Hosea 3:4-5 “For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim. (5) Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days.”
The next key event that we will discuss is the destruction of the Second Temple. We have already looked at the above-quoted passage of scripture when we discussed Israel's loss of sovereignty, and we established that it is a record of Hosea's prophecy delivered to the children of Israel in approximately the year 753 BC[1]. In this prophecy, we see that the Lord informed Israel that a time would arise in their future, in which Israel would be without a king and a temple, and the accompanying Levitical priesthood. The Lord specifically mentioned in this prophecy, that Israel would be without a king and temple, for many days. We have already discussed Israel's loss of their king (sovereignty), and so in this section, we want to discuss Israel’s loss of their temple and the accompanying Levitical priesthood. We have seen earlier that Israel lost its temple for a relatively brief period of 70 years; which was the period between the destruction of the First Temple in the year 587 BC and the rebuilding of the Second Temple in the year 516 BC. Hosea's prophecy of Israel being without a temple for many days was not referring to that brief period however; as we have already seen, Israel being without a prince (sovereignty) for many days, proved to be a period of over 2,500 years, i.e. from the year 609 BC to the year 1948 AD. And so as we will see in this section, similarly Israel being without a temple for many days will prove to be, at the time of writing this section, a period of almost 2,000 years.
Luke 21:5-24 “Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, (6) “These things which you see--the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down." (7) So, they asked Him, saying, "Teacher, but when will these things be? And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?" (8) And He said: … (20) "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. (21) Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. (22) For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. (23) But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. (24) And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
In the above-quoted passage of scripture, our Lord Jesus prophesied about the destruction of both the Second Temple and the city of Jerusalem. When Jesus made His prediction in the year 31 AD, the Second Temple had been standing for 547 years. As we can see from this account, our Lord was speaking to His disciples while they were standing in the temple, for they were commenting on the beautiful stones and donations that adorned the temple. In reply to the disciples’ comments, the Lord said that not one stone of the temple they were looking at would be left upon another that would not be thrown down. And so, in response to the Lord’s comment, the disciples asked Him when this event would take place and what would be the sign that this event was about to happen. When you read the full account of this passage you will see that in His reply to their question, the Lord Jesus spoke of events that would occur leading up to the end of the age; nevertheless, in the passage quoted above, our Lord was specifically addressing what would happen to the Second Temple and the city of Jerusalem at that time. In this passage, our Lord instructed the disciples to flee Judea when they saw the sign of the city of Jerusalem being surrounded by armies. Jesus specifically warned the disciples living in Jerusalem at that time, to leave the city. He also instructed the disciples living outside of Jerusalem not to enter the city. Unlike the destruction of the First Temple, there is no scriptural account of the destruction of the Second Temple. The reason for that is because other than the Book of Revelation which was written in approximately the year 95 AD[2], this event occurred after New Testament scripture had ended in approximately the year 62 AD (Acts 28:30-31). And so in this section, we will only discuss the historical account of this event. The sequence of events leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple began in the year 66 AD when the Jews rebelled against the rule of the Roman Empire. In response to the Jewish rebellion, Rome sent her legions into Judea to restore their control over the territory. Initially, the Roman army succeeded in subduing a large part of the rebellion and marched on the city of Jerusalem. The Roman legion known as the Syrian Legion then surrounded Jerusalem, but for uncertain reasons and despite initial gains, they withdrew back towards the coast[3]. The Jewish believers living in Jerusalem at the time recognised the sign given to them by the Lord Jesus, “when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near”, and so they left the city and fled to a town called Pella on the east side of the river Jordan[4]. Meanwhile, the Jewish rebellion against Rome continued, and so four years later in the year 70 AD the Roman legions returned to Jerusalem. It was during the feast of Passover when multitudes of Jews had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast, that the Roman armies once again surrounded the city. This time was different, however, because this time the Romans took the city, and in the process destroyed both the city and the Second Temple. Historical accounts of that event record that hundreds of thousands of Jews that were trapped in the city were killed and nearly one hundred thousand were taken into slavery[5]. Nevertheless, the Jewish believers were not affected, because they had heeded the Lord’s warning and left in 66 AD, after the first time that the city was surrounded by Rome’s armies. Had the Jewish believers waited until the second time the city was surrounded, they would not have been able to escape, and they would have suffered the same fate that the unbelieving Jews incurred at that time. And so we see that the Second Temple stood for 587 years between the years 516 BC and 70 AD. An important point that needs to be mentioned here is the stark difference in warnings given to the Jews about the impending destruction of the two temples. Before the destruction of the First Temple, the Lord sent numerous prophets to the Jews to warn them of that temple's impending destruction. Before the destruction of the Second Temple, however, the Lord Jesus warned the Jews of its impending destruction on this one occasion only. Although John the Baptist had warned the Jews of God's impending wrath, he did not specifically warn them about the destruction of either Jerusalem or the Second Temple (Luke 3:1-14). So why did the Lord deal differently with the two temples in this regard? There are two reasons. The first reason was, between the times of Malachi the prophet in the year 430 BC[6] and John the Baptist in the year 28 AD, Israel no longer had prophets to warn them. The second and main reason was the nature of Israel’s transgression, which we will now discuss.
Luke 19:41-44 “Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, (42) saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. (43) For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, (44) and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation."
This brings us to the other important point that needs to be discussed regarding the difference between the destruction of the First and Second Temples; which are the reasons for their destruction. We have already seen that the reason the Lord destroyed the First Temple was because that generation of Jews had embraced pagan worship and were using the temple for those purposes (2 Kings 21:9-13). We also stated that the Lord would not allow the Jews to build the Second Temple until they had fully renounced their practices of pagan worship. And we saw that is exactly what happened; for after the Jews returned from exile, pagan worship was no longer an issue. Rather they became zealous for the Law of Moses and the ordinances of the temple. And so the Lord allowed them to build the Second Temple. Leading up to the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jews were completely opposed to any form of pagan worship, and that was one of the motivations for their rebellion against Rome at the time. Rome was trying to encourage the practice of pagan worship in Judea once again[7]. In other words, the Jews in 70 AD were the opposite of the Jews in 587 BC. So why did God allow the Second Temple to be destroyed if the Jews of 70 AD were so zealous for His laws? The answer lies in the passage of scripture quoted above. In this passage, the Lord Jesus tells us exactly why the Second Temple and the city of Jerusalem were destroyed. It was because the Jews of that era did not know the time of their visitation. In other words, the Jews refused to acknowledge that Jesus was the Messiah. This is an important point for us to recognise because just as the Lord would not allow the Jews to build the Second Temple until they had repented of the sin of pagan worship, the Lord will also not allow the Jews to build the Third Temple until they repent of their sin of denying Jesus as the Messiah. At the time of writing this section Israel still denies that Jesus is the Messiah, and so God will not yet allow them to build the Third Temple.
Michael E.B. Maher
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