Characteristics of Those That Pollute the Sanctuary
1 Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city!
2 She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in the Lord; she drew not near to her God.
3 Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow.
4 Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence(H2554) to the law.
have done violence H2554
חָמַס châmaç, khaw-mas’; a primitive root; to be violent; by implication, to maltreat:—make bare, shake off, violate, do violence, take away violently, wrong, imagine wrongfully.
What to look out for is the characteristics of the group of people that are violating the law.
Roaring Lions
1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.
26 Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
27 Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.
28 And her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord hath not spoken.
29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.
30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
31 Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God.
Characteristics of the roaring lions:
- Devour souls
- Profane God’s holy things
- Put no difference between the holy and profane
- Put no difference between the clean and unclean
- Hide their eyes from God’s sabbaths
- Shed blood
- Use oppression
- Exercise robbery
- Vex the poor and needy
- Oppress the stranger
Most of these are either not fulfilling the royal law, doing the feast days profanely, or keeping a polluted sabbath.
Evening Wolves
John 10:12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.
Given the characteristics of roaring lions, evening wolves are not much different. Evening wolves keep an evening to evening sabbath and scatter the sheep.
Light and Treacherous Persons
31 Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues, and say, He saith.
32 Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their LIGHTness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord.
Read the entire chapter of Jeremiah 23. You will see that these are, again, false shepherds that scatter the sheep and don’t fulfill the royal law.
All of these characteristics are seen in Jews especially, as well as the “Torah Movement,” but the focus is on the Jews, as you will see.
30 For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.
31 And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.
32 And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.
The antichrist gains influence over the people that forsook the 10 commandments. Then that people pollute the sanctuary, take away the daily sacrifice, and lastly, place the abomination that makes desolate.
- Polluting the sanctuary is likely through entering the congregation and speaking fables (Lamentations 1:10).
- Taking away the daily sacrifice (Numbers 28:1-4, Hebrews 13:16 — the rebuking of those that fulfill the royal law as well as them dealing the word of God) is likely causing those people to die and/or stop speaking.
- Placing the abomination that makes desolate is likely through a feast/sacrifice (1 Maccabees 1:54).
Further Characteristics
Jude 1:4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Yeshua Messiah.
1 He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord.
2 A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord.
3 An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord for ever:
4 Because they met you not with bread and with water in the way, when ye came forth out of Egypt; and because they hired against thee Balaam the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse thee.
5 Nevertheless the Lord thy God would not hearken unto Balaam; but the Lord thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the Lord thy God loved thee.
6 Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days for ever.
7 Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite; for he is thy brother: thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian; because thou wast a stranger in his land.
8 The children that are begotten of them shall enter into the congregation of the Lord in their third generation.
Who Are These Robbers?
Lamentations 1:10 The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.
The only way they can pollute the sanctuary is if they enter the sanctuary.
20 As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty: but they made the images of their abominations and of their detestable things therein: therefore have I set it far from them.
21 And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall pollute it.
22 My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret place: for the ROBBERS shall enter into it, and defile it.
Matthew 21:13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of THIEVES.
Jeremiah 7:1-11,29-30
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
2 Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.
3 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
4 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these.
5 For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;
6 If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:
7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.
8 Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.
9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;
10 And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?
11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of ROBBERS in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord.
…
29 Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
30 For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the Lord: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.
- Who does it? Judah.
- What are they saying? The (3rd) temple of the Lord.
- What do they do? Pollute his house/sanctuary.
- How do they do it? Set their abominations in his house/sanctuary.
Daniel 11:14 And in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south: also the ROBBERS of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fall.
What vision would they be trying to establish? Ezekiel 43-48.
15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: