After many years and many wicked rulers in Israel, the Temple of God became cluttered. Idols were brought in and altars to other gods were built. These things stole the focus of the people from the living God. The temple remained in this cluttered state until the reign of Josiah when the Book of the Law was rediscovered in the temple. Upon reading the law they realized that by allowing the temple to become cluttered with worldly things, they had dishonored their God. So they immediately set to cleaning out the temple. Removing all the things from the world they had allowed to enter over the years.
2 Kings 23:4–6 (ESV)
4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel. 5 And he deposed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and the moon and the constellations and all the host of the heavens. 6 And he brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves of the common people.
We know that God does not live in a temple built with man’s hands today. God’s spirit now dwells within His people. Those who have turned from their past sins to Him and have received the salvation He freely offers. This makes every true Christian a walking, talking, living house of God. We are the temple of the Most High.
Acts 7:48–49 (ESV)
48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,
49 “ ‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is the place of my rest?
1 Corinthians 3:16 (ESV)
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
1 Corinthians 6:19 (ESV)
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
The temple of our body and the temple of the Old Testament differ in many ways. However, the two do carry some similarities and we can learn a lot about how to live by looking at the temple. One similarity is the fact that we too can begin to bring things into our temple that shouldn’t be there. Things that take our focus off God. Or things we begin to place more trust in than we do in the Lord. Or start to take time that we once spent in study, prayer, and worship. Like the temple of Israel, overtime our temple can become cluttered and need to be cleaned out.
The idols of the Old Testament were made of wood and various metals. They were shaped to look like animals or people. Prayer would be offered to these items as though they were real gods. While acts such as this are not prevalent today, idolatry is still very common. Modern idols are the things that take your time, focus, and faith from God. They could be any number of things like technology, money, possessions, people, etc.. Anything can become an idol when it diminishes the role of the Lord in someone’s life. Which is the very reason we are warned to stay away from idols even in the New Testament.
Psalm 135:15–18 (ESV)
15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
16 They have mouths, but do not speak;
they have eyes, but do not see;
17 they have ears, but do not hear,
nor is there any breath in their mouths.
18 Those who make them become like them,
so do all who trust in them.
1 John 5:21 (ESV)
21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
1 Corinthians 10:14 (ESV)
14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
2 Corinthians 6:16 (ESV)
What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,
“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
The Bible even refers to sin as idolatry stating that it should be put to death if it is within you. Sin will often creep into our lives over time but we must make sure it doesn’t stay. Because God and sin cannot reside in the same house. So as the temple of God we must first work to keep sin out. But we must also be prepared to quickly clean it out if it finds a way in. By cleaning out our personal temple we not only honor God, we also insure our own entrance into Heaven.
Colossians 3:5 (ESV)
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Galatians 5:19–21 (ESV)
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Don’t let things pile up for years and years in your temple like the Israelites did. Causing you to barely be able to even see that God is still there. Take inventory of your life regularly, make sure what should be there is and remove what doesn’t belong. If you want to clean out your temple then do what they did in the days of Josiah. Rediscover God’s word and begin to read it. Use it for what it was meant to be used for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training. Not collecting dust on a shelf or living unopened in your hand and on the pew.
2 Timothy 3:16–17 (ESV)
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
The Bible will show you the things in your temple that shouldn’t be there. But you will still have to take action and choose to remove those things from your life. It is a great honor that the God who created our world and everything in it would choose you as His holy temple. Treat it as an honor and stop allowing things to enter that are only going to push God out of your life. Give the Lord all the time, focus, and honor He is worthy of by cleaning out the temple today.
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