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From the Tabernacle to Temple

I am visiting Israel here in May of 2022 with family and friends.

While here I’ve felt led to read Jeremiah and Hebrews.

One thing that has perplexed me for some time before this trip is the general ignorance about the tabernacle of Moses and David and their connection to the Temple of Solomon. When I ask my Israeli friends about these Temples they seem a bit perplexed and don’t know many details about either in comparison to the Temples.

I was quite ignorant of the connection between the tabernacle of Moses and all subsequent “houses of God” until someone taught me (Frank Viola) and I read a great book called The Tabernacle by M.R. DeHaan.

Our guide here is a devout Jew, educated as archeologist, and he essentially said that Solomon got the plans for the temple from his contractor Hiram who “was known for building houses of god.”

Details about this can be found in 1Kings 6,7

I am sure this is true to some degree but the connection between Moses’ tabernacle and Solomons temple is clear. Turning the portable wooden and fabric tabernacle into a stone temple no doubt took much planning, substitutions and thought. Also the dimensions are quite different.

David (Solomon’s father) brought the ark of God to Mount Zion in Jerusalem, see 2 Sam 6. Where he set up his own “tent” and is believed to have written many of the Psalms based on his experience with God there.

The Ark of covenant, the mercy seat, the table of showbread, the holy of holies, the candlestick, the outer court, the brazen altar, the single entrance gate. Extreme detail and dimensions and instructions from God to Moses about the house can be seen beginning in Exodus 25.

There is a direct reference to David’s city of Zion, to the Ark of the Covenant, and to Moses in 1 Kings 8 about when Solomon was building the Temple.

Fast forward to the time of the Christians. Stephen one of the seven Christians chosen by the apostles referred to Solomon getting the pattern for the house of God (temple) from Moses. Right before he was stoned to death. The final point Stephen made about God not dwelling in houses of stone enraged them to murder him by stoning, See Acts 7:44-50.

There seems to be an overemphasis on the Temple. As marvelous and massive as this temple must have been.

A trip to Israel has historical and religious value by default.

But in order to get spiritual value out of it one must comprehend the meaning of Israel from God’s perspective…what he was accomplishing with Israel. That requires we accept the meaning of Jesus Christ to God.

Jesus Christ was the whole purpose of Israel, many would doubt that, many others would resent that but it is true. The fascination with the history and religion of it all is one thing, but getting SPIRITUAL VALUE from it requires an understanding of Jesus Christ. And if we cannot do that then its just history, its just religion, just a cool place to visit.

This brings us to what I think is a very important general principle for life. To get the spiritual value of every and anything, good or bad, we must comprehend the spiritual meaning of things as they relate to God’s purposes concentrated on Jesus Christ.

This means that Israel, the temples, and everything related to them. Past, present and future find there meaning and purpose and value in Jesus Christ. He defines them, he gives them purpose and meaning.

What it means to Gather in his name: https://adamcollier.com/what-does-it-mean-to-gather-around-jesus-christ/?preview=true&preview_id=3914&preview_nonce=9f27f9180f&frame-nonce=b3800848f9

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Horrific Despair… into Joy Unspeakable

Look around in the world today and there are many reasons to despair. On many different levels in many different countries.

Minor despair of financial difficulties.

To the major despair of war coming to steal from and to murder entire towns of people.

When Jesus was betrayed, arrested, set up, tortured and killed slowly in public. What despair his followers and family must have felt. All seemed lost, all his teachings must have seemed in question. The entire religion of Judaism and belief he was the messiah dashed to pieces in their minds.

Life can very often tempt one to ask in despair:

“Who can live in such a world?”

“Why does everything have to be so hard?”

“Why are those people so cruel and selfish?”

“What are we going to do?”

“Are we even safe? Will we be able to buy food and stay in our homes?”

The resurrection of Jesus Christ turned this despair of humanity into joy unspeakable.

Unspeakable because it is inexplicable. For those in Christ it bubbles up from within, in the midst of terrible life situations.

Joy because our days of death and suffering are numbered. Precisely numbered and meticulously planned out. Not indefinite, not forever, not alone.

Our suffering and deaths are for a particular purpose and appointed at a particular time. (See Hebrew 9:27).

Furthermore Jesus himself promises to strengthen and be with us as we suffer. Even further we are actually partaking in the sufferings of Christ. They actually are his sufferings if we can understand spiritual reality. All our suffering in this world is a result of Satan’s lashing out against Jesus Christ. As Jesus expands and takes back his humanity and his earth it terrifies and likely infuriates Satan and his principalities and powers.

But their end is coming. New bodies, new hope, new future, new heavens, new earth, eternal growth, eternal expansion, eternal glorification, and more are all in store for Jesus Christ. And for us also, if we are in Him.

Therefore the Joy that is unspeakably wonderful cones bubbling up from within even at the prospect of suffering and death.

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What Has Been the Culmination of Socialism?

The hope and dream of most socialist and communist leaders (Karl Marx in the 1840s) was a more equal society. One where wealth and power was dispersed among the people, the proletariat and not concentrated with the nobles at the top.

Fast forward almost 200 years later and Vladimir Putin is the culmination and the glory of socialism in Russia. A lone thug, a violent king, the thing the early socialists/ communists wanted to remove.


Isn’t it ironic? I think it is very ironic.


They fail not because it’s an entirely bad idea, not because intentions were not good. Not because they are fundamentally evil or unintelligent. Karl Marx and his contemporaries were extremely learned and intellectual people. But they fail for the same reasons all political movements fail, because they have excluded and snubbed Jesus Christ. Marx was openly atheist. Most communist countries have been oppressive to Christians and sometimes all religion. So, they become what they once resisted, it is the fate of human government in every form, snub Him and you’re undone, irrelevant, all you have after him is the varied forms violence if you want to remain in control.


Hitler was the culmination and glory of socialism in Germany.


Many examples in Venezuela, Cuba, soviet era violent thugs.

There is both an open and subversive movement of socialists and even communists in the US. This movement is not a Christian movement, people who claim to be Christian may be in these movements but they rarely if ever use their Christianity as a reason for the things they are striving for. Fast forward, who will be the culmination and glory of socialism in the US? Will the democrats, with republican enabling, continue us down that mentally ill path? Do we really need to experience almost 200 years of violence to get to that person?

Start to lose public support (cater to your base) they switch to whatever it takes to hold onto power. Then when censorship, vote cheating, manipulation of race tension, and political imprisonments stop working.

It is open war, stealing, killing, assassinations, and destroying. They do as their spiritual leader leads them to do. Today’s (Feb-March 2022) prime example of that is Putin’s invasion of his neighbor Ukraine.


Socialism / communism is not solved by political action and violence. It’s a spiritual condition, Jesus Christ is the cure. Not church activities and not organizing for certain policy and not moralizing from the pulpits!

But the preaching of Jesus Christ, and much more importantly the dominance and headship of Jesus Christ within churches, and among Christians. Read more about the dominance and headship of Jesus Christ… <click here >

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