"Then Solomon stood before the altar of YAHWEH in the presence of all the assembly of Israel. He raised his hands towards heaven and said, 'O YAHWEH, GOD of Israel, there is no GOD like YOU either in heaven or on earth! YOU keep YOUR Covenant and show loving-kindness to YOUR servants who walk before YOU wholeheartedly.
But will GOD really live among people on earth? If neither heavens nor the highest heavens can contain YOU, how much less can this house which I have built! Yet, listen to the prayer and supplication of YOUR servant, O YAHWEH my GOD; hearken to the cries and pleas which YOUR servant directs to YOU this day. Watch over this house of which YOU have said, 'MY NAME shall rest there.' Hear the prayer of YOUR servant in this place.
Listen to the supplication of YOUR servant and YOUR people Israel when they pray in this direction; listen from YOUR dwelling place in heaven and, on listening, forgive." - 1 Kings 8:22-23. 27-30
(This prayer of Solomon, composed probably by a prophet at the time of the kings, emphasizes both the importance and the relativity of the temple. It is there that the "Name" of GOD resides, there GOD will hear the prayers of HIS people. And yet this temple built by human hands "could not contain GOD in HIS Glory." The invisible heavens "cannot contain HIM," how much less this earthly dwelling.
This vision of the temple will be continually present in the teaching of the prophets. However great, the temple will never be a "magic charm" for Israel. It is the sign and reminder of the presence of the holy GOD.
Gradually, because of this, all theology of Israel will be centered on the temple. The earth and the heavens belong to GOD, but on the earth one country belongs to HIM in a very special way--it is the Land of a Promise. In this Promised Land all the towns are HIS; but one among them is especially dear. And in this city, in the heart of this city is the holy mountain on which YAHWEH's dwelling place has been built.
The temple is thus like the pivot around which the whole universe revolves. For this reason it is understandable that its destruction in 587 was for the faith of Israel an unimaginable trial: without the temple of Jerusalem, the universe lost its center.
If the universe had by degrees been centered around the temple, with the New Testament on the contrary, it is the CHRIST--the New Temple--who becomes the point of departure for the expansion of salvation: "You will be MY witnesses, in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth" [Acts 1:8].)
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