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REVELATION - Behold, I am Coming Soon
Studies in the Book of Revelation
BOOK 4 - THY KINGDOM COME (REVELATION 10:1 - 12:17) – The two witnesses of the last days and the expulsion of Satan from heaven
PART 4.1 - PREPARATIONS FOR THE SOUNDING OF THE LAST TRUMPET (REVELATION 10:1 - 11:2)

4. The Measurement of the Temple of God (Revelation 11:1-2)


REVELATION 11:1-2
1 A reed like a rod was given to me. Someone said, “Rise, and measure God’s temple, and the altar, and those who worship in it. 2 Leave out the court which is outside of the temple, and don’t measure it, for it has been given to the nations. They will tread the holy city under foot for forty-two months.”

Some words of this revelation appear mysterious. John does not name who it was, who requested him to measure the temple. Was an angel speaking to him, a voice from heaven, a thunder, or even the Lamb of God? The speaker remains hidden from us. John received a clear command to measure the temple, its altar and those who worshiped there. This instruction appears to be a New Testament echo of the measuring of the temple that is to come in the future that had been shown to Ezekiel. The sight shown Ezekiel culminated in the declaration of Yahweh: “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever” (Ezekiel 43:7). The measurement of the temple by an angel in the presence of the prophet Ezekiel did not have to do with a real and existing temple. Rather, it had to do with the model of a future house of God in order to console the believers of the Old Covenant exiled in Babylon.

A similar intention is clear in the case of John. The temple in Jerusalem had already been destroyed and razed to the ground in the year 70 AD. The Romans had forbidden the Jews entrance into the Holy City. None of them were permitted to worship at the sovereign places. Therefore, the command to measure the totally destroyed temple meant to John the promise and establishment of a future temple and its altar of burnt offering (comp. Ezekiel 40-48; Zechariah 2:5).

Many Jews and Jewish Christians were living at that time in asylum in Asia Minor. Their thoughts were directed toward the destroyed temple in Jerusalem. John conveyed to them here God's request for an answer to their questions. He described to them in no way a detailed building plan of stone for a future temple district in Jerusalem. He simply testified to them that a reed to be used as a measuring stick had been pressed into his hand, and that he personally had visited and measured in a vision the center of the Holy City, the temple. Regarding the event and result of his measurement John wrote not a single word!

In the New Testament eight verses confirm the fact that the temple of the living God is the church of Jesus Christ, and that His Spirit indwells her (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21;1 Timothy 3:15; 1 Peter 2:5; 4:17; Hebrews 3:6; 10:21).

In the book of Revelations we read ten times about a temple of God in heaven as being the place where the holy God and His Lamb sit together on a throne, and from there reign over the universe. (Revelation 3:12; 7:15; 11:19; 14:15, 17; 15:5,6,8; 16:1,17).

In addition there is a verse in the New Testament that speaks of a post-Herodian temple made of stone, in which the Antichrist sits, showing himself to be God (2 Thessalonians 2:4).

It is not to be supposed, that in the previous vision of John any one of these temples is intended. He was specifically commissioned to measure the house of God, the altar and those that worshiped there in the holy city.

Perhaps the prophet had the penitential Old Testament assembly in view. Possibly the later Messianic Jews in Israel were also envisioned, Jewish worshippers in the Holy Spirit, who had been built up into a temple of God, grounded upon the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, the true altar of burnt offering of the New Testament.

Only the one who loves the Lamb of God and lives under the protection of His blood belongs to the true temple of the Almighty! All others, enamored with money, gold, power, self-love, sex, lust, trickery, witchcraft or lies, separate themselves from the Holy Spirit. John was commanded not to measure them, and to (literally) cast them out. They do not belong to the temple of God. They have not been born again spiritually.

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24).
God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16).
The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us (Romans 5:5).

Words such as these describe the spiritual temple of the New Testament.

Whoever claims to be a liberal, or a member of dead Old Testament orthodoxy, rebels against the Son of God. The one who rejects Christ's sacrificial death, resurrection, His giving of the Holy Spirit, does not belong to the temple of the triune God. A religiosity without the crucified Son of God and His Holy Spirit, remains emotional, is not born of the truth, acts counter productively, and in the end does battle against the true Messiah (John 16:1-4).

The descendants of Abraham who live without faith in Jesus, are like the salt of the earth that has lost its savor, ready to be thrown out and trampled upon by the nations (Matthew 5:13). Following their own self-curse “His blood be on us and on our children” (Matthew 27:25), the majority of the Jews were scattered among the nations. Jesus on the cross asked His Father to forgive them, because they didn't know what they were doing (Luke 23:34). But after only a minority of Jews opened themselves to the Holy Spirit and the message of grace brought by the apostles, their hearts became hardened and unrepentant, and once again opposed the crucified and resurrected Christ. John was commanded not to measure them, and to separate them from the core of true worshipers in Israel.

The nations have trampled Jerusalem since 70 AD. Standing on the modern temple square are the so called Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque, with their anti-biblical and antichristian rituals. Pilgrims from all over the world crowd into the Holy City. They suspect that Jerusalem is the site where the fulfillment of the plan of salvation will occur, and that Jesus will return to this city. Most tourists, however, apart from a religious feeling for the reverential sites, have little interest in heartfelt repentance or for worship in the Holy Spirit. Three religions are fighting bitterly for their rights in the Holy City. John was instructed not to pay heed to any of them. True worshipers are the blood-purchased possession of Jesus Christ, to whom He endows the Holy Spirit and eternal life.

The love of the patriarch for Jerusalem resounds through the term the “Holy City” throughout. The words and deeds of Jesus permit the “living stones” of this city to testify to His wounds, His love, His authority and to His holiness (Luke 19:40). Sadly, today in this city drug dealers, spiritists, cabalists, Masons, syncretists and many other “enthralled” people are lodged into multiple strategy centers of Satan so that the Holy City has become very unholy. The battle for Jerusalem will not only be carried out politically with weapons, but also in fight against all the armies of evil under heaven (Zechariah 14:1-3, 12-15; Ephesians 6:10-20, etc.). Jesus Himself called this Holy City a murderer, while many of its hate-filled residents wanted not to accept Him, but to kill Him (Matthew 23:37-39; Luke 13:34-35). Jesus cried over this city (Luke 19:41).

Tourists should not be deceived by the impressive babble of voices on the Suks (market streets) or by the worship in the many churches, synagogues and mosques. Every place in which the crucified Son of God is not worshipped - and therefore also not through Him His Father in heaven - is only a part of the “courtyard”, which is cut off from the temple.

The fact, however, that from the time of John until the present day there were, are, and will be true worshippers of God in this holy-unholy city, should lead us into worship of the loving and faithful God. The gates of Hades shall not prevail against His church (Matthew 16:18).

PRAYER: O Holy One, the Holy of Holies in Your old temple was the meeting point with those who were called and their place of reconciliation with You. Now, the cross of Christ has become the place of the reconciliation with You, which had caused the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Jesus' followers who became Your holy temple forever.

QUESTION:

  1. Who is God's temple in the New Testament?

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