Why did God permit the 2nd Temple in Jerusalem to be destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD? Were the ancient Jews given any signs from God that this would happen? Which Biblical rituals of the highest Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur, could no longer be performed after the Temple’s destruction? And how do all of these questions relate to our Lord and Lamb of God, Jesus Christ? Let’s dig in.
In Leviticus 16, God commanded the high priest of the ancient Hebrews, to perform a series of rituals once per year on Yom Kippur. Among these rituals, the high priest would take two equivalent male goats for a sin offering. He would cast lots upon the two goats – one as a sacrifice for the Lord and the other, the “scapegoat,” would be sent into the wilderness for Aza’zel. In other words, the scapegoat, or impurity, would be sent away from the sacred place.
“Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering which is for the people, and bring its blood within the veil, and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it upon the mercy seat and before the mercy seat; thus he shall make atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the people of Israel, and because of their transgressions, all their sins; and so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which abides with them in the midst of their uncleanness. There shall be no man in the tent of meeting when he enters to make atonement in the holy place until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel. Then he shall go out to the altar which is before the Lord and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar round about. And he shall sprinkle some of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it and hallow it from the uncleanness of the people of Israel.”
“And when he has made an end of atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat; and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins; and he shall put them upon the head of the goat, and send him away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities upon him to a solitary land; and he shall let the goat go in the wilderness.”
The high priest tied a wool thread of scarlet around the scapegoat’s horns and neck and another thread at a door in the Temple. This thread would miraculously turn white if God accepted the sacrifice. Each year, up until 30 AD, the thread turned white (cf., Isaiah 1:18), which symbolically washed the Hebrews’ sins away.
Following Aaron, the ancient Hebrew high priests faithfully performed these rituals each year in the first Temple between 960 and 586 BC, when the first Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians – and in the second Temple from 516 BC to 70 AD, when the second Temple was destroyed by the Romans. When a pagan Roman emperor named Julian the apostate attempted to work with the Jews to rebuild the Temple in 363 AD, God sent fireballs from the earth and the sky, along with a terrifying earthquake, and stopped them. Around 691, Muslims built their Al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock atop the Temple mount and they stand today despite a multitude of earthquakes. See my blog from March 14, 2026 for further sources and details on these: https://christian-apologist.com/2026/03/14/why-the-third-temple-will-never-be-built/.
We have witnessed many wars that have stemmed from beliefs concerning the Al Aqsa mosque since Jews, Muslims, and Christians particularly revere that part of the Holy Land. But what many may not realize is why we have yet to see the Jews rebuild a third Temple. The Jews have not been able to make a sacrifice in Jerusalem at their holy Temple since 70 AD. They have not been able to find relief for their sins from the atoning rituals performed by the high priest. Why? The highest priest and king of kings, Jesus, was the blood sacrifice. He took on the sins of the world in atonement for us, just as the prophets said would happen in Isaiah 52 and 53, Psalm 22, and Zechariah 12.
God began to send signs to the ancient Jews when Jesus began his ministry in 30 AD. Both Josephus and ancient rabbis in the Babylonian Talmud recorded these signs. Consider what the ancient Jews said occurred forty years before the destruction of the Temple (in 70 AD) in the Babylonian Talmud 39b:
“The Sages taught: During the tenure of Shimon HaTzaddik, the lot for God always arose in the High Priest’s right hand; after his death, it occurred only occasionally; but during the forty years prior to the destruction of the Second Temple, the lot for God did not arise in the High Priest’s right hand at all. So too, the strip of crimson wool that was tied to the head of the goat that was sent to Azazel did not turn white, and the westernmost lamp of the candelabrum did not burn continually. And the doors of the Sanctuary opened by themselves as a sign that they would soon be opened by enemies, until Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai scolded them. He said to the Sanctuary: Sanctuary, Sanctuary, why do you frighten yourself with these signs? I know about you that you will ultimately be destroyed, and Zechariah, son of Ido, has already prophesied concerning you: ‘Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars’ (Zechariah 11:1), Lebanon being an appellation for the Temple.”
The ancient Jewish historian Josephus (37 – 100 AD) echoed some of the signs the Jews witnessed during his time in the sixth book of The Jewish Wars.
Thus were the miserable people persuaded by these deceivers, and such as belied God himself. While they did not attend, nor give credit to the signs that were so evident, and did so plainly foretell their future desolation. But like men infatuated, without either eyes to see, or minds to consider, did not regard the denunciations that God made to them. Thus there was a star, resembling a sword, which stood over the city: and a comet, that continued a whole year. Thus also before the Jews rebellion, and before those commotions which preceded the war, when the people were come in great crowds to the feast of unleavened bread, on the eighth day of the month Xanthicus, [Nisan,] and at the ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone round the altar, and the holy house, that it appeared to be bright day time. Which light lasted for half an hour. This light seemed to be a good sign to the unskillful: but was so interpreted by the sacred scribes, as to portend those events that followed immediately upon it. At the same festival also an heifer, as she was led by the High-priest to be sacrificed, brought forth a lamb, in the midst of the temple. Moreover the eastern gate of the inner temple, which was of brass, and vastly heavy, and had been with difficulty shut by twenty men, and rested upon a basis armed with iron, and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor; which was there made of one entire stone: was seen to be opened of its own accord, about the sixth hour of the night. Now those that kept watch in the temple came hereupon running to the captain of the temple, and told him of it: who then came up thither: and, not without great difficulty, was able to shut the gate again. This also appeared to the vulgar to be a very happy prodigy: as if God did thereby open them the gate of happiness. But the men of learning understood it, that the security of their holy house was dissolved of its own accord: and that the gate was opened for the advantage of their enemies. So these publicly declared that this signal foreshadowed the desolation that was coming upon them.
Besides these, a few days after that feast, on the one and twentieth day of the month Artemisius, [Jyar,] a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared: I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable; were it not related by those that saw it; and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals. For, before sun setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities. Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost; as the priests were going by night into the inner [court of the] temple, as their custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said, that in the first place they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise: and after that they heard a sound, as of a multitude, saying, ‘Let us remove hence.’”
Jesus portended the destruction of the Temple in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. The blood sacrifices by the high priest at the Temple were no longer needed, as Jesus fulfilled the atoning blood rituals on the cross. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. By his blood, we have been washed of our sins (Revelation 7:13-14).
“‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord: ‘though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.’” Isaiah 1:18
Reference:
Josephus, The Jewish Wars. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/war-6.html
SJ Thomason is a Christian wife, mother, author, and a university administrator.
Christian Apologist 