Ryan Habbena: The Historic and Future Temple

Ryan Habbena is pastor of Conquering King Fellowship church in Eagan, Minnesota, Instructor at Village Schools of the Bible, President of the Mount Moriah Foundation and Zera Biblical Films, and board member of Echo Zoe Ministries. He joins us this month to talk about the history of the Temple, as well as some thoughts about Temples yet to come.

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The Aftershow

Outline of the Discussion

Ryan focuses on the Temple as a thread that is followed throughout Scripture, which becomes more apparent during intense, cover-to-cover study such as his annual class at Village Schools of the Bible.
Setting aside eschatological differences found in study of the future Temples (eschatological and Millennial,) there is so much to cover in the first and second Temples.
The term “temple” really boils down to being a house or dwelling place; the dwelling place of God. We talk of the temple (or temples) as permanent fixtures in Jerusalem, as opposed to the Tabernacle that moved around with the Israelites during the wilderness wanderings.
The foreshadowings of the Temple are first seen in the Torah. In Genesis 14, as Abraham meets Melchizedek, the King of Salem/Jerusalem, in the King's Valley. It's also seen later in Genesis 22 as the place Abraham takes Isaac to sacrifice him to the Lord.
We also see the workings of the Temple begin to take shape in the Tabernacle.
Israel was born as a nation in the Exodus around 1440BC. At this time the Lord had them build the Tabernacle.
Covenants are key to understanding the Tabernacle and the Temple. They are connected to – and crucial to the observance of – the Mosaic Covenant. Without a Tabernacle or Temple, the priesthood is defunct.
The sacrifices are only to take place at the place of the Lord's choosing, which has been the place of the Temple since the first one was built.
The priesthood is limited to a subset of the tribe of Levi, and oversee the sacrificial system. Rabbis come from any tribe and are merely teachers.
Since the destruction of the second Temple, the Israelites have been in the midst of an identity crisis. So much of who they are as a people relies on the Temple.
The Feasts all depend upon the Temple.
The destruction of the Second Temple has been catastrophic compared to the destruction of the First Temple. When the First Temple was destroyed, there was always a hope and expectation that it would be rebuilt, and it was. There were young people who saw the destruction of the First Temple who lived to see the building of the Second Temple.
David purchased the plot of land later to be used to build the first temple from Araunah the Jebusite (2 Samuel 24:18-25).
David, being a man of bloodshed, was not allowed by God to build the Temple. However, he was allowed to gather the resources for it, so that his son Solomon could build it.
After it was completed around 970BC, it was often a site entangled in rebellion.
In accordance with earlier warnings found in Deuteronomy 28, Judah was conquered by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar in 605BC, ultimately resulting in the destruction of both the city of Jerusalem and the Temple in 586BC.
Cyrus the Persian decreed the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple in 538BC (Ezra 1)
With no Temple, the Feasts cannot be fulfilled. However, they also have a patterned fulfilled in the New Covenant.
As we leave the Mosaic Covenant and enter the New Covenant, we see that worship moves away from a place (the Temple in Jerusalem) and toward a person (Jesus.)
We are left with two Temples in Scripture that are as yet not built (and possibly more.) The eschatological Temple and the Millennial Temple. There is much disagreement surrounding the Millennial Temple, found in Ezekiel.
The New Jerusalem, as seen in Revelation 21-22, is itself a “Temple” (the dwelling place of God.)