Until we see - Ian Heard's Blog

THE PLACE PREPARED BY DAVID FOR THE TEMPLE!

7/1/2020

Yes, that’s right. Not only did David have the temple in his heart—he also had its site ‘nailed down’ and clearly he passed this on to his son, Solomon.
How do I know?

In 2 Chronicles 1 we can read about Solomon making offerings at Gibeon where the old tabernacle of Moses was pitched. The bronze altar was still there, but the most important item, the Ark of the Covenant had already been moved by David to a special spot in the City of David.
The record says (v.4) ‘David had brought up the ark of God from Kirjath-Jearim to the place David had prepared for it, for he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem.’

We know where that tent was, for when Solomon had been anointed for kingship, David had instructed Nathan the prophet and Zadok the priest and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada to put Solomon on the royal mule and taken to Gihon (see 1 Kings 1:32ff) and note that v.39 informs us that Zadok took the horn of oil ‘from the tent and anointed Solomon.’

Note, it’s called in 2 Chronicles 1:4 (above) ‘the place David had prepared for it.’
And…where did Solomon start building the temple? At that very place: for the same words are used in 2 Chronicles 3:1--
‘Now Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared …’

Indeed, in my view, the tent was at Gihon, at the site known through the ages as HaMakom (The Place)—and further, that the threshing floor had been there on one of the ledges just above the floor of Kidron Valley and just near the Spring Gihon. In fact, having stood in all these places, I know well how the Kidron Valley is a funnel for the breezes, which in Jerusalem prevail from WNW to WSW! The picture is an artist's impression of the City of David with the fortress wall extending East around Gihon Spring.

Remember that when the text says, ‘on mount Moriah’ it is referring to the whole of that mountain, of which the southern ridge on which the City of David was built, forms part.

'WITH YOU IS THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE’ (Psalm 36:9)

31/12/2019

Psalm 36:7-9
‘Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.
They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house,
And You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures.
For with You is the fountain of life’

David knew the Tabernacle, but when he moved the ark into the City of David, he pitched a small tent (tabernacle) for it at Gihon, near where that ancient spring gushed forth with its surging flow. He did this because he understood that to be the site, The Place (HaMakom) where Jacob had had his dream and declared “how awesome is the place. This is the this is none other than the house of God (Bethel or Beit-El) and this is the gate of heaven” (Genesis 28:17)

In my view David in the Psalm quoted above is picturing the security and blessings of the presence of God where he has placed the ark and the holy articles.

He pictures the place of trust as being in that sacred Word that dwelt beneath the wings of the cherubim (representing God’s protective cover).

He pictured that Gihon stream being the stream from which God gave His people to drink of life-giving water from His throne-room.

Gihon had provided life-giving water for generations and it was at the location that God had always had in mind as The Place (HaMakom), where His presence would permanently be among His people, represented by the ark and the Word of Testimony, all the accoutrements of the temple, AND, the stream of Gihon (‘Gushing Forth’) representing the God’s Living Water available and flowing from His presence!

Read 'THE PLACE, HaMakom: where Jerusalem's temples stood' to discover the unfolding history of this sacred place--and where Solomon built his temple (no, not on so-called Temple Mount!)

The Sons of God and the Sons of Men in your Bible...

31/12/2019

A careful study of God’s word reveals that the accepted nomenclature throughout both Old and New Testaments for those who follow God and those who reject Him is--

‘Sons of God’, as distinct from ‘sons of men’ (and 'daughters of men' as in Genesis 6).

‘THE PEOPLE, the Sons of God (through the eyes of a Watcher)’ takes the reader on a fascinating journey of discovery of the two distinct streams through the Bible, culminating in those marvellous declarations from John, ‘to as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become SONS OF GOD’ (John 1:12) and—‘behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called ‘SONS OF GOD.’

Read ‘THE PEOPLE, the sons of God (through the eyes of a Watcher)’ see availability here.

‘THAT THE TEMPLE MIGHT BE SUPERIOR TO IT (THE ACRA)...’

21/12/2019

It seems to me that these few words from Josephus are the death-knell for those who insist on perpetuating the myth that the Jewish temples stood on so-called Temple Mount.

The Acra in the City of David has been identified in the excavations of the Givati Parking Lot, below the southern wall of the alleged Temple Mount. The excavation can be seen in the photo—and it can be seen to be well below and south and slightly west of the Mosque of Omar whose top can be seen. The Dome of the Rock is further north and west of the mosque and cannot be seen in this picture.

Josephus tells us that the Hasmoneans ‘took off part of the height of the Acra, and reduced it to be of less elevation than it was before, THAT THE TEMPLE MIGHT BE SUPERIOR TO IT.’

The Temple had to be south of this in the City of David as there is no way this Acra could be superior in height to a temple further up the hill.
The temple had been the dominant building in the City of David, but for a time this Acra or fortified compound, built by Antiochus Epiphanes, was slightly above it, until, as Josephus informs us, it was lowered so the temple remained superior to it (Josephus, War Book 5:136ff)

Josephus in the same place also tells us how they filled the Valley of the Cheesemakers or Tyropean which formed a division between upper (western) and lower (eastern) parts of the city, because they ‘had a mind to join the city to the temple’ (ibid 139).

Find details at the home page of how the site known throughout the Bible as HaMakom (The Place) came to be the site at which the temples stood. Read
'THE PLACE: HaMakom (where Jerusalem's temples stood)'

STANDING WHERE ABRAHAM STOOD...

6/12/2019

Viewing these two pictures, you are standing where Abraham stood when, after a couple of day’s journey from Beer Sheva behind us to the south, ‘he lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off.’ (Genesis 22:4).

The first picture is an artist’s impression of early Salem (where Melchizedek dwelt) which became Jebus and eventually the City of David and Jerusalem. The second is one I took recently from an approximately similar position.

There is an excellent time-lapse series at the City of David website which you can view here http://www.cityofdavid.org.il/en/virtual-tours/interactive-jerusalem-virtual-tour (although it incorrectly still places the temple on so-called Temple Mount).

What Abraham saw that morning was the site which was becoming known as HaMakom—The Place. In Abraham’s time, The Place comprised little more than a spring surrounded by a protective wall, above which a walled settlement was emerging. The description is used some four or five times in the Genesis 22 story and then in the patriarchal stories it features often. But the spring called Gihon was the central feature...a khast type spring whose name meant ‘gushing forth’ because of its abundant water and its force.

Here is what Rabbi Professor Yoel Elitzur says about HaMakom...

‘Ha-makom in Genesis
Once we understand the significance of “the place,” we can see that this keyword – ha-makom – is a keyword that is emphasized in the stories of the patriarchs in the book of Genesis as well. It appears in the story of the binding of Isaac and in Jacob’s Bethel narrative. The proof that the prominent role of the word ha-makom in these passages is no coincidence lies in the fact that often, the word is stressed in the Biblical text much more than what would be linguistically reasonable. That is to say, there are several instances in Genesis where the word ha-makom makes it difficult to understand the simple meaning of the verse’ (end quote).

Imagine Abraham’s feelings as he lifted up his eyes and saw where God was taking him—and the destination where he was to offer his son! Would he turn back from here...or go on into what he knew God was calling him to?

He concluded, says the writer of Hebrews 11, ‘that God was able to raise him (Isaac) up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.’

This vantage point can represent for us, those same moments God brings us to when we must commit to His absolute sovereignty, or return and miss the enlargement that surrender always brings!

JOSEPHUS, The Valley of The Cheesemakers, and the Temple

19/11/2019

According to Josephus (Wars Book 5, Chapter 4:136-141) the two halves of the City (Jerusalem) were lower and upper, east and west respectively—separated by the Valley of the Cheesemakers (or Tyropean Valley) which ran north and south.
He describes the ‘lower’ city (Acra) or the City of David, as having the ‘shape of a moon when she is horned’—ie, a crescent moon.

This describes the City of David area seen in the attached picture which I took recently from the south, whilst visiting Jerusalem. The crescent shape can be clearly seen and I have outlined it in the second picture with a yellow line for clarity. (This is where Abraham, arriving from Beer Sheva in the south, would have caught his first view of HaMakom--The Place to which God was directing him with Isaac...see Genesis 22:4 'Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw The Place [HaMakom] afar off').

The Valley of the Cheesemakers is not as discernible today for two reasons:

1. As Josephus informs us, the Hasmoneans ‘filled up that valley with earth.’
2. It is today covered with dwellings and other buildings

But the reason the Hasmoneans filled it is of great import: Josephus tells us that the reason was that they ‘had a mind to join the city to the temple.’

Clearly this can only mean that the temple was in this Acra region and the Hasmoneans desired to make the temple more easily accessible from the western side of the valley.

Ergo, the temple was in the Acra, or the portion recognised to ancients and today, as the City of David.

'OUT OF ZION...'

25/10/2019

Many times the Bible employs the phrase ‘out of Zion’, ‘from Zion’, and others like it—‘in Zion’ or ‘to Zion.’ For example...

‘The LORD roars from Zion...’ (Amos 1:2)
‘For the LORD dwells in Zion.’ (Joel 3:21)
‘Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God will shine forth.’ (Psalm 50:2)
‘The LORD bless you out of Zion...’ (Psalm 128:5)
‘For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.’ (Isaiah 2:3)

Why?
Clearly Zion is viewed as a centre and source, The Place from which things emanate and within which, things of real consequence occur.

We should not ignore this. Zion was ‘ground zero’ where God had determined to put His presence among the people chosen as His ‘demonstration’ people. He did so by having the ark of the Covenant—the ark of His presence, housed there, yes, in Zion!

So we must ask...where was ancient Zion? It’s not a difficult question to answer. It was the small stronghold above and westward of the Gihon Spring, the means by which David captured Zion which had to that time been held by the Jebusites (2 Samuel 5:6-7 and 1 Chronicles 11:5-7). Gihon was where David had erected a tent to (temporarily) house the ark and the sacred objects—and it was the ‘X’ that marked the ancient spot known as The Place (HaMakom) where the permanent temple was to stand.

David named it the City of David. What was known as Mount Zion was part of the Mt. Moriah complex and is not as prominent today, as the ‘bump’ it once had been, was levelled and the valley between it and the rise northward raised up (bringing to mind Isaiah 40:4).

Zion and the City of David was on a southward-pointing ‘peninsula’ of land skirted by the Kidron and Hinnom Valleys—and that was where the temples stood! (The word Zion is thought to mean something like ‘sunny high-point’).

In the accompanying picture of the Jerusalem area from early in the 20th Century, the approximate area of ZION is circled. It is well south of the Muslim shrine further up the hill--and in the region which comprised the ancient City of David just west of the Gihon Spring.

THE ARCHBISHOP AND THE CALIPH IN ZION...

7/10/2019

When Jerusalem surrendered to the Muslims in 637AD Caliph Umar (or Omar) travelled to Jerusalem to receive the submission of the Christian Patriarch Sophronius.

Umar was eager to discover the site where Solomon’s temple had stood and he knew it must have been located where David had erected his altar and temporary tent. After some mis-direction, the Caliph finally prevailed upon Sophronius to be completely honest with him, whereupon Sophronius said words to the effect, “then we must go to Zion.”

Taking Umar by the hand he led him down the hill to the site on Zion, in what once was the City of David, near the Gihon Spring—and which was now the refuse heap of the city. It was completely covered in refuse and rubbish, which was why Christian pilgrims and visitors to Jerusalem had gone further up the hill to uncluttered ground to build shrines and to worship.

But the Caliph insisted on praying where David had prayed and where Solomon had erected the temple, and he did so.

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE LOCATION OF THE TEMPLE

9/9/2019

Artist's impression of City of David in Solomon's time with the Temple on alleged Temple Mount

If you believe that Jerusalem’s temples were located on what became falsely named Temple Mount here are just a few of the questions you must address...

1. Why did Ezekiel say, when describing the glory of the Lord leaving the temple, that it went up from ‘the middle of the city’? (Ezekiel 11:23).

2. Why did Zechariah say, when speaking of the return of God’s glory, ‘Thus said the LORD; I am returned to Zion, and will dwell in ‘the middle of’ Jerusalem’? (Zech. 8:3)

3. Why did the Psalm-writer say that he would offer his worship and thanksgiving in the courts of the Lord’s house, in ‘the middle of Jerusalem’? (See Psalm 116:17-19)

4. Why did David erect a tent for the ark and the anointing oil etc at Gihon?

5. Where is the ‘living’ water that provides a ‘type’ and picture of the life that flows at and from God’s throne and presence?

6. Why did John use the ancient site’s name when writing about the inscription on Jesus’ cross—‘for the place of the city where Jesus was crucified was near; and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, Latin’? (John 19:20 see original Greek and Darby translation).

7. Why did the Samaritan woman use the ancient name when said to Jesus, ‘you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where we should worship’? (See John 4:20 in various translations and in the original Greek).

8. Why did David write ‘for the LORD has chosen Zion; he has chosen it as His dwelling place’? (Psalm 132:13)

9. Why did Matthew write (Matthew 4:5) that the tempter ‘took Jesus into the the holy city and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple’ if the temple was not within the city?

10. Why did Nehemiah, whose stated primary concern and objective was the temple (see Nehemiah 2:8) inspect only the southern portion of the area known as the City of David, if the temple was well to the north of it?

Find the answers to these questions and more in
'THE PLACE HaMakom: where Jerusalem's temples stood'

NEHEMIAH AND THE TEMPLE SITE...

21/8/2019

What was uppermost in Nehemiah’s mind when he asked the king to permit him to return to Jerusalem?

Clearly it was protection of ‘the House’—the Temple of God (Neh 2:8).

When Nehemiah spoke to King Artaxerxes he desired a letter from the king to the keeper of the king’s forest ‘to make beams for the gates of the fortress pertaining to the temple.’
The walls were broken down and the gates of the fortress-city—the City of David—had been burned.

Nehemiah’s primary concern as expressed to the king was the vulnerability of the temple. He wanted to repair the gates ‘...pertaining to the House (the Temple). It is also clear in his prayer, where he makes reference to God’s promise to return the people to HaMakom—The Place He had chosen as a ‘dwelling’ for His name (Neh. 1:9)!

On his return to Jerusalem he went on an inspection tour by night (so as not to alert the enemies of God as to his purpose).

That the Temple was in the City of David becomes quite clear when we examine the area Nehemiah encompassed and assesses in his night-time survey.

He left the city by the Valley Gate, went past the Dung Gate in the Valley of Hinnom, and proceeded toward (in the direction of) the Serpent or Dragon Well also called En Rogel in the Kidron Valley and then turned north up the Kidron Valley to the Fountain Gate—possibly the gate by which people exited to walk to the well at En Rogel (see diagram)—or it could be the gate further north that accessed the Gihon Spring (and shown as the water Gate in the accompanying diagram borrowed from http://www.biblemysteries.com/lectures/nihemahwall.htm.)

Nehemiah then retraced his steps and re-entered the city via the Valley Gate.

The area he viewed is the ‘neck’ or peninsula that comprised the City of David.

He was nowhere near (by hundreds of meters) the prominence to the north of the City of David which is today erroneously known as Temple Mount.

If, as seems quite clear, the temple was his major concern—and it was ‘up there’—it seriously begs the question, ‘why did Nehemiah go nowhere near it?’

Here is his report from Nehemiah 2:13-15 in the NASV...

‘So I went out at night by the Valley Gate in the direction of the Dragon’s Well and on to the Refuse Gate, inspecting the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down and its gates which were consumed by fire.
Then I passed on to the Fountain Gate and the King's Pool, but there was no place for my mount to pass.
So I went up at night by the ravine and inspected the wall. Then I entered the Valley Gate again and returned.’

Read 'THE PLACE HaMakom: where Jerusalem's Temples stood' to help you understand this ancient site that Jacob called the House of God (Bethel). See details elsewhere on this site or here.

Location

Beautiful Newport Beach,
Sydney, AUSTRALIA

What people who've read THE PLACE are saying...

Marilyn Sams - author of The Jerusalem Temple Mount Myth: Ian Heard’s book adds a unique ....aspect to the growing movement of people accepting the City of David location for the temples in Jerusalem. His perspective .....brings many insightful possibilities to the table. Especially moving are his heartfelt expressions of faith in and love for the prophets and the Savior of the world'.
Pastor, Luke Yeghnazar of the Iranian Church of Los Angeles: Wonderful book. I trust it will be distributed widely. I read it with excitement. The reader will want to know what happens next. An exciting book to be read by Christians, Jews and others.

What readers of THE PEOPLE are saying...
The People is an enthralling and innovative approach, not only to telling old familiar stories but using narrative to portray, in a subtle but powerful way, the truth of good and evil in our world . . . There is good and evil, God and Satan, and in every human relationship/interaction and behavior a choice is to be made. The consequences, for those with the spiritual eyes to see, are clear. It is an exceptional and well written piece of work.” Allan Bull, Macquarie University, Sydney.