site of old Jerusalem will be purified. Then the New Jerusalem will come down from heaven (Rev. 21:2-3) and rest upon that spot made sacred by the consecration of God's chosen people. God's glorious heavenly temple will be upon Mount Zion [Mt. Moriah], nevermore to fall into the hands of the enemy. God says, “I. . . will set My sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.” Having briefly outlined the subject from Eden lost to Eden restored, we will go back to the time Israel came out of Egypt.
A Sanctuary in the Wilderness
Subjected to a life of incessant toil and surrounded by heathen darkness, the children of Israel lost sight of the significance of their simple sacrifices. On account of their servitude, they were deprived of the privileges enjoyed by the ancient patriarchs, of spending much time communing with God, and they drifted very near to Egyptian idolatry. When God brought them out of Egypt, He proclaimed His law from Sinai, and then gave them the same system of worship the patriarchs had followed. But He had to deal with them as with children.
Because they could not grasp the truths of the gospel without the illustrations, God gave them the system of animal sacrifice that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had followed, but in much greater detail, illustrating more aspects of the plan of salvation. They had drifted so far away that they could not comprehend how God could live with them, being-invisible. So God said, “Let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” (Ex. 25:8)
This sanctuary was a shadow, or model, of the heavenly sanctuary, and all the work within it was a type, or representation, of the work the Son of God would do on earth and in heaven for the redemption of our lost race. It was the most wonderful object lesson ever given to mankind.
The sanctuary was completed while the Israelites were encamped at Sinai, and during their forty years' wanderings in the wilderness they carried it with them. When they reached the promised land, it was set up in Gilgal for a few years, and then removed to Shiloh (Joshua 5:10-11; 18:1; 19:51), where it remained for many years.
David and Solomon and the Temple
When David was fleeing from Saul, the tabernacle was in Nob (1 Sam. 21:1-6), for there the priests set the show-bread before the Lord each Sabbath day. It was next set up in the high place at Gibeon. (1 Chron. 16:39; 21:29) The tabernacle remained in Gibeon until removed by Solomon to Jerusalem. Josephus tells us that Solomon had “the tabernacle which Moses had pitched, and all the vessels that were for ministration to the sacrifices of God,” removed to the temple.
David desired to build a house for the Lord; but because David was a man of violence and war, the Lord directed that his son should build the house. When Solomon was established on his throne, he erected a magnificent temple, and dedicated it to the Lord. God showed His acceptance by filling the temple with His glory.
Solomon did not plan the temple himself; God revealed the plan to David, as He had revealed the plan of the tabernacle to Moses. David was not to see it built, but when he delivered the plan for the building to Solomon, he said, “All this I have in writing as a result of the Lord’s hand on me, and he enabled me to understand all the details of the plan.” (1 Chron. 28:11-19).
The history of Solomon's temple is really a history of the religious experience of the children of Israel. When they departed from the Lord, the temple was neglected, and sometimes even suffered violence.
It was pillaged by Shishak, king of Egypt (1 Kings 14:25, 26). At the instigation of Jehoiada it was repaired by Jehoash (2 Kings 12:4-14), who himself afterward robbed it of its treasures to propitiate the Syrians (2 Kings 12:17-18). Ahaz a little later not only looted some of the temple’s treasures, he also built an alter modeled after one he saw in Damascus, and made changes to the structure to please the pagan king of Assyria (2 Kings 16:8, 10-13, 18).
Under the reign of the good king Hezekiah the temple was purified and its worship restored (2 Chr. 29:3-35). But even Hezekiah stripped it of its treasures to procure a treaty with the Assyrians (2 Kings 18:13-16). Again it was polluted by the idolatrous worship of Manasseh (2 Kings 21:4-7). The good king Josiah, when but a youth of eighteen, repaired and purified the temple, and again restored its worship (2 Kings 22:3-7). Finally, on account of the unfaithfulness of the chosen people of God, the holy temple was burned to the ground, and its treasures carried to Babylon (2 Kings 25:13-17).
The Rebuilt Temple
It was nearly seventy years before the rebuilding of the temple by Zerubbabel was completed and the house dedicated with great rejoicing (Ezra 6:16-22). Herod spent forty-six years in renovating Zerubbabel's temple, until in the days of Christ it was a magnificent structure (John 2:20).
God's presence abode with His people in the dwelling places they prepared for Him, from the time the tabernacle was erected in the wilderness, all the way down through the history of their spiritual wanderings until that memorable day when the types celebrated for four thousand years met their Antitype on the cross of Calvary. Then with a great noise the glorious veil of Herod's magnificent building was rent from the top to the bottom, as the Lord departed forever from His temple (Mat. 27:51). Previous to this, the services were directed of God, but after the death of Christ, the services no longer had any purpose, and God departed (Mat. 23:37-38). The temple remained standing until it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. Today a Muslim mosque, the Dome of the Rock, sits on the Temple Mount.
The Heavenly Sanctuary
The Epistle to the Hebrews clearly teaches that the system of types and shadows celebrated for so many years was fulfilled by the death of Christ. We have no reason to doubt that during the early history of the Christian church, the subject of the sanctuary and the work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary was clearly understood by the Christians; but when Rome hid the Bible during the middle ages, Christians lost sight of Christ’s intercession for them in the heavenly sanctuary, and the intercession of sinful human priests was substituted for it.
But in 1844, the time arrived for the opening of the great judgment in heaven, when the Father and the Son, with their retinue of holy angels, passed in state into the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary (Dan. 7:9-10; Rev. 11:18-19). No earthly pageant could ever compare with that majestic cortege. God designed that it should be recognized on earth, and He caused a message to be proclaimed to the inhabitants of earth, directing their attention to a judgment in heaven (Rev. 14:6-7).
A large company accepted the 1844 message, and their attention was centered on the Savior. But because they did not understand that the phrase “and then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,” referred to the anti-typical sanctuary in heaven, they expected the Savior to come to this earth. Instead of coming to the earth, however, He went into the second apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, to take up the work of the judgment (Mal. 3:1).
This company loved their Lord; and in their longing desire to find why He had not come to the earth, they drew so near to Him that He, in answer to their earnest prayers, directed their attention to the heavenly sanctuary. There they saw the ark of God's testament containing His holy law (Rev. 11:19), and they acknowledged its claims upon them, and began to keep holy the Sabbath of the Lord (Ex. 20:11). The sanctuary service, the Sabbath, and the Spirit of prophecy were ever united in olden times; and when light from the anti-typical sanctuary service came to the people of God, He gave them the Spirit of Prophecy again, to reveal to them the solemn truths in regard to Christ's ministry in heaven, which otherwise they would not have comprehended.
SUMMARY
THE TABERNACLE:
Built by Moses in the wilderness, Ex. 40:1-38.
Stored in Solomon's Temple, 1 Kings 8:3-5; 1 Chron. 22:19.
THE TEMPLE:
Built by Solomon, 2 Chron. 2-5.
Destroyed by the Babylonians, 2 Chron. 36:17-19.
Rebuilt by Zerubbabel, Ezra 6:13-15.
Comprehensively renovated by King Herod, over a 46 year period, such that it was one of the wonders of the ancient world, John 2:20.
Forsaken by the Lord, Matt. 23:37-39.
Destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, Matt. 24:2