The Opening of the Temple
Revelation 11:19
"And the temple (Naos) of God which is in heaven was
opened, and there was seen the ark of His covenant in His temple."
We
have already seen that heaven is a place of grand and glorious realities, and
not a place of airy nothings, as popular theology pictures it. There is a
heavenly Temple, and heavenly worship, and a heavenly priesthood, on the
pattern of which the earthly was modelled (See Exodus 25:40; Hebrews 9:23).
The Apocalypse is the book of unveiling and of opening. Seven great
openings characterise it.
In 4:1 — A Door is opened in heaven. In
6:1-9 — The Seals are opened. In 9:2 — The Abyss is opened. In 11:19
— The Temple of God is opened. In 15:5 — The Tabernacle of Testimony
is opened. In 19:11 — The Heaven is opened. In 20:12 — The Books of
judgment are opened.
The opening of the heavenly Temple discloses the
Ark of the Covenant, and speaks of the covenant-keeping God redeeming His
pledges of blessing to His people, and tells of judgment on His enemies. It is
from this Temple that the judgments that follow proceed forth (14:15,17; 15:5;
16:17).
This tells us that those judgments have respect to the
restoration of His people Israel, and of the fulfilment of all His covenant
promises, concerning the Land (Genesis 15) and the throne (2 Samuel 7), which
were unconditional and therefore certain and sure. The Ark of the Old Covenant
was concealed; this is revealed, and it is displayed as a token of
Israel’s salvation and of their enemies’ destruction. The
“secret” of God is finished (Revelation 10:7) because the Temple is
laid open, and the Ark revealed. The Ark of the Old Covenant had stood closely
connected with the Tabernacle and Moses; with the Land and Joshua; with the
Kingdom and David; and with the Temple and Solomon. All are united here in
connection with this heavenly Ark of which the earthly Ark was only a copy and
a figure.
Under this covenant is at length to be fulfilled all that
was announced in the Song of Zacharias (Luke 1:68-79); but which, owing to
Christ’s rejection, has been since in abeyance:
A: Blessed be the
Lord the God of Israel; For He has visited and redeemed His people.
B: And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of His
servant David;
C: As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets,
Which have been since the world began:
D: That we should be saved from
our enemies, And from the hand of all that hate us;
E: To perform the
mercy promised to our fathers, And to remember His holy covenant; E: The
oath which he swore to our father Abraham
D: That He would grant unto
us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies Might serve Him
without fear, In holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our
life.
C: And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Highest; For
you shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways;
B: To
give knowledge of salvation unto His people By the remission of their
sins,
A: Through the tender mercy of our God; Whereby the Day-spring from
on high has visited us, To give light to them that sit in darkness and
in the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.”
The words printed in thicker type show us the great subject of each member.
They may be more clearly seen if presented thus:
A: 68 — The
visitation of God.
. .B: 69 — Its subject: Salvation raised up.
. . .C: 70 — Foretold: by all His Prophets.
. . . .D: 71 — Its
result: Destruction of Enemies.
. . . . .E: 72 — Its basis: The
Covenant.
. . . . .E: 73 — Its basis: The Oath.
. . . .D: 74,75
— Its result: Worship of Delivered Ones.
. . .C: 76 — Fulfilled:
The Forerunning prophet.
. .B: 77 — Its object: Salvation known.
A: 78,79 — The Visitation of Christ.
Thus, beautifully, has
God the Holy Ghost emphasised for us what is included in His Covenant, of which
the manifestation of the Ark of His Covenant, seen in His opened Temple in
heaven, is at once the token and assurance. The revelation of the Ark of the
Covenant is at once answered on earth by signs which betoken its meaning for
the earth. That we reach a great crisis here is evident. It anticipates the
end, including the judgment of the great white throne in chapter 20. Before all
that it involves and includes is fulfilled, we are taken back to the foundation
of the world, in order to have various matters explained to us; and we are
shown how the End is connected with the Beginning, and what the great Crisis
really means. E.W. Bullinger, taken from The Apocalypse or “The Day of the
Lord.”