Then He will judge between the nations and arbitrate for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations will no longer take up the sword against nation, nor train anymore for war .…
The phrase “House of Prayer for All Nations” is from Isaiah 56:7, where it is used twice:
“These [foreigners] I will bring to My holy mountain and give them joy in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on My Altar; for My house will be called a House of Prayer for All Nations.”
“And it shall come to pass at the end of days, That the Mountain of the Lord’s House shall be established as the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And ALL Nations shall flow unto it.” – Isaiah 2:2
“And many Peoples shall go and say: “Come ye, and let us go up to the Mountain of the LORD. To the House of the G-d of Jacob; And He will teach us of His ways, And we will walk in His paths.” – Isaiah 2:3
“For out of Zion shall go forth the Torah, and the word of ADONAI from Jerusalem.” – Jeremiah 30:1-38:22
The heart of the house of prayer is perhaps best captured by David’s heart cry in Psalm 27:4: “One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.”
King David established the tabernacle of David. Referred to in many parts of the Bible, this house of prayer is best described in 1 Chronicle 16:1–37: “So they brought the ark of God, and set it in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it . . . And he [David] appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, to commemorate, to thank, and to praise the LORD God of Israel . . . So he [David] left Asaph and his brothers there before the ark of the covenant of the Lord to minister before the ark regularly, as every day’s work required.” (1 Chr. 1, 4, 37)
Since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, the Jewish Nation has continually expressed their desire to see the building of a Third Temple on the Temple Mount. Prayer for restoration of the Temple and Temple Service is a formal part of the Jewish tradition of the 3 times daily Amidah prayers. Although it remains unbuilt, the notion of and desire for a Third Temple is sacred in Judaism and anticipated as a soon-to-be-built place of worship. The prophets in the Hebrew Bible called for its construction to be fulfilled prior to, or in tandem with, the Messianic age.
