Fast to Feast: The Promise of a New Temple
by Michael Sischy & Rob Berman, Jews for Jesus South Africa
Thus says the LORD of hosts: The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah seasons of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace. (Zechariah 8:19)
The Prophet Jeremiah not only warned about the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the First Temple therein but also saw its destruction. This event occurred on the 9th of the fifth month in 586 BC. Amazingly, the Second Temple that stood in the time of Jesus was also destroyed on the 9th of the fifth month in AD 70. This day is known as Tisha B’Av – literally, the ninth of Av (the fifth month) – a day of mourning, lamenting and fasting in memory of the destruction of both Temples. However, God promised to do something new and turn lamenting, mourning and fasting into joy, gladness and feasting. We see this in the Scriptures quoted above and below.
Then the Angel of the LORD answered and said, “O LORD of hosts, how long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which You were angry these seventy years?” And the LORD answered the angel who talked to me, with good and comforting words... Therefore thus says the LORD: “I am returning to Jerusalem with mercy; My house shall be built in it,” says the LORD of hosts, “And a surveyor’s line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.”. (Zechariah 1:12-13, 16)
Today in the old city of Jerusalem, the only remnant of the Second Temple is the Western Wall, or Kotel as it is called in Hebrew. This is a retaining wall that helped bolster the Temple Mount above, which housed the whole Temple precinct. God had repeatedly sent His prophets to warn His people to turn back to Him, but few would listen. The rejection of God and His covenant was followed by His judgement – after His patience had run out. Today in Jerusalem, there is a longing and a desire to rebuild the Temple and reinstate Temple worship, the Levitical priesthood and animal sacrifices as prescribed in the Torah given to Moses. It is thought that Messiah himself will initiate this Temple restoration, and so, connected to the restoration of the Temple is the hope of Messiah’s coming.
Jesus and His disciples were very familiar with the Second Temple and its magnificence. They did, however, often come into conflict with the Temple authorities. On one occasion, Jesus overturned the tables of traders in the Temple court and rebuked them, declaring that the Temple’s true purpose was to be a house of prayer for all nations. Indeed, in the time of Solomon, the Queen of Sheba paid a personal visit to Jerusalem and was likely instrumental in taking the light of God, which she found in this wise king and the Temple, back to her own country in Africa.
Jesus once declared that if the temple were torn down, He would rebuild it in three days. At His trial, this statement was used as evidence against Him. The carpenter from Nazareth, however, had a completely new temple design in mind: a living temple not made of stones hewn by man but, rather, one made of living stones – human beings who had been redeemed by the blood of Messiah. This would be realised with the resurrection of the first Stone, the Cornerstone. Just as He had prophesied, this Stone rose from the dead on the third day. On Shavuot (Pentecost), 50 days later, God sent His Holy Spirit to begin the construction of this living temple – three thousand living stones were added on that day!
God would use the Apostle Paul to add many more stones to this living structure. The Lord sent him from city to city throughout the vast Roman Empire to gather stones for the magnificent new living temple. Not just Jewish stones, but stones from all nations. God’s plan was being realised: the house of prayer for all nations was being built by the Spirit of God Himself. The Prophet Zechariah was shown that Messiah would build the new living temple of the Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The same Spirit commissioned the Apostle Paul to write an encouraging letter to the church at Ephesus. Just like Moses wrote about God’s blueprint for the Tabernacle in which the Spirit of God would dwell among the people of Israel, so also Paul wrote about a blueprint for God’s new temple: Jew and Gentile brought together as One New Man, with Messiah Yeshua as the head. This living temple harks back to God’s original design: a garden inhabited by God and man in unity, love and harmony.
As God brings Jew and Gentile together, the mourning over the loss of the first two Temples in Jerusalem is replaced with the joy of being united to Messiah as One New Man. Each time our partnership in the Gospel is able to add another living stone to God’s living temple – Jew or Gentile – we can all rejoice that it is one stone closer to being completed.