By John Gill
AND THE TWO PILLARS, JACHIN AND BOAZ,
TYPICAL OF CHRIST.
1 KINGS 7:21
And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: and set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin: and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz.
THESE two pillars were set in the porch of the temple that was built by Solomon; and he is the person that is said to set them there ; that is, they were set there by his order. Reference is had to the place of their standing, in various passages of Scripture, in an allusive way. The human body of our Lord Jesus Christ is called the temple, and that by himself; destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. (John 2:19) The Jews who heard him say these words, understood them in a literal sense; as if he was speaking of the material temple that was built by Zerubbabel, and repaired by Herod. Therefore they said, forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? Whereas, the evangelist observes, he was speaking of the temple of his body, that true tabernacle which God pitched and not man: which was a greater and more perfect tabernacle than was built by Solomon, or by Zerubbabel, or repaired and ornamented by Herod. He, the Word of God, the eternal Logos, when made flesh, tabernacled and dwelt among us. Herein the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily; even all the perfections of the divine nature. The train of the divine perfections filled the temple of the human nature of Christ; according to the glorious vision which Isaiah had thereof. (Isa. 6:1)
Sometimes, in reference to this temple, particular believers are called the temple of God: Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. (1 Cor. 3:16) It was known, or it might be known, from the inhabitation of the Spirit of God and then it is added, if any man defile the temples of God, by insinuating bad principles into them, or drawing them into evil practices, him shall God destroy. He will shew his resentment against such persons: for the temple of God is holy, therefore should not be defiled with bad principles or bad practices. Which temple, says the apostle, ye particular believers are: for that he means not the collective body, the church, but particular believers, is clear, by what he afterwards observes in the same epistle; Know ye not, that your body is the temple of the holy Ghost, which is in you? which must refer to individuals. As also in another epistle of his to the same church, he says, what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? (2 Cor. 6:16) That is, what agreement is there between those who are the true worshippers of God, and such as worship idols?
But at other times, and in other places, we may observe the whole church of God is called a temple, in allusion to the temple at Jerusalem. Thus, in that famous prophecy of the Messiah, Zechariah 6:12, it is said, Behold the man whose mane is the Branch (which is a descriptive character of the Messiah), and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord; even he shall build the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory. That is, he shall build the Church of God, and he shall have the glory of it, as the sole builder; and thus speaks our Lord himself. Upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matt. 16:18) And here I shall take occasion to observe, that the temple of Jerusalem may very properly be considered as a figure and emblem of the church of God, on various accounts.
I. With respect to the several parts of it. It consisted particularly of these three: them was,
1. The great court in which stood the altar of burnt-offerings, and the laver, and where the people of Israel in common assembled to worship God.
