Readers will remember that Moses was instructed to build a portable temple after the pattern God showed him on Mt. Sinai. Nearly 500 years later (see 1 Kings 6:1), King David planned a permanent home for the aged tent temple. He said, "...I had in mine heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord," 1 Chronicles 28:2. David purchased a plot in Jerusalem from a farmer who was using it as a threshing floor (1 Chronicles 21:25). However, God told David not to build, "Thou shalt not build an house for my name, because thou has been a man of war, and hast shed blood," 1 Chronicles 28:3.

Instead, the Lord directed that David's son, Solomon was to do the building. David assembled the building materials and made the plans, but Solomon built the temple. See 1 Chronicles 22:2-16 and 1 Chronicles 28:11-12. This became the nation's center of worship, the permanent home of the ark of the covenant (the box containing the ten commandments) for about the next 400 years. The Golden Age of Israel came and went. Following the death of Solomon, the nation split into the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. After a time, the Northern Kingdom lost its battle with its fierce Assyrian neighbors and disappeared from history. The Southern Kingdom struggled on, but it too lost out to its bigger more powerful neighbor. In 586 B.C., King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon captured Jerusalem, destroyed Solomon's temple and took the people away as slaves. Tradition has it that the prophet Jeremiah and his followers removed the ark of the covenant from the temple and hid it in a cave. Its location still remains unknown.

However, Babylon lost its kingdom to the Persians. The Persians were kindly to the enslaved Jews and respected their religion. The Jews, who wished, were allowed to return home and rebuild their temple. They took with them the golden vessels that had been stolen by the Babylonians and began building a new temple on the same location as the last. It was finished in 515 B.C. Zerubbabel was the man who was the Jewish driving force behind building the this temple. We call it the "second temple" or Zerubbabel's temple. In this temple the Most Holy Place was empty because the ark of the covenant was never recovered.

Again, nearly 500 years pass and Zerubbabel's temple is now old and in need of repair. Rome rules the world. It was in 20 B.C. when Herod the Great, the local Roman ruler over the Jews, persuaded them to let him begin rebuilding the temple. It would end up taking until about 66 A.D. to finish the entire building project which included the temple and its surrounding buildings. This is called Herod's Temple and is the one that was standing during the times of Jesus.

In 70 A.D. at war with the Jews, the Roman soldiers captured the city of Jerusalem and burned Herod's temple to the ground. The area where these temples stood in Jerusalem is now occupied by a Muslim mosque called "The Dome of the Rock" which was built in 691 A.D.. It is this spot that is now sacred to both the Jews and Muslims. This is the location where some Christians predict the Jews will again build a temple before Christ comes again. Today the area is heavily guarded because of the constant threat of terrorism against the mosque by Jewish radicals. One can only imagine the bloodshed and mayhem it would take to destroy that 1300 year old mosque and replace it with a Jewish temple. Today scholars often speak of Jewish history in terms of the first and second temple periods.

Next week: The treasure map of Cave 4 and its possible connection with the destruction of the Herod's Temple.

Blessings in your study of God's Word!

Marvin Hunt

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Blessings!
Marvin Hunt

Http://www.biblehistory.com

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