2nd Chronicles 3 BEYOND EYESIGHT How can we describe in words the glory, the honor and the worth of that which is beyond human experience? We are limited by our humanity to looking at things and thinking in terms of things that have left us with a sense of awe. As children of God our devotion and desire to express the thoughts of our hearts may go beyond the boundaries of our limitations. Unfortunately, some earnest people practice speaking in tongues thinking that making unintelligible sounds is translated into worship and praise. But that does not do anything to enhance the worship of God. It only brings that which is holy down to a place we can define it to our satisfaction. It does not make it real. All it does is seek to convince people that they have gone beyond human limitations to a heavenly language or the language of angels. This deceives people into thinking they have risen to a higher condition of holiness that will keep them from sin or in some way make them more acceptable to God. We need to always remember that our acceptance with our righteous, holy God is only because we are "accepted in the Beloved" – accepted, because when He saved us, we have been placed in Christ.
The building of the temple, from the place where it was built, the value of it, the visible splendor of it and even the size of it was to remind the people of that which was beyond their ability to express. Glory by its very nature, defies a complete definition and description. There is a sense in which our minds do take us beyond our ability to perceive so that all we can do is bow ourselves in humble adoration and silence. The temple represented the awesome glory and presence of God that must have been breath-taking. However, we know that "God dwelleth not in temples made with hands," to the temple must have had a higher and more significant purpose. True, both in the tabernacle and temple there was evidence of God with His people, but He is not limited in any way to time or space. The best and most ornate work that man could produce with his hands, the most beautiful structure human minds can conceive, still falls short of the visible expression of the fullness of divine glory.
Raised in silence on Mount Moriah, this awesome structure rose up before the eyes of onlookers and participants like a living growing thing. There was no way the whole could be observed at once but the impact on the soul would have been powerful and humbling as those who looked at it would hopefully realize their own personal insignificance. Abraham hundreds of years before had likely been in that place when he offered his son Isaac to God. it was there he heard the voice of God and the word of the Lord became meaningful to him. It was in that place Jacob prayed. It was in that place David heard the word of the Lord and in that place, he built an altar. That was the place determined by God to be the place of His name where He would meet with His people.
The grandeur of the temple is long since gone because of it physical limitations to resist the ravages of time and human beings. But God still has a place where He meets with His people. Such a place is not designated by the size or beauty of the building, but by the presence of God Himself when those who "have made a covenant with Him by sacrifice," come to meet Him. The kind or size of the building not what automatically makes it a meeting place with God. It is where people pray in fellowship with God. It is where important decisions made are carried out and public testimony is raised on a spiritual altar where worship ascends as a "burnt offering" to God. The gathering center of the Lord's people today is "where two or three are gathered together in My name."
The value of that place is that it represents God Himself as the One who is Supreme among His people. When those who are "willing to take [His] yoke upon [them] and learn of Me," that desire, that spiritual inclination opens the way for divine instruction from God Himself like Solomon got when building the temple. Angels look on from close proximity like those two large gold covered cherubim whose wing tips touch both sides of that holy place where the ark was to sit. When and where God's people meet, there is an impact that is not limited to an earthly spot, but angels do watch, and wonder and learn. "For this cause a woman hath power on her head because of the angels."
Even though we are not aware of all the "families" in this universe apart from the human family, those who are unseen beings apparently seek to understand the value and results of faith as they look on what happens in "the place of His name." To see beyond eyesight is to live and act with unshakeable faith in the word of God. We may not understand the value of all we do, but to a certain degree we can understand some things if we choose to read the scriptures and obey what we read. We look beyond the bread and cup at the Lord's Supper and see Jesus in His humanity and deity. We see and remember His life and death. We see by faith the cross, the resurrection and the empty tomb. We see heaven and earth coming together under His glorious rule and reign. We see ourselves as God sees us in Christ - crucified, buried and raised with Him "to walk in newness of life.'
The veil separating the holiest of all indicates a separation of the casual observer and casual participant of religious forms from those who have "entered into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh." Even the two big visible pillars - Jachin and Boaz, testified to public testimony established by God and strengthened by His strength to go beyond our eyesight to our spiritual understanding. For all its glory, the glory of the temple was not lasting. But that which is beyond our eyesight, the glory of God, the honor of His name, the respect and eternal praises of which He is worthy is permanent and strong and it will last forever,
All of the gold covering the prime wood and ornate carvings, the artwork and intricacies of design that would create a sense of awe because of its beauty, cannot describe the holiness of God's house today. Each member like a shaped piece of wood covered with gold, has been given the divine nature. To a certain extent we can look at the world through God's eyes when we see the "house of God" for what it is. Even though we are limited in what we do, just by being where God intends us to be gives us the privilege of representing Him.
The temple teaching is certainly in relation to the coming millennial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ when in righteousness, glory and splendor He will be seated on the throne of David. To think that we will be "with Him and like Him" gives great importance to the fact that we are being formed, molded, engraved upon during this time of training we call "the Christian life." By this means we are being made ready to reign with Him and display His glory in a way we cannot do now. Those who returned from exile in Babylon we given a lesson by Ezra to remind them of who they were and why the present work of rebuilding they we engaged in had significant. The temple they built was not like Solomon's temple but it was what they we called upon to make for the very same reason Solomon built the temple of his day. We may not realize the importance of the building process going on in the house of God in which are a part, but later on well will see and be satisfied that we did what we were told by our Lord.