6.- LAST APPEARANCE OF THE SANCTUARY

When the seventy years of Israel’s captivity had expired, and the land of Judea had lain desolate and thus enjoyed her sabbaths, of which the wickedness of the people had deprived her (Leviticus 26:34, 35; 2 Chronicles 36:21), the Lord, in fulfilment of his word, stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, to make a proclamation throughout all the kingdom, that of all the people of the God of heaven dwelling therein, whosoever would might return to Jerusalem. Two tribes only, as tribes, Judah and Benjamin, acknowledged the heavenly token, and availed themselves of the opportunity offered. The majority of the other tribes chose to remain in their iniquity, and to abide still in the land of the heathen. But some of all the tribes joined themselves to the returning company, so that “all Israel” was represented, and all the tribes were perpetuated in Judea after the captivity. Ezra 6:17, 21; 8:35; 10:1; Acts 26:7. Hence the idea sometimes advanced that there are ten lost tribes which are to be restored at some time in the future, is a conjecture wholly imaginary. 2 Kings 17:18-23.LUJ 78.5

Forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty persons, enough to people quite a respectable city, returned, under the proclamation of Cyrus, to the site of Jerusalem, to rebuild the house of the Lord. And the sacred vessels which had been taken away were also restored. Ezra 5:13-15. Fifty-two years after the complete destruction of the first temple, the foundation of the second was laid by Zerubbabel. The prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, encouraged the builders. Ezra 5:1; 6:14. Hindered fifteen years through the influence of the Samaritans and others, it was at length finished and dedicated in the sixth year of Darius Hystaspes, B.C.515, twenty-one years after its commencement.LUJ 79.1

When the foundation of this house was laid, the younger portion of the people shouted for joy; but the elders of the congregation, who had seen the former house, and remembered its glory, wept when they considered what would be lacking in this house. Ezra 3:10-13. Yet it was in the end to have greater glory than the former house; for unto it in the fulness of time, He who was the Desire of all nations, the Lord of life and glory, was to come. Haggai 2.LUJ 79.2

Things Lacking in the Second Temple. - It was not with respect to size that the first house surpassed the latter; for this was of the same dimensions as the former, being built upon the same foundations. But those marks of the divine favor which were the main glory of the first temple, were wholly wanting in this. These the Jews reckon up in five particulars; namely, (1) the ark, and the mercy-seat which was upon it; (2) the shekinah, or divine presence over the mercy-seat; (3) the urim and thummim; (4) the holy fire from the altar; (5) the spirit of prophecy.LUJ 80.1

What Had Become of the Ark? - Upon this question there has been expended much conjecture. That it, with the other larger furniture of the sanctuary, was not carried to Babylon is generally admitted; as, if it had been, it would have been brought back with the other sacred treasures which had been carried thither (Ezra 1:8-11), and some mention would without doubt have been made of it. It is believed by some that it was hidden away and preserved by Jeremiah. A passage in the book of Maccabees gives much countenance to this view. The record says that Jeremy the prophet, “being warned of God, commanded the tabernacle and the ark to go with him, as he went forth into the mountain where Moses climbed up, and saw the heritage of God. And when Jeremy came thither, he found an hollow cave, wherein he laid the tabernacle and the ark, and the altar of incense, and so stopped the door. And some of those that followed him came to mark the way, but they could not find it. Which, when Jeremy perceived, he blamed them, saying, As for that place, it shall be unknown until the time that God gather his people again together, and receive them unto mercy.” 2Mac.2:4-7. And from this latter expression some have inferred that it is to be discovered and brought forth again before the end. “Most of the Jews will have it,” says Prideaux, “that King Josiah, being foretold by Huldah the prophetess, that the temple, speedily after his death, would be destroyed, caused the ark to be put in a vault underground, which Solomon, foreseeing this destruction, had caused of purpose to be built for the preserving of it.” For proof, they produce 2 Chronicles 35:3. But Prideaux argues that “these words import no more than that Manasseh or Ammon having removed the ark from where it ought to have stood, Josiah commanded it again to be restored to its proper place.”LUJ 80.2

With the exception of the passage from Maccabees, all is conjecture. But with respect to the ark there would seem to be more probability of divine interposition than with respect to any other articles of the tabernacle furniture; for they were the work of men; and although the ark was the work of men, and even these tables had been prepared by Moses at the direction of God (Exodus 34:1), yet “the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables” (Exodus 32:16; Deuteronomy 10:1-4), and it does not seem profitable that God would permit any of the work of his hands, which he had made so sacred that even his own people could not look upon it and live (1 Samuel 6:19), to be made the object of sport and destruction by wicked men. It is much more pleasing and satisfactory to suppose that it was carefully preserved, as stated in Maccabees, even if it be necessary to take the latter part of that quotation as a true prophetic utterance that it shall yet be discovered and brought forth in the latter days, as a confirmation of the word of God, when the skeptic and the higher critic are doing their utmost to destroy it. The want of the ark was, however, supplied as to the outward form; for an ark was made of the same shape and dimensions as the first, and placed in its appropriate position in the second temple; ^{1“Lightfoot on the Temple,” c.15, s. 4.} but it contained no tables of the law, only two scrolls upon which the ten commandments were inscribed; besides there was no appearance of the divine glory over it, and no oracular answers were given from it.LUJ 81.1

The Urim and Thummim. - These were the third objects specified as wanting in the second temple. As to what constituted the urim and thummim, Prideaux concludes that the words meant “only the divine virtue and power given to the breastplate in its consecration of obtaining an oracular answer from God, whenever counsel was asked of him by the high priest with it on, in such manner as his word did direct; and that the names urim and thummim were given hereto, only to denote the clearness and perfection which these oracular answers always carried with them; for these answers were not, like the heathen oracles, enigmatical and ambiguous, but always clear and manifest; not such as did ever fall short of perfection, either of fulness in the answer, or certainty in the truth of it. And hence it is that the Septuagint translates urim and thummim by the words delosin kai aletheian; i.e., manifestation and truth, because all these oracular answers given by urim and thummim were always clear and manifest, and their truth ever certain and infallible. As to the use which was made of the urim and thummim, it was to ask counsel of God in difficult and momentous cases relating to the whole state of Israel.” ^{2Connection, vol. 1. p. 156}LUJ 82.1

Five hundred years elapsed. The temple as might well be supposed, became, during this time, in many respects sadly in need of repairs. Hereupon Herod the Great, to ingratiate himself with the Jews, conceived the idea of rebuilding it throughout. The old temple was pulled down to its foundation, and the building of the new one commenced B.C.19. It was this temple to which the Jews referred when they said to the Saviour at his first Passover, in the spring of A.D.28, “Forty and six years was this temple in building.” John 2:20. It had been completed the year before, A.D.27, the very year in which Christ commenced his public ministry. To this temple, according to the prophecy of Haggai, the Desire of all nations had now come. Happy would it have been for the Jews, if, knowing the time of their visitation, they had received him as their Lord, and accepted the blessings he came to bring them.LUJ 82.2

Externally, this building, the temple built by Herod, was at once the admiration and envy of the world. “Its appearance,” says Josephus, “had everything that could strike the mind and astonish the sight; for it was on every side covered with solid plates of gold, so that when the sun rose upon it, it reflected such a dazzling effulgence that the eye of the beholder was obliged to turn away from it; being no more able to sustain its radiance than the splendor of the sun.” “It appeared at a distance like a huge mountain covered with snow; for where it was not decorated with plates of gold, it was extremely white and glistening.”LUJ 83.1

Thus we are brought to the time of our Saviour. That covenant which had its ordinances of divine service in connection with “a worldly sanctuary,” was drawing to a close. The great Sacrifice, to which the offerings of the sanctuary pointed, was about to be offered. The Lord was engaged in his solemn mission of love to man.LUJ 83.2

Often would he have gathered them, to enlighten their blindness, heal their backslidings, and save from destruction. But they would not. Their incorrigible resistance at length wrung from him the mournful lamentation, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” Matthew 23:38. Yes, their beautiful house, the Spirit and presence of God driven therefrom, had become only a tomb of darkness and death. And as Christ departed with sad and lingering footsteps from the temple, the fearful doom which he saw awaiting that people obliged him to declare, not in anger, but in sorrow, that the temple should be thrown down, so that not one stone should be left upon another.LUJ 84.1

This temple, as already noticed, had but just been completed when Christ commenced his earthly ministry in A.D.27. His ministry continued three years and a half, to the Passover in the spring of A.D.31. Just before his death he pronounced the foregoing mournful sentence against them. How little they thought, as they took possession of their new and beautiful house, that its probation, and their own, was so short. They were never better satisfied with their spiritual standing than at that very moment. Never before were they riding so high on the wave of spiritual pride. And never were they so near destruction. What a striking spectacle of spiritual deception! They might have accepted their Redeemer, and been saved. The typical service, of course, would have ceased. But Jerusalem would have been spared; and the temple would still have stood, to become the center of the still more glorious service of the gospel. For only one thing was needed - compliance with God’s purposes, obedience to the divine will - to cause that nation to continue, and Jerusalem to stand as the metropolis and praise of the whole earth. Jeremiah 17:24-27. But they did not recognize the day of their visitation; they did not know the things which belonged to their peace; and they were consequently sadly hidden from their eyes. Luke 19:41-44.LUJ 84.2

In the purpose of God, the services of this worldly sanctuary were now at an end. And when, amid the startling scenes, the darkness and the earthquake, that attended the crucifixion of the Son of God, unseen hands violently rent in twain the magnificent vail that hung before the holy of holies, it was the solemn signal that its services had really come to an end; for in him and of him who hung upon the cross, was the antitype of all the types, the substance of all the shadows which had gone before.LUJ 85.1

A few short years sufficed to bring the literal fulfilment of our Lord’s prediction. The Jews rebelled against Rome; and the armies of Rome environed Jerusalem. The city fell. Titus, the Roman general, desired to spare so gorgeous a trophy as the temple; but a Roman soldier, impelled by a blind spirit of infatuation, or perhaps by a divine impulse, climbing upon the shoulders of his comrade, thrust a blazing firebrand into the gilded lattice of the porch. The flames at once sprang up. No power could then save it. The flames leveled it with the ground; and Torentius Rufus drove his plowshare over the spot where the temple had once stood.LUJ 85.2

The date of this destruction, in A.D.70, falls upon the same month and the same day of the month, as the destruction of Solomon’s temple by Nebuchadnezzar, six hundred and fifty-eight years before, B.C.588.LUJ 85.3