Temple Mount, Mount Moriah, & the Threshing Floor in Jerusalem’s Old City
During
each Holy Land Pilgrimage our Lakes Church Lead Pastor Dr. Aaron D. Burgner shared
with us the biblical and historical significance of The Temple Mount, Mount Moriah, & the
Threshing Floor, which are deeply intertwined sites in Jerusalem’s Old City,
representing the same sacred hilltop. The Dome of the Rock Islamic shrine
sits directly atop this rocky summit, which holds foundational significance in
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The connection between these locations
unfolds through history. According to the Bible, Mount Moriah is the mountain
where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac (Genesis 22). It is the
geographic peak where the First and Second Jewish Temples were later built. Centuries
after Abraham, King David purchased this Threshing Floor, an elevated bedrock
from Araunah the Jebusite to build an altar and halt a plague (2 Samuel 24).
Threshing floors were historically positioned on high, exposed surfaces so
natural winds could separate grain from chaff. Abraham saw the acreage. David
bought the lot. Solomon built the house. Nebuchadnezzar tore it town.
Zerubbabel rebuilt it. Herod the Great expanded it. Titus flattened it. Before
these temples stood on Mount Moriah, it was nothing but a hill used for
threshing wheat. Hardly worth noticing. But today, the Temple Mount remains the
most precious piece of real estate in the world. And the golden shrine that
graces its crest has become the icon for the Holy City of Jerusalem itself.
How
did this ordinary hill become holy? Not through battles or land bartering or by
popular vote. God chose it. It’s the same with us. The site of the Temple
Mount first appeared on the scene when God told Abraham to go to the land of
Moriah and sacrifice Isaac there (Genesis 22:2). The “Binding of Isaac”
climaxed with the Lord providing a ram for Abraham to sacrifice in the place of
his only son. “In the mount of the LORD it will be provided.” One millennium
after Abraham, King David purchased the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite
as a site to offer sacrifices after David’s sin with the census (2 Samuel
24:18-25). In the same area where Abraham came to offer Isaac, and on the very
hill where David offered burnt offerings for his sin, Solomon began to build
the First Temple on Mount Moriah in 966 BC (1 Kings 6:1; 2 Chronicles 3:1). Then
Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah,
where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had
prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. —2 Chronicles 3:1 The
original size of the Temple Mount was smaller than the outline we see today,
which is Herodian. The Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar tore down the
First Temple on in 586 BC. It had stood for 380 years. The exiled Jews returned
to their land after 70 years when Cyrus the Great allowed them to rebuild the
Temple. The structure Zerubbabel erected seemed modest in comparison to
Solomon’s magnificent edifice. Following the first Maccabean triumphs, the Jews
improved it even more.
The most elaborate reconstruction and renovation
occurred when Herod the Great began his extensive building project that would
crown the Second Temple. This was the Temple Jesus knew, whose destruction He
predicted (Matthew 24:1-2). The Southern Steps of the Temple Mount where
pilgrims walk today would have felt Jesus’ sandals too. In AD 70 Titus rolled
in his Roman legions and destroyed in a matter of days what had taken decades
to construct (see Daniel 9:26). Stones from the Second Temple still lay in the
first-century street where archaeologists found them. The Muslim ruler Abd
el-Malik built the shrine called the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount
between AD 688-691. Its golden veneer is a 20th-century addition. The
Holy Land and the Holy City owe their designations to a hill where the Holy of
Holies resided for centuries. The Temple Mount remains the most photographed
spot in Jerusalem and the goal of many pilgrimages. It’s amazing that the most
important religious site in the world was for centuries a mere elevated hill
north of Jebus where farmers threshed wheat.
The
ordinary was made holy because God chose it. Just like all who follow Him. Solomon
understood that the Temple he would construct could not house the Lord. Even
the great Solomon understood that the best he could offer God was worship. When
Jesus told the Samaritan woman that worship would no longer be confined to the
Jerusalem Temple, He taught her “the true worshipers will worship the Father
in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers”
(John 4:23–24). Because of God’s holiness and grace through offering His only
Son, what can we really offer Him in return but absolute worship? That is what
He seeks. How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty. I long, yes, I
faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord. With my whole being, body
and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God.—Psalm 84:1-2. Only
the high priest goes into the Most Holy Place, and only once a year, and always
with blood, which he offers to God to cover his own sins and the sins the
people have committed in ignorance. By these regulations the Holy Spirit
revealed that the Most Holy Place was not open to the people.—Hebrews 9:7-8.
Because we can worship God anyplace and anytime, we might fail to understand
the psalmist’s longing.
In Old Testament times a person made a pilgrimage to
worship God. It was a yearly event and often involved a lengthy journey. That
is why the psalmist sang of a dwelling place where he could be in the presence
of the Lord. It’s why he expressed a desire to be even a lowly gatekeeper in
God’s house (v. 10) so that he could worship God every single day! We have
available to us what the psalmist could only hope for. When Christ hung on the
cross, the heavy veil separating the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple
ripped from top to bottom. This symbolic act shouted to the world that
believers were no longer required to stand at a distance. We can walk into
God’s presence and commune with him by name. Today many religions continue to
require a pilgrimage to worship their gods. Christ made a way for you by making
a pilgrimage of his own—the long, lonely walk to the cross—so that you could
praise him wherever you are. In the Old Testament, people couldn’t just walk
into the Holy Place to ask for God’s help or mercy. The priests ministered
there daily, but only the High Priest—and only on the Day of Atonement—could go
into God’s presence in the Most Holy Place, to offer a blood sacrifice for his
own sins and the people’s sins and intercede for them. Even then, he had a rope
tied around his foot so that if God struck him dead, the other priests could
pull his body out.
When Jesus was crucified, he entered the Most Holy Place
once and for all by shedding his own blood as the perfect sacrifice for our
sins. When he died, the thick veil separating the people from the Most Holy
Place was torn. Think of it! Because of Jesus, we have unlimited access to the
Lord. We don’t have to wait for a once-a-year meeting with God. We don’t have
to ask someone else to go to the Lord on our behalf. We can enter his throne
room anytime night or day. Go freely into God’s presence and thank him for his
great gift of Jesus and this wonderful accessibility through prayer.
JESUS,
I am thankful that I can worship you right where I am. I will enter your courts
with thanksgiving. I will kneel at the mercy seat and find forgiveness. I will
call out your name in praise. Lord, I pray for those who do not have intimacy
with the living God. You have already made the pilgrimage for them. Open their
eyes to see that they can find you right here, right now. With all my heart I
thank you, Jesus, for being the perfect sacrifice for my sins and the sins of
the whole world. When your blood was presented on the heavenly mercy seat and
you offered up your Spirit, the veil of the temple was forever rent, providing
me access into the very presence of the Father. How I thank you, Lord. In Your
Precious Name we pray, amen.
Look
Up—meditate on Hebrews 9:7-8…pray to see what it reveals about the
character of God.
Look
In—as you meditate on Hebrews 9:7-8…pray to see how you might apply it
to your life. Be propelled to ask galvanizing questions about your discoveries:
"Because God is_________, I will_____________."
Look
Out—as you meditate on Hebrews 9:7-8…pray to see how you might apply
it to your relationships with others. Let the nature of God impact on every
relationship, for your good, and for His glory.
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