the reconstruction of Herod's temple in Jerusalem
King Herod’s expansion of the temple in
Jerusalem in the first century AD made his temple complex during his lifetime
the “largest temple complex in the Roman world,” according to David A. DeSilva.
As a result, the city of Jerusalem could accommodate tens of thousands of
worshipers during religious festivals.
The historian Josephus, wrote that from a distance the temple looked like a
“snow-clad mountain.” It was covered by massive plates of gold that radiated a
fiery flash from the sun (War 5.5.6). The services were run by hundreds
of impressive, white-clad priests, almost 2000 priests and Levites, plus
singers and musicians, officers, directors, overseers, and treasurers. Each day
at least 300 priests and 400 Levites and lay representatives were present.
The temple was divided into several courts for men and women, Jews and
Gentiles, and within it a Holy Place and a Holy of Holies, dedicated to God’s
holy presence. The “sanctuary” was the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies,”
while the “temple” included the courts and all the adjoining area. The high
priest could enter the Holy of Holies only one day per year on the Day of
Atonement (Heb 9:7, 25). In other words, the temple with its priests was an
impressive place!
Nevertheless, an incredible change was
occasioned by the triune God. When Jesus died on the cross, Jesus “gave up his
spirit, and, behold, the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to
bottom” (Matt 27:50b-51a). The opened curtain symbolized how Christ’s sacrifice
removed the barrier of purity needed to approach God. The author of Hebrews
explains how Jesus as the perfect high priest
enters the Most Holy Place of God’s presence as a precedence for us who follow
into the sanctuary of the Holy Place. We have “boldness to enter the Holy Place
by the blood of Jesus” (Heb 10:19). Ever since that moment, God’s intent in the
Old Testament became a reality.
In Old Testament times, God intended
the nation of Israel to become a priestly nation, as God explains when
Moses went up to the mountain in Exodus 19:3-6: “tell the
Israelites: ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians
and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now,
therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured
possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you
shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation’” (NRSV).
That intention for a priestly kingdom was
made possible in New Testament times by Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
We see this intention referred to in the book of Revelation.
Revelation has three spiritual songs:
14:3 and 15:3, but the first song is recorded in 5:9-10. This was called a “new
praise song” or a “spiritual song,” or “ode.” Many of the psalms are called
odes. An “ode” is a joyful song in the Bible and a poem, accompanied or unaccompanied
by a musical instrument, about God or God’s representative. Revelation records
this first song (literally):
“Worthy you are to receive the scroll
and to open its seals, since you were slaughtered and you ransomed for God by
your blood from every tribe and tongue and people and nation and you made them
to our God a kingdom and priests and they will reign upon the earth” (Rev
5:9-10, AÃda’s translation).
Who sang this song? The four living
creatures and the twenty-four elders. Here the song is accompanied by 24 lyres.
A lyre is a 3-12 string instrument. Afterwards, we are told, ten thousands times
ten thousands (myriads) of angels and humans joined in as one full harmonizing
voice, antiphonal-in response to the song: “Worthy is the Lamb, the One having
been slaughtered, to receive the power and wealth and wisdom and strength and
honor and glory and praise” (5:8, 11-12).
The apostle Paul also mentions “spiritual
songs” in Ephesians 5:19-21. He writes that one way to be filled by the Holy
Spirit is to speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs
and to sing in our heart to the Lord, and also to thank always for all in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Father-God and to be subject to one
another in the fear of Christ. You can see why odes are spiritual! They help us
be filled by the Holy Spirit!
The Revelation 5 song has two main
parts: to whom is it addressed? The One who is worthy and why is that one
worthy?
It begins “worthy you are”
emphasizing the word “worthy.”
Who is worthy? We are told in vv. 5-6
it is the Lion who has overcome, the One from the tribe of Judah, the root or
descendent of David. Who is that? Revelation 22:16 gives the answer: “It is I,
Jesus…I am the root and the descendant of David.” The tribe of Judah was called
a lion who rules in Jacob’s blessings of his sons in Genesis 49:9-10.
Isaiah also prophesied about Jesus as a
shoot from the stump of Jesse, David’s father, in 11:1-5:
“The Spirit of
the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the
spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of
the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not
judge by what his eyes see or decide by what his ears hear, but
with righteousness he shall judge for the poor and decide with equity for the
oppressed of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and
with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness
shall be the belt around his waist and faithfulness the belt around his loins”
(NRSV).
Jesus as a human becomes a Jew who
descended from the tribe of Judah. He is victorious, but the mystery is that
Jesus as a victorious lion also was a victorious lamb “with seven horns” but “slaughtered”
(Rev 5:6). Seven horns are a symbol for strength and power. The horns of a calf
are like the crowns of a king.
Here is another marvel! The lion
overcomes by becoming a lamb!
Revelation tells us that Jesus is
worthy of doing two key things: to receive the scroll, and to open its seven
seals.
What is the scroll mentioned in Revelation
5:1? This book has all of God’s plans for the future. Revelation 4:1 says: “I
will show you what is necessary to happen after these things.” By Jesus taking
the scroll he becomes responsible to implement it. Many Bible interpreters see
the scroll as a contract or a will not to be made public until the seals were
opened. The seven seals then represent the seven witnesses to the contract.
Why is only Jesus in all creation
worthy to oversee the future? We are told he was slaughtered (Rev 5:9). The
prophet Isaiah wrote about the Messiah:
“he was wounded
for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment
that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have
gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid
on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was
afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the
slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did
not open his mouth. By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could
have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken
for the transgression of my people” (Isa 53:5-8 NRSV).
When the Israelites were trying to
escape their oppressors in Egypt, to escape the final plague, the death of the
firstborn son in each family, they had to kill a lamb without any imperfections
and place some of the blood on their front doorpost. They then ate the lamb for
dinner (Exod 12). The Lord passed over every door that had a touch of
blood on the doorpost (Exod 12:21-24). That’s the Passover! Jesus did
that for us. He died so that we are forgiven our sins.
We are like those Egyptians in that we
act and think in ways displeasing to God, but we do not receive the punishment
we deserve if we turn to Jesus as our Savior and Lord.
We are also like prisoners of war. When
people were conquered in ancient times, they were often turned to slaves. The
majority of captured soldiers were enslaved, serving as laborers in
agriculture, construction, mining, and domestic work. Some, like the Gauls,
Thracians and Samnites were trained as gladiators. High status leaders were
paraded through Rome in triumphal processions and then executed. However,
wealthy or politically important prisoners could be ransomed.
Jesus ransomed us for God. God frees us
from our enemy—Satan—by offering Jesus for us.
Who did God ransom? ---- everyone!
Twelve Jewish tribes, and tribes everywhere; people who speak different
languages; Gentiles; people living together in community: every “people and
nation.”
Is anyone left out? Is anyone not
ransomed? No! Is there an age requirement? No! But we have to respond with
gratitude and invite Jesus to be Lord of our life. Even in our times, prisoners
of war are sometimes taken. My uncle from the Netherlands was a prisoner of war
in Indonesia during World War II. In 1990, nearly 50,000 captives were returned
home from Iraq to Iran. What was their ransom? Iran returned about
50,000 of Iraqis back from Iran to Iraq.
Jesus is also worthy for what he did
for our future. Everyone who has been ransomed, may now as well join a new
country, a country of priests. This point repeats what we learn in Revelation
1:5-6: “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the
ruler of the kings of the earth, who loves us and freed us from our sins by his
blood and made us a kingdom, priests serving his
God and Father.”
For example, I myself have dual
citizenship: the United States and the Dominican Republic. I have a passport
from the US and a cedula (a social security identification) from the Dominican
Republic. If you are born in the Dominican Republic, you always remain a
citizen of that country.
Do
any of our readers have dual citizenship as well?
But I also have membership in a third
country, a greater one than either of these—God’s kingdom. To join it, I
had to repent of my sins and aim to follow God’s laws for God’s kingdom.
How about you? Are you also a citizen
of God’s kingdom?
Are you also not a priest?
What do priests do now since we no
longer have a temple with sacrifices? Peter writes a similar point in his first
letter (2:4-12):
“Come to
[Jesus], a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in
God’s sight, and 5like living stones let yourselves be
built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it
stands in scripture: ‘See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen
and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’…you are a
chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own
people, in order that you may proclaim the excellence of him who
called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you
were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received
mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as
aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that
wage war against the soul. Conduct yourselves
honorably among the gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers,
they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge” (NRSV).
We learn from this passage that New
Testament priests “offer spiritual sacrifices.” Do you pray with others for
their needs? You can become an intermediary between them and God.
Priests would “proclaim the mighty acts
of him who called them out of darkness.” Do you share with others how God has
worked in your life? Jesus Christ is worthy and we should explain to others
why.
Priests tried to be holy by “abstaining
from the desires of the flesh.” Do you try to practice moral habits?
Priests conducted themselves “honorably.”
We too need to behave in exemplary ways so that no one can accuse Christians of
being criminals.
Do only adults do these things? Can’t
children do them as well?
Do we do it only alone? No- we reign with
God (Rev 20:6, 4). And we reign with the rest of the tribes,
language groups, people, and nations.
When we think of the temple in
Jerusalem, we should be impressed, however, in contrast, in heaven we have not
hundreds or thousands praising God but myriads that cannot be counted praising
God. God’s shekinah glory has moved on from the beautiful ancient temple (which
hardly exists now after its destruction) to the believing humans of the first
century (1 Cor 6:19; 2 Cor 6:16) onto the heavenly hosts in heaven. The
stationary temple has become motionary again like the first tabernacle and now it
moves, multicolored, throughout the world. Eventually the temple will be joined
with God in the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:1-3).
But, in the meantime, do we all live
like the New Testament priests as we Christians are supposed to live?
AÃda
