Daniel's 70 Weeks, 5

John 2:20 informs us that Herod the Great's remodeling program had been going on for 46 years, from 19 B.C., putting Jesus' first cleansing of the Temple around A.D. 26-27, at the beginning of his ministry.

The Lord Jesus refers to his own physical body (John 2:21) when he declares: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). Yet as is often the case, Jesus' words are a double entendre: He is talking about his human body, but there is a deeper meaning: By his death and resurrection, he replaces the shadow of the Old Covenant Temple with the substance of the Temple of the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:1-5; 9:1-10:22.

Peter declares that the LORD Jesus Christ is the living Stone (1 Peter 2:4). Jesus is the Rock who traveled with Israel in the Wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:4). We, too, are built on this solid foundation (Ephesians 2:19-22). We, too, are living stones of the Temple that God is continuing to build (1 Peter 2:5).

Individual believers are living stones in the Temple of the New Covenant (1 Corinthians 3:9-17). These stones are not lying here and there along the road; they are being fitted into the ever increasing Temple of the New Covenant (1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:20-22; Revelation 21:16, where this structure is a cube over 1,300 miles on each side).

Believers cannot be lost, but they can lose rewards (1 Corinthians 3:12-15).

First Corinthians 3:16-17 is not about taking care of our bodies; it is about people who destroy God's Temple by false doctrine. Jim Jones of the so-called Peoples' Temple destroyed God's Church and is in hell (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).