Brad's Brain Drops: The Temple

I am sorry it has been so long since I have posted, we have had all kinds of problems getting the pictures in the blog to up load into the blog and just generally with the blog site. Then we got a call two Sunday nights ago asking for Sharon and me to help with an evangelism conference starting on Mon. and going the whole week. We had to jump through a lot of hoops, but we were able to do it. Unfortunately, we were getting home so late we did not have time to work on the blog. So here it is, almost a month late, but I do feel it is worth it.

I have received some questions about the Temple and I answered them and thought that if one person had asked, perhaps more people would want to know, so here are my answers to their questions.

There are actually three temples that have been built. The first one is Salomon’s Temple, built after David (Salomon’s dad) died in the very late 900 B. C. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, destroyed it around 586 B. C. The building of this temple can be found in 1 Kings 6-7.

The second Temple is often called Zerubbabel’s Temple because he was the head priest who was in charge when the second temple was built. You can see the rebuilding in Ezra. This temple was finished around 516 B. C.

The third temple is known as Herod’s Temple, because King Herod, the one who tried to kill Jesus at his birth, had repaired and updated Zerrubbabel’s Temple. The Jews point this out to Jesus after he cleanses the Temple

John 2:19-21 (King James Version)

¹⁹Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up.
²⁰Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
²¹But he spake of the temple of his body.

The Romans destroyed this Temple in 70 A. D. This is the Temple that was there when Jesus was crucified.

Now, let us talk about the Temple curtain. The curtain was to separate the Temple into two parts. The first part or “The Holy,” would have the golden lamp stand, table of showbread and alter of incense. The priests would work in this part of the Temple every day, tending the lamp stand that was never to go out and the alter of incense. They also replaced the bread daily.