Terumah - The 3rd Temple

The Torah portion of Terumah contains instructions on the building of the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle is a prelude to the Temple. It was a portable temple. The temple holds a significant tie to the Messiah. The first and second temples have been destroyed, but the third temple will be built in the Messianic Era.

The Bible refers to the Temple as God’s house on earth. The Torah devotes more ink to describing the Sanctuary, the priesthood, the sacrificial services, and the Levitical rites than it does to any other subject. God commands, in Leviticus 26:2, “You shall revere My sanctuary: I am the LORD.”

God tied the fate of Israel to the Temple. In history, whenever the Temple fell, the people of Israel went into exile. When God redeems his people and brings them back from exile, the Temple is rebuilt.

Jewish eschatology looks forward to the rebuilding of the Temple. The daily prayers in the siddur plead that God restores his house in Zion. We pray that the Temple is rebuilt three times a day. Maimonides states that the rebuilding of the Temple is one of the key ways to identify if the Messiah is in our midst.

In light of the significance and weight that Judaism puts on the Temple, why does Christianity hold it in disregard? At best, Christianity sees the Temple as irrelevant. At worst, Christianity sees the Temple as barbaric, and that it’s been replaced by a new, spiritual temple of believers.

The Brit Hadashah (New Testament) does speak of the Believers in Yeshua as a temple of the Ruach Hakodesh (Holy Spirit). Yeshua said that he wanted followers who worshipped God in spirit and truth. Christian teachers interpret the Brit Hadashah to mean that Yeshua replaced the priesthood by becoming our high priest. He replaced the sacrifices by becoming our sacrifice for sin. He replaced the Temple by making his followers into a spiritual temple that supersedes the physical Temple. When Yeshua died, the veil of the Temple tore, signifying that its purposes and practices were now obsolete. Christian teachers derive all this from the Brit Hadashah, but the writers of the Brit Hadashah never intended for the writings to be interpreted this way. Yeshua revered the Temple as his Father’s house. The early believers cherished the Temple with such passion that they worshiped in it every day.

To understand the Temple in a Messianic perspective, we must set aside these anti-Levitical and anti-sacrificial biases. From a Messianic Jewish Perspective, the Temple can only be seen as a copy or shadow of God’s eternal dwelling place in heaven.

As stated earlier, the exile of the Jewish people is tied to the destruction of the Temple. The mystics teach that there is a direct link between the two. Because of this, it only makes sense that in order for the redemption to occur, both the people of Israel and the Temple have to be restored to their proper place.

Several prophecies relate the rebuilding of the Temple to the Messianic Era. Ezekiel 40-46 describes what the Messianic-Era Temple will be like and what ceremonies and services will take place in it. In Ezekiel 37:28 it says, “And the nations shall know that I am the LORD that sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forever.”

However, in Hebrews 8:5 it says that the Temple is, “a copy and shadow of the heavenly things” and in Hebrews 8:2 it says that Messiah is, “a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which God has pitched, not man.” If these things are true, then why do we need another tabernacle? What purpose will it serve if it’s just a shadow?

It will serve the same purpose that it has in the past. As it says in Exodus 25:8, “That I may dwell among them.” The Temple will be built so that God can live with us. In Ezekiel 43:7 it says, “This is the place of My throne, and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever.”

There are three major beliefs about the building of the third temple. The first belief is upheld by Maimonides, and it is that the Temple will be built by the Messiah, as it says in the Midrash, “King Messiah will come and rebuild the sanctuary.” The second belief is upheld by Rashi, and it is that the Temple will be built by God, it is the place that is referred to in Hebrews 9:11, “A greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,” and in Exodus 15:17, “The place, O LORD, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in, The sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established.” Finally, the third belief is upheld by Rambam, and it is that the Temple will be rebuilt by Israel under the command of the Messiah.

All three of these beliefs can be resolved with the writings of the Talmidim (Apostles). It says in John 2:19, “I will raise it up,” Yeshua said this to refer to his resurrection, but it can also be interpreted literally. The Messiah will come and raise the Temple back up.

At the time of the final redemption, Messiah will come and gather the exiles, and he will rebuild God’s house in Zion. Then, at the end of the thousand-year kingdom, God will renew all things, and the physical Temple and the entire city of Jerusalem will be replaced by a new Jerusalem, which will descend from heaven. As it says in Revelations 21:1-4:

God instructed Moshe to build the ark of the covenant as His Throne. The Holy of Holies, where the ark was placed, became the throne room of God on earth. In Isaiah 37:16 it describes God as, “O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, that sittest upon the cherubim.”

Yeshua, the one upon whom God’s spirit rests, can be likened to the throne of God on earth, made of flesh and blood. Moshe Weissman, in The Midrash Says, cites the Chidushei Ge’onim Menachot, providing an analogy for the human body with the Tabernacle:

The ark corresponds to the heart because it contains the tablets of Torah. According to the Brit Hadashah, the Ruach Hakodesh will write the Torah not on stones or paper, but on the hearts of men and women.

Terumah has instructions for the building of the tabernacle, a prelude to the Temple, which is a prelude to the Third Temple and the Messianic Era. In this Torah portion we learn about the ark of the covenant, which points towards the Messiah and the covenant of God being written upon our hearts.