"The sanctuary was empty and the Holy of Holies untenanted."
- Cornelius Tacitus, Book Five of 'The Histories'
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In 63 BC, General Gnaeus Pompeius(or 'Pompey the Great') laid siege to Jerusalem. As it is with politics and war, the reasons for the siege are long and complicated. According to the historian Cornelius Tacitus(AD 55 - 117), victory in said siege eventually gave General Gnaeus access to the holy of holies in the Jewish temple. It is this access to the temple that Tacitus says gave rise to the "common impression that it contained no representation of the deity--the sanctuary was empty and the Holy of Holies untenanted"(Book Five, Section 9 of 'The Histories').
If you are a practicing Christian or of Jewish decent and know your Old Testament, you probably know that access to the Holy of Holies was reserved only for the high priest on the Day of Atonement--and only after rigorous sacrificial rituals had been performed to preserve the priest's life. The practice of going into the Holy of Holies was considered so dangerous that Jewish tradition tells of the high priest wearing a rope around his waist or foot so that his body could be dragged out if God struck him dead. How would one know the priest had died? The solid gold bells attached to his ceremonial garments would stop ringing(Exodus 28:35).
So this gives rise to a massive question: why didn't General Gnaeus die?
Perhaps the immediate argument will be that the ark of the covenant wasn't present in the Holy of Holies at the time. The ark is pretty notorious for striking people dead when they touch it, after all. But the thing that is supposed to have been so lethal in the holy of holies isn't the ark--it's God's actual presence.
To understand the way the Hebrew people thought about God's presence, think about the sun. The sun itself is not evil. It's actually pretty great: By the sun we receive many necessary things that sustain our existence: light, warmth, vitamin D, gravitational pull, etc. But all of these things are conditional on our orientation to it. If we get too close to the sun, its sheer power will overwhelm and kill us by burning us up. The opposite will happen if we get too far: we will freeze to death.
The holy of holies is said to be where God resided. Before the temple, the Hebrew people lived a nomadic life and their temple was in a special tent called the 'tabernacle'. The Hebrew word for tabernacle is 'Mish-kan' and means "Dwelling Place". It was understood by the Hebrew people that the tabernacle was where God lived. Specifically, God's presence was 'thickest' in the holy of holies.
So General Gnaeus does the equivalent of walking into the center of the sun and doesn't die.
Was Gnaeus superhuman?
Was the temple broken?
Was God...missing?
Understand this: it wasn't just Hebrew folklore and culture that said people would die from being in God's presence. There are multiple accounts in the Old testament of people both dying in God's presence(Leviticus 10) and many more people being terrified of dying when they enter God's presence(Judges 13:22, Exodus 20:19, among others). Lastly, God Himself says no man can see Him and live(Exodus 33:20).
So what happened?
Let's connect this story of General Gnaeus with one you might be more familiar with: the crucifixion.
Jesus is prophesied in the Old testament and claims on many occasions to be God in human flesh. For many complex religious and political reasons the Hebrew leaders of Jesus' day decided to kill him. They managed to convince the local Roman authorities that this needed to happen, and Jesus was crucified: a common Roman execution method.
As Jesus dies, he utters the words, 'it is finished'. At that moment, the book of Matthew states that the curtain separating the holy of holies from the rest of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom(27:51). On its own this is an impressive feat, as the temple curtain was pretty beefy. Never mind the fact that it did this spontaneously.
Because the ark of the covenant had already been M.I.A. for at least a few hundred years there was nothing behind the curtain. Jesus dies, comes back to life three days later, and after a short while for all intents and purposes flies off into space(Acts 1:9).
In evangelical Christianity the tearing of the curtain is understood both symbolically and literally as God's presence being 'unlocked': i.e. there was a time when God's presence was only accessible through detailed ritual and sacrifice. Now, thanks to Jesus dying on the cross and rising again, God's presence is no longer kept from us and we have what is essentially an all access pass.
This is all fine and well. In fact, it would have been revolutionary at the time of the early church.
But what about General Gnaeus? Why did he get a free pass when God's own priests didn't? And where did God go when he left the temple on the day of Jesus' death? And if Jesus is God incarnate, where did He go?
That's the question, isn't it?
Where is God?
Old stories talk about miracles; men and women performing supernatural acts in the name of a God who identifies with the oppressed and abused. But lately it appears that God has been silent. For several thousand years humanity has stumbled its way through war and famine and pain--seemingly unattended. Where is the God who rescued slaves from Egypt? Where is the one who hates all manner of evil and injustice(Proverbs 6:16-19). The world is experiencing a global pandemic. Mental illness is at an all time high. The stability of first world nations is crumbling. Not to mention all the pre-existing horrible realities that humans live in every day such as human trafficking, child armies, food shortages, and much more.
A little later on in Tacitus' account, he writes about events that took place at the same temple Gnaeus waltzed into in Jerusalem over 100 years later(70 years after the events of the crucifixion) during yet another Roman siege of Jerusalem:
"In the sky appeared a vision of armies in conflict, of glittering armor. A sudden lightning flash from the clouds lit up the Temple. The doors of the holy place abruptly opened, a superhuman voice was heard to declare that the gods were leaving it, and in the same instant came the rushing tumult of their departure."- (Book 5, Section 13 'The Histories')
It seems an awful lot like God uses the temple mostly to demonstrate his absence from it...but why?
Here's a theory: A person who believes something brings all manner of meaning into their life will defend that something to their death. Muslims do it. Christians do it. Atheists do it.
You do it.
I do it.
Humans do it.
When we look for God somewhere 'out there' we attach a deep, powerful sense of meaning to things made of bone and blood and dirt and stone.
I have good news for you: God is missing.
He's not in a secret room, waiting for the VIP's to grovel. He's not walking around somewhere giving you a 1 in 8 billion chance to bump into him at the grocery store. He's not chillin' with martians.
In the opening verses of the bible, we are told that God made man and woman in his own image(Genesis 1:27).
God's not at the temple because You are the temple.
You are God in human flesh. So is your annoying neighbor. And your spouse. And your kids. And your parents. And ex-president Donald Trump. And the people who love him. And the people who hate him. And all the people who don't care. And all the people on facebook who won't shut up about whatever. And everybody else.
So what does this mean?
What do we do with this information?
What would a God who is "Compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, overflowing with loyal love and faithfulness"(exodus 34:6) do?
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"Sometimes I would like to ask God why He allows poverty, suffering, and injustice when He could do something about it. But I'm afraid He would ask me the same question."
- Brandon Hatmaker
