I. Introduction

How many times in the Old Testament did God come down from heaven to earth?
Genesis 3:8 (NIV)
8  Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

Genesis 11:5 (NIV)
5  But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building.

Genesis 18:20-21 (NIV)
20  Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous
21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”

Genesis 28:10-22 (NIV)
10  Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran.
11  When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.
12  He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
13  There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.
14  Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.
15  I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
16  When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”
17  He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
18  Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it.
19  He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz.
20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear
21  so that I return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God
22  and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”

Exodus 3:7-10 (NIV)
7  The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.
8  So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey–the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
9  And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.
10  So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

Exodus 4:29-31 (NIV)
29  Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites,
30  and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people,
31  and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

Exodus 12:12-13 (NIV)
12  “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn–both men and animals–and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.
13  The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

Exodus 14:23-25 (NIV)
23  The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea.
24  During the last watch of the night the LORD looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion.
25  He made the wheels of their chariots come off so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The LORD is fighting for them against Egypt.”

Exodus 19:10-13 (NIV)
10  And the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes
11  and be ready by the third day, because on that day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
12  Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you do not go up the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.
13  He shall surely be stoned or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on him. Whether man or animal, he shall not be permitted to live.’ Only when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast may they go up to the mountain.”

Exodus 33:7-11 (NIV)
7  Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the “tent of meeting.” Anyone inquiring of the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp.
8  And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent.
9  As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses.
10  Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent.
11  The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.

Exodus 34:4-7 (NIV)
4  So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands.
5  Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD.
6  And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,
7  maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

Exodus 34:29 (NIV)
29  When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD.

Judges 6:11-12 (NIV)
11  The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.
12  When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”

2 Samuel 6:12-19 (NIV)
12  Now King David was told, “The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing.
13  When those who were carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf.
14  David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might,
15  while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.
II. Temple – why?, Tabernacle, Temple. What is prefigured? Jesus earthly body. Us.
1 Kings 9:3 The LORD said to [Solomon]: “I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple [KJV: this house], which you have built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.”

•• God places His NAME upon the house of God.
After the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, was the Temple of Solomon, built on Mount Moriah, connected with Israel in the land, a type of all the redeemed who have part in the first resurrection—not alone the saints of the present dispensation, but including all from Adam and Eve and Abel, on to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to Him, the true King of kings. The Temple of Solomon, because of the transgression of the children of Israel, was given over into the hands of their enemies. It was destroyed by the Chaldeans because Israel had defiled it, and the holy vessels were carried away to Babylon.

The second is the Temple of Ezra. When Israel had completed the seventy years of captivity, God in fulfilment of His promise, stirred up Cyrus to give commandment for the rebuilding of the Temple on its ancient site (Ezra 1:6), God using His prophets Haggai and Zechariah to strengthen the hands of the children of Israel who returned from the Babylonish captivity. Though this temple was inferior to that of Solomon, it was built on the same site, and God was pleased to own it with the manifestations of His presence.

The third Temple was that of Herod the Great, the Idumean king, which was forty-six years in building; and whilst, no doubt, it retained some portions of the original structure, it differed from both Solomon’s and Ezra’s, especially in the arrangement of the courts. From the account given by Josephus, it seems to have been larger than Solomon’s, and was built according to his own taste, much being added. There were added the Court of the Gentiles and the Court of the Women, of which the Word of God says nothing. This is the Temple which was in existence when our Lord was upon earth. There is much confusion in the minds of some as to the place where our Lord and His disciples worshipped. They could not enter the Courts of the Priests or draw near to the altar. When we read of the Lord and His disciples going up to the Temple, we are not to suppose that they entered beyond the exterior courts. The Holy Ghost has employed two distinct words in the original Greek of the New Testament in speaking of the Temple: one is Hieron (from hieros, sacred or priestly), which refers to the whole Temple, its courts and other buildings—the external structure. The other word, Naos (from nais, to dwell) signifies the inner building, embracing the porch, the holy and most holy places—the sanctuary. It was into the external courts our Lord went, for, not being of the tribe of Levi, He could not enter the inner Temple. “Christ is not entered into holy places made with hands” (Hebrews 9:24). Into the holy place the priests entered to trim the lamps in the morning and light them in the evening; to burn incense, morning and evening, on the golden altar; and to arrange, once a week, the shewbread on the tables. Consequently, Zacharias (Luke 1:8-10) was alone in the Temple, while the people prayed without, at time of incense.

Jesus became the ultimate temple of God, as his eternal Spirit became embodied in human flesh.
And Jesus made it possible for us who believe to also be filled with God’s Spirit and become the temple of God.

As we think of ourselves as temples of God, we also can see the need to become a doorkeeper in the house of God, as David described in the book of Psalms.

Being a doorkeeper means taking charge of what goes in and what goes out from our temple.
For the Lord is holy, and where He is should also be holy.