Temple Themes

There will be more overlap in this post as we enter the Books of Chronicles. Kings and Chronicles cover the same historical period. Originally, First and Second Kings were one book, but with the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) they were split into two books. The Vulgate translation had four books of the […]

This post (like several others) will be somewhat repetitive, but it’s in these Come Follow Me chapters in the reign of King Josiah that many religious reforms occur. Both kingdoms of Israel and Judah had gone “whoring after other gods.” King Ahab in the Northern Kingdom largely introduced Baal worship. Manasseh and Ahaz led the

In 2 Kings 21:13, we encounter our first measuring tools: “And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.”   The Lord uses three symbolic measuring tools—the line,

In the temple, the veil can be very thin sometimes inviting communication with heaven. If we could only see what’s happening on the other side of the veil. Elisha and his servant have such an experience.   Elisha is helping the king of Israel in a war with Syria. Elisha is telling the king of

We have examined the procedures for the rite of cleansing lepers in Leviticus 14 and the associated atonement symbolism. Two birds were used—one for a sacrifice and the other bird to be set free. The sacrificial bird was killed in an “earthen vessel over running water.” The body of Jesus was placed in an earthen

Oil was essential in ancient times and one of the first fruit products of the Holy Land. Kings (and queens) were anointed with oil. For example, in 1 Kings 1:39, Zadok the priest took a horn of oil out of the tabernacle and anointed Solomon. Washing and anointing occurred together in ancient times as a

In First Kings, chapter 22, we have a divine council setting. This follows temple rituals where an assembly is initiated into heavenly secrets. The famous verse in Amos 3:7 teaches this principle: “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” The Hebrew word for secret is

Joseph F. Smith saw in vision a “vast congregation of the righteous,” who would be leaders in fulfilling the Lord’s work on earth. Among these was Elijah, who “was to plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to their fathers, foreshadowing the great work to be done in the temples of the

There are striking similarities between the dedicatory prayer of Solomon’s Temple and the Kirtland Temple. They begin in a similar fashion. Here is the beginning of the dedicatory prayer for Solomon’s Temple: “And Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands

King David has a realization that his own house is, in some respects, superior to the Lord’s. He said to Nathan, “See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains” (2 Samuel 7:2). But the Lord said through Nathan the prophet, “And when thy days be fulfilled,