Page 114 - Satan in the Sanctuary

116 Satan in the Sanctuary

He breaks the two shepherd's staves with which He has
kept the surrounding nations from overrunning Israel and
by which He has kept them united. The image is of wolves
and sheep.
The vision illustrates the wrath of God caused by the
Hebrew rejection of their Messiah.
The Jewish nation had a history of turning from God,
and will have it in the future. With the first Temple they
rejected God and His blessings as the years went on, and
they lost their Temple and were deported to Babylon for
seventy years. With the second Temple, as we shall see,
they lost the sanctuary again and were dispersed through-
out the world for nineteen centuries, not to have a Jewish
Israel until A.D. 1948.
With the third Temple—the coming Tribulation Temple
—they will make a covenant in good faith with the Anti-
christ. But he will break the covenant, and desecrate the
Temple. This time will be the last time. Then Armageddon
will fall.
For the benefit of those unfamiliar with, or unrespectful
of prophecy, Jesus, standing directly in the Temple, spelled
out the coming destruction still again. He specified that
the reason was again rejecting of the gifts of God; par-
ticularly rejection of the Messiah:
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets,
and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often
would I have gathered thy children together, even as a
hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would
not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I
say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall
say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple. (Mt
23:37-24:1, italics added)."