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'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!)

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

31/12/2019

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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.

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

21/12/2019

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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)'

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STANDING WHERE ABRAHAM STOOD...

6/12/2019

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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!

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

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

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

STANDING WHERE ABRAHAM STOOD...

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