In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old... Amos 9:11
If you haven't heard, there's a big commotion in the religious community, especially among Jews. There's a statute in the Old Testament (Torah) that makes priests do a certain type of sacrifice in order to be clean enough to serve the temple.
Now the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, “This is the statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, and on which a yoke has never come... But if he does not cleanse himself (with the ashes of the sacrificed heifer)on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean. Whoever touches a dead person, the body of anyone who has died, and does not cleanse himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not thrown on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him. Numbers 19:1-13
So, this is a big deal to them because they're really wanting to build the "third temple" in order to fulfill the prophecy that when they do, Israel will finally be unified and safe from people usurping them from their sacred land (which they consider Jerusalem). They believe this will usher the coming of the King promised in the Torah.
Well, a red heifer has been born, and so far, it meets the specifications for many rabbis, despite it being born from a North American red angus embryo implanted into an Israeli domestic cow. Here's the reason I'm shaking my head about it, take that as you will.
Let's go back to the first temple.
After King David moved into his new house the Lord gave him some relief from all of his enemies around him. King David said to Nathan the prophet, “Look, I am living in a fancy house made of cedar wood, but God’s Holy Box is still kept in a tent!”
Nathan said to King David, “Do whatever you want to do. The Lord will be with you.”
But that night, the Lord’s word came to Nathan:
“Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord says: You are not the one to build a house for me to live in. I did not live in a house at the time I took the Israelites out of Egypt. No, I traveled around in a tent. I used the tent for my home. I never told any of the tribes of Israel to build me a fancy house made from cedar wood.’
“You must say this to my servant David: ‘This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: I chose you while you were out in the pasture following the sheep. I took you from that job and made you the leader of my people, the Israelites. I have been with you every place you went. I have defeated your enemies for you. I will make you one of the most famous people on earth. And I chose a place for my people, the Israelites. I planted the Israelites. I gave them their own place to live so that they will not have to move from place to place anymore. In the past, I sent judges to lead my people, but evil people gave them many troubles. That will not happen now. I am giving you peace from all of your enemies. I promise that I will make your family a family of kings.
“‘When your life is finished, you will die and be buried with your ancestors. But then I will make one of your own children become the king. He will build a house for my name, and I will make his kingdom strong forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he sins, I will use other people to punish him. They will be my whips. But I will never stop loving him. I will continue to be loyal to him. I took away my love and kindness from Saul. I pushed Saul away when I turned to you. Your family of kings will continue—you can depend on that! For you, your kingdom will continue forever! Your throne will stand forever!’”
Nathan told David about that vision. He told David everything God had said. 2 Samuel 7:1-17
Notice, it wasn't really God's personal plan to have a temple at all. This was David's idea because he was uncomfortable with the idea that God's "home" was a tent while he lived in a grand place.
So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”
But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.” 1 Samuel 8:4-9
It wasn't really God's personal plan to have a king over Israel. God being God, He allows people to deal with the natural consequences of their actions. They wanted a temple, and God saw that it was out of the goodness of David's heart, so He gave them a temple. They wanted a king, which God saw as NOT out of the goodness of their heart, but He gave them a king. He turns all things to good in the end.
However, we aren't progressing further into a future that looks more like man's vision of a holy kingdom. We're progressing further into a future that looks more like God's vision of a holy kingdom. That doesn't include a human king or a physical temple. But, you may be asking, what about the temple even Jesus talks about building? What about Ezekiel's vision of a temple? What about the other many times the Bible mentions a future temple?
Concerning Ezekiel, who existed and prophesied before the age of Jesus, there is much speculation. He lived after the first temple was destroyed, and described in detail a grand temple prophesied to be the second temple. One thing to notice is the context and timeframe he's speaking in. Also, there's such a thing as a conditional prophecy. If this, then that. If not, then that won't occur.
Son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern. And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the temple” Ezek. 43:10–11
Very few Jews turned back from Babylon and returned to rebuild the second temple after the first was destroyed. Therefore, the temple built was not to Ezekiel's scale. Whether Ezekiel's temple vision is conditional or not, there's one thing for certain, especially if you believe in Jesus' salvation through blood.
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. John 2:19-22
Jesus was talking about returning God's vision of His kingdom. No one understood at the time what He was actually going on about. The Jews at the time thought they were still waiting on Israeli royalty to show up and raise Israel to glory. They are still waiting for Israeli royalty to show up and raise Israel to glory. That's why they're so excited about the third temple.
Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, "FEAR NOT, DAUGHTER OF ZION; BEHOLD, YOUR KING IS COMING, SEATED ON A DONKEY'S COLT." These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him. John 12:14-16
Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, "Are You the King of the Jews?"
Jesus answered, "Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?"
Pilate answered, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?"
Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm."
Therefore Pilate said to Him, "So You are a king?"
Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I am a king For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." John 18:33-37
What is God saying in all this? He's saying that He is the temple and the King. You don't need stones and human rulers wearing crowns. Those are shadows of the real kingdom of God.
What is the purpose of a temple? It once was considered the "home" of God, a place to perform sacrifices and worship. First of all, we don't do sacrifices anymore because Jesus finished sacrifices with His death on the cross. If you believe we still need sacrifices for our uncleanness or sin, then you don't believe that Jesus' death meant anything.
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:
“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
But a body You have prepared for Me.
In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
You had no pleasure.
Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—
In the volume of the book it is written of Me—
To do Your will, O God.’ ”
Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law), then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, Hebrews 10:4-12
If you believe we need one man-made building for worship, I got news for you. In the time of David, the Jewish population was about 600,000. In the time of Jesus, depending on the source, swelled to about 3 million; out of them only about 1 million were able to trek to Jerusalem for various feasts and holy days. Now, if look at populations today, well that figure is about 10 million for Jews alone. Now, we mix Christians into it, which number about 2.3 billion, and we're looking at an impossible place for central worship. Unsurprisingly, Jesus said something about that.
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” John 4:19-26
What is this Spirit?
I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper who will be with you forever. That helper is the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept him, because it doesn’t see or know him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be in you.
“I will not leave you all alone. I will come back to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. You will live because I live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father and that you are in me and that I am in you. Whoever knows and obeys my commandments is the person who loves me. Those who love me will have my Father’s love, and I, too, will love them and show myself to them.” Judas (not Iscariot) asked Jesus, “Lord, what has happened that you are going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”
Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will go to them and make our home with them. A person who doesn’t love me doesn’t do what I say. I don’t make up what you hear me say. What I say comes from the Father who sent me. “I have told you this while I’m still with you. However, the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything. He will remind you of everything that I have ever told you. John 14:16-26
So, if we seek a temple, you see it looking in the mirror. Just as God's Spirit stayed in the tabernacle long, long ago, He sits within us now.
If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. 1 Corinthians 3:17God doesn't need a temple made by human hands. He made a temple for us.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. Ephesians 2:19-22
you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:5
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? 1 Corinthians 6:19
You are the "third temple," as the body of Christ. You were raised, booth of David, and you have been repaired. You are clean and forgiven. You have the Holy Spirit within you. Go and do your work in love.
Sources other than Bible:
https://www.thepathoftruth.com/teachings/third-temple-physical-spiritual.htm
https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/113476/temple-institute-certifies-red-heifer/
http://www.equip.org/article/making-sense-ezekiels-temple-vision/
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/05/christians-remain-worlds-largest-religious-group-but-they-are-declining-in-europe/
