When Did God Abandon the Temple?
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In Matthew 23:38, Jesus said regarding the temple, “Your house is left to you desolate.” In Matthew 27:51, the veil of the temple was torn. Did God abandon the temple? If so, when?
The events of Matthew twenty-three occur on Tuesday before Jesus death. The chapter records Jesus’ denunciation of the Pharisees and ends with His pronouncing their “house” desolate in verse 38. Matthew 23:37-39 says: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’” Jesus was referring to the temple because chapter twenty-four begins with Jesus answering the disciples’ questions about the destruction of the temple (Matthew 24:1-2). The word “desolate” means barren, deserted, abandoned, and empty.
Judges 18:31 is the first reference to the tabernacle as the “house of God.” First Chronicles 6:48 calls the same structure “the tabernacle of the house of God.” Second Chronicles 3:3 talks about the foundation that Solomon laid for the “house of God,” and 2 Chronicles 5:14 says, “the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.” God’s presence was in the tabernacle and then later in the temple. That is why it is referred to as the house of God.
Jesus, however, refers to it as “their house,” instead of “God’s house.” Why does He do that? This pronouncement comes after he cleansed the temple of the sellers and money changers. He told them that they had made it a den of robbers (Matthew 21:12-13). Jesus also told many parables in these two days about how the scribes and Pharisees failed in their responsibility to be the Lord’s stewards. They had claimed the temple as their own as Jesus indicates in the parable of the vineyard (Matthew 21:33-41). After telling this parable, Jesus said, “Therefore I say I to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it” (Matthew 21:43). So, as far as Jesus was concerned, God would abandon both the nation and the temple for a people who would do His will instead of their own.
Jesus announced the abandonment of the temple three days before the temple veil was torn in two. Matthew records that this happened after Jesus’ death on the cross. Matthew 27:51 says, “Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” This veil separated the Most Holy Place, the throne of God, from the rest of the temple. By tearing the veil, God removed the physical barrier, which signified several things. First, the way to the Most Holy Place in heaven had been opened by Jesus’ death (Hebrews 10:19-20). Second, God transferred His throne from earth to heaven dissolving His physical kingdom (Israel) and beginning His spiritual kingdom (the church). Third, the physical Most Holy Place was no longer needed on earth, and the temple left empty of His presence.
Today, God’s temple is the Christian. Paul wrote, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). His Most Holy Place is in heaven where Jesus Christ sits on the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 8:1). Jesus abandoned the temple in Matthew 23. God the Father abandoned it when its stewards put His Son to death on the cross.