“I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord” (Psalm 122:1).

Psalm 122

The Oval Office of the president of the United States, located in the West Wing of the White House, is an awe-inspiring visit for a patriotic American. The current space was built by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1934 and features various historic paintings, a fireplace, an impressive grandfather clock, a beautiful rug with the seal of the president, and the Resolute Desk made from the timbers of the British frigate HMS Resolute. This magnificent desk was presented to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880 by Queen Victoria. The office is respected throughout the world as the workplace of the most-powerful person in the world. A tour of the White House and a chance to walk in the footprints of dozens of U.S. presidents who have served there is an experience of a lifetime.

Imagine how the Jews felt when they had an opportunity to visit the “house of God” (Beit HaMikdash). The Holy Temple was located 2,500 feet above sea level atop Mount Moriah in central Jerusalem. Built with extreme attention to detail and overlaid with sheets of gold in much of its interior, this 180-by-90-by-50-feet monumental wonder was “where God lived.” Hear the words of King Solomon: “The house which I am about to build will be great, for greater is our God than all the gods. But who is able to build a house for Him, for the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain Him? So who am I, that I should build a house for Him, except to burn incense before Him?” (2 Chronicles 2:5-6)

But Solomon did as he was instructed and completed the Temple, which featured behind the veil the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, which housed the greatest treasure: the Ark of the Covenant, with its golden cherubim with wings spread over the Mercy Seat.

Solomon praised God upon the completion of his work: “Now therefore arise, O Lord God, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your might; let Your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation and let Your godly ones rejoice in what is good” (2 Chronicles 6:41).

There has never been, nor will there ever be, a place in this world as revered, as adorned, as feared, and as praised as the Temple of God, the house of the Lord, the crown jewel of Israel.

• 2 Chronicles 5:12-13 – “And all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and kinsmen, clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps and lyres, standing east of the altar, and with them one hundred and twenty priests blowing trumpets in unison when the trumpeters and the singers were to make themselves heard with one voice to praise and to glorify the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice accompanied by trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and when they praised the Lord saying, ‘He indeed is good for His lovingkindness is everlasting,’ then the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud.”
  • When you read of the high praise the Hebrew nation offered up to God in the house of the Lord, what does that suggest about how our worship today should look?

• 2 Chronicles 7:4-5 – “Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the Lord. King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. Thus the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.”
• Romans 12:1-2 – “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
  • What does it mean to offer your body as a living sacrifice?
  • How do you compare the extravagant sacrifices made to God in His Temple to the idea that your life is called to be a living sacrifice?

• 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 – “Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”
  • What does it mean that “your body is a temple”?
  • In the context of the holiness, the high honor, and the extreme awe and respect due to God in the Temple of Jerusalem, what does this New Testament exhortation say about the things you allow into your mind through what you see, what you hear, what you inhale, what you eat and drink, what you touch, and what your mind dwells upon?

• Hebrews 9:11-12 – “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”
• Hebrews 10:19-22 – “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
  • Describe the painstaking work of Jesus on the cross as it relates to your access to the house of the Lord.
  • How should you spend the rest of your life in light of this astounding, historic proclamation?

John 13:15 – ​“For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.”

From today’s scripture, how does THE Shepherd inspire you to shepherd your flock?

“But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:11-12).

Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication