Then Shall the Sanctuary Be Cleansed - Donald K. Short

were children of Abraham; they were fulfilling
their divine appointment. They knew the truth.
They had learned much in captivity. Their
prosperity and survival as a people were
inseparably bound up with the rituals that made
them a nation. Their neglect and folly, even
idolatry had brought them great sorrow. So they
built a wall, a barricade of self-satisfaction that also
would eventually cut them off from God.
In their zeal to protect the building site, their
entire system of salvation became a citadel of
Satan. He became the builder and the people
became his agents, his building crew. The temple
and its rituals became an end in themselves while
the priests and rulers lost contact with God. The
immense perversion of truth was staggering. They
hoarded the living manna and it turned to
corruption. "They robbed God of His glory, and
defrauded the world by a counterfeit of the gospel."
God's ordained means of salvation was hijacked by
Satan. The nation of Israel, in whose very name
there is profound spiritual significance, the people
whom God had called to be the pillar and ground
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