Why Another Temple?

Because He asks for it. But maybe not in quite the way or for quite the reasons we think.

Over and over Yahweh says He gave these statutes "for all generations and forever" (Ex. 12; 27:21; Lev. 23; Num. 15, etc.).

Yahweh Himself gave Moses the pattern for the sanctuary, so we must keep that in mind when we read passages like "I hate, I despise your festivals and offerings." He didn't mean what He had instituted was no longer valid! What was at issue was that they were going through the motions of prescribed ritual, but just to cover all bases; they were worshipping pagan deities also, or were simply not loving their neighbors as themselves while claiming to love YHWH.

Another common misconception is that Yeshua's death on the cross replaced animal sacrifice. Aren't our bodies now the only Temple of Yahweh?

In fact, the historian Josephus records that Yeshua's brother Yaaqov (James), whom Yeshua put in charge of his followers, remained a leader of the Pharisees until his death. (When the high priest had him executed, it infuriated many Pharisees so much that they impeached him!) He taught daily in the Temple, which would be very strange if he did not agree with what was going on there. 

The biggest dispute among Yeshua's earliest followers was over whether non-Jews had to convert to Judaism in order to become followers of the Messiah. (Acts 15) They clearly were not asking Jews to convert to anything else. 


“Sacrifice and Offering”

Many people equate the Torah with its harsher aspects—bring this many animals as a sin offering, etc. But that is not the heart of the Torah. 

Strangely, many of the New Testament writings that are used to denigrate the Temple services actually explain their value! Colossians 2 says to let no one judge us for celebrating holy days (those actually given by Yahweh), because they "are a shadow of things to come”. Some translations interpolate "which were a shadow of things which were to come." But the Greek in which he wrote that letter doesn’t say that! 

The blood of bulls and goats never did take away sin. And the purpose is not to feed a bloodthirsty deity. The stiff penalties only come if we are not paying attention to the fact that what we are doing has the potential to harm our neighbors. 

Sinning has to be more trouble than it is worth. That way one will think twice before repeating the offense, and just knowing the penalty is meant to deter us from being thoughtless the first time. (D’varim/Deut. 17:13) Saying “I’m sorry” and thinking that’s where our responsibility ends just doesn’t make us the kind of people the world will actually learn something from. (Deut. 4:6)

YHWH, the master Psychologist, knows what motivates us, and He knows how to teach us to discipline ourselves. If one lives in a distant part of Israel, this whole process of bringing a sin offering may take a week or two, so he will have plenty of time to think about what he has done. It is sad that some of us might not learn without fear of punishment, but if we will not act out of love in the first place, there must be something else to prod us to do right to one another. 

Bringing an offering is not really about killing animals, but dealing decisively with something in ourselves. It sometimes takes such an extreme act of violence to jar us to the point of being done with selfish tendencies once and for all. That is not religion, but being freed to be fully alive again.

Everything that was brought to the altar—meat, grain, oil, and wine—is something we would find on our own tables. That is an important key. This is about dinner, for eating together is still how agreements are sealed even today. When a man wants to get closer to a woman, he takes her to dinner to find out what she likes. This is about intimacy with YHWH, which is never a sacrifice, but a blessing. 

Even the sadder parts of the Torah are lessons in what to bring to His table and what not to bring to it. He is most commonly thought of as a King or a Father. As individuals, it is easier to relate to one of these, but we must never be satisfied with only those two relationships. These make it easy to remain somewhat distant from Him, rather than coming as close as He wants us to come. With Israel, He more often describes Himself as a Husband. But He offers this relationship only to His people as a whole; no individual comes close enough to pleasing Him the way a bride should.  The word used for the offerings in Hebrew does not have anything to do with "sacrifice"; it is qorban, which means "coming closer"--for that is their purpose.

YHWH says He does not want us to worship Him in the way pagans worshipped their deities. (Deut. 12:3-4)  Yet in many cases the procedures of the offerings in the Torah are not so different from how the pagans did it, and this seems to be all right with YHWH. They were not necessarily trying to bribe their elohim, as it might seem if we are trying to discern what is different about the Torah. If we are obsessed about doing nothing at all the way pagans do things, we may miss some important life lessons. 

They wanted their deities to like them so they would be accepted by them, so they did what they thought pleased them so they might get some pleasure back. This is not bad in itself. Eden means “delight” or “pleasure”, and that is what humans were made for. Eden is our root; things work best when we know who we are. Humans were created for pleasure. The Torah keeps it in balance, for even in Eden Adam and Chawwah had to work and guard the Garden. Just as if your “garden” is your job or your marriage, you get out of it what you put into it. 

There are some differences in how YHWH says He wants to be approached. The altar to which gifts to Him are brought is not to be made from hewn stones. (Ex. 20:25) The reason becomes clearer when we remember that we are meant to be “living stones” built into a “spiritual house” (1 Keyfa/Peter 2:5), and the altar was always the first thing built. It is the doctrines of men that are not to be cut into us. If they have been, the only way to be “rounded back out” so that we can fit together properly is by being put back into the flowing “river”, washed by the “water of the Word” of YHWH. (Ephesians 5:26) Since the New Testament misapplied is often the tool used to shape us into what men want us to be, we have to spend more time in the pure, undefiled Torah so that we can again become a people who are concerned with drawing near in the way YHWH really wants. It is a corrupt religion that demands self-injury and a life of poverty. We just need to be sure we are not seeking pleasure at someone else’s expense. The Torah gives us the shortcut to knowing which kinds of pleasure will be profitable and which kinds will bring only trouble between neighbors. 

The prophets show how those who sacrifice to idols are really making offerings to something nonexistent, so it is pretty foolish, but YHWH does not fault the pagans for it; the prophets were speaking to Israelites who, though they had covenant with YHWH, were going outside the camp to do the same kind of things to some other elohim. This is one reason worship in Israel was centralized—so everyone did not just go off on his own. YHWH established a common table for all of Israel so we would all see one another as family. This way the priests could enforce the unity in who we worshipped, for they could be sure of who Israelites were slaughtering to. Baal might demand pleasure only at his altar and allow his worshippers to do whatever they wanted otherwise, which made pagan ways attractive to Israel at times. YHWH tells us to take home to our own tables what we have at His—i.e., not just love YHWH but love one another as well. 

A qorban must not be looked at as something grotesque or violent. It has bloody elements, and it would be even more difficult to kill an animal that one has spent more time with than one’s own children than it was in later Temple times when the culture was less agricultural and one could simply buy his animals on site to offer. One had not invested his whole life in these animals, so the pictures were somewhat washed out. But it is not even so much about killing off the “animal side of us”; we are meant to identify the living, breathing animal with ourselves, for the blood coursing through their veins also brought oxygen to all parts of their bodies. Some cultures even today drink the blood of animals that are still alive, but YHWH did away with that part altogether so we would not carry the identification too far. But the connection is life. 

Some instructions deal with the specifics of what is to be done with the animals’ blood. But the life of our own flesh is the blood (17:10-13), and therefore the focus is really on bringing our own lives nearer to YHWH. It is not even about even feeding the priesthood, though that was a by-product. We offer what we have invested our whole lives in to bring pleasure to the one we love. It is it is about drawing near to our Husband. These are the instruction about how to be intimate with Him. 

We live in a unique parenthetical time described in Yeshua's parable of the weeds and the wheat (Matt. 13:24-30). A grace period may have been necessary because we were so far from where we could even begin to get back in the right framework. But end it will, and maybe very soon. Yahweh may have a few finishing touches to put on the "times of the Gentiles", but the miracles that have occurred in the restoration of the Homeland and the many former Gentiles returning to the Torah (Zech. 8:23) harbinger the age when the very Jewish Messiah will rule all nations from Jerusalem. Will you feel at home with that? Start now to learn how!

If you travel to Jerusalem you can see implements built to Yahweh's exact specifications that are being prepared for the next Temple. Red heifers are being bred in Israel. The high priest’s garments and breastplate are finished, after great difficulty in identifying exactly what they were. A minimally-sized altar is ready for use.  Children are being raised in a ritually pure environment so there will be someone to purify the high priest with the heifer's ashes when it is old enough to be slain on the Mt. of Olives.

So we only await the right timing. Of course, Israel needs to have the Temple Mount back in order to build the Temple, but the altar has always been used before the sanctuary was completed, as it was in Ezra 3:6, and as Ecclesiastes 1:9 says, "What has been is what will be".

But why is a Temple needed if the Messiah himself will be present? The simplest reason is that all aspects of the Torah have a place in the "time of the restoration of all things".

But that also means that we must trace things all the way back to the beginning. When we do, we find that YHWH never intended the Torah lifestyle to have as much religion as it later did. YHWH gives strong hints throughout the prophets that He had never asked for so many “sacrifices” and offerings. 


“From the beginning it was not so”

Would Yeshua say that about the offerings as he did about divorce, which Moshe allowed "because of the hardness of your hearts"?  (See sidebar as well.)  The concept of bringing offerings to YHWH is seen very early in the Torah, but the first time offerings are required daily is in B’Midbar (Numbers) 28. 

But why? We have to remember that the Torah was not given in a vacuum, as a monolithic body of law at Mt. Sinai. Moshe kept adding to it as we had certain experiences in the wilderness which highlighted the need for more clarity about certain things.

The context here was that Israel had become enamored with the religion of the Moabites, which angered YHWH to the point of destroying many of His people. But notice that He did not tell us to bring Him His “daily bread” until after we started getting interested in other people’s religions. Much like the time Israel demanded a king like the other nations had, not realizing how burdensome that would become, when we showed too much interest in religion, He gave us religion within certain boundaries. Before that, there was very little of a “religious” nature in His instruction. 

In other words, much religion was added to keep us busy so we would stay out of other people’s religions! But a simpler, more basic version of the sanctuary (the Tent of Appointment) was established by Yahweh very early on, because He wanted to dwell in the midst of His people.

The altar that He did prescribe in the Israelite camp, which had almost as many people as the modern state of Israel, measured about 7.5 feet across and 4.5 feet tall. That’s tiny, compared to the one in the second Temple that an 18-wheeler truck could drive up onto and turn around. We were not meant to need so many offerings, because we were expected to not be so careless! 

“Sacrifice” is a misleading way to describe it. The Hebrew terminology has nothing to do with giving something up. Korban actually means “coming closer”. That’s a much healthier focus!

Most of the offerings prescribed for YHWH’s sanctuary are not about sin at all. Many are really a big barbecue—a party to which we invite others to share the joy of our thankfulness to YHWH for what He has done. You even get to partake of your own tithes, as long as the Levite and priest get their cut.

Let’s make sure most of the offerings brought this time around will be of that type!
The Place for Sacrifices 
and Offerings

Bringing slaughtered animals to YHWH’s altar for a variety of reasons is clearly a big part of the Torah. The specific instructions for each take up many chapters.

But we get mixed reports about this type of service from different spokesmen of His. The animal offerings seem to have become too commonplace—an excuse to go on committing minor sins, since, after all, one could just bring his offering and be forgiven. But YHWH did not like this attitude, especially when offerings became the excuse for direct disobedience:

“Does YHWH have [as much] delight in burnt offerings and slaughterings as in obeying the voice of YHWH? Indeed, to obey is better than sacrifice…!” (1 Shmu’el 15:22)  

And the prophets railed almost to the point of sounding like YHWH had never asked for these offerings:
“Bring no more empty tribute-offerings…” (Isaiah 1:13)

Why would He say these things if He had commanded us to bring them?

For one thing, He certainly does not need them for food! “My people…I will not plead with you for your offerings, or [judge you] in regard to having your burnt offerings continually before Me… If I were hungry, I would not tell you, because the world and everythong in it is Mine. Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer thanksgiving to Elohim and pay your vows to the Most High, and call on me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you, and you shall honor me.” (Psalm 50:7-15)

Were they just an accommodation to people’s desire to worship in an obvious way? Animal offerings were present all the way since Qayin and Hevel (Gen. 4:4-5), but they seem to have been rare; in Israel after the Exodus they seem to have been unknown until Yithro’s visit (Ex. 18:12), and even then they were not commanded. It seems the Golden Calf incident was the catalyst for YHWH saying, “If you are so eager for religion, then express it this way and this way alone.” But He certainly did not want there to be as many sin and guilt offerings as were reflected in the size of the altar by Second Temple times, which was big enough to drive a tractor-trailer up and turn it around! The altar He actually commanded for the Tabernacle was much smaller.

The “Gospel of the Ebionites” (followers of Yeshua who retained more Hebraic practices than most, and therefore with whom we have much in common) even has Yeshua saying, “I came to destroy the sacrifices, and if ye cease not from sacrificing, the wrath [of Elohim] will not cease from you.” We know he overturned the tables where merchants were gouging the worshippers with exorbitant prices for the offerings they were unable to bring from home themselves (Mat. 21:13), and he said this was the fulfillment of what Yirmeyahu warned against. (Jer. 7:11) YHWH said His house was to be a place of prayer; was He (through Jeremiah and Yeshua) saying that He never intended any sacrifices there at all?

The Ebionites were total vegetarians, apparently trying to love the ideals of the Kingdom in advance, during a most un-ideal time period. But they saw themselves as already transitioning to the ideals of the Kingdom, and we could learn from them, at the very least. Maybe not as an obsession, for Yeshua did not discourage his disciples from fishing. (Compare also Luke 11:11.) We even see Yeshua himself eating fish on at least one occasion after his resurrection (Luke 24:42), and cooking some for his followers on another. (Yochanan 21:9-13) The Ebionites, however, substitute grapes for fish in their account of the first incident.

The offerings do teach us much about substitutionary offering, which reached its culmination in Yeshua. They help us understand what He accomplished, and there is no way like doing it firsthand that communicates the depth of meaning in a gut-wrenching way that you just can’t get from simply reading about it. We did this once at Passover and I can say the experience was worthwhile if difficult.

But David recognized that this was not really what YHWH was after when he sinned: “You do not desire slaughterings, otherwise I would give [them]; you do not delight in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of Elohim are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart You will not despise.” (Psalm 51:16-17)

For us, at least, who have appropriated the only human blood that was ever pure enough to pay for anyone else’s sin, they seem to no longer be necessary. The book of Hebrews explains this in detail. For this we are most grateful.

Yet Ezekiel seems to prophesy of a temple yet to come where offerings will be brought to YHWH in this manner. (Ez. 43-48) It appears that the Messiah himself will even bring some of these offerings. (45:17, 22; 46:4, 12) It would seem strange in our modern times to go back to such offerings when even in Judaism they have not been utilized for many centuries. Yet there is a contingent of Jews (mainly Levites, really) who are preparing to begin them again and learning how to do them properly.

One perspective that is not so difficult to stomach is that in the Kingdom they may just be big festival barbecues, which is what a large part of them was even in ancient times, for most of the meat was eaten either by the priests or the offerer, or both.

Or is this something that is only for the beginning of the Kingdom, to train the nations in the deeper truths about YHWH as He trained Israel, and then they will be done away with? Because eventually “they will no longer hurt or destroy on all of My holy mountain…” (Isa. 11:9; 65:25) It may take some time until the fullness of the Kingdom arrives, as the earth becomes filled with the knowledge of YHWH (11:9), with these practices being a transitional phase, since even the wild animals will become vegetarian (Isa. 11:6-8); how much more would we expect of humans as conditions get closer to what they were in Eden?

“In that day I will cut a covenant for them with the animals of the field, the birds of the sky, and the things that creep on the ground, and I will shatter the bow, the sword, and the battle from [out of] the Land, and I will allow them to lie down in security.” (Hoshea 2:18)

In the meantime we need to try to get a balanced view of something that seems ambivalent at best. YHWH Himself even hesitated about them even while utilizing this strong method of teaching us about what the fruit Adam and Chawwah ate had really done to us and what it took to undo that. If we need this kind of object lesson again, may we learn quickly so it need not continue!