The Appointed Time

When I study the Bible, I ask, “Why?” a lot. Why this, not that? Why then? Why that way, not another?

When Jesus died, there was an earthquake, and the temple veil was torn from top to bottom. Why? The author of Hebrews tells us what this signifies.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, through His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let’s approach God with sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. – Hebrews 10:19-22

A veil hung in the Temple concealing the Ark of the Covenant. Only the High Priest was allowed behind the veil, and and he only went once a year to sprinkle blood on the Mercy Seat. Yahweh tore the veil, removing the barrier between us and Him. Jesus inaugurated a new way for us to get past the veil. Praise God. The veil was no longer necessary. You know what else was no longer necessary? Sacrifice for sin. Because Jesus paid the penalty, once and for all.

You know what else was no longer necessary? The Temple.

What???!

Before you tab out and swear off my blog, let me explain. Grab a cup of coffee and consider this argument. Upon Jesus’s death and resurrection and subsequent coming of the Holy Spirit, the Temple was obsolete. Believers are now the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Yet the Temple, a relic of the Old Covenant, wasn’t destroyed until 70 AD, around 40 years after the veil was torn. Why the delay? Remember, God has perfect timing.

• The God Most High established first the Tabernacle and then the Temple as His dwelling place. His throne was the Mercy Seat atop the Ark of the Covenant. But, at the time of the Temple’s destruction, He no longer dwelt in the Temple. Ezekiel 10:18-19 attests to the glory of the Lord leaving the Temple. In Ezekiel 11, the Spirit leaves Jerusalem to stand over the mountain east of the city. What a heartbreaking vision. The sins of the people were so great, the temple so defiled, that God forsook His dwelling place. He lingered before He left. It’s a poignant depiction of His sorrow. And even as He departs, He gives a Ezekiel a promise, like He aways does. In His judgment, He always offers hope.

Therefore say, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: “I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you from the countries among which you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.”’ When they come there, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations from it. And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, so that they may walk in My statutes, and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God. – Ezekiel 11:17-20

• When the Temple was rebuilt, there’s no record of the glory of the Lord filling the temple the way it did in Solomon’s reign. Had it happened, Ezra would have recorded it. Not only was Holy Spirit gone before the destruction, the Ark of the Covenant was gone. This argument is based on a preponderance of a LACK of evidence. Consider this. Nebuchadnezzar confiscated the Temple treasures, but there’s no mention of the Ark going to Babylon. And when Herod’s Temple was destroyed and Titus took the plunder to Rome, the giant lampstand is depicted on the Titus arch, but the Ark, the greatest treasure of Israel isn’t. Why? Because it wasn’t in the Temple. If Titus had taken it, he’d have bragged about it on the arch. Well, then, where was the ark? Short answer? We don’t know. Many scholars believe it’s on Elephantine Island. Indiana Jones went looking for it in Raiders of the Lost Ark. We can’t say for sure. But I think the account in 2 Maccabees 2 gives us the best clues. To be clear, Maccabees is apocryphal, not canonical. That means it wasn’t inspired. It’s not considered Scripture. However, we can still study it for historical details. We can learn a lot about the ancient world from extrabiblical texts. 2 Maccabees tells us Jeremiah hid the Ark underground to be revealed at some future date.  Wherever it is, when Jesus was crucified, the Mercy Seat was no longer in the Temple. It makes me wonder what the High Priest did during his yearly visit to the Holy of Holies. Did he take the blood in and sprinkle it on the floor where the Ark was supposed to be?
• The Gospels record the veil being torn, but The Temple sustained far more damage in the earthquake. The Gospel of the Hebrews, again, an apocryphal book, not inspired yet useful for research, states that when the earthquake hit, the stone lintel holding the veil came crashing down. It’s estimated to have weighed 60,000 pounds. Furthermore, it’s recorded that the enormous doors of the Holy Place kept opening up. The priests would shut them, and they kept coming open again. Sounds like foundation problems, don’t you think? And consider this: the Babylonian Talmud records that the Sanhedrin moved their meeting place out of the Temple after the earthquake. Which means that the last trial they held in the Temple was the one condemning Jesus to death.
• The delay between Jesus’s resurrection and the Temple destruction gave the Church 40 years to get established. Had Rome destroyed Jerusalem immediately after the Resurrection, we’d have no Acts of the Apostles. Just give Acts a read-through and consider everything that happened between the resurrection and the destruction of Jerusalem. In those 40 years, the Synoptic Gospels and most of the epistles were written, the Church flourished, and the Good News spread throughout the Roman Empire.

In conclusion:

• The Temple was a type, a temporary placeholder for God’s presence with us. After the resurrection, it wasn’t necessary. In fact, it was a hindrance to faith.
• God waited 40 years to remove it. Why? For 40 years, it was a useless building. The damage made it unsafe. The doors hung open, showing the people that no barrier stood between men and the Most Holy Place. What an embarrassment for the religious establishment, the Pharisees and Sadducees. That’s an evangelistic tool in the right hands!
• Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the first Temple on Tisha B’Av in 586 BC. Titus destroyed the second one on Tisha B’Av in 70 AD. The orchestration of the timing has God’s fingerprints all over it. He left no doubt that He was in charge.
• 40 is the number of testing. For 40 years, the Church had the opportunity to build a strong foundation.
• One more shining example of God’s precision timing. The Romans had laid siege to Jerusalem, but when Vespasian returned to Rome in 69 AD, the Christians took the opportunity to escape and fled the city. Equipped with Jesus’s instructions in Luke 21, they knew to leave.

But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are inside the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter  the city; because these are days of punishment, so that all things which have been written will be fulfilled. – Luke 21:20-22

There are no reports of any Christians dying when Jerusalem was destroyed. God gave His people 40 years to come to faith before He destroyed His Temple and His city, then He gave them a way out before the destruction.

Consider this. An entire generation of Jews witnessed The Temple as derelict. The foundation was so unstable that the Sanhedrin could no longer meet inside. The open doors and torn veil revealed an empty Holy of Holies. If it had happened in our time, they might have wrapped it in yellow caution tape and affixed a “CONDEMNED” notice on the pillars. The Lord makes great use of signs. And this sign said in flashing neon, “This structure is obsolete.”

Yet He had promised His presence. Jesus is Immanuel – God with us. Through the new covenant foretold by Jeremiah and Ezekiel, His new dwelling is in the hearts of believers.