Prophetic Prospective Daily Devotional

As we come to II Chronicles 35 we have waded through 27 chapters of II Chronicles since our last devotional in chapter 7. These chapters contain the "Biblical history" of the activities of the leaders of the Jewish people including Hezekiah.

In this history we learn how the Lord takes care of His people protecting them from themselves as well as the Assyrians who when they attacked Judah "the angel of the Lord", a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus, killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers and ran the Assyrian leader, back to his own land. In his homeland, the Assyrian leader, who tried to destroy Judah was killed by his own people, II Kings 19:35-37.

As you have time to read this very interesting "history lesson" you will see that the Lord raises up a great king for Judah, King Josiah. Josiah would bring reform to the religious element of Jewish life, repair the Temple and forewarn the Jews of the captivity that was coming.

With insight into the "times in which they were living" the king made preparations for the Passover and at the same time had the "ark of the covenant" removed from the "Holy of holies" and placed in a secure location, II Chronicles 35:3

I’ll get to that story in a moment, but first please notice that this was the time for the Passover. Josiah would prepare for a very large Passover, which would use 30,000 lambs and 3,000 bulls, verse 7 of our devotional for today.

The text tells us "neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept", verse 18. Remember, the Passover is one of the seven feast days that the Jewish people keep on an annual basis as commanded by the Lord.

Now back to the "ark of the covenant" and the fact that it was removed from the Holy of holies in the Temple. Josiah had the Levities to remove the Ark and to place it in the "house", verse 3. Remember, the "ark of the covenant" had been placed in the Temple, I Kings 8, when Solomon had finished building the Temple.

Josiah was having the Levities, the ones dedicated to moving the ark, to move it from the Holy of holies to the "house". This word for "house" is "bayith" in the Hebrew and it does mean "house".

However, there are additional meanings for this word, like, "secret secluded hiding place".

Josiah had the Levities place the ark underneath the Temple in a place that King Solomon had prepared to protect the "ark". The ark never left the area, going especially to Ethiopia, or any place else.

On one of my DVD’s, "Ready to Rebuild Revisited", I speak with two Jewish Rabbi’s that went to the location of the ark back in 1982, and they told me they know exactly where it is and it can be brought out and placed again in the Temple when the next Jewish temple stands in Jerusalem.

By the way, all preparations have been made to build the next temple with the training of the priest, the implements for the temple made and in storage and of course the ark ready to be put in the Temple. All that is left is to build the Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

There is only one prophecy that must be fulfilled before the process can begin to build the next Temple and that is the Rapture of the Church. Since the building of the Temple is so close, you have to know that the Rapture is very close also. It could even happen today.