The Prophetic Significance of the Messianic Temple to Every Christian

 7/31/2015 JONATHAN FELDSTEIN  charisma news

The Messianic Temple still matters. (Menorah Books)

Sometimes when traveling and speaking in churches throughout the US, I remind my friends and audience that Jesus was an orthodox Jew in Israel in his day as I am an orthodox Jew in Israel today. We share the same holidays, read the same Scripture, and live our lives through the prism of Jewish values, culture and society. Sometimes I'll add, tongue in cheek, that one of the main differences is that he was able to bring offerings to the Temple where he worshiped, and I can only pray to do so. Strangely, as an Israeli Jew, I am prohibited from praying on the Temple Mount where the Temples once stood due to Muslim sensibilities.  

Though nearly 2000 years have passed since Jesus walked, worshiped, and taught in the Temple, and we still wait and pray for it to be rebuilt, the Temple is no less significant in my life today as it was in his then. Indeed, for every year between then and now, tens of millions of Jews have prayed for the restoration of the Temple, literally in our daily liturgy and in many aspects of our culture. For instance, it's common when building a new home to leave a section incomplete, recognizing that our lives are not complete until the Temple is restored. When saying blessings after a meal, the prayer to rebuild Jerusalem is invoked. Even during the happiest of occasions such as weddings, we remind ourselves that our lives are not complete until the Temple is rebuilt.

No season in the Jewish calendar is more resonant of this huge missing piece in our lives than that which we have just observed. For three weeks on the Jewish calendar, beginning on the 17th of the month of Tammuz (when the Romans breached the walls of Jerusalem in the year 70), and culminating with a national day of mourning on the 9th of the month of Av when the Temple was destroyed, we are especially mindful of our actions and the sincerity of our prayers so that we will merit the return of the Temple as the center of our lives physically, not just in our prayers.  

The 9th of Av, Tisha B'Av in Hebrew, is a day of mourning and fasting not just for the destruction of the Second Temple in 70, but on the same day the First Temple was also destroyed, adding to our awareness that there are no coincidences when it comes to God. A number of other calamities befell the Jewish people on Tisha B'Av, making this a day of deep introspection, and praying that we will live to see the Third Temple rebuilt.

I used the opportunity of the Shabbat preceding Tisha B'Av to reread an in depth and thorough book that was given to me as a gift, The Messianic Temple. The book is engaging both because of how detailed it is, and that it adds photos and illustrations to help the reader see what is being discussed.  

The Messianic Temple is based on the prophesy of Ezekiel, and a detailed analysis of the Scripture of Ezekiel 40-48. The original Hebrew text is balanced by an English translation, and followed by a line by line explanation of the text using a variety of sources.  

Preceding the Scripture, the author, Rabbi Chaim Clorfene, provides dozens of pages of background for context and understanding who Ezekiel was, why the Third Temple, the Messianic Temple, is so significant, a timeline offering the Biblical significance, and scores of footnotes and sources. In a less serious book, one could come away with the heading, 'everything you wanted to know about the Third Temple but were afraid to ask.'  It's that detailed and comprehensive.

I was particularly pleased that my son came into the room and asked what I was reading. I shared it with him happily. He responded enthusiastically, grabbing the book from me and studying some of the pages and illustrations. He was really engaged which told me that the subject and presentation really does hit the nail on the head. Having grown up in Israel with Hebrew as his comfort language, he asked me if I could find the book in Hebrew. Not only will I try, it's a meaningful enough investment if only one of my children is brought closer to the understanding of the history, significance, and centrality of the Temple in our lives, albeit that it does not stand today, yet, and our role to be active players in realizing God's promise to rebuild the Temple one final prophetic time.

I wouldn't call The Messianic Temple a page turner. That suggests a level of excitement that one can't wait to get to the next page. In fact, it's the opposite. The detail is so great that one can spend lots of time on each page, wanting to gain insight and understanding from every nuance and thought. For me at least, it was a slow read, enriching and inspiring in every page. Having the presentation of the Scripture as well done as it is, preceded with ample historical references, makes this an outstanding source and resource for anyone who, like me (and Jesus), live our lives on the centrality of the Temple, and for anyone who prays for it to be rebuilt soon.

So may it be His will.

Jonathan Feldstein was born and educated in the U.S. and immigrated to Israel in 2004. He is married and the father of six. Throughout his life and career, he has been blessed by the calling to fellowship with Christian supporters of Israel and shares experiences of living as an Orthodox Jew in Israel. He writes a regular column for charismanews.com's Standing With Israel. You can contact Jonathan at firstpersonisrael@gmail.com.

The Charisma Podcast Network is now live. Featuring a variety of programs including news, leadership, inspiring stories, women's topics, sports, and even more.
Subscribe now for free!

Did you enjoy this blog? Click here to receive it by email.

Beams of the Second Temple?

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta)

---

A Tisha B'Av Special: Are These the Beams of the Temple? Is this the Gift from King Hiram of Sidon to King Solomon? Posted: 16 Jul 2013 03:10 AM PDT Are these carved beams from the Jewish Temple?  (Israel Antiquities Authority) King Solomon requested from King Hiram of Sidon: 'Hew me cedar-trees out of Lebanon for thou knowest that there is not among us any that hath skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians.'  And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying: 'I have heard that which thou hast sent unto me; I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning timber of cypress. My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon...' (I Kings 5) To commemorate Tisha B'Av today, the day Jews around the world mourn the destruction of the two Jewish Temples in Jerusalem, The Times of Israel republished an article Did Ancient Beams Discarded in the Old City Come from the First and Second Temples? by Matti Friedman. Friedman reveals: "Under a tarp in one little-visited corner of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem lies a pile of rotting timber that would hardly catch a visitor’s eye."  He reports that some of the beams date back 2,000 and even 3,000 years.  More beams are in storage in the Jewish community of Ofra and in the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem.  Friedman suggests that they were removed during renovations on the Temple Mount after the 1927 earthquake destroyed parts of the al Aqsa Mosque. We publish here, perhaps for the first time, 85-year-old pictures of the beams recently digitalized and posted online by the Israel Antiquities Authority. Chamber, column and staircase under the al Aqsa mosque. "Ancient entrance to the Temple," according to the Library of Congress caption (1927) At least two photographers gained access to the excavation site -- one from the American Colony Photography and Robert Hamilton from the British Mandate Archeological Authority.  This publication presented their photos inEureka! Pictures Beneath the Temple Mount Now Online earlier this year.  The feature included pictures of mosaics, chambers, and staircases that could date back to the Temple.  Hamilton "photographed, sketched, excavated and analyzed" what he saw, according to  Nadav Shragai, a scholar on Jerusalem sites, writing in  Yisrael HaYom last year.  But Hamilton promised the Islamic Authorities, the Waqf, that he would make "no mention of any findings that the Muslims would have found inconvenient" such as findings from the time of the Jewish Temples. When the British left Palestine in 1948 the British Archeological Authority became the Israel Archeological Authority. The Rockefeller Museum and its archeological treasures came under Israeli control when the IDF reunited Jerusalem. Could these pictures from the Israel Archeological Authority show the beams of the Jewish Temples? "Principal beams" (IAA) "Principal beams" Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on caption to view the original. Carved wood panels Panels and other timbers

A Messianic perspective on Tisha B'Av

Tuesday, July 16, 2013 |  Connie Fieraru  Israel TodayShare on blogger

Share on facebookShare on twitterShare on emailMore Sharing Services

• Enlarge

Related Stories

• First Messianic Jewish synagogue found?
• Jewish anti-missionaries take on Messianic believers
• New Testament sparks controversy among Israeli postmen

Topics:

Messianic Jews

I called on your name, Lord, from the depths of the pit. You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears to my cry for relief.” You came near when I called you. Lamentations 3:56-57

On the 9th of the Hebrew month of Av, 5773 - the most tragic day on the Jewish calendar - thousands of religious Jews approached Jerusalem’s Kotel (Western Wall), the holiest site for Jews and Christians, to commemorate the destruction of the holy temples, Jerusalem and the Jewish commonwealth. This year marks 1943 years since the Second Temple’s destruction in the year 70 CE.

Tisha B’Av is the lowest point of a three week period of mourning. During this time all celebratory occasions are forbidden. It is a time of solemn reflection and mourning for Israel and the many tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people.

Traditions associated with this day include sitting on the floor reciting prayers, walking without leather shoes, refraining from washing and fasting for 25 hours. Many Jews spend the night next to the Kotel, the last remaining remnant of the Second Temple, and pray for its rebuilding and reestablishment. Today the Temple Mount is in Islamic hands, with mosques now occupying the place where once stood the Holy of Holies.

Believers in Yeshua (Jesus) see him as the true Temple of God that dwelt among us. The Tabernacle was a temporary dwelling place, as was the physical Temple, for, as it is written (2 Chronicles 6:18), God could never be contained in a house made of stone, cedar and gold. Furthermore, Yeshua told the Pharisees that he was greater than the Temple in Jerusalem (Matthew 12:6). Yeshua himself is the divine presence of God, which tabernacles among us (Colossians 2:9).

To those, however, who still mourn the destruction of the Temple, Yeshua remains ‘the stone that causes them to stumble.’ They stumble because they do not believe that Yeshua is the sanctuary for His people. While the Temple stood it signified that the way into God’s holy presence had not yet been disclosed (Hebrew 9:8). It presented an obstacle to those who would worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:23) and a barrier to the Gentiles coming to faith in the one true God.

Yeshua himself was not only the Holy of Holies, but also the Lamb of God, the one and only perfect sin offering. When his flesh was destroyed the curtain in the Temple was also destroyed, thus releasing His presence to all who would approach and draw near to Him in faith.

But what of the promises regarding the Temple in Jerusalem?

God’s promises that one day the Temple will be restored and the children of Israel will be re-gathered from the nations are far from null and void. It is evident today that the promise of return is rapidly being fulfilled. And, interestingly, the day of mourning for the Temple is already, even before it has been rebuilt, starting to become a time of renewed hope, faith and restoration.

A new short film by the Temple Institute is just one example of how Tisha B’Av is gradually reframing itself and rising up from the sackcloth and ashes. Titled The Children are Ready II, the video depicts an emotional journey starting in the synagogue where the traditional lamentations are read. But, the focus is not on the adult’s recitation; rather, it is on the children in the next room playing with their building blocks. It is the children whom are awakened to the fact that the time of mourning has ended. The film ends with the children leading the adults out of the door of the synagogue into a bright white light with the words: ‘The children are ready’.

This image of the next generation pioneering change by replacing mourning with building and strengthening the destiny that lies ahead for Israel and her people is insightful; for while it focuses on the promised physical rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, it is also very much representative of the promises spiritual awakening of Israel that will lead them to their Messiah.

Tisha B’Av must become for us a time to rejoice that the Temple’s foretold destruction signifies that the way into God’s presence has been opened through Yeshua, and we must earnestly pray that the people’s hearts continue to be softened so that they see in Him their hope and the embodiment of the Temple they so yearn to see reestablished.