Christ Building His Church-Temple from the Inside Out
And say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD. It is he who shall build the temple of the LORD and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne. And there shall be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.”
’ And the crown shall be in the temple of the LORD as a reminder to Helem, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Hen the son of Zephaniah. “And those who are far off shall come and help to build the temple of the LORD.
And you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. And this shall come to pass, if you will diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God.”
If you pay attention to trees in a woods somewhere, you might notice that some of them aren’t growing out of seeds, but out of stumps of old trees. There are several places in the scriptures where God refers to a ‘branch’ growing up out of the cut-down stump. This is the remnant of God’s people that keep coming back after they fall far far away from God’s holiness.
Some translations help you out and translate the word ‘Branch’ with a capital B because it refers to a proper noun. It’s not biology, it’s a name.
Jesus fulfilled a lot of the prophesies about the Branch from the prophets.
But this says that the Branch would build a temple? Jesus was a carpenter, sure, but He didn’t build the temple.
Well, He is. Through Jesus’ life He showed that He Himself was fulfilling the Law of Moses sent down by God. That Law created the temple to be a place where God and people would meet and interact with each other. At the temple, people would bring their offerings to cover sin and participate in fellowship with God. At the temple, God would bless His people as they drew near to Him.
In referring to Himself as the temple, He made a lot of the religious leaders angry. They scoffed at Him and were angry that He would speak so flippantly about their temple.
In another section, Jesus said “I will build my church.” The shift from temple – a single building where God and people would meet – to a church – a group of people that would be continually meeting and interacting with God and people wherever they went – flips the meaning of Zechariah’s prophecy. No longer will there even be a temple, but the people of God will be the temple, or God’s dwelling place–
or the place where God and people meet.
In each one of us, together as a group and on our own in the lunch room, we carry the presence of God with us and His desire is to interact with all people. That ‘house of prayer for all nations’ that was the temple? Now it’s you. As He lives in you, your body, your very self, is that house to which the world may come to meet the Savior.
The Priest (Jesus) is sitting on His thrown (inside of you!) and is working to bring peace between all of us and God at the same time.
—
You can get the Daily Bible Readings to your inbox via email every day by subscribing here. Join the discussion online on Facebook or Twitter.