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Featured Video
 Victory
at Jerusalem. Discover the wonder, majesty and worship embodied
in his sacrificial death and resurrection. Travel back in time to
visit, site by crucial site, the climactic last days of our Savior.
The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is not a story of defeat,
but of victory! Victory over death for all of humanity.
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yesterday
tomorrow
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 Artist's conception of Solomon's original temple.
In 539 BC, Babylon fell to a coalition of Medes and Persians. The new
rulers of the Mid East made it their policy to restore captive nations to
their respective homelands. Among those captives were the Jews. They
returned to Judah with authority to rebuild their temple. Seventeen years
later, construction still languished. God raised up the prophets Haggai
and Zechariah to rebuke the neglect by the returnees.
In 520 Haggai preached "Is it time for you to live in your paneled
houses while this house lies in ruin?" Through Haggai, the Lord asked the
Jews how they had fared since their return. "You have sown much and
harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you
never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he
who earns wages, earns wages to put them into a bag with holes" (Haggai
1:6, Revised Standard Version). Haggai said God wanted them to bring wood
and rebuild His house.
Judah's political and religious leaders listened. Under their
leadership, the remnant of exiles who had returned to Israel rebuilt God's
house, which was completed on this day, March 12, 515
BC But it wasn't much to look at.
"Is it not in your sight as nothing?" the Lord asked them. Well, they
should not think that way. God's Spirit was with them. And a day was
coming when the Lord would shake Heaven and earth, the sea and the dry
land. "I will fill this house with splendor," God promised. "The latter
splendor of this house shall be greater than the former," said the Lord.
"From this day on, I will bless you," he promised.
The temple, rebuilt in 515 BC, was rebuilt yet again by Herod the
Great, who restored it in stone and covered it with gold. It was that
temple that Christ visited in his life, bringing it glory. A generation
after Christ's death and resurrection, HerodŐs temple was cast down by the
Romans. A mosque now stands on its platform.
Haggai also prophesied that all the nations would bring their treasures
to the temple. That event has not been fulfilled. It awaits yet another
temple when Christ returns to rule the earth from Zion. |
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Related Video
In
Search of the Holy Temple Why does the world turn its collective eyes
to Jerusalem, the birthplace of three of the world's major religions? What
significance does the temple play in the unfolding history of the Middle
East? Now through the miracle of computer animation you can see the temple
as it was over 2,000 years ago.
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Related Reading
Kregel
Pictorial Guide to the Temple This book follows the history of Jewish
worship from its early days in the Tent of Meeting at Mount Sinai to the
first temple building constructed by Solomon. The enlargement of the
second temple building by Herod and the subsequent history of the temple
mount through the modern era are covered in fascinating detail |
