This transcript is not exactly like the recording but it doesn’t vary by much and all the essential scriptures and quotes are there. Click here to listen to the Midrash. Some excellent comments were made and questions asked.
DOWNLOAD | OTHER TORAH PORTIONS
This will be a concepts teaching focusing on the Kingdom foundation of YHVH’s Temples not the details and symbolism of the construction and furnishings. While these help our understanding, they don’t answer the why questions. Why is there a Temple? What is its function? Do we even need it? Was it done away? Why or why not? What is the role of the people in YHVH’s Temple?
YHVH’s Temple system has foundational priesthoods in the Melchizedek and Levitical Orders and each of us have roles in each of these whether it is to govern or be governed.
Before I start, I want you to know that I won’t read most of the scriptures listed in this teaching. We would be here too long if I did that. Rather, I will give the scriptures so you can be a Berean and study them once this transcript is posted.
The first and most basic point is YHVH did not build, or have His people build, a singular, unique Tabernacle or Temple. He built a Temple system starting with the Heavenly Temple, the function of which is to draw all attention to His Kingdom in both the Heavenly and natural realms. Understanding this concept will help us to know the purpose behind building the Tabernacle, the stone Temples and the Temple built without hands. Understanding this concept will help us grasp our role in YHVH’s Kingdom, as well.
YHVH’s Temple system (for He is the One who designed it) includes the Heavenly Temple, the earthly Tabernacle followed by four stone Temples built in succession over time within the confines of a city, a coming city in which is no separate Temple, and the people within which the Holy Spirit dwells. All of these comprise the Temple system.
What is the purpose of the Temple system? These are the areas of YHVH’s government and administration. Shall we say these are His “federal” buildings? The Kingdom of YHVH is a monarchy ruling from a throne housed inside His “federal” buildings. There is a throne within the Heavenly Temple, one inside the earthly structures and one in each heart of His people.
The Tabernacle and Temples were designed for the Order of Melchizedek, the Order of the King of Righteousness. An Order is a King’s select group of people who, by the King’s decree, have qualified to be part of his elite group. Qualification for an Order is achieved by living up to a higher standard of conduct. It is a high honor for the Patriarchs and Israel to have been selected for this. And Order is designed to be a role model of higher behavior for those who are not yet part of the Order. Anyone who achieves the high standard of behavior can become an elite member of the Order. For Israelites, the prerequisite is to believe God like Abraham did who believed in the coming Messiah in his time. Now, the prerequisite is to believe in the Messiah who came. This then is to be followed by behavior becoming a Kingdom citizen.
The Terumah Torah Portion is the start of YHVH ordaining Israel into the Order of Melchizedek with Aaron as its earthly High Priest counterpart to Yeshua as the Heavenly High priest. Just as the Tabernacle and Temples were built from the pattern, the ‘tabnith’ (Hebrew word for pattern) as earthly types of the Heavenly Temple, so is the associated priestly Order of Melchizedek. It has a Heavenly original from Yeshua on which the earthly type is patterned.
Exodus 25:9 According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all of its furniture, even so you shall make it.
The word for pattern is “tabnith”.
The Tabernacle marks the establishment of the Kingdom of Israel on the earth. The priestly Order requires an official structure from which to function and minister to the world. Having the law of the Covenant alone is not enough. It must be administrated through a central locale with a priestly line chosen by YHVH. This ministration is not enough. It has an additional purpose which is for the King to dwell with us and rule over us from His throne.
HIS DWELLING AMONG US
The Children of Israel were given a requirement from YHVH to build and maintain His dwelling from generation to generation.
Exodus 25:8 And let them make Me a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among them.
The mikdash (sanctuary) will be YHVH’s (shakan) earthly dwelling place, in addition to His Heavenly dwelling, where He will live with His people as their ever present King. It isn’t until we get to Exodus 27:21 that we find out YHVH’s dwelling place on earth is intended to be eternal.
Exodus 27:20 And you shall command the sons of Israel that they bring you pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always
Exodus 27:21 in the tabernacle of the congregation, outside the veil which is before the testimony. Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before Jehovah. It shall be a statute forever to their generations on behalf of the sons of Israel.
YHVH intends to dwell among His people by inhabiting three places: His Heavenly Temple, the Tabernacle and Temples, and the beings, the hearts and minds, of His people. This last dwelling place was already thwarted by the people backing away from the mountain and His voice. Nonetheless, throughout the earth’s history, YHVH has maintained His earthly presence through at least one of the earthly Temple types at all times – either stone structure and people or no stone structure but through people alone. The earth has never been, and never will be, devoid of His presence and evidence of His ownership. Ultimately, He will restore to the earth the entire Temple system with a standing structure on the earth and people.
HISTORY OF EARTHLY TEMPLE STRUCTURES
After 440 years of service to the people, the Tabernacle of Moses was joined by a second Tabernacle built by King David to house the Ark upon its arrival to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6:17). The Tabernacle of Moses was later brought to Jerusalem by King Solomon so its furnishings could be used in the Temple (1 Kings 8:4). Scripture does not say but we can assume that YHVH’s presence filled both Tabernacles for each had its own operating priesthood. This shows humanity that YHVH is capable of putting His Spirit wherever He wants in as many places as He wants.
The idea for YHVH to have a better house was King David’s.
2 Samuel 7:4 And that night the Word of Jehovah came to Nathan saying,
2 Samuel 7:5 Go and tell My servant David, So says Jehovah, Shall you build Me a house for My dwelling?
2 Samuel 7:6 For I have not dwelt in a house since the day that I brought up the sons of Israel out of Egypt until this day, but have walked in a tent, even in a tabernacle.
2 Samuel 7:7 In all places in which I have walked with all the sons of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the tribes of Israel, those I commanded to feed My people Israel, saying, Why do you not build Me a house of cedars?
Some people think God told David that He did not want a Temple when David proposed it. Instead of this being a rejection by I view it as a tender and affectionate response in the same way that a wife would be sentimental over her husband bringing her flowers. “Oh, for me? Really? And I didn’t even ask you.”
Then YHVH proceeded to tell David that he is not to build the Temple, but His son would. David was also told that YHVH would establish David’s House and throne forever (2 Samuel 7:16) because of his desire to give YHVH the gift of a permanent Mishkin and dwelling place (shakan).
David got the idea from some place. The Bible doesn’t tell us what process was going on in his mind but we can safely assume that YHVH laid the building of a permanent structure on David’s heart.
YHVH did not lay it on the hearts of the priests to build the Temple. The idea came to David because it is the prerogative of Kings to build palaces, Temples, but it was YHVH’s plan all along. He wants to dwell among us.
Why did YHVH now want a permanent structure? Because the place of His Name was now established and that place is Jerusalem. And it was David who established Jerusalem, the city that bears YHVH’s Name and His authority. Thus, 480 years after the Exodus from Egypt in which the Tabernacle was built, there was a Temple built.
Even without the mobile Tabernacle, YHVH still has a mobile structure functioning to this day. I will explain this later.
The first Temple stood for 410 to 420 years until the Babylonians destroyed it in 586BC. The Jews returned after 70 years to rebuild the second Temple on the ruins of the first.
The second Temple was destroyed in 68/70AD and there has never been a functioning Temple in Jerusalem since. We now await a third Temple. There are those who believe it will never be built. However, Paul prophesied that the Antichrist would go into the Temple and sit on its throne to impersonate God (2 Thessalonians 2:4). This prophesy has not yet been fulfilled.
Another theory says that the Temple in which the Antichrist will sit is Ezekiel’s Temple. However, Ezekiel’s Temple will be built by the one called “Prince” and “Messiah” (Zechariah 6:12-13, Ezekiel 44:3, and throughout Ezekiel 46). Zechariah 6:15 says that “distant ones” shall come and help to build the Temple of the One called “The Branch”. All 12 tribes of the ingathered will have a hand in building Ezekiel’s Temple under the guidance of “the Branch”, the one we know as Yeshua our Messiah, our King and our God. Thus, the coming Jewish Temple will not fulfill these requirements leaving Ezekiel’s Temple to be the fourth one built.
YHVH’s Glory, Yeshua (John 12:23), will inhabit Ezekiel’s Temple. We read about this from Ezekiel chapters 40 through 48.
This Temple will rule the earth during the 7th Millennium after which will come the City of New Jerusalem which will have no interior Temple.
Revelation 21:22 I saw no temple in it [the city], for the Lord God [YHVH Elohim], the Almighty [El Shaddai], and the Lamb [Yeshua], are its temple.
So far in history, we have had two Tabernacles and two Temple with two more Temples to come before New Jerusalem comes.
Why will there be no Temple structure inside New Jerusalem? New Jerusalem is the replacement city for the old Jerusalem city and the Temple of the new city is not a structure built with hands. That Temple literally is El Shaddai, God Almighty, and the Lamb of God. This is a conundrum to us right now but perhaps when we finish the next section on the type of Temple made without hands we will understand more.
Earlier I said YHVH still has, and will continue to have, a mobile Temple. This Temple is the Body of Messiah, Yeshua.
WE ARE THE OTHER TEMPLE
YHVH intended to have a Temple system which is a government headquarters administered and maintained by priests. We, the body, are part of that system. Perhaps the most important part of it.
The Kingdom of YHVH is a government and governments are systems requiring buildings from which to operate. Any government on the earth that might suffer the loss of its official buildings will still be a government. Why? Because the buildings are not primary to a government. The people and land are. We, the people, are part of YHVH’s “building program”.
As such, our individual beings – hearts and minds – experience the same filling as did the earthly built structures, Tabernacle and, later, the Temple.
Exodus 40:34 And the cloud covered the tabernacle of the congregation, and the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle.
Exodus 40:35 And Moses was not able to enter into the tabernacle of the congregation because the cloud stayed on it, and the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle.
1 Kings 8:10 It came to pass, when the priests had come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled Yahweh’s house,
1 Kings 8:11 so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for Yahweh’s glory filled Yahweh’s house.
The first attempted filling of the people by the Holy Spirit was at Mount Sinai but the people backed away from the mountain and YHVH’s voice. This caused confusion about YHVH’s Temple system in His people between Mount Sinai and Mount Zion in Acts 2. Then, ever since the second Temple was destroyed in 68/70AD there have been those who believe the Temple’s destruction was God’s way of telling His people we no longer need an earthly Temple. They don’t understand the Temple system.
People have viewed the earthly Temple as unnecessary unnecessarily. Those who do not understand that YHVH’s system involves filling His government building with His ruling presence AND simultaneously filling His people with His Spirit teach wrong doctrine about the Temple. They say things like, “YHVH only needed a Tabernacle because of Israel’s sins”; “YHVH never wanted a Temple but let David’s legacy have one through Solomon”; “YHVH destroyed the Jerusalem Temple in 70AD because He had filled His people with His Spirit and we no longer need a Temple”; ‘There will never be a Temple again” and such like. They do not understand the government of the Kingdom of Israel set up by YHVH before the foundation of the world and that His people and the world are served from a Temple system. This Temple system includes both the external structures, the buildings, and the internal indwelling of His people.
All of the Temple system seems external to us. The appearance of externality is only a delusion. What we must come to understand and have a paradigm shift over is that all a unit of the earthly Tabernacles and Temples literally ARE us. Through them, we learn YHVH’s ways. The structure of the buildings which are based on the human body, the furnishings within which are based on the human psyche and the rituals teach us about YHVH’s Kingdom and ourselves as His people. Even in eternity, there will be a Temple albeit one made without hands.
So, there are these debates within Christianity about whether we need the external Temple and whether individuals are YHVH’s Temple or if it is the congregation that is His Temple.
The earthly Tabernacles and Temples can change form and even disappear from time to time, but YHVH will always have His Temple in another form: Spirit filled humans. The Tabernacle changed from its form to the stone Temple. The stone Temple disappeared for 2,000 years with 2 more to come. The earthly Temples built from earthly elements may go away but the system under which His government operates cannot and will not because YHVH still has His Heavenly Temple and His people from the time of Adam forward. We, listening to this today, are simply part of another form from within the system: The human form of the Temple, the one made without hands.
There were many issues that were solved with Yeshua’s death and resurrection. One of those was to finally obtain a people to accept His Spirit rather than backing away from Him. Paul wrote:
1 Corinthians 3:16 Don’t you know that you are a temple of God, and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
1 Corinthians 3:17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, which you are.
People use this to claim that Paul said YHVH did away with the physical Temple by making His people His Temple instead. There is no “instead” in YHVH’s Temple system. There is only the various forms that His Temples take.
But Paul wrote this before 68AD. The Temple in Jerusalem was still standing when Paul wrote this and he draws the association between the standing Jerusalem Temple and the Spirit filled human Temple when he says, “If anyone destroys God’s temple [meaning the one standing in Jerusalem], God will destroy him”. And then Paul says, “God’s temple is holy, which you are [drawing the interconnection between the Jerusalem Temple and the human one]”.
Paul followed the Torah. He was in the habit of attending the Feasts and doing other sacrifices in the Temple. Furthermore, what authority would Paul have to do such a thing to YHVH’s Temple system? For Paul to have taught that, he would have needed to hear this momentous instruction from YHVH Himself. Nowhere did Paul say He heard from YHVH that the earthly Temple needed to be destroyed. If Paul had believed it needed to be destroyed, he would not have continued going there for the rest of his life until he was imprisoned in Rome.
Another fallacy taught by those who do not understand YHVH’s Temple system is that Paul said individuals are all the Temple boils down to. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 is not saying each individual person is a Temple unto itself but rather that the collective body of infilled believers, the global congregation, is the human form and counterpart Temple to the Heavenly and earthly Temples. You see, there is an interconnection and interdependency of all three forms within the Temple system.
The Greek word for “you” in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (este) is in the second person plural present form. It is “you” plural. “You” plural is the body of believers. YHVH inhabits His people.
Another Greek word for “you” in these verses is ‘humin’, according to the KJV+. The ABP+, Apostolic Bible Polyglot with Strong’s Numbers, has the word ‘ego’ in place of the KJV+’s humin. They both arrive at the same conclusion: “You” here is singular.
Now we are getting to the minute details about the human form of YHVH’s Temple system. Paul is telling us it is both. He uses both the plural ‘you’ for the congregation and the singular ‘you’ for the individual. The congregation collectively is YHVH’s human Temple and each individual human is also a Temple within this construct. Thus, if YHVH should lose all but one individual, He will have a human form of His Temple system.
Let me summarize what we know so far. We have the eternal Heavenly Temple, the two Tabernacles, the four earthly stone structures, the New Jerusalem, the congregation and now the individual that is a Temple in YHVH’s Temple system. That is 10 Temple constructs within the Temple system. That’s interesting in light of the importance of the number 10 in scripture.
Yeshua even claimed Himself as an individual Temple form and counterpart to the standing stone Temple.
Mark 14:58 We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.
John 2:19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
He was drawing the connection between Himself and the Temple while speaking with the Jews. He was also talking about His body raising to immortality. This will be the state of His congregation made up of individuals. We will each be immortal and His congregation, then, will be immortal, as well. The resurrection will raise a congregation, a Temple made without hands, of immortals like Him who will serve the Ezekiel stone Temple for 1,000 years until the New Jerusalem comes at the end of the age. (Revelation 21:22).
YHVH did not have humans to become His Temple because the earthly Temples fell. The mandate has always been the same for His people and for the earthly Temples. He intended to fill His people AND His Tabernacle at Mount Sinai!
For YHVH, it has never been one or the other – earthly Temple structures vs infilled humans. It has always been both. This is the reason Moses indexed, or connected, the congregation to YHVH’s Altar in Exodus 24:8. His Altar, which operates within His Temple system, and His people are the same thing as far as He is concerned. Both are simply different forms of His earthly Temple.
Don’t think that the Holy Spirit did not indwell people before Yeshua came. People who wanted to be filled with His Spirit were filled with His Spirit before Yeshua was born.
Exodus 28:3 You shall speak to all who are wise-hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they make Aaron’s garments to sanctify him, that he may minister to me in the priest’s office.
There were and always have been people filled with the Spirit for the purpose of doing YHVH’s will from the beginning with Adam and from that first generation. YHVH simply fulfilled in the second generation in Acts 2:4 what He attempted to do in Exodus 20:18-21.
Same operation, same purpose. To do His will, not our own. That is the purpose of the indwelling Holy Spirit. When we accept Yeshua in our lives, we are accepting the entire Kingdom with its King, His Law and its governing systems as authority in our lives. We must realize that we now belong to a government with an eternally in place system that does things a certain way. If we want to do things another way, there is another rival system on the earth that belongs to Satan. Those who prefer that one can join it. There is no in between. People will choose one or the other system.
To keep ourselves in YHVH’s system, we must do what YHVH says. In speaking about what we do in the body (which we should not be doing), Paul said:
1 Corinthians 6:19 Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
Let me introduce the word “micro Temple” to you. A micro Temple is a form of and counterpart to the macro temple. Infilled individuals are micro Temples in YHVH’s Temple system. What we do in our bodies affects not only our individual Temple but the entire system.
YHVH has a problem when it comes to people. He chose the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but we turned out to be rebellious, goat-like people, rather than obedient sheep-like ones. Israelites defiled the entire Temple system through their rebellions. Sin does not simply defile the individual. Sin defiles everything: the Heavenly Temple which Yeshua cleansed with His own blood (Hebrews 9:22-28), the earthly Altar which has to be atoned for every year at Yom Kippur (Leviticus 23:26-32) which also cleanses the people (who are a what? Form of the Temple before YHVH). One sin among the people of the congregation defiles the whole congregation. That’s what the Day of Atonement is for as described in Exodus 29:36-37, Lev 8:34, Lev 16:30, Lev 23:27-28, Lev 25:9 and Num 6:11. Furthermore, Adam’s sin defiled all humanity (Romans 5:14) and humanity defiles the whole earth (Romans 8:22). For that cleansing, we need Yeshua’s blood to wash us.
The word in 1 Corinthians 6:19 for “your”, as in “your body”, is not a plural form. Paul is now speaking to individual behavior within the system. It is our duty to prevent the defilement of the system.
Yeshua is Himself a temple to YHVH, as we know from John 2:19. We are in His image and are thus also individual temples, micro-temples, within the macro temple system. We do not stand alone apart from Yeshua or each other.
And YHVH’s Name is not on us individually alone as some claim. Aaron was instructed to put YHVH”s name on the congregation (Numbers 6:22-27), not on individuals.
However, in order for YHVH to have a body, plural, to be His living Temple, He requires every individual to be filled with His Spirit. There can be none among His people that do not have the Holy Spirit in them individually. Every individual must be filled to create a unified body, a congregation, that is YHVH’s human Temple made without hands.
1 Corinthians 6:20 for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Again, the word “your” is the Greek humin, a genitive singular form pointing to the fact that we are God’s in our entirety. He bought us. We belong to Him now. The Kingdom is comprised of individuals who have bodies in which they can sin or not sin, but YHVH is looking for those individuals who do not sin so He can have a congregation, a unified body of believers, to be His human Temple made without hands.
As you can see, YHVH’s Temple system has many layers and aspects to it. This is not a simple matter, yet it is when we view it all from the point of unity. It’s one great, big interdependent, interconnected, mutually beneficial, complete and relational system wherein nothing can be missing without the system being damaged. This system is provided to us by YHVH Himself so that humans can benefit from His presence on earth. YHVH also benefits from this system because through Israel He can reach the world and save people from utter destruction.
NO TEMPLE IN NEW JERUSALEM
Why will there not be a Temple in the New Jerusalem? Because Jerusalem IS the Temple. No matter where the Tabernacle sat, the area around it was holy. At the times of offerings when the people were to eat their portion, they were required to eat within a certain distance of the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle stood at Shiloh for 325 years. If you have ever been to the site, you will see mountains all around. Offerors could eat their offerings on those mountains as long as the Tabernacle was within their eyesight.
When the Tabernacle was replaced with the permanent Temple, the walled city around Jerusalem became the confines within which offerors must eat their offerings. The most important time of year for people to be present and eat their offerings before YHVH was at Passover.
Ovens were set throughout the city so that people could take their offered lamb to an oven and then wait for two hours while it roasted. They would return to the oven to retrieve their lamb and go eat with their family, all inside the walls of Jerusalem. This is important for understanding that Jerusalem, the city, has been YHVH’s Temple since it became the place of His name. The Temple edifice was destroyed as Yeshua said. His prophesy spoke about “the buildings” in Mark 13:2.
Mar 13:2 Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone on another, which will not be thrown down.”
He was talking about the sanctuary and its outer buildings, not the city of Jerusalem.
Today, believers think since the temple is not there now, so why go for the Feasts? They don’t understand that they can still go to the Temple, the city of Jerusalem. They simply cannot sacrifice there since the Temple’s fall in 68/70AD.
The New Jerusalem is the coming capital city of Israel and the whole earth but there will not be a separate Temple structure inside. Rather, the whole city will be understood to be the Temple in a way that has not been understood until now.
But what’s more is that Almighty God and the Lamb ARE the Temple. They are the Temple made without hands that we, His people, His congregation are like. Yeshua’s immortal body that was made without hands, we collectively are like Him. We will be raised as part of that Temple system which is made without hands and we will be able to be near them without the separating walls and curtains. We know this is true because John saw no separating walls or curtains and he spoke of YHVH’s people being on the inside where God and the Lamb are. We will be able to do this because we will finally have become fully in Yeshua’s image and it won’t kill us to be near the Father and the Son in their full Glory.
This has been a Kingdom Concept teaching. Concepts are foundational to our further understanding, training and our trying to qualify to be Order of Melchizedek priests. We belong to an interdependent, interconnected and complete system that YHVH created for His and our benefit, and it is an honor and a blessing to understand these things.
Be Blessed!
Kimberly Rogers-Brown
admin@beastwatchnews.com
+962779353002
Find me on social media:
Gab, Parler, MeWe, FreedomLake
Text Media
Telegram (KimberlyRogersBrown), Signal Add my phone # to your contacts: 962 77 935 3002