Whoa! In reading through God’s description to Ezekiel of the “next” temple, I learned something new!
The details given to Ezekiel are specific, and seem to imply that this is something that the people are supposed to build once they return to Israel. That’s why God says to Ezekiel in 43:10-12 “tell them”, “write it down while they watch so they will remember and follow”. These plans are clearly the pattern for a temple area that is to be completely, absolutely holy. Note also that there are holy rooms where priests eat holy sacrifices, and where animals that will be slaughtered as sacrifices are kept. 43:13 speaks of sin and guilt offerings being stored in these rooms. Consider for a moment that after Christ died for our sins there cannot be a “sin offering” other than Him. That room would be empty! In fact, God would never command that such a room would be part of a structure that was meant to be built AFTER the time of Christ. This building was clearly to be constructed by the Jews when they returned from exile. They never built it. Instead, they built a temple that resembled the one the Babylonians tore down. (Solomon’s temple). Once they saw it erected, they cried…because they remembered the splendor and extravagance of Solomon’s temple…and this “second temple” fell far short. They should have been crying because they used the wrong blueprints… but that’s a different story.
I hadn’t ever thought much about this before. Why would the people cling to the past instead of embracing the future? In Ezekiel’s vision the glory of God returns to the new temple (that doesn’t have an Ark of the Covenant). But that never happens in the temple that Ezra built, and that Herod enlarged. The only time the presence of God was in that temple what when Jesus walked around inside it. I’m not saying that God didn’t use it, even though it wasn’t what He asked for. Gabriel appears to righteous Zechariah there and tells him the Elizabeth will give birth to John the Baptist. Thinking of that, Zechariah was the High Priest that year…and they changed almost every year because they often died behind the curtain leading int the most holy place. It was so common that they began tying a rope to the foot of the High Priest and putting bells on his robe. If the bells stopped, they dragged him out! This wasn’t always the case, in the first temple the High Priests had tenures of many years. Some served for 30 years. What’s happened here? For one thing, they are trying to perform first temple rituals in the second temple. In the second temple there isn’t an Ark of the Covenant. The Ark came up missing either when it was carted off to Babylon when Jerusalem was ransacked, or possibly it was hidden by king Josiah in the mountains, or underneath the city beforehand. Either way, it is lost by the time the Jews return from Exile, and they never have it as part of temple worship again. What was the High Priest doing behind the curtain? His ceremony was supposed to revolve around the Ark, and it’s missing! He has gone behind the curtain….and the new temple was supposed to have double doors, not a curtain!
I never picked up on this before! The beautiful “Solomon’s Colonnade” that was part of the second temple, the other ornate things that Herod included…none of it was ever part of God’s plan. And I had always just assumed that the Ark was in the second temple. It wasn’t.
When the curtain was torn in half at the time of Christ’s death, it didn’t expose the Ark of the Covenant…it had been gone for years.
There certainly must be some changes in the lessons I take from Israel’s history, knowing this. For one, I see God working through the dysfunctional and incorrect temple, even though it’s not what He wanted. Jesus never brings up the fact that the wrong one was built. He seems to love the temple that’s there, even though it’s wrong. The Jews should have had the presence of God in visible form inside the temple when they rebuilt it correctly…but they never had it. What tragedies would they have been spared if they had been obedient? The Crusades? perhaps the Holocaust? Would it have made any difference, if they didn’t have a change of heart at the same time?
Food for serious thought and reflection.
Faithfully,
PR