AND THE WALLS FELL DOWN

“Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple,
and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple.
And Jesus said to them,‘Do you not see all these things?
Assuredly, I say to you not one stone shall be left here upon another,
that shall not be thrown down.’”
(Matthew 24:1-2)

To be completely honest, I cannot begin to imagine what the temple looked like when Jesus walked the dusty streets of Jerusalem. When He longed to gather its children to His heart, beneath the protective sheltering of His wings, the temple stood as one of the great wonders of the world. It was magnificent, built in obedience to God’s directives, with the hands of man. A place designed stone by stone, curtain by curtain, furnishing by furnishing ... each to reflect a glimpse of His glory to a watching world. And it drew people, Jew and Gentile alike. Courtyards full. Temple treasuries overflowing. Blood pouring in an endless river marking sin’s passage.

But it had lost the truth of its heart....that the temple stood a mere shadow to man of the reality of God’s provision and salvation. And in that lost message, a seed first seen in heaven’s courtroom, nestled in Lucifer’s heart, sprang to life in a courtyard built by man. The scarlet river, a shadow of the atonement to come poured upon the ground, leaving lives unchanged, by the contamination of sin’s touch.

Jesus’ righteous indignation stands a stark reminder of God’s truth. What God meant to point men to Himself had instead become a den of religious thieves and robbers. Man corrupted the message. God became buried by the works of man’s hands. And the stones had to fall.

Salvation never came through the works of man, only through the grace of God. Other stones would mark the picture more clearly. Stones into which a cross was driven. Stones painted red by a scarlet stream flowing from Heaven’s eternal Lamb. Stones, unable to hold the Author of Life, forever rolled away.

Though rejected by man, God laid the Chief Cornerstone of a temple built not by the hands of man, but by His own hands. A temple whose stones would stand eternal.




© DeAnna L. Brooks
7 February 2005