While travelling in Israel a few years back,  we spent a whole week in Jerusalem.  We walked the back streets of one of the most amazing cities in the world, even the steep and slippery slopes of David’s Old City(an area no larger than a few acres).

The Western Wall,  where we prayed many times– this being the last remnant of Herod’s Temple.  Up above was Solomon’s Temple Mount.  Now hardly a trace remains.  It was so thoroughly destroyed by the Babylonians and the Romans that only faint conjecture remains as to its former location.  Can you imagine?  The Temple of the Lord–nothing.

Micah 3:5,12–‘Thus says the Lord…therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded field’.  God’s people told Him to ‘take a hike’.  Leave us alone.  Don’t bother us.

‘Then they will cry to the Lord, but He will not answer them; He will hide His face from them at that time, because they have made their deeds evil'(Micah 3:4).  Warning:  there will come a day when a line has been crossed, where sin has carried our culture and even churches to the very precipice of hell; and they’ll jump in, feet first, smug and self-absorbed. They have decided NOT to follow the Lord.  Period.

There comes a point when the Lord lifts Himself up… and away He goes(Ezekiel 10).  Not His will or desire, but the response to His created beings who have turned their backs on Him one too many times.  His patience has run out.  The Hebrew word for ‘patience’ is literally ‘long of nose’.   Refers to the long journey of human blood from the tip of our toes, all the way to the very end of the nose, symbolizing God’s patience,  lined with arteries and veins of mercy and grace.  However, the blood eventually gets to the tip of the nose.  Time is up.  Opportunities to repent and turn to the Lord have ceased… and the end has come.

Pray for family and friends.  Never stop asking the Lord to bring each one into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.  Pray for our churches that they would stay and stand true to the Lord and His Word in the Bible in spite of much opposition.  Pray for our country and world.   Pray often. Those of us who have found Him,  know that Jesus will see us through anything, no matter what.

The buildings may be gone.  The footprint of the Temple unknown.  But His presence in us is undeniable.  That’s why we’re called the temple of God–‘…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you…'(1 Corinthians 6:19).  The Temple has been found–you and me!

Prayer:  Lord,  we love you and worship you now and forever.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.