"When I was doing missionary work with some of our brethren, laboring among the Indians, seeking the Lord for light to decide certain matters pertaining to our work there, and receiving a witness from Him that we were doing things according to His will, I found myself one evening in the dreams of the night, in that sacred building, the Temple. After a season of prayer and rejoicing, I was informed that I should have the privilege of entering into one of those rooms, to meet a glorious Personage, and as I entered the door, I saw, seated on a raised platform, the most glorious Being my eyes have ever beheld, or that I even conceived existed in all the eternal worlds. As I approached to be introduced, He arose and stepped towards me with extended arms, and He smiled as He softly spoke my name. If I shall live to be a million years old, I shall never forget that smile. He took me into His arms and kissed me, pressed me to His bosom, and blessed me, until the marrow of my bones seemed to melt! When He had finished, I fell at His feet, and as I bathed them with my tears and kisses, I saw the prints of the nails in the feet of the Redeemer of the world. The feeling that I had in the presence of Him who hath all things in His hands, to have His love, His affection, and His blessings was such that if I ever can receive that of which I had but a foretaste, I would give all that I am, all that I hope to be, to feel what I then felt!"
- Apostle Melvin J. Ballard (Joseph Heinerman, Temple Manifestations, p. 152)
A careful study of the Old Testament's reign of the kings reveals to us a continual battle between those who sought to worship Jehovah and those who sought to worship false gods which competed for the time, resources and affection of the Israelites. "This ongoing battle produced a cycle of wickedness, decline, repentance, prosperity and then a return to wickedness again" (Taylor D. Halverson, Come to the House of the Lord, Lesson 30, Meridian Magazine, Aug 2006). Because they chose kings to rule over them, the children of Israel were left at the mercy of these kings and their choice of the god they would follow. Some of these kings laboured fervently to rid the land of idol worship of their fathers and return the people to the true god. There is only so much a king can do though, despite the cleansing of the land through tearing down of the altars and groves. With only one temple located in Jerusalem, it had become more convenient to visit the local grove and there engage in lustful fertility worship to ensure your crops would grow, rather than travel for days to Jerusalem and there give your best animals for slaughter. With such corrupted mentality, Israelites lost the understanding of sacrifice and the spirit of temple worship which pointed them towards the Saviour. King Ahaz did the greatest disservice to the Kingdom of Judah, not only because he placed his trust in the gods of Syria to help him (2 Chronicles 28:23) but he 'shut up the doors of the house of the Lord' (2 Chronicles 28:24). These two things, the scriptures record were 'the ruin of him and of all Israel' (2 Chronicles 28:23).
King Ahaz' son, Hezekiah, who reigned in righteousness after him, 'opened the doors of the house of the Lord' (2 Chronicles 29:3), re-instituted animal sacrifice and called the people to repentance. He made Isaiah his private council and trusted in the advice the prophet gave him. With this trust the Lord defeated the Assyrian army that had ravaged the Northern Kingdom of Israel and spared Judah. Hezekiah was blessed with honour and riches for his righteous reign but his pride got the better of him and he showed all the royal treasures and armaments to the son of the king of Babylon which was a great mistake for it initiated a Babylonian lust for Judah's possessions. Isaiah condemned Hezekiah's action and prophesied that all the treasures of the kingdom would be taken and 'carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left' and that Judah's royal family would be forced into exile in Babylon (Isaiah 39:6-8). Thus the Kingdom of Judah would be dispersed by the Babylonians as the Kingdom of Israel was dispersed by the hand of Assyrians. Despite Hezekiah's good works during his reign he showed a lack of closeness and love for the Lord when he contracted a fatal disease and became 'sick unto death' (Isaiah 38:1). The Lord told him through Isaiah to set his house in order and prepare to die but Hezekiah could not reconcile himself to death and wept bitterly and prayed incessantly for the Lord to extend his life. He reasoned he was a good person and therefore didn't deserve to die, that he was in the prime of his life and that he would miss his family. He took to counseling the Lord and became so obsessed with his desire to live that he lost an eternal perspective. He even asked for a sign to believe the Lord was speaking the truth when He promised him an additional 15 years of life (Isaiah 38).
Hezekiah got what he wanted but it did not prove beneficial to others: "During Hezekiah's extra 15 years, his wife bore him a son, Manasseh, the heir to the throne. Manasseh began to reign at age 12 and ruled for 55 horrible years. He had the prophet Isaiah murdered and reversed all of the religious reforms of his father. He erected altars to Baal, installed idols in the temple, and burned his sons to death on these altars. He appealed to wizards for spiritual direction and hid the scriptures. His evil influence was a principal cause of the eventual destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians (2 Kings 24:3-4). We do not know what would have happened to Judah had Hezekiah died as prophesied by Isaiah. But Bishop John H. Vandenberg (1904-92) has said: "There have been some noble men who unwittingly sought to counsel the Lord. One such man was Hezekiah...As one reviews his life, one wonders, would it not have been better for Hezekiah to have submissively accepted the Lord's first decree...'Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die'." (Charles A. Muldowney, "Hezekiah's Tunnel Vision", Ensign, Sept. 2002, p 30)
The worst aspect of Israel's idolatry was not the fact that they put their trust in wrong gods and did not worship the right one but that their idolatry led to neglect of temple worship. As the consistent practice of animal sacrifices ceased so did their understanding of the atonement. Animal sacrifice served the purpose of pointing God's children to the ultimate sacrifice of the Saviour who would with his blood atone for their sins. Had the proper temple worship endured throughout Israel's history, the messianic hope would not have been lost in the political overtones. As they chose to worship other gods, the Lord no longer protected them from the control of foreign nations. By the time the Saviour was born they no longer looked for a Messiah who would atone for their sins but for a Messiah who would rescue them from the Roman rule. In other words, they wanted a Moses to deliver them from yet another Egypt. Instead of a warrior, they got a carpenter who claimed his kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36). Because of their blindness, 'which blindness came by looking beyond the mark' (Jacob 4:14) they missed the Saviour of the world for "the 'mark' beyond which they looked was Christ. When he did not come in the manner they anticipated, they looked beyond Him for another who should come. Thus, 'they still wait for the coming of the Messiah' (2 Nephi 6:13)" (Old Testament Manual, 1 Kings - Malachi, p 67). No doubt the Jewish nation today are expecting a Messiah who will deliver them from the affliction of the Palestinians.
It is in temples and temple worship that we find the Saviour of the world, his purpose and his work and his glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man (Moses 1:39). Will we recognise and know the Saviour when He comes if we do not engage in temple worship and regularly renew our covenants with Him? It is not required of us to travel on foot for days to reach a temple, nor is it required of us to slaughter our best animals or pay for our visit there in any form. We are merely invited to 'come buy milk and honey, without money and without price' (2 Nephi 26:25) for the temple ordinances are the stay of eternal life.
"Without God we are nothing. We have no meaningful, purposeful identity when God does not exist in our lives. Temples are essential, for there we learn more fully of God's true nature, of his plan for our lives and the covenants that He lovingly offers to us that we might bind ourselves to Him in an unbreakable relationship that defies death and time. May we return to the House of the Lord. May we find ourselves there as we find Him" (Taylor D. Halverson, Come to the House of the Lord, Lesson 30, Meridian Magazine, August 2006)
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