“Do you not know that your very body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own, …” 1Cor 6:19 Amp
“For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Rom 10:10 Amp
Much examination of the parallels between the layout of the first temples (and tabernacle) and the believer in Jesus Christ has already been accomplished, and that is not my focus here.
I want to establish in your immediate thinking the notion that there is an important similarity between God having three parts, the temple layout having three parts, and you as a believer having three parts. It is not accidental. It is very important!
Recall the first temple layout. There was an outer court, a Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. You are a type of this layout. Your Holy of Holies is where your spirit resides, and the Holy Spirit as well. When you were first saved this is the place where the Holy Spirit came and awakened you, bringing new life to your spirit, and made a residence for Himself as well. This is the place that allows you to relate to the spiritual realm, and to have fellowship with God. It is the place that allows you to be God conscious.
In the temple, the Holy of Holies was the place where, once a year on the day of atonement, the High Priest would minister before the Lord. The only light in that place was the Shekinah Glory of God. The Holy of Holies contained the ark of the covenant including the golden jar of manna, and the rod of Aaron, and also the two stone tablets of the Ten Commandments. This Holy of Holies was separated from the outer division (Holy Place) by a massive curtain or veil.
So this Holy of Holies of the temple is comparable to your spirit, and the activities of the temple Holy of Holies give us great insight into the workings of our own spirit man.
However, most of the day to day business of the temple actually took place in the Holy Place. That is where the priests entered in daily performance of their ritual acts of worship. This Holy Place is like your own soul, where your will, intellect, and emotions reside.
Our personal Holy Place is likewise a place of great business: filled with much thinking, reasoning, desiring, estimating, and all the processing of our emotions and opinions. It is in this place, the soul of man, where the enemy first stirred up in Eve in the garden as he provoked her to much thinking and analysis, and ultimately to independence in thought and sin. This place is where Eve received and entertained the enemy’s questions and doubt concerning the goodness of God. It is the place where she decided for herself a course of action, and then enticed Adam to also eat. It is from here that she entered all of mankind into isolation from God and death to the spirit. It is here, in the soul of man – where sin found fertile ground, that a Savior was needed to overcome our rebellion and independence from God.
But a really important point, and one that must not be overlooked, is that before Eve ever acted on the apple – before she ever appraised its value or desirability, she first had to entertain doubt in her heart about the goodness of God. It was in her heart that darkness of corruption was first introduced, because she entertained the devil’s thought that God was withholding good from them. Because it is with the heart that we first believe, so Eve with her heart first erred in belief, and received Satan’s lie.
While the temple layout (its Holy of Holies, Holy Place, and Outer Court) and our layout as spirit, soul, and body are critical, I want to turn our attention to an equally critical area of the temple. It is an area rarely discussed in depth, yet a reference point for much of the teaching that Jesus accomplished in the temple. That is the two pillars which framed the entrance to the temple area, and are known as Jachin and Boaz. Just as these pillars framed the entrance to the temple, they also frame the entrance and become the supports for our discussion of God’s plan and the heart of man.
Hence, we will pick up the discussion of these two pillars, and their importance in the next chapter…
Insolomonsporch's Blog 