Even after the Hebrews were installed in the Promised Land, their Tabernacle continued to function as God's dwelling and resided at Shiloh until it was “lost” to the Philistines.
When he became king, David desired to make a more permanent place for God to live among the people, and he made preparation and acquired materials so that his son Solomon could complete the project. Solomon’s Temple became that place, the permanent structure that the God of Creation chose to inhabit among humanity.
David and Solomon – the warrior and the wise man – were instrumental in creating such a Temple in which God chose to dwell. In David’s time, while the presence of God was still living in the Temple of Solomon, humanity had the “wisdom” to perceive the character of the God that David and Solomon honored with Solomon's Temple.
We know that Solomon's Temple was destroyed, so "what's the big deal? They rebuilt another Temple didn't they?" Well, following the destruction of Solomon’s Temple when the Hebrew nation was dispersed into Babylon, the presence of God no longer “lived among the people.” You could say "God vacated the building", that's what allowed it to be destroyed in the first place.
Though eventually the people sought to “rebuild the Temple of God” to recapture some of the previous glory of God's being in Solomon’s Temple, according to the people at that time who wrote the Babylonian Talmud, the second Temple lacked the shekhinah (the dwelling of the divine presence of God) or the ruach HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit) that was present in Solomon’s Temple.
According to Christianity, it wouldn’t be until the return of Jesus to the Temple, that the divine presence of God and the Holy Spirit would again be present in the Temple complex area.
Within the York Rite of Freemasonry the main theme is the recovery of the Lost Word. But why "a word?" There are many interpretations of the symbolism, but the etymology of word is from an ancient root meaning "to speak." It also has ties to the words command, vow, covenant, and name. The "word" preserved by Solomon in the Temple he built in which the Creator God who chose to dwell with humanity would have been the name, covenant, and commandments directed by Jehovah -- the word. The Bible tells us that after their return from Babylon to rebuild the Temple, they indeed found the “lost word” in the form of written scrolls of the law of God.
Without expounding on all of its symbolism, the York Rite of Freemasonry symbolizes that every man must labor on his own spiritual temple gaining divine knowledge as they labor to build their Temple while here on Earth. The burial of the lost Word signifies that the character, command, vow, covenant, and name of God for whom Solomon's Temple was built would be forgotten by humanity and they would seek a substitute for God – idolatry, or looking for something else to provide divine insight besides the divine.
The symbolism of this Rite also indicates that man cannot know all Truth while he makes his earthly sojourn. Even when he knows where to look for Truth, he can only perceive a portion of it during his earthly life. He must come to the Divine Master to receive at one-ment with the Divine. The temple one is building is the temple of this life; and that temple will be destroyed by death and a second temple of a future life built upon its foundation. In our first temple, or life, for many it seems that truth cannot be found and a substitute for the Creator God is assumed.
The Rite also teaches about how the Temple of Solomon was furnished with a brief look at I Kings, chapters 6 and 7 and illustrates that the seeker of divine Truth is received under the wings of the Cherubim. In biblical symbolism, the cherubim represent the majesty and ruling power of God, as well as His divine attributes, the truth of God’s Being, that divine spark which must always be present in the holies of holies within us. We each have this holy place within. No matter how weak we may become, or how often we err, the spirit of God is not far away from our conscious mind.
When we unite with the true character, command, vow, covenant, and name of God through spiritual thought, study, and prayer, the Word is made flesh and we begin to conform to the idea of the Divine Will. Stated more succinctly, the more you learn about God, and the more you come to know God, the more that you will pursue what God deems good. He who comes to ask and seek Truth, must begin by placing himself beneath the extended wings of the Cherubim, which is the protection of Divine Power, who alone is Truth, and from whom alone, Truth can be obtained.
There are also a number of degrees in Masonry which are referred to as the Secret Vault degrees whose object commemorates the deposit of an important secret or treasure which was said to have been made in a secret vault under the temple. The esoteric meaning is that work is quietly and silently carried on that the preparation and preservation of the sacred deposits of Truth is ongoing until such time as these may be revealed, or come into full revelation.
Freemasonry makes numerous references to the mystic center, or secret chamber. From the earliest degrees it teaches where to go, but not what we were to find there. By the conclusion of the basic Masonic degrees the Master Mason is searching for the lost secrets and knows that they are to be found in a sacred center, but again can’t find the center because we are not told where to look. Yet, these centers referred to are the same place.
