year 40 B.C. saw the Roman Senate nominating the Edomite or Idumean, Herod the Great, to be the king of Judea. It was first in 37 B.C. that he stormed and took possession of Jerusalem and became king de facto. It is from this year that Herod’s kingship should be dated and counted. It is then found to overlap the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem about October 1, in 2 B.C. This wicked King Herod was the one that tried to murder the babe Jesus to prevent his growing up and becoming king.—Matt. 2:1-19.

47. To please the Jews, what did King Herod proceed to do, but how was all this brought to nothing in fulfillment of Jesus’ words?

⁴⁷ Herod, who came to be called Great, reigned for thirty-seven years. Toward the middle of his reign he laid plans to rebuild the temple that had stood from the time of Governor Zerubbabel. To please the Jews he wanted to rebuild it on a much grander scale. In 17 B.C. he got the building work started, and the work continued without interrupting the regular temple service. In a year and a half the temple sanctuary or náos was finished. It took eight years to finish the temple courts and the covered walks round about. The complete reconstruction of the temple took much longer. In fact, this was not realized by Herod the Great. At the Passover feast of 30 (A.D.) the Jews told Jesus that the temple work had been going on forty-six years; and so could he raise it up in three days of time? (John 2:13-22) Actually the temple was not completed in its reconstruction till A.D. 64. This was just six years before the Roman army under General Titus destroyed both temple and city, in fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy spoken in the spring of 33 (A.D.). (Matt. 24:1, 2) Those who had worshiped there were scattered to the ends of the earth.

48. What has made out of order the rebuilding of that earthly sanctuary, and with what promised government is this associated?

⁴⁸ The earthly sanctuary of Jehovah has never been rebuilt. This has been in full harmony with his will. The day for such a lifeless material sanctuary has long passed. Jehovah has turned his attention to a far more important sanctuary, a living sanctuary, and to it he has transferred his name and his holy spirit. When completed in the near future, it will stand to his everlasting universal glory. Through this unusual sanctuary he will pour out his blessings upon people out of all families and nations of mankind who do his will on earth. As the sanctuary on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem was associated with his kingdom over the nation of Israel, so his everlasting spiritual sanctuary is inseparably linked with his promised government, the kingdom of the heavens. It is built by One Greater than King Solomon and Governor Zerubbabel, not to mention King Herod.

CHAPTER 4

FOREGLEAMS OF GOD’S KINGDOM

1. Why did Jehovah God hold court in the sanctuary of Eden, and whose bruising in the head did he decree?

UNTIL sin made its outbreak, Jehovah God was the accepted Ruler over man in the sanctuary of Eden. When man broke the law of his rightful Ruler and man thus chose to have a new ruler and lawgiver, Jehovah God held court. He pronounced sentence upon man’s newly chosen ruler, Satan the Devil, who had now become a rival god symbolized by the serpent of deception. Judge Jehovah said: “I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.” (Gen. 3:15) Many men have been bitten in the heel by a literal serpent, and many men have crushed the head of a serpent under the heel; but the brood of serpents has continued on down to this day. This has been no fulfillment of the divine judgment in Eden, for in his judgment God had really decreed that the “original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan,” should be bruised in the head.—Rev. 12:9.

2. What questions did God’s prophetic judgment there raise?

² The deadly wound was to be inflicted upon the Serpent by the promised “seed” or offspring of God’s woman, that is to say, his holy universal organization. It is as a wife to him and is able to provide children for his service. His prophetic judgment in Eden at once raised the question, not merely, Who will the Seed of God’s woman be? but, further, When will this Seed bruise the hated Serpent in the head and destroy him and his brood? When will this great act of deliverance come for mankind, the victims of the Serpent’s lie? Even the angels of heaven who make up the wifely organization which is God’s woman were interested to know.—1 Pet. 1:12.

3. What did that bruising call for, and why was this not accomplished at the Flood?

³ The bruising of the old Serpent in the head meant a battle of rulers. Satan the Devil had established himself as ruler over man by maneuvering man into obeying him rather than Jehovah God. It would require another mighty ruler to defeat and destroy Satan as a ruler. The flood of Noah’s day did not put Satan out of his rulership. It did wipe out the “ancient world,” the “world of ungodly people,” but it left Satan still in control over his demonic seed, the invisible spirits or fallen angels.—2 Pet. 2:5.

4, 5. (a) Where did rebellion begin after the Flood? (b) What had Noah not made himself toward his descendants, but how did Nimrod not follow his example?

⁴ In the postflood world Satan the Devil soon lured the greater number of Noah’s descendants into outright rebellion against Jehovah God, who had saved their ancestors, Noah’s family, through that world-destroying flood. This first flare-up of rebellion took place notably at the ancient city of Babylon on the banks of the Euphrates River, in the Mesopotamian land now known as Iraq. “Noah continued to live three hundred and fifty years after the deluge.” (Gen. 9:28) Yet in all that time he did not claim to be the promised Seed of God’s woman just because he had built the ark of salvation; neither did he set himself up as a king over his descendants, all mankind. Had he done so, he would have set up a world government, with himself as ruler of all humankind. But Noah’s great-grandson Nimrod did not follow his godly forefather’s example. Nimrod parted company with Noah. Though Noah still lived, Nimrod broke the rainbow covenant made by God with Noah to safeguard the sanctity of animal blood. Nimrod became a sports and military hunter and set himself up as king in opposition to Jehovah. We read:

⁵ “This is the history of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. And the sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim and Put and Canaan. And Cush became father to Nimrod. He made the start in becoming a mighty one in the earth. He displayed himself a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah. That is why there is a saying, ‘Just like Nimrod a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah.’ And the beginning of his kingdom came to be Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land he went forth into Assyria and set himself to building Nineveh and Rehoboth-Ir and Calah and Resen between Nineveh and Calah.”—Gen. 10:1, 6, 8-12.

(To be continued)

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