Ruined Temples

Ezekiel says that Yahweh deals with Judah so that Judah will know that He is Lord. When there are bodies scattered on the high places, then Israel will know that Yahweh is Lord (Ezekiel 6:13-14). When Judah is devastated and the Lord shows no pity, then Judah will know that Yahweh is Lord (Ezekiel 7). When the temple is in ruins, then Judah will know that Yahweh is Lord.

How can this be? Yahweh told Solomon to build the temple. It’s His house. It would seem that the temple’s preservation would be a clearer demonstration of Yahweh’s lordship. 

But Yahweh wants to reveal His faithfulness and justice to Judah. As soon as the temple was built and dedicated, He warned Solomon that He would turn the house into a heap of ruins if Israel abandoned Him, broke His commandments, and served other gods (1 Kings 9). Israel and Judah did just that, but the temple stood. 

Century after century it stood, and the people of Judah began to draw false inferences. We worship on high places and Yahweh does nothing; He must be OK with high places. We set up a Baal in Yahweh’s house, and there the temple stands; He must be an easy-going, tolerant God, a good fella. That old “My Name is Jealous” stuff is myth. Turns out, Yahweh is cool.

But Yahweh is Jealous: so, unless He tears down the temple as He threatened, Judah will not know Him. They won’t know what kind of God they’re dealing with. So He shows them.

The ruined temple reveals that God means what He says, that He remembers His threats, that He is the Judge of all the earth whose name is Jealous.

And from that we can allegorize, for Jesus is the living temple, devastated on the cross so that we can know that the God of Israel is Lord.