Picking up uninterrupted from Part 1 ~
16“‘After this I will return,
and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen;
I will rebuild its ruins,
and I will restore it,
17that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord,
and all the Gentiles who are called by my name,
says the Lord, who makes these things 18known from of old.’” ~ Acts 15
James quoted Amos, speaking for the Lord saying that AFTER this (the previous apocalyptic prophecies in Amos 9? ) The Lord would return and rebuild the “tabernacle of David”. He would personally restore it! This is still prophecy. It’s usually very symbolic.
There isn’t going to be “David’s Tabernacle” in the complete “New Jerusalem”. We know that because John described in Revelation 21:22~ ” 22I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.”
So, this “Tabernacle of David” is either purely symbolic or temporary.
Does God build temporary things? Ecc.3:14 ~ “I have known that all that God doth is to the age, to it nothing is to be added, and from it nothing is to be withdrawn…”
This “Tabernacle of David” is probably symbolic of God’s House. Born-again believers. Us.
Because James quotes (or seemingly misquotes, if we are going to be bound by the letter) Amos’ reason for the Lord building and restoring God’s House ~ “17that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord…”
It’s the same story from beginning to end because Jesus is the Beginning and the End! There’s a perfect Tree with only fruit of Life in the Garden and a tree that was off limits but looked good and seemed to give wisdom. The only command was to not eat of that one other tree and to fill and subdue the earth!
Basically God said, “Commune always with Me. Bear good fruit and increase my Kingdom. Be my “house” and increase my “house”.
We see this concept fulfilled in the last few chapters of “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” but we are in the process of being built!
Jesus had to fulfill the entire LAW and Prophets to start everything over for us…even God’s wrath. But, that was all done before God could fully establish His house/Kingdom forever! Jesus himself, represented God’s true Tabernacle on earth as He went around cleaning and even denouncing the shadow of God’s Tabernacle before his death!
“19Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” 21But He was speaking of the temple of His body!” ~ John 8
Jesus spoke of the Temple being destroyed as his Body. We see that refers to Jesus resurrecting from the dead but, do we equally see Jesus raising us up, his true body…God’s True Temple ? “19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” ~ 1 Cor.6:19
There was a tremendous shift in understanding of O.T. prophecies as the O.C. had become obsolete when Jesus gave his blood and was passing away with the destruction of the symbolic Temple!
But the Spirit of Truth was making the truth known to and through the New Covenant Apostles!
Paul declared it ~ “24“The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.” ~ Acts 17
Stephen got stoned for it ~“48“However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says…” ~ Acts 7
2,000 years later, do we see it as clearly as they saw it?
If Jesus was waiting to return to build His “house” until after the O.T. destructions prophesied came to pass…how is it possible that we could conceive ourselves to literally be God’s House on earth? Yet we are…
Because we are the Gentiles that have been reached. Paul declared the mystery of God was finally revealed (Eph.3:2-5) and it was that we were all being built together as Jew and Gentile into ONE HOUSE for the Lord in the spirit! (Eph.2:11-22)
We aren’t waiting for another symbolic Temple to be built in Jerusalem; we are collectively the substance; or the literal Temple that IS NOW IN New Jerusalem from above in Heaven! This Temple has been in the process of being restored (made upright/set straight) for almost 2,000 years!
How did Paul see this so clearly? What did he envision this process or the completion of this House looking like? Paul begins to describe the same thing in Ephesians 4 but, with a slightly different allegory. It was the method that Jesus, himself revealed to him first when he said ~
“Saul, Saul why are you persecuting Me?” ~ Acts 9:4
To Be Continued in “The True Body of Christ”…
Wonderful Grace of Jesus 