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Solomon began building the first temple in the fourth year of his reign. He completed it seven and a half years later [1 Kings 6:37,38]. Solomon dedicated that temple to God's service and prayer about 982 BC. Almost 500 years later it was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC.
The first exiles to return from Babylonian captivity in 536 BC began the lengthy reconstruction of the temple. It was rebuilt on the same site for the same purposes, but is commonly called the second temple. Herod started a renovation of this temple in 19 BC. His objectives were (1) to gain the favor of the Jewish people and (2) to construct a magnificent complex that would compliment his other outstanding building projects. This construction was in process throughout Jesus' life [see Matthew 24:1,2; John 2:20]. It was completed in 64 AD (long after Jesus died). The completed complex stood for only six years before the Romans destroyed it in 70 AD.
The bond between the Jewish people and the temple was powerful beyond exaggeration. Antiochus IV Epiphanes desecrated the temple by placing an idol (or its altar?) in the second temple in December of 167 BC. This act infuriated the conquered Jewish people. Against incredible odds, they broke Syrian control, recaptured Jerusalem, cleansed the temple in 164 BC, and restored its worship of God.
In Jesus' first century Jewish world, the temple complex was the spiritual heart of Israel. The spiritual significance of the temple to the Jewish people is obvious in two incidents. The first is seen in Jesus' Jewish trial. The Jewish court searched for an offense worthy of the death penalty to serve as a charge against Jesus. During the trial, a false charge centered on the temple. Witnesses declared that Jesus said he would destroy God's temple and rebuild it in three days [Matthew 26:59-61; Mark 14:58; John 2:13-22]. Jesus made that statement, but he was referring to the death of his body and God's resurrection of his body. He was not speaking of the Jewish temple [John 2:18-22]. At the time Jesus made the statement, those who heard it thought he was speaking of the Jewish temple. In Old Testament or New Testament Israel, a threat against the temple was a threat against God!
The second incident occurred during Paul's Christian ministry. Paul deeply offended Jewish Christians in Jerusalem because he evangelized gentile (non-Jewish) people. When Paul reported on his work to the Jerusalem elders, they glorified God. However, they feared the reaction of Jewish Christians in Jerusalem [Acts 20:17-40]. False accusations made against Paul concerned his teachings to JEWS living in countries outside Palestine. He was accused of teaching JEWS to disregard the teachings of Moses (the law), to stop circumcising their children, and to disregard Jewish customs. While Paul taught people who were not Jews that those things were unnecessary for their salvation, Paul did not instruct JEWS to discontinue those things. The false accusations caused Jewish Christians and the Jewish population of Palestine to resent Paul. That resentment was fervent and deep!
In an attempt to demonstrate that he did not oppose Jewish customs for Jewish people, Paul assisted some Jewish Christians as they took their vows at the temple. Some Jews from the area of Asia Minor saw Paul in the temple area and seized him. They shouted a four point accusation against him. (1) He preached against the Jewish people. (2) He preached against the Law. (3) He preached against the temple. (4) In the past, he defiled the temple by bringing an uncircumcised man into an area available only to Jews. All four charges were emotional, serious accusations. Two of those charges specifically involved the temple. The people in the temple area tried to killed Paul. Had he not been rescued and arrested by Roman soldiers, they would have killed him.
The first major crack in the relationship between Jews accepting Jesus as the Christ and Jews rejecting Jesus as the Christ involved the role and the purpose of the Jewish temple. Christianity began with the respect and admiration of the Jewish people [Acts 2:47]. That situation did not last. The Jewish leaders had Jesus killed to end his influence. The fact that people kept Jesus' influence alive in Israel by declaring his resurrection distressed them [see Acts 4:1-22; 5:17-42]. They crucified Jesus to end his influence [see John 11:47-53]. Additionally, the Sadducees rejected the concept of resurrection (they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead). [See Matthew 22:23 and Acts 22:6-8.] As the Jewish leaders aggressively opposed Jewish Christians, the good will of the Jewish people shifted from them.
A significant moment in this shift occurred when the arrested Stephen made his statement to the Jewish court. In his statement, he declared four things about the temple [Acts 7:46-50]. He said (1) David, whom God held in favor, asked for permission to build the temple. (2) Solomon actually constructed the temple. (3) However, God did not reside in any house constructed by human hands. (4) Scripture reveals heaven is the Creator God's throne and the earth is God's footstool [Isaiah 66:1,2].
Stephen's statement infuriated the court, and they promptly executed him. Why were they so angry? (1) His statement about the temple angered them. (2) His statement that they refused to humble themselves before God (they were stiff-necked) angered them. (3) His statement that they had uncircumcised hearts angered them. (4) His statement that their ears always resisted God's Spirit angered them. (5) His statement that they killed the Righteous One just as their ancestors killed the prophets angered them. Any of those charges would produce a powerful, emotional reaction against Stephen. All four totally alienated a prejudiced court.
Please note: their fury started when Stephen stated the temple was not God's dwelling place. Even Solomon declared that was an impossibility! [See 1 Kings 8:27.]
Stephen's statement confronted Israel with this difficult choice: (1) loyalty to old but inaccurate concepts about the significance of the temple or (2) accepting more accurate concepts about the significance of the temple. They chose loyalty to the old over acceptance of the more accurate. Be slow to condemn their choice! Much too often, we make the same decision today.
The Israel of Jesus' day had no awareness that their attitude toward the temple was rooted in two ancient problems. First, from the nation's beginning, Israel had a poor concept of the God of the tent. Second, their basic concepts of God were rooted in their ancestors' idolatrous perspectives. The Palestinian Jews of Jesus' day would in no way sanction the practices of idolatry. However, their core concept of God's presence in Israel was a by product of idolatrous concepts. To them, their God was not the God of the tent. He was the God of the temple.
They never researched the roots of that concept. They accepted without question the concepts of their forefathers. What too quickly became an expression of ancient Israel's faithlessness was the cornerstone of first century Israel's faith. God lived in the temple! The proof that God was in their midst was the temple! A building God never requested (but accepted) became the dividing line between the "faithful" and the "unfaithful." The "faithful" depended on the temple and rejected Jesus as the Christ. The "unfaithful" accepted and depended on Jesus as the Christ.
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