“There will not be left … one stone upon another.” Jesus, speaking about the temple, Matthew 24:2
It is impossible to overstate the role of the temple in the Jewish mind. The temple was the meeting place between God and man. It represented the atonement, the sacrifice and the priesthood…To say the temple would crash was to say the nation would crash. (Max Lucado, And the Angels Were Silent, p. 117)
You must pay for everything in this world, one way and another. There is nothing free except the grace of God. (Mattie Ross, the 2010 movie, True Grit)
The setting for Matthew’s gospel has been the temple since Jesus entered it in 21:23. Now He has left it. “Elvis has left the building” and Jesus has left the temple (v. 1). But unlike Elvis, Jesus will not return to the temple for an encore. This is reminiscent of when the Spirit of God deserted the previous temple in 586 BC before it was destroyed (Ezekiel 10:18-19; Psalm 79:1). Seventy years later Ezra rebuilt the temple (Ezra 6:1-5) and it was refurbished by Herod in 10 BC.
On the road going away (v.1) from the temple, probably to Bethany where He lodged (Matthew 21:17; 26:6), His disciples came to point out to Him the buildings of the temple (v. 1). One of the disciples said to Him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and wonderful buildings!” (Mark 13:1). Jesus replied to them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” (v.2)
Jesus gives a dramatic prophecy here. The Jewish historian Josephus in his work Wars of the Jews records its fulfillment in AD 70 when the Roman general Titus laid siege to Jerusalem and burned and destroyed the temple.
Many Bible scholars believe that Matthew 24:2 is good evidence for an early date for Matthew’s gospel. Matthew wrote with a pattern of prophecy and fulfillment (1:22-23; 2:4-6; 2:15; 2:17; 3:3; 4:14-16; 12:17-21; 13:14-15; 14:35; 15:7-9; 21:4-5; 21:16; 21:42; 22:43-44). But here He merely gives the prophecy, the destruction of the temple, without its fulfillment. This makes perfect sense if Matthew wrote his gospel prior to AD 70. If the date was later, then why would he not record the fulfillment of such a dramatic prophecy? A pre-70 AD date for Matthew’s gospel, as opposed to a date decade or even centuries later, adds credibility to the eyewitness claims of Matthew and adds validity to its historicity.
There are at least 3 reasons why the Lord destroyed the temple. First, it was judgment on the nation of Israel for its idolatry and hard-heartedness, just as the Lord had done with the previous temple 620 years earlier. Second, the sacrificial system that the temple housed soon will no longer be needed. With the temple sacrifices “there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:3-4. See Hebrews 10:11; 9:6-7). But now “the Lamb of God” has come “who takes away the sins of the world!” (John 1:29).
Another reason that the temple is not needed is that it is no longer the primary place where man communes with the Spirit of God (John 4:21,23). The death of Jesus ushered in the New Covenant (Hebrews 9:15-18). In the New Covenant, unlike before, His Spirit dwells within all believers, a truth prophesied in the Old Testament (Ezekiel 11:12, 18:31, 36:26; Jeremiah 31:33). Our body is now the place where God and man commune (1 Corinthians 6:19). As wonderful as this is, the New Covenant truth of the indwelling of God, is merely a shadow of yet an even greater reality to come!
In the Age to Come, in the New Jerusalem, the temple will not exist there either for “the dwelling place of God is with man” (Revelation 21:3) because “its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb,” (Revelation 21:22). We will no longer see in a mirror dimly but worship and commune with the Lord face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12)! Truly this will be the blessed climax of existence for all who love His appearing (2 Timothy 4:8)! Hallelujah!
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