Studies in the Gospel Message
THE subject of the Sabbath-school lesson for August 2 is Preserving the Temple from Defilement, and the portion of Scripture upon which it is based is Dan. 1:8-16. It may be well to recall some things which were stated in our study last week. First, it was suggested that “the temple, or sanctuary, and its significance in the worship of God constitute the real theme which is dealt with” in the book of Daniel. The next conclusion was that “the heart of the sanctuary question is found in the great truth that it is God’s purpose to dwell with flesh, and that this is accomplished through the incarnation of the Son of God.” It was again further stated concerning Daniel and his companions that “the record of their experience in Babylon teaches the same truth to us as was taught in Babylon by the experiences themselves, and this truth is justification by faith.” Deprived of the temple at Jerusalem and its services, Daniel and his companions in Babylon were to reveal the same truth as was taught by the temple and its services,—the coming of the Messiah and the merits of his atoning sacrifice; and that through his taking the flesh, humanity would again become the temple of the living God. Faith in the manifestation of God in the flesh as the only hope of salvation was the gospel to be inculcated in Babylon, and the fact was to appear in their own experiences. When Isaiah “saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up,” he heard the voices of the seraphim, “and one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts.” The holiness of God is dwelt upon in many places in the Scripture. When Moses and the children of Israel sang their song upon the banks of the Red Sea, they said, “Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness?” “The Lord our God is holy,” sings the psalmist. The revelation of the presence of the Lord, who is holy, renders the place holy where he is thus revealed. So it was at the burning bush: “And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy.” The same idea was emphasized in the tabernacle and its services. The Lord said, “Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” The first part of this tabernacle was called the holy place, and the second, or inner, apartment, where the glory of the Lord shone forth from between the cherubim, was called the most holy place. The ark, the altar, the garments of the priests, the anointing oil, and other things associated with the tabernacle were all called holy. Special instruction was given concerning the handling of these holy things when the tabernacle was taken down and removed from place to place. Everything was intended to impress upon the minds of the people that the Lord was holy, and that holiness became his house. Thus was taught in the object lesson what was afterward expressed in these words: “The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” When Jesus “spake of the temple of his body,” he established a principle of interpretation which helps us to make a personal application of the teaching of the temple and its services, and to understand that the scrupulous care which was required in looking after the temple of old, that it might be kept from everything which would pollute it, was a constant lesson in6the attention which should be paid to the “temple which the Lord himself has fitted up for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.” This was the lesson which Daniel had learned. “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.” In the face of the seeming failure of the religion of Jehovah, Daniel and his companions were to reveal the reality of the gospel of salvation from sin through the power of the Lord’s indwelling presence in his own temple. They were to make known in Babylon that the high and lofty One, who inhabits eternity, dwells with those who are of a humble and a contrite heart. Their personal faith in this truth was tested over the question of defiling this dwelling place of the Lord, this temple of the Holy Ghost. It is true that “the king appointed them a daily provision of the king’s meat, and of the wine which he drank;” but to eat this food and drink this wine meant a defilement of the temple which they knew ought to be kept pure; it meant to them a denial of the whole truth taught by the sanctuary and its services; it meant to them a yielding of the whole question of righteousness by faith; to them it was equivalent to saying that man’s way of righteousness was just as good as the Lord’s way; it meant a denial of their faith. The Babylonians were idolaters. It was the business of Daniel in that idolatrous city to reveal the one true and living God, in opposition to all idolatry. This he did, not by publicly declaiming against idolatry, but by keeping himself from idols. By his refusal to defile the temple of the living God he preached a convincing sermon from the text, “What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them.” Thus Daniel and his companions were proclaiming in Babylon that there is but one God, and that “in him we live, and move, and have our being.” And this is the reality of justification by faith, as opposed to a mere theological theory. To be justified by faith is to recognize the Lord’s life, and to receive it by believing. This is what Daniel did.