Weekly Drash - Mishpatim

Compliments of First Fruits of Zion
reprinted by permission of FFOZ

Parashat Hashavuah

Terumah – תרומה : “Heave offering”
Torah : Exodus 25:1–27:19
Haftarah : 1 Kings 5:26–6:13
Gospel : Mark 10–11

The Tabernacle of Yeshua

Thought for the Week:

The whole purpose of the redemption of Israel was that God might dwell among them: “I brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them; I am the LORD their God.” (Exodus 29:46)

Commentary:

Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them. (Exodus 25:8)

The same Hebrew sentence translated as “Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them” could be translated, “Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell in them.” Messiah fulfills this passage literally. While He was among us in the flesh, the physical body of Yeshua was a perfect sanctuary for God, a dwelling place among His people. This is why He was able to speak of Himself as the Temple of God. He said, in the gospel of John, “Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.” (2:19) His body was the Temple, the holy dwelling place of God. “He was speaking of the temple of His body.” (John 2:21) Yeshua is the living sanctuary. He is the dwelling place. He is the Temple.

As the body of Messiah, this is also our great role. God desires to dwell in us. We are to be a Temple, a dwelling place for the Most High God. That is exactly what the body of Messiah is. In 1 Corinthians 6:19 Paul reminds us that, even as individuals, we are to function as the holy Temple of God, and in 2 Corinthians 6:16 he says that corporately “we are the temple of the living God.”

This does not mean that we are a literal building in which God is to be reverenced and worshipped. It does not mean that we are a geographical location where He has placed His name. As believers, our “Temple-ness” does not supplant the legitimacy of the Temple in Jerusalem. Our Temple status is metaphorical. Nevertheless, the presence of the indwelling Spirit of God within us is no less real than the presence of the Shechinah was in the actual Temple. Perhaps this is what the Master alludes to when He says, “An hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. … But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.” (John 4:21–23)

In the Messianic era, Yeshua will rebuild the Temple, but in the world to come, there will be no Temple. Messiah Himself will be the Temple in the New Jerusalem:

I saw no temple in it, for the LORD God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. (Revelation 21:22)

Shavuah Tov!  Have a Good Week!

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