The renewed and dedicated Israel stands waiting for God. The new design for the temple is revolutionary in the relations between church and state. The temple is now to be an independent building standing entirely in its own grounds, not a royal sanctuary as it was in the time of Solomon, but an edifice of spiritual independence. The consecration of the priesthood is to be taken as symbolizing and expressing the consecration of the entire community to the will to repudiate the sin of the past, to the will to bear the shame of the past, and to the will to lift up the present to God in utter consecration. With this new life the sacrificial system is revised to emphasize reckoning with God in repentance and atonement and to emphasize a religion of conscience in which God is moral authority and judge. Israel seems to be having an identity crisis. After the exile, Israel understands that the Lord is not merely a national ally, nor is Israel the favorite. Rather the relationship is an ethical one.
The renewed and dedicated Israel stands waiting for God. The new design for the temple is revolutionary in the relations between church and state. The temple is now to be an independent building standing entirely in its own grounds, not a royal sanctuary as it was in the time of Solomon, but an edifice of spiritual independence. The consecration of the priesthood is to be taken as symbolizing and expressing the consecration of the entire community to the will to repudiate the sin of the past, to the will to bear the shame of the past, and to the will to lift up the present to God in utter consecration. With this new life the sacrificial system is revised to emphasize reckoning with God in repentance and atonement and to emphasize a religion of conscience in which God is moral authority and judge. Israel seems to be having an identity crisis. After the exile, Israel understands that the Lord is not merely a national ally, nor is Israel the favorite. Rather the relationship is an ethical one.
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