The Harlot Motif and Babylon the Great — Part 6
By Mike Coldagelli
A key to understanding the great harlot is the temple. Ezekiel was a priest who was exiled to Babylon in 597 B.C. This was the second of three groups of exiles under Nebuchadnezzar. (These exiles occurred in 605 B.C., 597 B.C. and 586 B.C.) In chapter 8 of Ezekiel, the Spirit transports Ezekiel who is in Babylon back to the temple in Jerusalem (this is prior to the destruction of the temple in 586 B.C.). God shows Ezekiel the idolatry in the temple. The idolatry included “the idol that provokes to jealousy” (verse 3) at “the entrance to the north gate of the inner court.” Ezekiel is also shown 70 elders of Israel (one identified by name as Jaazaniah son of Shaphan, verse 11) offering incense to images on the walls of the court. Women at the north gate (verse 14) were mourning for Tammuz. Finally Ezekiel sees 25 men “between the portico and the altar” bowing down to the sun in the east with their backs to the temple (verse 16). The identification of Tammuz and the worship of the sun suggest Babylonian idolatry.
Judah had descended into Babylonian worship of idols in God’s temple. In chapters 9, 10 and 11 we see the glory of God depart from the temple.
Now the glory of the God of Israel went up from above the cherubim, where it had been, and moved to the threshold of the temple. (Ezekiel 9:3)
Then the glory of the LORD departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim. While I watched, the cherubim spread their wings and rose from the ground, and as they went, the wheels went with them. They stopped at the entrance to the east gate of the LORD’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. (Ezekiel 10:18-19)
Then the cherubim, with the wheels beside them, spread their wings, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. The glory of the LORD went up from within the city and stopped above the mountain east of it. The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the exiles in Babylonia in the vision given by the Spirit of God. (Ezekiel 11:22-24)
The glory of God departs the temple to the east and is last seen over the Mount of Olives. The temple is subsequently destroyed on the 9th of the Hebrew month of Av, 586 B.C.* This departure of God’s glory from the temple (prior to its destruction in 586 B.C.) begins in a sense, the absence of Israel’s husband from the temple (See Isaiah 50:1, 54:1, 54:5-7). As the glory of God is departing, guards from the city are summoned along with a man holding a writing kit. The man with the writing kit is commanded to mark the forehead of those who grieve and lament over the evil done in the city.
Then the LORD called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side and said to him, “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.” (Ezekiel 9:3-4)
Students of Revelation will see a parallel with the seal put on the foreheads of the 144,000 in Revelation 7. The guards are to follow the one with the writing kit and kill indiscriminately anyone without the mark on their forehead. In Ezekiel 9 we see a remnant delivered from God’s wrath in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Babylonians. The marking of the forehead foreshadows the sealing of foreheads of the 144,000 of Revelation prior to the commencement of eschatological wrath in Revelation 8. We know the 144,000 are delivered because they are referred to as “redeemed” in Revelation 14:3.
As I listened, he said to the others, “Follow him through the city and kill, without showing pity or compassion. Slaughter old men, young men and maidens, women and children, but do not touch anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were in front of the temple. (Ezekiel 9:5-6)
God then instructs the guards to defile the temple with the dead.
Then he said to them, “Defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go!” So they went out and began killing throughout the city. (Ezekiel 9:7)
No doubt is left as to whose will is being exerted. The glory of God is leaving the temple and he defiles it at his departure. (This departure from the temple is the beginning of the “abandonment” of Isaiah 54:7.) His righteous anger is evident for all to see in the subsequent complete destruction of the temple and the city.
There is no scriptural evidence for the return of God’s glory to the second temple. According to Randall Price, in his book, The Temple and Bible Prophecy, Jewish sages understood that “the glory of God did not return to the second temple and will not again until the Temple stands again in its full and final splendor.”1
The definition of “desolation” denotes not only destruction, but also emptiness and loneliness. The abominations of Ezekiel 8 lead to the departure of God’s glory from the temple leaving it empty or desolate. Jerusalem is destroyed and its inhabitants taken into exile leaving it empty or desolate. Once the glory of God departs the temple and it is destroyed the Jews are left alone. They had broken the covenant with the God of Israel to such an extent that his glory abandons the temple to its destruction and subsequently the city is also destroyed.
“In Solomon’s Temple the innermost sanctum had housed the Ark of the Covenant with the two Tablets of the Law, but the Ark disappeared with the Babylonian destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C. All that remained in the Holy of Holies in Herod’s Temple was the Even Shetiyah, or Foundation Stone, on which the Ark of the Covenant had rested.”2 The absence of the Ark was a further distinction that would remind the Jews that the second temple was not equal to the first. The Ark is seen again at the time of the seventh trumpet (Revelation 11:19). The seventh trumpet announces that the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of God and of the Lamb. The 70th week is complete and the new covenant is in effect. The bookends of God’s estrangement with Israel are the departure from the temple (loss of the Ark) and the end of the 70th week (the Ark seen again as the testimony of God to the new covenant as it goes into effect).
At Messiah’s first coming God is rejected again. Jerusalem did not know what would bring her peace (Luke 19:42), and so her house is left to her desolate (Matthew 23:38), without the presence of the LORD’s glory. Ezekiel chapter 43 speaks of the future return of God’s glory to the temple from the east.
Then the man brought me to the gate facing east, and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory. (Ezekiel 43:1-2)
The glory of the LORD entered the temple through the gate facing east. Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. While the man was standing beside me, I heard someone speaking to me from inside the temple. He said: “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet. This is where I will live among the Israelites forever. The house of Israel will never again defile my holy name—neither they nor their kings—by their prostitution and the lifeless idols of their kings at their high places.” (Ezekiel 43:4-7)
The glory of the LORD returns when God says he will live among the Israelites forever. Never again will they defile his holy name by their prostitution. Verse 7 depicts the presence of Messiah, Jesus, in the temple after the 70th week of Daniel, when the new eternal covenant is manifested, and when Israel becomes God’s people and He becomes their God. Daniel 9:24 says that after “seventy sevens” the “most holy” (the temple) will be anointed. God will place his throne and the soles of his feet in the temple. He will be present in a new way, in bodily form (the risen Christ) sitting on his throne.
Tell him this is what the LORD Almighty says: “Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the LORD. It is he who will build the temple of the LORD, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two.” (Zechariah 6:12-13)
Zechariah chapter 6 also shows us a throne in the temple and the king (Christ) will be a priest. The king will purify Israel so finally her offerings in the temple will be acceptable to the LORD. The cleansing of the temple will be part of the eternal covenant and will happen when antichrist and all the wicked of Israel are destroyed.
“See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years. (Malachi 3:1-4)
Previously we saw antichrist setting himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. (2 Thessalonians 2:4) This is the end result of Israel wanting to be like the gentile nations and her prostitution with them. Israel’s fulfillment in God’s plan was to be God’s treasured possession and a kingdom of priests to the gentile nations which is ultimately accomplished by Messiah, Jesus.
“‘Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” (Exodus 19:5-6)
But Israel could not keep God’s covenant, she wanted to be like the nations.
So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.” (1 Samuel 8:4-7)
Israel rejected God as their king wanting to be like the nations (as we have seen above God returns as king in Christ Jesus). This desire to be like the nations (adulterous desire) comes up again in Ezekiel chapter 20.
You say, “We want to be like the nations, like the peoples of the world, who serve wood and stone.” But what you have in mind will never happen. (Ezekiel 20:32)
Israel and by extension Jerusalem has not been God’s faithful possession.
Judah has broken faith. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the LORD loves, by marrying the daughter of a foreign god. (Malachi 2:11)
The nation of Israel keeps wandering away trying to become one of the nations and in doing so desecrates the sanctuary, until God by his own great power makes her a faithful bride. Notice what God does for her in the Ezekiel chapter 36.
For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God. (Ezekiel 36:24-28)
The temple is an essential element of the adultery of Babylon the Great. And the temple is associated from the time of its building by Solomon until Daniel’s 70th week with only one city, Jerusalem. Israel’s desire to be one of “the nations” will be taken to it’s height as she enters into covenant with antichrist. God will intervene with cleansing, providing a new heart and a new spirit. The covenant with antichrist is destroyed and the eternal covenant established.
Part 7 will be a look at Isaiah 62 and its “before and after” depiction of Jerusalem.
*Jewish tradition commemorates this destruction on the 9th day of the 5th month. See also 2Kings 25:8-9, and Jeremiah 52:12-13.
1 Price, Randall. The Temple and Bible Prophecy. Eugene, Oregon 97042, Harvest House Publishers, 1999/2005, 213.
2 Shanks, Hershel. Jerusalem’s Temple Mount: From Solomon to the Golden Dome. New York, NY, The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc., 2007, 96.