Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
In Mark 13:2, Jesus predicts the destruction of the Temple, the jewel of Israel: “Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” Unfortunately, this Temple had never been a “house of prayer” and had become “a den of thieves” (Mark 11:17). The original Temple, built by Solomon, had been the residence of the Shekinah glory of God (Shekinah meaning “the visible divine presence”). However, the prophet Ezekiel recorded that God’s Shekinah glory departed from the Temple when idolatry became rampant (Ezekiel 8:4; 9:3; 10:4, 18-19; 11:22-23 – these verses make for sad reading). This presence will return at the end of time (Ezekiel 43:1-5), but that event has not yet occurred. Thus, Solomon’s Temple shortly before it was destroyed, the rebuilt Temple of Ezra, and Herod’s Temple (the one in Jesus’ day) had not been blessed by this abiding presence of God. When Jesus died on the Cross, the thick curtain of the Holy of Holies in the innermost part of the Temple, “was rent in twain from the top to the bottom” (Matthew 27:51), revealing that the presence of God no longer resided there. This revelation of the absence of God no doubt contributed to the salvation of “a great company of the priests” (Acts 6:7). As long as God resided in His Shekinah glory in the Temple, man could not destroy this building. Without His presence, though, the Temple could be destroyed – and Jesus accurately predicts its destruction, stunning His closest followers. May His prophetic words strengthen our faith in Him.