Returning to Israel
Background: The temple of
Solomon was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BC, when they sacked the city,
killing or taking captive back to Babylon, the Jews. In 539 BC, Babylon fell to the Medes and
Persians. Soon after, Cyrus the Great of
Persia allowed the Jews to return to Israel.
Another twenty years later, the Jews completed the rebuilding of the
temple in Jerusalem. This “Second
Temple” survived for almost 600 years until it was destroyed by the Romans
several decades after Christ’s life.
Rebuilding the Temple
READ Ezra 1:1-2
Who commanded that the temple be rebuilt in Jerusalem?
Cyrus the Persian King.
After learning that Isaiah had
prophesied about Cyrus by name, 150 years previously (see Isaiah 44:28).
But the fact that a true
prophet prophesized that something would happen in the future DOESN’T mean that
God commanded that it should happen.
What issues might the Jews have had in rebuilding the
Temple?
They were not commanded by God
to do so.
They received no promise that
God would accept the temple as His House with His presence.
They had lost much of their
religion during there time in Babylon; and one could argue that the reason they
were taken conquered and taken captive by the Babylonians in the first place
was that they had broken and changed God’s covenants and forgotten His Ways
long before they were ever forced to leave Jerusalem.
They lacked direct revelation
from God and angels to restore that which they had lost.
READ Haggai 1:3-4, 7-8
Did the Lord want this temple built - why?
Yes.
The Lord will use any tattered
ruin He can, if the people will soften their hearts and listen to Him; the Lord
will take us where we are – His patience is long if our hearts are soft, even
if we lack the faith and knowledge to rend the veil at first and truly commune
with Him.
Haggai and Zechariah were
“minor” prophets – the Lord did inspire and perhaps reveal truth to men like
this, but there is no account of their ever seeing God.
The Word of the Lord
READ Nehemiah 8:1-3, 8-11,
17-18
Who was Ezra?
A scribe and priest, but not a
prophet.
What did Ezra do for the people?
He read the scriptures to them.
He interpreted the scriptures
to them.
Why did the people weep to hear the scriptures?
They had been unavailable to
the vast majority of Jews during the years of exile in Babylon and Persia.
Most of the people had never
read the scriptures – never seen the scriptures.
How was Ezra able to help the people understand the
scriptures?
As a scribe, he would have
used the tools of scholarship.
There is no record of Ezra or
any of the other scribes or priests being prophets and communing directly with
God, enabling them to understand the scriptures because they could inquire of
the Lord and be assured that they would receive an answer that they could trust
as being directly from God.
Having said that, the Lord
would still rather us reading the scriptures than not reading them; if we read
them, there is more likelihood that we will hear Him trying to communicate with
us through the veil, as we are reading and pondering His words.
Note:
it is interesting that the Pharisees and Scribes first came on the scene during
this period of time; the same with the Sadducees, who were the priestly
families of wealth who administered the temple to the people.
The Legacy of Josiah
One might ask why, with the
exception of Malachi 100 years later, that from the time of Daniel to John the
Baptist, there were no actual prophets in Israel?
If an individual or a people
do not abide in God’s presence, it is because one or more conditions are true:
either they are not keeping all of God’s commandments that He has revealed to
them, or they are not yet in possession of the commandments they need to enter
into and remain in His presence.
Far from restoring the true
religion, the Jewish leaders who returned from Babylon to rebuild the temple
were led by the heathen political figures who enabled their return; these false
teachers had not been chosen by God but by men.
Israel had lost the mysteries of godliness, were punished by Babylon and
cursed for generations afterward to struggle under the stumbling block of lost
truth and cunning priestcraft.
The Book of Mormon provides a
stark standard against which to judge the Second Temple religion and its
scriptures. But other hints also
exist. Josiah and the Deuteronomists
knew what they were doing – they hid the mysteries (see Deuteronomy 29:29;
Margaret Barker’s BYU talk “What Did King Josiah Reform” given on May 6, 2006).
From reading the Book of Mormon (which was written by
prophets before the attack by Babylon) and hints from the New Testament, what
truths were hidden/distorted/changed by Josiah and the Deuteronomists?
Entering
into the presence of God (Deuteronomy 4:12 versus Exodus 24:10 and Isaiah 6:1).
Sons
of God or men who ascended to the status of Immanuel or “God with us” – a
calling they didn’t have previously (see D&C 93:12-14); a human who had
entered the holy of holies and had become an “angel” or a transfigured or
perhaps even a translated being; one who could ascend to heaven – born again as
a Son of God, having entered His presence and been sealed up, clothed in light
and anointed.
Forsaking
“Wisdom” or the truth about the Goddess or Queen of Heaven, which Josiah purged
from the temple when he removed the “Tree of Life” or stylized menorah shaped
like an almond tree which symbolized Heavenly Mother, who is Wisdom (see
Deuteronomy 4:6 versus Proverbs 9:1-6).
The
plurality of Gods; as mentioned, Heavenly Mother or the Goddess is nowhere to
be found in the Old Testament except as the idol for heathens; and Jehovah
became “THE” God of the Old Testament with the Father not really appearing on
the religious scene until the New Testament.
Changing
the nature of sacrifice by abolishing a version of child sacrifice where the
victim is killed and brought back to life again as Abraham and Isaac performed
(see Hebrews 9:12; Hugh Nibley “Abraham in Egypt” pp 320-344, 372-375).
Aspects
of the Atonement; including Moses’ attempt to offer himself on Sinai as
atonement for the sins of the golden calf – his intercession on behalf of the
children of Israel.
An
understanding and regard for the hosts or powers of heaven – the angels with a
correct understanding of the true routing system for answering prayers, how
protection for mortals is provided, and the nature of priesthood, which is an
association between mankind and angels or gods through the veil (see
Deuteronomy 4:6 versus Isaiah 6:1-5).
Worshiping
on a high place with an altar of unhewn stones, a sacred tree behind the altar
and a white stone set between them; God comes to his people “through” the
sacred tree – think about the incense in the temple of Solomon which acted as a
“veil” in the shape of a tree, between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies,
which represents the presence of God and angels.
Out of this apostasy,
masquerading as truth, came the “dry ground” or lack of revelation from God
that the people found themselves living in when John the Baptist and Christ
were born – an extremely piously religious people who were devoid of the Spirit
of the Lord and, ironically, ended up killing the One sent from heaven to teach
and save them.
