8-9 A Rebuilt Temple in the Last Days?
It is not impossible, although humanly unlikely, that there will be a literal temple rebuilt by the Jews before the Arab downtreading begins. This might be possible if there is to be a brief period of Israel's power and victory over the Arabs before this commences; the existence of a literal temple in the last days would suit a number of latter-day prophecies.
The temple of God being representative of His true people (1 Cor. 3:16; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:21), it is possible that Sennacherib's blinding desire to possess and destroy the temple speaks of the acute desire of the latter-day Assyrian to destroy the righteous remnant which he knows are in Jerusalem. The final fury of the Arab beast against this group, from which they are delivered, has already been shown to be based on Sennacherib's final fury against Hezekiah, who epitomized the faithful remnant (Rev. 12:12,17 cp. 2 Kings 19:27,28).
The 42 months of the Arab beast's prolonged persecution of Israel is also aimed specifically at God's " tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven" (Rev. 13:5,6), i.e. the temple (1 Kings 8:30 cp. 2 Sam. 15:25; Heb. 7:26; 2 Chron. 30:27; Ps. 20:2; 11:4). The figurative 'temple' is therefore the faithful of the last days. The Arab beast specifically persecutes " the remnant" (Rev. 12:17), i.e. the truly righteous within 'Judah'. The manic desire of the latter-day Assyrian to destroy them can only be due to his awareness of their existence. This may be due to their public refusal to become Moslems, or because of the open preaching forth of the word by themselves and/or the Elijah ministry. The fact that Babylon/Assyria refused to " lay these things to thy heart" (Is. 47:7), implies that they were preached to them. Nebuchadnezzar's personal knowledge of Jeremiah (Jer. 39:11) may point forward to future contact between the 'king of Babylon' and the latter-day prophets.
