Why won't God break open the clouds and descend? His mission was instantiated in the temple and the covenant but Israel couldn't fulfill it. The destruction of the temple was a catastrophe of Israel's entire frame of reference. In Isaiah 40 God sends out his heavenly emissaries to announce a new day. The second temple period was not what Israel had been longing for. That temple too would be destroyed, but the Son of Man would be its replacement and smaller temples of Living Stones would move out throughout the world.
