Page 110 - Satan in the Sanctuary

112 Satan in the Sanctuary
167 B.C. by sacrificing a sow on the altar. The Maccabees,
freedom fighters of the period, rededicated the Temple,
creating the Feast of Chanukah in the process. This feast
of dedication was faithfully celebrated by Jesus (Jn
10:22) and is still commemorated by today's Jews.
But the next major happening in the history of the
Temple site belongs to Herod the Great, the neurotic
Roman-appointed king of the Jews, in the century pre-
ceding Christ.
Herod's private life was a horror story of paranoid
executions of his own wives and children, and endless
suspicions of just about everybody in Jerusalem. Publicly,
he liked to be celebrated as some kind of wise and just
king of Solomonic bearing.
He certainly fell far short of the illustrious King Solo-
mon but did have traits in common with the great sover-
eign. Herod, too, preferred a beautiful capital and a
luxurious court, and maintained a building program which
virtually broke the national economy. In the manner of
Solomon also, he fell into foreign ways, preferring the
refined culture of the Greek to the earthy and practical
manner of the Jew.
Herod decided that the Hellenic ways offered a better
unity for his kingdom than the troublesome Jewish tradi-
tions. He raised mighty Greek buildings in Jerusalem—
a theatre and an amphitheatre—and decorated God's city
with monuments to Augustus and other pagans. He spon-
sored Greek-style musical contests and sporting events.
He tried to interest the Jews in Roman gladitorial combats.
The chosen people were scandalized by nude statues and
the naked wrestlers in Herod's games. The king was
plainly a vassal of Rome, and his subjects plotted revo-
lution against that power day and night. Jerusalem was