JOSEPH CHARLES PHILPOT (1802-1869)
Preached at Eden Street Chapel. Hampstead Road. London, on Lord’s Day Evening, August 3, 1851
"That thine eyes may be open upon this house day and night, upon the place whereof thou hast said that thou wouldest put thy name there." 2Ch 6:20
THE Tabernacle in the wilderness was a type and figure of the human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thence it derived all its efficacy and all its blessedness. It was a symbolic representation of "the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man" -of that perfect humanity of the Lord Jesus, in which dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
When the Lord gave David rest round about from all his enemies, it was in his heart to convert this tabernacle into a permanent structure. He said therefore unto Nathan, "See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains." This intention God did not permit David to fulfil; but promised that he "would set up his seed after him who should build a house for his name." This promise was accomplished in Solomon, who built the temple upon Mount Moriah. The temple thence-forward became what the tabernacle had been. And to signalise this change with his special approbation, God was pleased on the day of its dedication to fill it with his glory, and to consume with fire from heaven the burnt-offering upon the altar as he had done at the consecration of the tabernacle. Upon this solemn day, Solomon, as king of the people, offered a prayer on their behalf to God; a prayer of a very peculiar nature, but full of meaning, significancy, and blessedness.
I shall, with God’s blessing, this evening, attempt to take up some of the leading points of this prayer of Solomon.
As the temple was typical and figurative of the human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ, it became the centre of Israel’s worship, as well as the place on which the eyes of God rested from the beginning to the end of the year. A striking representation of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Mediator between God and man! For he is the true temple in whom the fullness of God dwells: to whom the eyes of all Israel look: in whom all true worship centres: for whose name’s sake all true prayer is breathed into and out of the heart, and all gracious answers come down.
