Luke 21:5-6 "Then, as some spoke of the Temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, "These things which you see - the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down." Here, Yeshua (Jesus in Hebrew) is prophesying the destruction of the Holy Temple.
And only a few years later, the Temple was destroyed. After Yeshua dies and is resurrected from the dead, and ascends into Heaven, the Temple is leveled, and the Jews (including the new believers of Yeshua) are dispersed.
This close proximity of time with the death of Yeshua and the destruction of the Temple has always been curious to me. Why did we lose the (Ben Joseph) Messiah and the Temple? All within 30 years. It is almost too much to bear.
Then I began to have some revelations. Maybe, Yeshua was warning His people. His message was, "Repent for the Kingdom of Elohim (G-d) is at hand." Matthew 4:17. He had come to preach the Kingdom - to establish the Kingdom - but we rejected his Kingdom. Both Jews and Gentiles put him on the stake to be murdered. Were we not ready for the Kingdom to be here on earth?
Yeshua knows this; He came as a Shaliach for Hashem. As Hashem's representative, he is given knowledge about the future, all that will happen to his people. So, he warns them, and ironically, they use His Words to convict Him, Matthew 14:58 "We heard Him say, 'I will destroy this Temple made with hands and within three days I will build another." What Yeshua had really said was in John 2:19: "Yeshua answered and said to them, 'Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up." This verse has a dual meaning. The Temple and His body are both to be destroyed. And both will be resurrected.
He knew the Temple would be destroyed if they did not repent and turn back (teshuvah) to Hashem. I know there is much more to this story, but what if this is a central message? Proof is there. We killed Him. People still rebelled and turned from Hashem. The Temple was destroyed. And for two thousand years, we have neither His presence on earth nor a Temple to house His presence. We lost everything. (And yet, of course, will gain everything because of Hashem's mercy).
In his mercy and grace, Yeshua takes His blood shed on the stake to the Holiest Temple in heaven, to the mighty Altar of Elohim, and offers it. He offers it to atone for our sins, so that through the sealing of the "New Covenant" (Jeremiah 31) with His blood, we can live with him and the Father for eternity.
When will he return? I suppose he has given us the means to understand the conditions for his return:
1. That we will repent
2. That we will believe in Elohim and be obedient to His Torah (His Laws)
3. That we will pray for and anticipate his return, the Messianic Age, and the establishment of the Olam Haba (world to come).
And according to Yeshua, when he returns, it will take him three days to restore the everlasting Temple. The one where he sits on the throne, as King, for eternity. The one where the incredible, awesome presence of the Holy One, Hashem, dwells forever.
Yeshua tried to warn us. He came to teach the Torah correctly, the way of loving and serving HaShem (G-d). Only He knew we would not listen. Remember when he says:
Luke 19:41-44 "Now as he drew near, he saw the city (Jerusalem) and wept over it, saying, 'If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace (shalom)! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another (including the Temple) because you did not know the time of your visitation.'"
Had we truly understood that he really did come to save us, save us from destruction, and that he would leave us if we did not listen. Well, maybe, just maybe, we would not have been so quick to kill him.
He really did come to live among us, to dwell as King and author of life, and to help us return our hearts to Hashem. And yet we killed him. And he apparently has forgiven us for doing so.
Let us pray that he will return and build Hashem's Temple in three days, that He will come quickly to Jerusalem. Where we will live with him and the Father for eternity. This is an earnest and sincere prayer we must pray often.