Final
Restoration (29 Jan 2023) "The desecration of
the temple"
The desecration of the
temple
Dear Five Doves,
We are in the
end
time, our beloved Lord Jesus will return, I invite you
to reflect on
the word of God, and prepare
ourselves
as the faithful church of Jesus Christ, with the aim of
being saved from
the hour of trial. On this occasion we will talk about the desecration of the temple.
God called his prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel (they were
contemporaries) and they
had the mission of calling
the people of
God to repentance and conversion, these prophets alerted
the people before
the destruction of the first temple (built by King Solomon)
and the destruction
of Jerusalem.
In the word of God we can find various patterns that are repeated,
within these
patterns is the rebellion,
pride and
hardness of the heart of the people of God. God warns
Ezekiel of the
difficult mission that will be to speak to the people:
Ezekiel 2:4 For they are impudent
children and stiffhearted. I do send thee unto them; and
thou shalt say
unto them, Thus saith the Lord God.
5 And they, whether they will
hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a
rebellious house,) yet
shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.
It is important to note that the people of God did not listen to their
prophets, they
did not leave their idols, their sin,
and they did not love God with all their hearts, for
which reason Ezekiel
prophesied to the people of God:
Ezekiel 5:11Wherefore,
as I live, saith the Lord God; Surely, because
thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable
things, and with all
thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee;
neither shall mine
eye spare, neither will I have any pity.
What is desecrate?
To desecrate is to treat without due respect
something that is considered sacred or worthy of being
respected, then the
People of God desecrate the temple when
they despise the holy things of God, such
as his presence and his Spirit, they act with indifference
and hypocrisy
towards their God and Father (Eze 20:39).
In the following vision, God allows Ezekiel to travel spiritually to the
temple in Jerusalem
to observe the desecration
of the temple
by God's people.
Ezekiel 8:1 And it came to pass in the
sixth year, in the sixth month,
in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the
elders of Judah
sat before me, that the
hand of the Lord
God fell there upon me.
3 And he put forth the form of an hand,
and took me by a lock of mine
head; and the spirit
lifted me up
between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the
visions of God to
Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh
toward the north; where
was the seat of the image of jealousy,
which provoketh to jealousy.
4 And, behold, the glory of the
God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I
saw in the plain.
God shows Ezekiel that within the same temple where the glory of God is
found, there was also
idolatry.
Remember that in the new testament Christians are the temple
of God, since
the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in our lives.
Unfortunately, at present, many Christians repeat the same behavior of the
people of God with the
first temple, that is, these believers glorify
God, but at the same time they have idols.
In ancient times, people worshiped idols, which
were images, or statues made of stone, wood, metal, etc.
Currently physical
idols
are no longer needed, in today's world the idol of pride and selfishness are at the center
of people's hearts.
Remember that God demands that his
people give him their hearts, our good God the Father asks us to give him the first place in our lives,
and also, God
declares that he is
jealous of our love:
Exodus 34:14 For thou shalt worship no
other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous
God
You must understand that an idol, in addition to recurring sins (greed,
lies, immorality,
etc.), can be anything
that
competes in your heart with the first place that only God
must have in your
life. God must clearly be your first love.
If you understand the
meaning of an idol, you
will realize that most of
the current believers have many idols, they say they
love God, but they put
in their hearts the idol of
their own life, their own opinion, their will, their
desires, their
professional careers, their dreams, their friends, their
family, their hobbies,
sports, cars, etc.
1 Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin
of witchcraft, and stubbornness
(pride, your own opinion) is as iniquity and
idolatry.
That is why our beloved Jesus said:
Matthew 16:25 For whosoever will save his
life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his
life for my sake
shall find it.
Mark 12:30 And thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy
mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first
commandment.
Only God
should be the first
thing in your life, for this reason Jesus
demands to lose everything for him, all other things are
secondary, and material
things are only an addition
(Mat 6:33).
If we go back to Ezekiel's vision
of the desecration of
the temple, he
says next:
Ezekiel 8:6 He said furthermore unto me,
Son of man, seest thou
what they do? even the great
abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but
turn thee yet
again, and thou shalt see greater.
Remember that to desecrate is
to treat something sacred without due respect, God sees that his people have idols, therefore, the
people of God
despise (profane) his temple, his presence, despise the
Spirit of God.
The worst of all is that this desecration, by the people
of God, is that they
took God away from his temple.
Next we will see worse things in Ezekiel's vision:
Ezekiel 8:7 And he brought me to the door
of the court; and when I
looked, behold a hole in the wall.
8 Then said he unto me, Son of
man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the
wall, behold a door.
9 And he said unto me, Go in, and
behold the wicked abominations that they do here.
10 So I went in and saw; and behold every
form of creeping things, and
abominable beasts, and all
the idols
of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about.
11 And there stood before them seventy men
of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the
midst of them stood
Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his
hand; and a
thick cloud of incense went up.
Ezequiel tells us about painted walls, this tells us about the idols inside the person, idols in his
heart, in his mind.
These idols are not seen at first sight, they
are hidden, you have
to dig into the
heart to see them. Additionally, it indicates that they
are elderly, that
is, people with relevance within the people of God, with
important positions in
our churches. (Idols
affect the whole
church)
Only God
knows the thoughts of his children, only he knows if you
are in any
recurring sin, such as immorality or greed, on the other hand,
our Lord Jesus
said because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaks (Luke 6:45). ,
that is, you will
speak daily about the
things that are priority in your heart, because they are
the things that you
love and make you happy. For example:
1) If your job is the first thing in your life,
this topic will be frequently in your mouth, because you love
your professional
career, because your desire is to progress and ascend
professionally.
2) If you love your car, you will talk
frequently about your car, its accessories, you will recommend
it, you will be
aware of your car and it will make you happy.
The two previous examples are idols that fight your heart, and rob God of
first place in your
life. On the contrary, if God comes
first in your life, your love for Jesus Christ will abound
in your heart,
and your words and
your obedience to
Jesus will show that you are a Christian.
The Bible says that if you judge yourself, you identify your idols,
and you remove them
yourself, you will not be judged by God:
1 Corinthians 11:31 For if we
would judgeourselves,
we should
not be judged.
I encourage you to judge
yourself, you make the decision to cleanse
yourself of your
recurring sins and your idols. The grace of God in Jesus will
help you, only God
must have the first place in your
heart, only Jesus mustbe your first
love. This is why Jesus said:
Luke 14:26If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and
mother, and wife,
and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own
life also, he cannot
be my disciple.
This does not mean that you
should hate your family or your own life, this verse means
that your love and
priority for your God the Father, for Jesus and for the Holy
Spirit must be
much higher than your family, friends, or your own life.
Many believers have little
interest in loving God, obeying Jesus, and seeking his
presence, but at the
same time, many of these samebelievers do have great interest
in buying material
things, and they feel very happy about their prosperity.
The above only
shows the presence of the idol of material things, and the
contempt for things
of the Spirit.
If we go back to Ezekiel's vision
of the desecration of the temple, he says next:
Ezekiel 8:12 Then said he unto me, Son of
man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of
Israel do in the
dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they
say, the Lord seeth us
not; the Lord hath
forsaken the earth.
Many believers sin with bad
thoughts in their mind, thoughts of immorality, pride,
love for things of
this world, etc. These believers do not
fight against these thoughts, they give themselves
liberties to sin, and they
delude themselves into thinking that
God does not see them, or that God is not going to judge
them. I supplicate you to
judge yourself, and make the
determination to walk in the Spirit and overcome sin, just as
we talked about
in a previous letter at the following link:
Ezekiel 8:13
He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see
greater abominations
that they do.
14 Then he
brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which
was toward the
north; and, behold, there
sat women
weeping for Tammuz.
Now we see women who grieve for Tammuz, this
fertility idol represents a
young man killed by a wild boar while he was taking care of
his flocks, but his
wife with her love managed to rescue him from hell.
This story is a mixture of
romanticism with eroticism where the women mourn the
young man, with
emotion and sentimental passion.
Many believers today are slaves
to this idol of emotion, passion, romanticism, and
furthermore, they also
deceive themselves by trusting that with their own strength
they will be able
to rescue people. Do not feed the desires of the flesh:
Galatians
5:16 This I say then, Walk
in the Spirit,
and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Galatians
5:24 And they that are Christ's have
crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Ezekiel's vision says next:
Ezekiel 8:15
Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn
thee yet again,
and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.
16 And he
brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house, and,
behold, at the door of
the temple of the Lord,
between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty
men, with their backs
toward the temple of the Lord,
and their faces toward the east; and they
worshipped the sun toward the east.
Now we see these believers who have idols and
venerate them publicly,
they worshiped the sun, the sun represented
germination, heat, light,
prosperity.
I remind you that God blesses us
and prospers us, but
they are only
additions, you must love God.
Nowadays, many Christians love
money and prosperity, and they give
it first place in their lives, and as a result, they
love their Job, their professional
success, their academic achievements, etc. So, these
Christians can attend
a church but turn their back on
God. This is why Jesus warns:
Luke 12:15
And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware
of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth
not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth
Ezekiel's vision of the desecration of the temple ends by
saying:
Ezekiel 8:17
Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they
commit the
abominations which they commit here? for they have
filled the land with
violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo,
they put the
branch to their nose.
18 Therefore
will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in
mine ears with a loud
voice, yet will I not hear them.
Many believers do not
want to see how serious it is to have idols, even other believers consider
that this vision is exaggerated and that God does not
care that our hearts
are shared with other things, but God
does care, God
does see it and
is The attitude of God's people desecrates the temple and the
presence of God,
and the result is that
the glory of God
leaves the temple.
In the vision Ezekiel says that the
glory of God left the temple, it is shown that the glory
of God is in a
chariot (his throne) and leaves the temple and leaves
Jerusalem, the glory of
God does not leave
voluntarily, but his
children they sadden him, they sadden him because they
despise him and his
presence withdraws.
This is why the following happens:
Ezekiel 10:1
Then I looked, and, behold, in the firmament that was above
the head of the
cherubims there appeared over them as it were a sapphire
stone, as the
appearance of the likeness of a throne.
2 And he
spake unto the man clothed with linen, and said, Go in between
the wheels, even
under the cherub, and
fill thine hand
with coals of fire from between the cherubims, and scatter
them over the city.
And he went in in my sight.
The result is that God judges his
people with love and justice, God abandons Jerusalem and
the temple, and
when the glory of God
leaves the temple,
his protection also leaves, in conclusion, an angel throws coals of purification because
God loves his people
and for this reason God
will allow the
Destroyer (Babylon) to destroy
and his people to be purified.
Then comes the destruction of
Jerusalem and the temple.
2 Kings
25:1And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the
tenth month, in
the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against
Jerusalem, and pitched
against it; and they built forts against it round about.
2 And the
city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.
3 And on the
ninth day of the fourth month the famine
prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people
of the land.
9 And he
burnt the house of the Lord,
and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and
every great man's
house burnt he with fire.
10 And
all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of
the guard, brake
down the walls of Jerusalem round about.
11 Now
the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the
fugitives that fell
away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the
multitude, did Nebuzaradan
the captain of the guard carry
away.
The result of the withdrawal of God's
presence is that his protection disappears, which allows
the Destroyer to
operate with war, pestilence
and economic crisis.
We live in the end times, as
a result of violence,
wickedness and the
desecration of the temple of God, that is, that the
church of Christ
despises its God, the things of its God, its beloved Spirit, then it will happen
again that the
protection and the grace of God will be removed and the
destroyer will operate,
there will be war, disease and a great economic crisis, and
many will be
captives of these plagues, but the love
of God will allow purification of his people.
God loves his people,
God is good and faithful, he knows his faithful sheep, Jesus continues to
care for his church
represented by Philadelphia, we see him in the vision of
Ezekiel before God's
protection was removed, it
happens that God ordered angels that marked their faithful
remnantwith a
sign of protection, this
occurred before the purifying judgment:
Ezekiel 9:4
And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of
the city, through
the midst of Jerusalem,
and set a mark
upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all
the abominations
that be done in the midst thereof
God is good and just,
our Lord Jesus
will keep the
faithful church that cries out to him, humbles himself,
loves him and obeys his
word.
In addition, the mercy of our good God will
purify his people, those believers who humble
themselves and seek
Jesus in the midst of difficulties will be purified.
In a future letter we will study the
desecration of the second temple, and you will realize
that the same
pattern is repeated, and it will be another confirmation of
what we will see in
the next few years in this world.
We are in the end time, order
your life and priorities urgently, judge yourself,
cleanse yourself of all
idols, sin and hypocrisy.
Love God through Jesus
Christ, with all your heart.Give God
the first place in
your life so that you can overcome sin and walk in the Spirit,
and in response
to your faithfulness Jesus
will keep you
from the hour of trial.