The Temple is not just a temple because of the building structure or its designation.
A Sanctuary is not just a sanctuary because it is called one but because it performs that function.
God is Spirit - he relates with everything (physical and spiritual) from who he is.
However, after Adam's fall, YHWH related with Mankind taking their limited capability to understand him into consideration. The Spirit of man was dead. By his choice to disobey YHWH, he had cut himself off spiritually from his source of life-replenishment: GOD. He was naked and decay had commenced.
''And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:16-17
The fruit of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil did not kill man's spirit. It was a good tree because everything God made was very good. God did not put evil in the Garden.
''God looked at everything he had made. And he saw that everything was very good. There was evening, and then there was morning. This was the sixth day.'' Genesis 1:31
However, the garden was the Human's training school. Here he was being tutored, trained and tested to be all he was designed to be - God's heir. Yes, the devil came in there to tempt the humans but Adam's will was intact and on choosing to disobey God's command, he invariably chose to be independent of God [Genesis 3:17]. He died. That void in his makeup was now being filled with everything else - labour, other humans, things - anything to dull that void. Except that they cannot fill it because they are not YHWH.
The same lesson of dependence on YHWH was taught to Israel in the wilderness. [Deuteronomy 8:3]. It is this same lesson God is teaching us today: Don't go it alone, that is not your design.
From the fall, Mankind instead of fulfilling his assignment from the ability (power) of the 'life of God' in his spirit, had to do everything he was mandated to do by the sweat of his brow but this was not his design. [Genesis 3:19] Everything he produces was dead in the eyes of YHWH. Death does not mean not existing in a form (physical or spiritual), it means being 'cut off from the power and origin of life i.e YHWH. [e.g. The devil is dead but he exists. The human without Jesus is dead yet exists]
Jesus reversed this by becoming the source of life-giving water in all who accepted him. Now, we are no longer cut off from our life source. Our Spirits are linked back to YHWH. We can relate with him spiritually and operate concepts that previously man could not grasp. We are alive to God and what we produce must carry this life to be acceptable to God.
This is the foundation for any offering in the temple of God. It must be made acceptable by being consecrated in the presence of God. We are the temple of God not because we are human, but only when God lives in us. And our work, labour is only alive when it is offered in union with the power and origin of life i.e. YHWH.
It is to this understanding and dependence we are being called to again. We are not a sanctuary if God does not live there. Our service is not acceptable without his spirit ordering it - it is dead.
Never forget (as he said to me ) that he can do it all without our aid. In 2 Kings 18&19, when the King of Assyria threatened Israel and insulted YHWH, he fought the war without any human aid.
''That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.'' 2 Kings 19: 35-36
The pleasure God gets is not in our results. It is in our collaboration with his spirit in obedience to his word.
So, work we must work. Labour we must labour. However, God does not want empty labour. He wants an acceptable sacrifice: a labour in union with his life and by word..
''When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled it.'' 2 Chronicles 7: 1-2
''What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”'' 2 Corinthians 6:16
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