PRIESTS & LEVITES
We like every week to bring what we call a Prophecy Update. We show how news and trends in the world are corroborating centuries-old prophecies found in the Bible.
Ever since the Romans sacked Jerusalem in the first century the Jews have been without their Temple. According to prophecies in the Book of Daniel and in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, we expect a Temple to be standing during the seven-year Great Tribulation. A Temple must be rebuilt at least before the mid-point of the Great Tribulation because it is in the Holy of Holies of the Jewish Temple that the man we know most commonly as the antichrist will declare himself god and demand his citizens swear allegiance to him.
All news relating to this future rebuilt Temple always fascinates us as students of prophecy.
On October 11th the ArutSheva news agency in Israel posted a story titled, Preparing for Service in the Rebuilt Temple. ((http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/133801))
Excerpts:
Jews in the town of Mitzpe Yericho are taking practical steps to prepare for the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, by preparing descendents of Cohanim (priests) and Levites for service. At the… school, Temple priest hopefuls learn exactly how to conduct the daily Temple service and offer the required sacrifices.
“Today is really a historical event for the Jewish people,” organizer Levi Chazan said as another part of the school was completed.
“It is the beginning of the work for the Third Temple.”
The school will include an exact replica of the Temple. The latest addition to the replica was the area in which priests offered wine and water libations. The water offering was traditionally given on the Sukkot holiday, which was celebrated last week.
Meantime there is tension and trouble on the Temple Mount. One reporter wrote,
Violent protests in the streets of Jerusalem have continued this week amid heightened tensions over the Temple Mount. The fighting began several weeks ago on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Hebrew calendar, when Muslims began throwing stones at a group that was visiting the site. The Muslims accused Israel of allowing Jews into the compound to pray on the Day of Atonement, something that the Israeli police forbid on the grounds that it could cause offense to the Islamic Waqf that administer the site. Israel denied that any religious group was planning to pray on the Mount, and believe that the violence was purposely orchestrated to coincide with the Jewish holy day. Last week Israeli police entered the Temple Mount in order to arrest stone-throwers and to bring an end to the rioting which threatens to destabilize the peace process. Jordan expressed concern over the Israeli intervention on the Mount, claiming it was a flagrant violation of international law, while Syria accused the Jewish state of attempting to destroy the al Aqsa Mosque. ((http://www.prophecynews.co.uk/content/view/1350/1/))
Professor Hillel Weiss of the Organization for Human Rights on the Temple Mount has called for the immediate rebuilding of the Jewish Temple itself.
In a move that may heighten tensions in the capital, the Organization for Human Rights on the Temple Mount… called for Jews to visit the east Jerusalem compound, which houses the al-Aqsa Mosque. During [an] event held in Jerusalem Sunday evening, just hours after Muslims rioted in and around the Temple Mount amid reports that Jewish extremists were planning to visit the site, Professor Hillel Weiss said, “The (third) temple must be built now. The mosques do not have to be destroyed in order for us to do this.” ((ibid.))
Will the Temple be rebuilt? Here is what Micah thought:
But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Micah 4:1-3)
Temple-talk like this, coupled with the preparations to offer sacrifice, tell us we are living in the last days.
Jesus promised us He would return to resurrect and rapture the church. It’s an event that is always imminent. We look at these signs of the times to remind ourselves the Lord is coming at any moment.
Get ready, stay ready, keep looking up.
Ready or not, Jesus is coming!
