The promise that the Lord would come to his temple ultimately found fulfilment in Christ. The aged prophet, Simeon, saw God’s glory in Jesus Christ when Mary and Joseph presented Jesus in the temple (Luke 2:29–32). This was the initial fulfilment of the Lord coming to his temple, and the fulfilment of the Immanuel promise, God dwelling with man.
But a greater fulfilment occurred with the ascension of Christ Jesus. Already on the mount, Jesus was transformed before his disciples, and the glory of the Lord was upon him (Matthew 17:2), as a foreshadowing of the glory that he would receive when he entered the temple not made with hands (Hebrews 9:11). Stephen, just before being stoned to death, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God
(Acts 7:55).
Furthermore, in the new covenant, believers have become the temple of God, and God has come to his temple through the Spirit who dwells in believers, and who is transforming believers into the glorious image of God, from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18). Paul mentions this with allusions to the first instance where the glory of God filled the temple, which caused Moses’ face to shine when he entered the tabernacle. Through the indwelling Spirit of Christ, the God of glory dwells in us, his temple.
1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.