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Temple Mount (Part 1): If it is absurd and doesn’t make sense, it must be God.

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An aerial view of the Temple Mount as it stands today.

According to the Word of God, God said to King David that his son Solomon would build him a sanctuary. King Solomon built the first Holy Temple atop what is known as the Temple Mount in the 10th century BCE.

On the 1st of August, Israel will observe the 9th of the Hebrew month of Av. On this day both temples were destroyed. The 3 weeks before the 9th of Av are known as the time “Between the Straits” which is a time mourning the destruction of the Second Holy Temple and the 2000 year exile from the Land of Israel, until Israel became a nation again in 1948. It is also the date that many other tragedies befell the Jewish people. The Jewish sages say that those who mourn the destruction of Jerusalem will merit seeing it rebuilt with the coming of the Messiah (of course, we know that the Messiah has already come the first time, and will come again.) [Read more about the 9th of Av]
Three days after the beginning of the weeks of “Between the Straits”, on July 14th, three Muslim terrorists who were Israeli citizens from the Arab town of Umm al-Fahm, northwest of Haifa, walked toward the Lions’ Gate and opened fire at Israeli troops guarding the Temple Mount, then fled into the Temple Mount. The troops chased them, engaged and shot the terrorists dead inside the complex.
Immediately, Israel installed metal detectors at the gates to the Muslim-administered sites on the Temple Mt. The move rocked the Muslim world, perceiving it as an Israeli attempt to take over control over the Muslim holy sites.
Logically, Israel assumed that the world would understand that measures have to be taken to prevent further attacks, and that Israel has no intention of taking over the Muslim sites, as Israel had announced many times.
Nevertheless, the metal detectors set off widespread protests and a wave of violence that set a Palestinian terrorist on a murder spree against a family of Israeli residents of a settlement in the West Bank, murdering 3 members of the Jewish family. Then there was another incident in Jordan when an Israeli guard in the Israeli Embassy was attacked by a terrorist with a screwdriver, and the guard responded by shooting and killing him and another Jordanian. A Jordanian mob demanded the death sentence for the Israeli guard. With pressure from the world and Jordan to restore the calm, Israel agreed to remove the metal detectors (also in exchange for the return of the Israeli Embassy guard.)
Israel announced it would replace the metal detectors with new security measures. These would reportedly include “advanced technologies,” sophisticated cameras and additional police deployments.
This set the Palestinians on another massive demonstration outside the Temple Mount. They continued to chant that “Al-Aqsa is in danger” and “under attack,” by the Israeli “occupiers.”
This  libel has been going on for years. It is inspired by the incitement of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement and the Muslim Brotherhood in Turkey, Qatar, Gaza Hamas and in Israel proper (even though they are illegal in Israel.) Hundreds of terrorists throughout the years have taken to Israel’s streets and stabbed, rammed and shot dozens of Jews to death, with the false cry that “Al-Aqsa is in danger”.
The libel has now brought blood to the Temple Mount, to the doorstep of the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. It now threatens the status quo Israel has for years sworn to protect, despite the denial of the right of the Jews to the Temple Mount. This is what forced the Israeli officers to fire their weapons to stop the terrorists, and actually defend the Muslim holy site, and the Muslim worshipers at the site from being harmed. This is the absurdity of the current events on the Temple Mount. [Read More about the status quo]
The protesters shouted, “We will not kneel, for Mohammad is our leader. Khayber*, Oh Jews, the army of Mohammad will return.” (*Khayber was an Arabian Jewish town whose residents were slaughtered by Mohammad in the seventh century.) “It’s a promise for the future war.”
As of this writing, to prevent riots and mobs gathering outside the Temple Mount that can ignite the fire of violence, Israel agreed to remove all measures of surveillance, including cameras and agreed to the demands of the Palestinian leadership to go back to the way things were conducted before the July 14th incident.

     The history of the Temple Mount starts and ends with Israel.

The beginning:

Israelite period – The Jewish King David bought the Temple Mount grounds from the Jebusite, Araunah, for fifty pieces of silver (2 Sam. 24:24). In response to God’s command, David’s son, King Solomon built the First Temple on the Mount.
Solomon’s temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, and the Second Temple was built by the Jews, completed and dedicated in 516 BCE.
Around 519 BCE Herod the Great expanded the Temple and the platform on which it stood. The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.
Roman and Byzantine periods – Roman emperor Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem and changed the name of the city to Aelia Capitolina. All Jews were forbidden to enter the city or the surrounding territory around the city.
In 325 CE, the Christian Emperor Constantine I, destroyed the Jupiter shrine on the Temple Mount. He allowed Jews to enter Jerusalem once a year, on the 9th of Av. The Temple Mount was neglected by the Romans.
Byzantine period – The Byzantines built elaborate church buildings, monasteries and other public buildings on the Temple Mount.
Muslim period – In 637 CE Muslim Arabs conquered Jerusalem from the Byzantine Empire. Caliph Umar built the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount. It was completely destroyed and rebuilt several times, the last one was rebuilt in 1035 and still stands today.
In 691 CE Caliph Abd al-Malik built the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount (Qubbat as-Sakhra). (The dome was covered in gold in 1920)
These are the main holy sites to the Muslims after Mecca and Medina. The Dome of the Rock is located close to the area where the Jewish Holy Temple previously stood. The mosques and shrines are currently administered by the Waqf.
The Crusaders – In 1099 the First Crusaders captured Jerusalem and the Temple Mount and converted the mosques into churches.
Back to Muslim rule – In 1187 the Muslim leader Saladin re-conquered the Dome of the Rock and al-Aksa. They were returned to Muslim houses of worship, until the present.
The Ottoman Empire – The Turkish Ottoman Muslim Empire conquered Palestine in 1516. They prohibited non-Muslims from visiting the Temple Mount until the early 19th century.
British Mandate – After WWI, the entire area was conquered by the British, including the Old City of Jerusalem. The Mandate maintained the Muslim status quo of the Temple Mount and Jordan established the current Waqf (religious Muslim Council of the holy places on the Temple Mount.) [Read more about the Waqf]
The State of Israel – Israel won the war of 1948 against five Arab nations. But Jerusalem and the West Bank remained occupied by Jordan. Jews were completely expelled from the Old City including the Temple Mt. They were barred from entering the Old City for 19 years, effectively banning Jewish prayer at the site of the Western Wall.

Closure of cycle: Israel occupies the Temple Mount once again

Israel period – On June 7, 1967, Israel won the Six Day War against neighboring enemies Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. In the fighting against Jordan, Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem from the Jordanians. The Temple Mt. site remains within the area controlled by the State of Israel, but the administration of the site remains in the hands of the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf.
Arabs can enter the Temple Mount through one of ten different Muslim-only gates from various places in the Old City. Non-Muslims and Jews are only allowed access to the site through the Mugrabim Gate (via the Mugrabim Bridge) which is located just above to the left of the Kotel, (Western Wall) plaza. Non-Muslims are not allowed to pray on the Temple Mount.

Insight

As we see, God has fulfilled His promises and closed the cycle. Now that Israel has come back to the Land, the Temple Mount is in Israel’s hands. For now, God allows that it will be religiously under Muslim control, even if Jews cannot pray up there to the God of Israel (in a religious way.) Why does God allow such an absurd situation? Because of His timing.  If Israel had taken control of the Temple Mount religiously, the Jewish religious leaders would have started building the third Temple, and it is not God’s time, it’s not His purpose yet for Israel.
     Please pray. As tensions mount in Jerusalem, with many Israeli security and police guards, and many heated Muslims chanting anti-Jewish slogans, there is the danger of clashes and violence to erupt.Pray for protection and peace.  

Unrest at the Temple Friday morning.

An Unsolvable Conflict

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U.S. President Donald Trump has a genuine desire to bring the peace to Israel and the Palestinians. He met with both leaders, and maybe wants to believe that Abbas sincerely wants to “achieve our ‎freedom, our dignity, and our right to self-determination.” And wants “Israel to recognize the Palestinian state just as the Palestinian people recognize the State of Israel.”‎ However, the problem at the core of the ‎conflict remains the unsolvable issue of the Palestinian’s to accept Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign Jewish nation on the Land of Israel, they still call Palestine.

The problem at the core of the conflict has never been about the territory of Judea and Samaria, It’s about whether the land is Israel and belongs to the Jews, or Palestine and belongs to the Palestinians. Whether Jerusalem is the holy city of the Jews, or the holy city of the Muslims.

The other unsolvable issue is the Palestinian demand that all refugees around the world (about 6 million) come back home to Palestine. They are the only group in the world that have kept their status of refugees for over 70 years and have not been absorbed into any country, including Arab countries. Israel will never agree to this issue, and to the refusal to accept the right of Israel to exist in their land as a sovereign Jewish nation

In their schools and Mosques, Palestinians teach that the land is theirs, that Jews have no claim to Muslim Jerusalem. They refuse to accept the true history of the land according to the Bible and history. The true history is that the name of Judea and Israel was changed by the Romans after they expelled the Jews from the land. They renamed it Palestrina, hundreds of years before there was Islam and the invasion of Arabs in the land.

According to the Bible, the land belongs to God and He gave it to Israel as an everlasting possession. Yes, Israel was punished, temporarily expelled from the land, but God promised to bring His people back to the land from all parts of the world, and this is what’s happening.

History of the Peace Talk

In 2000 the then Israel PM offered Palestinian leader Arafat, with US mediator President Bill Clinton, a far-reaching peace agreement proposal. A Palestinian state on almost 90% of the West Bank and 100% of Gaza, and municipal authority on west neighborhoods of E. Jerusalem. Special authority on the Temple mount and right of return to tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees, with a special program of unifying families in Israel. Arafat rejected the proposal, mainly the issue of Jerusalem and the return of refugees. He demanded a return of millions of refugees and complete sovereignty over the Temple Mount. He even objected to the declaration of the end of the conflict because it was an “Israeli/American narrative.”

In 2008 former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert proposed the mutual recognition, re-partition of Jerusalem and territorial swaps that would allow Israel to keep the settlements blocks. Olmert essentially agreed to forgo sovereignty of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Judaism’s holiest site, and proposed that in the framework of a peace agreement, the area containing the religious sites in Jerusalem would be managed by a special committee consisting of representatives from five nations: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestine, the United States and Israel. The advisors and Fatah officials heard from Abbas that Olmert laid out for him not only the details of the agreement but also a large map upon which he outlined the borders of the future Palestinian state. But in the end no peace deal was signed between Israel and the Palestinians despite Olmert’s far-reaching offer. Until today, the Palestinian Authority has not responded either positively or negatively to Olmert’s offer.

President Trump needs to ponder whether ‎Abbas means what he says.

‎Abbas has a reputation of always being willing to talk about peace but ‎blowing up negotiations — or walking away from them as he did ‎in 2008 with Olmert. His behavior and the Palestinian Authority’s continued support of incitement ‎against Israel and Jews, as well as financial support of terrorists, discredits ‎advocates of territorial withdrawal in the near future. Even the ‎leaders of the two leading opposition parties to Netanyahu think that a two-state solution would have to wait at least 10 to 20 years ‎until the Palestinians proved they had given up on terror and wanted peace. Most Israeli politicians from center-left to center-right think that a two state solution might be a good idea in principle, but ‎would be impossible to implement in the near future.‎

O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem

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     Before leaving this earth, Yeshua cried out: “O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” Matthew 23:37
     “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced;”  Zechariah 12:10
     “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will remove ungodliness from Jacob.” Romans 11:26 

The Hope, “Hatikva”

(Israel’s national anthem)
As long as the Jewish soul
is yearning deep inside the heart,
And looks onto the East,
with eyes watching toward Zion,
Then our hope – the two-thousand-year-old hope –
is not lost: To be a free people in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.

Tower of David in Jerusalem

God was angry with His people for disobeying Him and turning to other gods. He had to discipline and punish them, temporarily, like a good loving father. He sent them out to exile from their homeland, Israel, to the nations of the world. But promised to bring them back to their land, the Land of Promise He gave to Abraham and his descendants, Isaac and Jacob (Israel) for an everlasting possession. This promise/prophecy repeats itself throughout the scriptures more than any other prophecy.

As a loving father who has to discipline His children, He always reassures His people of His everlasting love, as He said to Israel: “This is what the Lord says: “ I will come to give rest to Israel… I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness… I will build you up again, and you, virgin Israel, will be rebuilt. Jeremiah 31:1,2,3

     God has always used the nations to discipline His people Israel, but they overdid it in measure and cruelty, which was not the intention of the Lord, and He is angry with them: “Proclaim this word: This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion. And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster.‘” Zech. 1:14-15

Israel becoming a nation again in the Land of Israel

The prophet Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 66:8: “Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.”

The rebirth of the State of Israel is truly unique. On one day— May 15,1948, one day after the declaration of Israel’s independence by David Ben Gurion, Israel was voted in the UN as the State of the Jews and became an official functioning nation with its own army, navy, air force (all very small at that time), parliament, police force, medical, education and financial systems, etc. History knows no other nation that has had a similar rebirth after thousands of years of exile. God is faithful to fulfill His promises.

Jerusalem is the most special city in all of history. Many nations and peoples have conquered Jerusalem: Assyrians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Mamelukes, Turks, British, and Jordanians. Jerusalem is also called: The Lord’s City, The Holy City, The Eternal City, Salem, Mount Moriah, Jebus, the City of David. There must be a deeper meaning to this than just physical. It’s a spiritual battle.
 

What makes Jerusalem so important?

     Because God, The God of Israel has declared that Jerusalem shall be His Throne (Zechariah 8:3). He said that He will reign in Jerusalem forever. For the LORD has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling place: “This is My resting place forever; Here I will dwell, for I have desired it. Psalm 132:13-14

     There are more scriptures where God is talking about Zion/Jerusalem as His chosen place to dwell and reign from. “Jerusalem” is mentioned in the Bible more then 800 times. “Zion,” which is another name for “Jerusalem,” is mentioned 152 times.

Although most of the nation was in exiled from their land, the Jews did not forget Jerusalem or the Temple Mount. Their daily prayer was for the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. The traditional Jewish prayer book contains the following passage:
 

“Because of our sins we were exiled from our country and banished from our land. We cannot go up as pilgrims to worship Thee, to perform our duties in Thy chosen house, the great and Holy Temple which was called by Thy name, on account of the hand that was let loose on Thy sanctuary. May it be Thy will, Lord our God and God of our fathers, merciful King, in Thy abundant love again to have mercy on us and on Thy sanctuary; rebuild it speedily and magnify its glory.”

     “Jerusalem,” wrote historian Martin Gilbert, “is not a ‘mere’ city. It holds the central spiritual and physical place in the history of the Jews as a people.”

For more than 3,000 years, the Jewish people have looked to Jerusalem as their spiritual, political, and historical capital, even when they did not physically rule over the city. Throughout its long history, Jerusalem has served, and still serves, as the political capital of only one nation – the one belonging to the Jews.

Jerusalem, in Hebrew Yerushalaim, meaning – Yeru (they will see) Shalem, or Salem – (peace, wholeness) The city was originally a Jebusite city called Salem. The King of Salem, who was a priest of God Most High had a Hebrew name, Melchizedek – Melch (king) Tzedek (righteousness). (Genesis 14:18)

Abraham came to Salem (now Jerusalem), to the Valley of Shaveh, just south of present-day Jerusalem. “Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High….” (14:17-18) Abraham received a blessing from him there.

A few years later, God tested Abraham’s faith and told him to take his only son Isaac to be offered up to Him. Abraham had other sons from his foreign concubines, but as far as God was concerned, Isaac was his only son – the son of promise: “Through Isaac shall your seed be named,” (Gen. 21:12.) Also, Isaac, was a direct ancestor of the Messiah Yeshua. God told Abraham exactly where to go, up to Mount Moriah, known today as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (very near the place where Yeshua would be crucified.) After he passed the test successfully, Abraham called the place, Yehwa Yeraeh – the Lord will be seen, (Genesis 22:14.)

Jerusalem, is the place where the Lord, the Prince of Peace will be seen. And in the end-time, when Yeshua establishes His kingdom and will rule and reign from Jerusalem, He will bring peace to mankind and the world, as it is written in Isaiah 2:

     “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
“Now it will come about that In the last days The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths.
“For the law will go forth from Zion And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war.”

     Read more details: History of Jerusalem.

Palestinian Incitement

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Palestinian incitement related to the al-Aqsa mosque has significantly increased in the weeks leading up to Passover, which begins on April 22, in an attempt to raise tensions and cause disturbances and acts of terror. Jerusalem Muslim leader Mufti sheidh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein warned against increased Jewish “provocations” at the Temple mount during  Passover, and said: “We must stop religious groups from invading this Muslim holy site.” even thought under an agreement between the Israeli government and the Islamic authorities Jews are allowed to visit the Temple Mount but not pray.
– [3/31/2016 -Ynet, The Time of Israel April 13 ]

The futility of terrorism against Israel

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“If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent,
you will not prevail against him but will surely fall before him.” (Esther 6: 13).

Yes it hurts, yes it kills, but it will not destroy Israel.

Why do young Palestinian boys and girls keep attacking Israelis when they know they will not be able to destroy her? It’s because of the messages they keep hearing and believing. They are being incited. Most incitement is being broadcasted by the Hamas TV station via internet and satellite directly to the impressionable ears of young Palestinians. They are called to murder Jews. [Read more…] about The futility of terrorism against Israel