What was the Old Testament Temple and Why Did it Pass Away?
The Temple was “the house of the Lord” in the Old Testament. But to Christians, the Temple is mysterious, especially since we no longer participate in Temple worship. So what is the Temple? That’s the focus of this month’s Full of Grace Youth Journal.
History of the Temple
The Temple was a long-lasting project. King David drew up the plans and prepared the materials. David’s son, Solomon, built the Temple for the glory of the Lord. The first Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. It was rebuilt after the Babylonian Exile, and the second Temple–much larger than the first–was begun by King Herod in 20 BC. This would have been the Temple of Jesus’ time.
Place of Prayer and Worship
The primary purpose of the Temple was to be a place of prayer and worship for the Chosen People. The holy place in the inner sanctuary was for priests alone, but the outer courts were open to all.
God commanded all His Chosen People to travel to the Temple three times a year for the feasts of unleavened bread, harvest, and ingathering. At these feasts, the Chosen People brought to God the first fruits of their labor. It was a time to offer thanksgiving to the Lord and to remember their place in God’s family. The Holy Family would have participated in the three feasts of the year. In fact, the incident of a young Jesus being lost and found in the Temple occurred during one of these yearly trips.
God’s Design
God revealed the designs of the Temple to King David to reveal a heavenly reality—the worship that can only be fully realized in heaven in the presence of God. In the Mass, this heavenly worship comes to earth, but in Temple worship it was only prefigured.
In Psalm 40, we hear that God does not desire sacrifice or sin offerings, but instead desires someone who has heard His commandments and who has the law written on His heart. This Person is Jesus, Who came to do God’s will. In His perfect offering of Himself, He fulfilled all the sacrifices of the Old Testament. He instituted a new and everlasting sacrifice in the Mass and gave us a new way to worship God–by truly participating in the heavenly liturgy, which the Temple merely foreshadowed. Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, we are all given the gift of having God’s law written on our hearts through the Gospel.
Full of Grace – Youth Journal
Do you know a child who should be receiving the Full of Grace?
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If you know a youth who would benefit from receiving monthly editions of Full of Grace, where they’ll dive into the liturgy and other aspects of their faith, sign them up today! Enroll them in The Youth Guild of Saint José Sánchez del Río at YouthGuild.org.
Full of Grace is a monthly journal for those enrolled in The Youth Guild of Saint José Sánchez del Río. Each journal includes a feature on a young saint or blessed, a daily consecration to Our Lady of Fatima, prayer cards and memory verses, Q&A, and art submitted by members of the guild!
Any youth is welcome to enroll. At their enrollment, youths will receive four special benefits:
- On the Feast Day of Saint José Sánchez del Río, February 10, the Shrine will host a special Mass for the youth guild, at the conclusion of which the celebrant will bless guild members with a first-class relic of Saint José Sánchez del Río.
- The youths enrolled in the Guild are remembered in the Prayers of the Faithful daily during Holy Mass.
- As members are commended to the special intercession of Saint José Sánchez del Río, each guild member receives a medal of the young saint.
- Members receive monthly editions of Full of Grace.
