The rebuilding of Jerusalem’s temple when the Jews’ returned from Babylon, as decreed by the Persian emperor Cyrus, typifies the end-time temple’s rebuilding by God’s servant. Under his Cyrus and Moses personas—as a world leader and as his people’s “shepherd”—the servant restores Jerusalem and its temple and oversees the land’s reconstruction. As magnificent an edifice as the millennial temple is, however, it falls short of Jehovah’s heavenly temple, implying that the God who created the heavens and the earth cannot be contained in an earthly tabernacle.
Isaiah 66:1–2Thus says Jehovah: The heavens are my throne and the earth is my footstool. What house would you build me? What would serve me as a place of rest? These are all things my hand has made, and thus all came into being, says Jehovah. And yet I have regard for those who are of a humble and contrite spirit and who are vigilant for my word.
Isaiah 44:26–28Who fulfills the word of his servant, accomplishes the aims of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, It shall be reinhabited, and of the cities of Judah, They shall be rebuilt, their ruins I will restore, who says to the deep, Become dry; I am drying up your currents, who says of Cyrus, He is my shepherd; he will do whatever I will. He will say of Jerusalem that it must be rebuilt, its temple foundations relaid.
Isaiah 58:12They who came out of you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will restore the foundations of generations ago. You shall be called a rebuilder of fallen walls, a restorer of streets for resettlement.
Isaiah 61:4They will rebuild the ancient ruins, raise up the old waste places; they will renew the desolate cities demolished generations ago.