King David sat on his throne and thought to himself, “The nations of the world have great, beautiful temples for their gods. But my God has only an old, small tent. I also want to build a temple for my God!” Then God answered him, “You shall not build me a temple, but your son shall build it for me.” So King Solomon came and built the temple for God. But Stephen said to the Jews in Acts 7:47-50: “But Solomon built a house for Him. However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands, as the prophet says: ‘Heaven is My throne, and earth is the footstool of My feet. What kind of house will you build for Me?’ says the Lord, ‘Or what place is there for My rest? Was it not My hand that made all these things?’”

So did God never want Solomon’s temple? Indeed, He never wanted it. But then why did He command him to build it? To understand this, one must recognize that the Old Testament is a foreshadowing of the New Testament. In this case, Solomon is the foreshadowing of Jesus. Jesus is the son of David who came and built a temple. And Jesus, who is the far superior Solomon, built a temple not with human hands, but with spiritual hands. This temple is the Church. For 1 Peter 2:5 says, "You also, like living stones, are being built as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 3:16 confirms this: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?"

So the temple is there. But the Jews and many false Christians don't understand this. They think that the Messiah will reinstate temple worship. They think the Messiah will reinstate animal sacrifices. They are very misguided. And their reward will be the lake of fire. Why don't they understand that God never intended the temple, that He never intended animal sacrifices? All of that served only as a foreshadowing. The temple is the church. And the sacrifices are good deeds. The old has been replaced by the new. The new is better than the old. The Holy Land was never Canaan. It was always Jesus. The honey and milk are his words. Jerusalem was never the Jerusalem of Canaan. It was always the church. That's why there's a contrast between the Old Jerusalem (Babylon) and the New Jerusalem (the church). I could give many other examples.