Thursday, May 18, 2023

Benjamin Hilton: The "Tabernacle of David" being a Reference to the Temple in Amos 9/Acts 15

 

 

Tabernacle for the Nations

 

If we continue in Acts to Chapter 15, we find something even more interesting.

 

“And certain men came down form Judea and taught the brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” (Acts 15:1)

 

Men were coming to the newly believing Gentiles and telling them they basically needed to convert to Judaism to be saved. The apostles decided to meet to discuss the matter. When they had assembled, Peter got up to testify, marveling at how God had brought the Gentiles into the covenant with Israel, giving them the Holy Spirit in the same way He had the Jewish believers. James, Jesus’ brother, then got up to speak:

 

“Men and brethren, listen to me: Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written: ‘After this I will return and will rebuild the Tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; and I will rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up; so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even the Gentiles who are called by My name . . .”

Acts 15:13-17

 

Here in this quote, James is showing us something extraordinary. He is quoting this verse about the rebuilding of David’s Tabernacle in direct parallel to the discussion about God’s plan for Gentiles coming to believe in Jesus.

 

This seems to indicate that the disciples had no problem with a physical Temple still standing in Jerusalem after the giving of the Holy Spirit. In fact, they seemed to see the Temple as a place that would unite the believing Gentiles with the Jews.

 

Could this be why their Lord and Messiah stood in the Temple courts and declared that His Father’s House would be a house of prayer for all nations? (Benjamin Hilton, Jesus and the Temple: Re-examining the Scriptural Idea of a Temple in Jerusalem from a Christian Perspective [2020], 93-94, emphasis in original)

 

Further Reading:


Listing of Articles relating to Amos 9, "Tabernacle/Temple/Booth of David," and the "Temple of Solomon" Issue