The Temple of God in Jerusalem was a place of worship and sacrifice throughout the history of Israelite kings. David’s son, Solomon, built the first temple in 950 BC. In 587 BC the invading Babylonians destroyed Solomon’s temple and carried the people off to captivity.

When the Israelite captives were allowed to return to Jerusalem in 515 BC, they built another temple on the same site as Solomon’s temple under the direction of Zerubbabel.

In 168 BC the Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes, robbed the temple and sacrificed a pig on the altar. Desecrating the temple according to Hebrew law. Three years later the Jews recaptured the temple and cleansed it. They rededicated it for worship and sacrifice.

The Romans conquered Jerusalem in 63 BC and plundered all of its gold. Forty years later, while still under Roman rule, Herod the Great began a beautification and enlargement program of the temple.

A few years after Herod’s temple was complete, it was destroyed by Roman armies in 70 AD. After this, the Hebrew religious system of sacrifices and temple worship ended.

If you are still with me after that brief history lesson, here’s what ran through my mind as I considered the Temple of God.

The Bible tells us we are the Temple of God. God himself is present within us, just as his presence filled the Holy of Holies in the temple in Jerusalem.

Time after time Satan has attacked our temple. He has stolen things that are precious to us. He has burned down our structure and desecrated it. He has led us into captivity, but we’ve returned.

And each time we’ve dusted ourselves off, stood back up, and done the hard work to clean and rededicate our temple for the LORD’s worship and service.

In the book of Revelation John saw the Temple of God. The perfect and true temple where those who belong to Jesus will one day stand before the King and worship him.

I’m looking forward to that day. How about you?

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I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the city’s temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God is its light, and the Lamb is the city’s lamp. By its light the people of the world will walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. The city’s gates will never be shut on any day, because there is no night there. The glory and the honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing unclean and no one who does shameful things or tells lies will ever go into it. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life will enter the city. Revelation 22:21-27 (NLT)

I wish you well.

Sandy

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