From the Editor Jul/Aug 2026

Israel My Glory Sneak Peek with Jesse King, our managing editor, is a video series that gives a glimpse into our latest issue.

Growing up with my father as my pastor provided me many unique experiences. For example, I had access to our church facilities beyond the typical hours for worship services and congregational events. As a child, when everyone besides my family had left after services, I sprinted up and down the aisle of the sanctuary, trying to break my own self-declared speed records. As a teenager, I spent more nights playing basketball with my brother and friends in our church’s gym than attending Bible studies.

In my young mind, I esteemed church as a sacred place; but my actions proved otherwise. How far removed I was from the ancient Israelites, whose pious worship of God was characterized by meticulous sacrifices and offerings for sin, which He instituted for them in order to approach the sites where He physically resided.

While the children of Israel wandered in the desert for 40 years, they constructed a portable Tabernacle where God’s glory could dwell so they could worship Him properly. They continued to worship within it until King Solomon built a magnificent Temple in Jerusalem during the Golden Age of Israel’s kingdom. After Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed that Temple, the exiled Israelites who eventually returned to the land rebuilt it at great cost, labor, and suffering.

Israel’s Temples were more than mere buildings. They testify to some of the most momentous chapters in Jewish history, and they demonstrate the one-of-a-kind relationship the Jewish people share with the Lord God.

Today, we need not drive more than a few miles without spotting a church in which to worship the Lord. But while God’s Chosen People entered into His Temples with reverence thousands of years ago, we believers often flippantly roll into church on Sunday mornings simply trying to fit our praise of Yahweh into our routines and conveniences. We can benefit from a reminder of the valuable privilege we have of freely entering His house of worship.

This issue of Israel My Glory examines Scripture’s four Temples—two past and two future: (1) Solomon’s Temple, (2) Herod’s Temple, (3) the Tribulation Temple, and (4) the Millennial Temple. Though none of these structures stand today, God, through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus the Messiah, has made the body of each believer a “temple of the Holy Spirit” who dwells within us (1 Cor. 6:19). Now, we are welcome to come into His presence anytime, anyplace.

May we worship the Lord each day with pure hearts in clean temples.

In His service,
Jesse King,
Managing Editor