They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.
The verse belongs to the time of the Babylonian captivity, when the places of worship in the land were destroyed and burned, and it gives voice to the sorrow of the captives and their longing for deliverance. The synagogues of God named in it were local houses for religious instruction and worship that belonged to God, yet they were not the one sanctuary. That they were burned with fire shows they were regarded as sacred to divine service.
For that reason the verse warrants the building and dedicating of houses for public worship and religious instruction, while those houses are still to be kept distinct from God's heavenly sanctuary where Jesus ministers as High Priest. It also identifies God's dwelling place built by Israel, first joined to the tabernacle and afterward to the temple on Mount Moriah, as destroyed by fire and burned to the ground. That destruction is the destruction foretold in Daniel and fulfilled in the same event, proving that the earthly typical sanctuary was destroyed ages ago, so that the cleansing foretold in Daniel 8:14 must refer to the heavenly antitypical sanctuary.
The verse belongs to the time of the Babylonian captivity, when the places of worship in the land were destroyed and burned, and it gives voice to the sorrow of the captives and their longing for deliverance. The synagogues of God named in it were local houses for religious instruction and worship that belonged to God, yet they were not the one sanctuary. That they were burned with fire shows they were regarded as sacred to divine service.
For that reason the verse warrants the building and dedicating of houses for public worship and religious instruction, while those houses are still to be kept distinct from God's heavenly sanctuary where Jesus ministers as High Priest. It also identifies God's dwelling place built by Israel, first joined to the tabernacle and afterward to the temple on Mount Moriah, as destroyed by fire and burned to the ground. That destruction is the destruction foretold in Daniel and fulfilled in the same event, proving that the earthly typical sanctuary was destroyed ages ago, so that the cleansing foretold in Daniel 8:14 must refer to the heavenly antitypical sanctuary.