Here, briefly, are five periods In Jerusalem’s fascinating history.
PERIOD-1: FIRST TEMPLE PERIOD (1000 B.C.-586 B.C.)
First, there is the FIRST TEMPLE PERIOD (1000 B.C.-586 B.C.). Solomon, David’s son, built a beautiful temple In Jerusalem. We can only imagine what it looked like.
Its glory was greater than anything that had ever been built in the ancient world. Arid we read, "And it came about when the priests came from the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord’ (1 Kings 8: 10, 11).
But after Solomon’s death the kingdom was spilt; Samaria became the capitol of the northern tribes. This city succumbed to the Assyrians in 722 B.C.
In 586 B.C. the Babylonians captured Jerusalem, the southern kingdom. After three sieges, Solomon’s beautiful temple was totally destroyed. Many Jews were carried off to Babylon where they lived for seventy years. When the Persians In turn overthrew Babylon, the Jews were allowed to return to their homeland.
PERIOD-2: THE SECOND TEMPLE FROM 538 B.C. TO A.D. 70
The second period is that of THE SECOND TEMPLE FROM 538 B.C. TO A.D. 70. When the Jews returned from Babylon, a small temple was constructed where Solomon’s beautiful edifice once stood. Zechariah the prophet encouraged them by saying, ‘Do not despise the day of small things." Incredibly, this smaller temple served the Jews for nearly five centuries.
In 19 B.C. the Roman ruler, King Herod, proposed the idea of reconstructing a beautiful temple In Jerusalem. He promised the Jews that he would not tear down Zerubbabel’s temple but build a new one over ft. In effect the building of the new one and the tearing down of the smaller one would happen simultaneously. Worship would not be interrupted. He also trained one thousand priests as masons so that no Gentiles would have to work in the sacred areas.
This beautiful structure was not yet finished when Jesus Christ was on earth. ‘After cleansing the temple, the Jews asked that He give them a sign and Jesus answered, ‘Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews therefore said, ‘it took forty years to build this temple and you will raise it up in three days?’ But He was speaking of the temple of His body (John 2:19-21). This temple had been under construction for forty-six years and was not yet completed. Though Herod was long since dead, work on the temple continued.
One day Jesus and the disciples were on the Mount of Olives overlooking the temple area. They noticed ‘that it was adorned with beautiful stones and votive gifts. And then He said, ‘As for these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down’ (Luke 21:5,6). Thus Christ predicted that the second temple would be totally destroyed, and destroyed R was.
In A.D. 70 the Emperor Titus came to put down a revolt in Jerusalem, so he surrounded the city of Jerusalem and captured it. Titus starved the city. And when people would sneak out at night to find food or water, they were crucified until rows and rows of crosses stood around the city. Jerusalem was totally destroyed and the temple taken apart stone by stone. Christ’s prophecy was meticulously fulfilled.
PERIOD-3: GENTILE PERIOD FROM A.D. 70 TO 1948
From EBI-09b – How To Interpret The Bible Correctly – Jerusalem, God, and History (130825PM) – https://youtu.be/ufZlOUpYrKM
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