HISTORY OF THE WORLDLY SANCTUARY.
THAT the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout all the kingdom that whoever there were among them of the people of the Lord, they might go up to Jerusalem. Ez. 1-3. The land of Judea had now lain desolate fifty-two years, dating from the death of Gedaliah, which occurred shortly after the entire destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar, and had thereby enjoyed her sabbaths of which it had been deprived during the reign of her wicked kings from the time of Asa. The Sanctuary was in ruins; but the ministrations of that Sanctuary were not yet completed. The first covenant during which it was to continue was not yet ended. The heavenly ministrations to which the earthly pointed, were not yet entered upon. Hence, the land having fulfilled her sabbaths as the Lord declared that it should in case of their transgression, [Lev. xxvi, 34, 35, 43,] he charged Cyrus to "build him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah." Upon this proclamation of king Cyrus, actuated by a desire to rebuild the house of the Lord, there assembled out of the various parts of the kingdom of Babylon, forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty persons, to go up to Jerusalem. These were not only from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, but numbers of them were from the other tribes also, who availed themselves of this decree of Cyrus; for the decree extended "throughout all his kingdom;" and his kingdom extended throughout the world. Fifty-two years after the destruction of the first temple, the foundation of the second was laid by Zerubbabel. The work had not proceeded far however, when it was stopped by an order of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, which had been procured through the misrepresentations of the Samaritans and others. Ez. iv. It was delayed fifteen years. Verse 24. However, in the second year of Darius, it was re-commenced, and on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of Darius it was finished and dedicated, [chap. vi, 15, 16,] twenty-one years after it was begun. B. c. 515. The glory of this temple was not to equal that of the first. The Lord told Haggai, that it was as nothing compared with the former; [Hag. ii, 3;] and the ancient men who had seen the first house, when the foundation of this was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice. Ez. iii, 13. The Sanctuary, indeed, was being restored, but the glory was diminished. The immediate wound which sin had inflicted upon the nation was healed, but it had left behind it a frightful scar. It was not however with respect to the 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 what was the main glory of the first temple, those marks of the divine favor with which it was honored, which the Jews reckon up in five particulars, were wholly wanting in the second. These were, 1. the ark, and the mercy-seat which was upon it. 2. The Shechinah, or divine presence. 3. The Urim and Thummim. 4. The holy fire from the altar. 5. The spirit of prophecy. What really became of the ark on the destruction of the temple has been a matter of much conjecture and dispute. That it 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. Ez. i, 8-11. It is contended by some that it was hid away and preserved by Jeremiah, and is yet to be brought to light. The reason for this view they find in 2 Maccabees ii, which contains the following account of the matter: 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 climed 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 this place, it shall be unknown until the time that God gather his people again together, and receive them unto mercy." 2 Mac. ii, 4-7. But it is not agreed on all hands to how much credit this book is entitled. 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 under ground, which Solomon foreseeing this destruction, had caused of purpose to be built, for the preserving of it." For proof they produce 2 Chron. xxxv, 3. But 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." As these are but little more than conjectures, we must conclude that the ark "was destroyed with the temple, as were the altar of incense, the shew-bread table, and the golden candlestick." The defect of the ark was, however, supplied as to the outward form; for in the second temple there was also an ark made of the same shape and dimensions as the first, and put in the same place; (see Lightfoot on the temple, c. 15, s. 4;) but it contained no tables of the law, there was no appearance of the divine glory over it, and there were no oracles given from it. As it has been said that the Urim and Thummim were wanting in the second temple, it may be proper to inquire what it was, and what was the use of it. On this point we will content ourselves with the result of a short dissertation by Prideaux, in which he concludes that these words meant "only the divine virtue and power given to the breast-plate 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 fullness in the answer, or certainty in the truth of it. And hence it is that the Septuagint, translate Urim and Thummim by the words, deloin 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." Connexion, Vol. i, p. 156. Of the Sanctuary thus constituted very little need be said during the remainder of its history. Owing to the corruption of its ungodly priests, from time to time, God suffered it to be visited with judgments. It was profaned by order of Antiochus Epiphanes, B. c. 167. The sacrifices were discontinued therein and the idol of Jupiter Olympus was set up upon the altar. It continued thus three years, when it was purified by Judas Maccabeus. The temple built by the Jews after their return from captivity, falling much short of Solomon's in magnificence, and, five hundred years being now elapsed since its erection, several decays having happened to it, both from the lapse of time and the violence of enemies, Herod the great conceived the idea of rebuilding it throughout. The old temple was therefore pulled down to its foundations, and the building of the new one commenced B. c. 19. This is the temple of which the Jews spoke to the Saviour at his first passover, saying, Forty and six years was this temple in building. John ii, 20.
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This building was considerable larger than Zerubbabel's, and was at once the admiration and envy of the world. "Its appearance," says Josephus, "had every thing 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." We now pass to the time of our Saviour. That covenant which had its "ordinances of divine service and a worldly Sanctuary," was drawing to a close. The Great Sacrifice to which the offerings of the Sanctuary pointed was soon to be offered. Our Lord was performing his ministry. Often would he have gathered the children of Jerusalem together, enlightened the blindness of their minds, and healed their backslidings, but they could not! A final doom is therefore pronounced upon their beautiful temple. Behold, says Christ, your house is left unto you desolate. Matt. xxiii, 37, 38. And as he departed from the temple he declared that it should be thrown down, so that there should not be left one stone upon another. The services of the worldly Sanctuary were now, in the purposes of Heaven, at an end. There was no longer virtue in its ministrations. And the prediction here uttered, was, in the short space of forty years, fulfilled to the very letter. The Roman soldiers under Titus, in A. D. 70, visited upon Jerusalem the destruction which had been foretold. The temple they burned to the ground and utterly demolished. This took place on the same month and on the same day of the month, on which Solomon's temple was destroyed by the Babylonians 650 years before. The Jews have been scattered throughout the world; a fate which the Lord had often pronounced upon their disobedience. Heathens and strangers have possessed themselves of their beautiful land; and upon the site where once stood the ancient temple, now stands the Mosque of Omar. A few thoughts concerning the Sanctuary of the new covenant we may offer in our next.