The Tale of Two Temples

In all of life and human history, there are only two temples. 

There's the temple where Man Meets God and the temple where God Meets Man. There's Babel and there's Bethel.

They may sound similar, and it may seem like hair-splitting to say there’s a difference, but these two temples could not be further apart.

The first temple, the one where Man Meets God, is constructed at a place called “Babel”, and you can read about that in Genesis 11. 

At Babel, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men gather together to build themselves an enormous tower, with the top of it “reaching to the heavens”. There were a couple of stated goals in the building of this “stairway to heaven”:

• “let us make a name for ourselves”
• “lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth”

While these may not seem to be that bad of goals on the surface level, in reality, they are both wicked, awful goals.

Why?

Because they are both declarations of war against God.

God had created man, along with every other thing that exists. He says in Isaiah that he will not “share his glory with another”.

To work so as to make a name for yourself—that is, to build up and accrue your own glory, reputation, honor or fame—is adamantly opposed to the God of Heaven.

And what about that second goal? “Lest we be dispersed over the face of the earth.”

That one seems pretty benign when you first look at it, to be honest with you.

But the fact is that God—both in creation and again after the Flood—had commanded and even blessed man with the words, “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”.

So, when the workers went to work with their blueprints and their bricks and their mortar, they were openly rebelling against God as their king.

That tower, which God immediately destroyed, is a perfect picture of the temple of Man-Meets-God. But even though the tower at Babel was destroyed, the Man-Meets-God temple is still alive and well.

There’s all kinds of flavors and variations to choose from at the Man-Meets-God temple, and they range from mere religion, which can be summed up as strict adherence to a set of man-made rules, to irreligion, which is a complete absence of rules and morals, and to be fair, is much more common than its ugly step-sister.

But the tricky thing is that, whichever camp you may belong to—whichever end of the spectrum you find yourself on—either way, the Man-Meets-God temple is a mirage, an utter failure. 

The Man-Meets-God temple fails because it refuses to receive God on his own terms, to let him reign as king, to let him define and declare what is most valuable.

The Man-Meets-God temple fails because it tries to back God into a corner or force his hand or, just as bad, to simply cut him out of the picture altogether. 

So, what about the God-Meets-Man temple? 

We get a good picture of what this temple looks like in Genesis 28, at a place called “Bethel”.

The story goes like this: 

Jacob has been a lying, cheating snake-in-the-grass, and he’s stolen both Esau’s birthright and his first-born blessing. As a result of his bamboozling, Jacob finds himself on the lamb from his brother, escaping the land that was promised to his granddaddy, Abraham and his father, Isaac.

But, just as he’s lying down to sleep on the first night of his journey, Jacob has a dream.

“And he dreamed, and behold, a there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it…”

As the story unfolds, God promises that Jacob will inherit the birthright—even though he stole it. Jacob will have the land, a people, God’s blessing and God’s presence.

When Jacob wakes up, he’s afraid, and he says, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”

God comes down at Bethel. It’s where he makes his dwelling place with man and promises to bless and rescue sinners.

Babel is the place where good people go to get better, but Bethel is the place where God interrupts, redeems and changes godless cheaters into God-fearing worshipers.

In the end, Babel was destroyed--quite unceremoniously, I might add--but Bethel only gets better.

In the end, Bethel moves from a place to a person, as Jesus--the Word Taken on Flesh--completes and fulfills what started as Jacob's ladder, the stairway to heaven. It's Jesus who tells the first of his disciples in John 1:51 that they will see heaven opened up and the angels ascending and descending on him. That means access, full and unhindered access between heaven and earth.

In Jesus, those of us who trust him as Savior, obey him as King and treasure him above all else have union with our Creator and access to the very throne of God. 

If you're a card-carrying member of Babel--where Man Meets God--lay down your arms, lay down your bricks and lay down your mortar. Look to the true Temple, Bethel--where God Meets Man--look to him and worship.

Look to him and you'll see God himself.