SEEKING THE KINGDOM

Matthew 12:6 "I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.

King Herod understood the priority of the temple that's why he launched a massive restoration project in 19BC, a project that was still in progress the temple where the priests maintained Israel's relationship with God each day. Three times a year the people journeyed to the temple to celebrate their identity as God's people. Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacle.

Jesus own disciples thought the temple stones were in a class of their own and the temple was incomparable in (Mark13:1).

So what could be greater than the temple? Did Jesus mean himself? His kingdom? His teaching?

The significance of the temple was the person who lived there. In the defiled world, it was holy space, set aside for their heavenly sovereign to live among them. 

Israel's own significance derived from God living among them. In a sense, Israel was God's house. That was clear during the 70 year exile when there was no temple. Ezekiel prophesied a restore temple, the divine presence that defined his people. Their identity would be "The Lord is there."

(Ezekiel 48:35).

Remember when God delivered Israel from Egypt and asked them to build him a tent? The cloud-presence of God loved into the tent they build for Him, and he guided them "through out all their journeys (Exodus 40:38). It is  what God alway intended. Greg Beale argued that Eden was kind of temple where God live openly among humans in the biginning. There was no need of a dedicated holy temple space because the world was not defiled. That original pictured is restored in the end.

When God cleanses the world as his kingdom restored by the lamb, God will be present not  in one little holy space but in all of creation;  "I did not see a temple in the city because the Lord God Almighty and the lamb are in the temple! (Revelation 21:22).

So, there is something greater than the temple the presence of the one who live there was Jesus saying that the divine presence was here in Him? Yes he was, but in very Jewish way.

There's sense in which God was present in Israel, even when there was no temple (70 year in exile). In a sense, Israel was the house of God.

There's also a sense in which the kings of Israel/Judah represented the reign and presence of their heavenly Sovereign.

(2 Samuel 7). Spell out this connection between the house of David (reign). And the house of God.(presence).

* God established the house of David as his representative reign on Earth.

*David's house prepared a place for God's presence, God living aming His people. When Jesus told the Galilean rulers that "Something greater than the temple is here" he was asking them to accept that:

*He is the descendant of David, anointed to restore heaven's reign on earth.

* He is cleansing God's people, so the divine presence is restored to earth in Him. Jesus is the anointed ruler who restores both God's reign and presence of the one the temple could only represent.