I Stood on the Most Contriversal Spot on Earth

This is for yesterday.

On Wednesday we first went to the Temple Mount, a place of memories. God has strategically used that area from the life of Abraham until now, and will in the future. Where the temple stood, or at least in the general area of the mount, in 2066BC, Abraham acted in faith by almost sacrificing his son, believing God would raise him from the dead. When David sinned by arrogantly taking a census God judged the people by sending a plague among them. When the angel stopped slaying the people he was at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, and David bought that piece of land, which was the future resting place of the Temple. When the temple was built God’s presence resided in the temple. When the people went into exile the presence of the Lord left the temple. Jesus, on the mount said that they could destroy the temple (the presence of God)—Him, and it would be rebuilt in three days.



















The same God that dwelt in the temple dwells in believers. Believers are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Through my classes I have learned that it was impossible for Israel to get into this land, it was only through the work of God that allowed them to enter.

Even though we could not go into the Dome of the Rock Abner told us that the rock could have been the place where Abraham was going to sacrifice his son, where the threshing floor was, and the place where the Ark of the Covenant was placed. The area not including the temple, during the time of Jesus was one million square feet, and Jesus cleansed that whole area twice. Today we see that Jesus’ prophecy of the destruction of the temple is true. We don’t even know where one stone of it is today.
We then went to a catholic church where they think Peter denied Christ three times and where Jesus was kept. In 457 AD the Byzantines commemorated the dungeon as the place that Christ was imprisoned. We then went to the ruins of a house of a very wealthy person. The common size of a house had two to three rooms, this house had two to three levels. The people found pottery from Egypt, meaning that they were antique collectors, and stone pots; also the floors were made of mosaics. This shows that the person that owned this house was very wealthy, which could point to the fact that the person could have been a Sadducee. Sadducees got large amounts of money through corruption and through the Romans. This house was burnt down in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem.

We have learned that destruction leaves behind the best evidence of what a culture was like, because it comes suddenly. If people find out what is going to come they are likely to take their stuff and run, but if a fire comes and destroys the house we can see the artifacts that were left behind. This allows us to learn about the culture and people of that day.