Shalom, Shalom: peace, peace in the name of Yeshua. This is Crystal Sharpe and welcome to the Ancient Scrolls program.
Today I am going to discuss the place of Golgotha, it is called the place of the skull. Indeed, there is a skull feature located there at the side of the rock outside the walls of Jerusalem. Our tour guide told us this was the place Yeshua is said to have been crucified. After more than two thousand years the skull still maintains its characteristics. Of course, there is some weathering from the elements.
This skull in Jerusalem is indeed a relic of the giants that had roamed the earth and were still in existence at the time of King David when he killed Goliath. Although I Samuel 17 does not say Goliath was a giant, he was a form of immense size and strength and was called a champion. From the Word we understand he (Goliath) had brothers as well
Our tour guide never discussed with us how the skull came to be situated there. But certain passages in the word may offer us a clue.
We know from the Torah, more specifically Genesis 14, that kings during Abraham’s time made war with the Rephaim, Zuzim, and Emim and Horite giants.
There are still residual features left in areas where these creatures once existed. It seems Noah’s flood was able to at least offer some relief from these monstrosities’ tyrannical rule over mankind. I mean, that the flood was the only way to kill them. There is no way that mankind would have been able to survive and continue alongside these anomalies.
YHVH God made a choice between mankind and these giants and the giants lost. Then after the flood, surprisingly, the giants reappear once more. Speculation and opinions abound on how this could have happened. There are a couple of theories, one is there could have been another angelic rebellion; where angels take the form of humans and cohabit with women producing these sort of hybrids. Another theory remains and one that I support as well, is that somehow some of these giants survived the flood of Noah’s time.
From Numbers 13, the Hebrews were certainly frightened of them when they encountered them in Canaan. The twelve tribes sent men to spy out the land of Canaan. Upon their return they reported to Moses the impressive stature of these giants, they said: “We were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Obviously these giants were cannibals or consumers of people. The twelve spies give this account in verse 32: “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants.”
A land that devours its inhabitants. A unique way of saying these creatures eat people. When I read this, I thought: Alright, some 3500 years ago, these giants sort of raised people as livestock. They herded humankind like animals to be their food supply. When you read the account of the spies given to Moses, you can tell these men experienced something deeply disturbing. It was so disturbing they had forgotten that God had plans to use them to take out these anomalies.
I want to go ahead and get started speaking on the place of the skull, Golgotha. If I have time will also go over the Mifkad Gate and the Mifkad altar on the Mt of Olives. This is where the Red Heifer was sacrificed. Yeshua fulfilled the Red Heifer offering. This offering cleansed the priests from contamination of having come in contact with impure things, even death.
The Shema
Shema (hear) O Israel, the Lord God, the Lord is one.
Psalm 24
The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the earth and those who dwell therein.
Father YHVH,
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, creator of heaven and earth. Your name is great in all the earth. Your name is above every name and every situation and circumstance. We desire Your righteousness and justice to permeate the nations. Remember Your people in the Middle East, and those in China that suffer daily for Your name. I ask that You will cause Your Word to prosper in spite of the threats, in spite of the persecution, in spite of human governments working with Satan. We bless You. There is no name above the name of YHVH. Your mercy endures forever. In Yeshua’s name. Amen.
I am going to look here at Matthew 27. This chapter is about Yeshua’s arrest, abuse and crucifixion. He is led away by the Romans, compelled to bear His cross. Verse 33, And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, Place of the Skull, they gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when He had tasted it, He would not drink. John 19: 17, And He (Yeshua), bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of the Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center. Mark 15, Then they compelled a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus, as he was coming out of the country and passing by, to bear His cross. And they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of the Skull. This will help you be familiarized with the passages.
Let’s go into the history of Golgotha. We will begin in I Samuel 17, where it opens up with the Philistines assembling in the Judean territory against Israel. The Israelites were standing on a mountain on one side and the Philistines were on the mountain on the other side. The sages view this as standoff as not just a battle between armies; it was a conflict between good and evil. The Philistines placed their hope in Goliath and the Israelites put their hopes in David. David stands as a Messianic figure.
The sages understand Goliath to be the son of Orpah. In the book of Ruth, Orpah was the daughter-in-law of Naomi as was Ruth. Ruth later married Boaz, the kinsman redeemer of Naomi, and she became the grandmother of King David. Orpah had a reputation of being promiscuous. She also, had four other sons: Ishbi-Benob, Saph, and a third son was Gittite, plus a fourth son who said to also have had six fingers on each hand and six digits on each foot. This information is found in 2 Samuel 21. In this narrative, Israel goes to war with the Philistines; weel, they war several times in this chapter with the Philistines, but this one particular scene, King David is getting wore down by Ishbi-Benob. The passage tells us that David grows faint and is rescued by Abishai. After this King David is told he can no longer go to battle lest he quench the lamp of Israel. They were fearful King David would die.
Goliath’s name in the Strong’s means exile. The name “Goliath” is probably connected with the Assyro-Babylonian “Guzali” = “running, ravaging spirits,” “destroyers” (Jastrow, “Religion of Assyria and Babylon,” p. 500; Muss-Arnolt, “Concise Dictionary,” s.v. “The Throne-Carriers”; Delitzsch, “Assyrisches Handwörterb.” s.v.).
From my understanding demons today are those disembodies spirits from the anomalies that drowned during the flood.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6779-goliath
This Goliath is said to have killed the two sons of Eli: Hophni, and Phinehas, and captured the Holy Tablets from the Ark. Remember the prophet Samuel was under the instruction of Eli. Samuel anointed Saul and David for kingship over Israel.
I Samuel Verse 4, There came a champion from the camp of the Philistines named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. And he had bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. Now the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his iron spearhead weighed six hundred shekels; and a shield-bearer went before him.
The number six is associated with man and of ill repute when in association with insolent and rebellious persons. Goliath was six cubits and a span, some interpret him to have been as tall as 13 feet. His coat of mail was five thousand shekels which is around 120 of our pounds, and his spearhead six hundred shekels or fifteen pounds. Though Goliath was impressive looking to Israel, to David, he looked like just another uncircumcised Philistine.
Goliath would stand between the two camps, Philistines and Israel, he would defy the armies of Israel and demand a man to fight. David took the challenge. He chose 5 stones from a brook and a sling as his weapons. Standing before Goliath he made his boasts in the LORD: This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
When I read this I see images, words that reflect an end of the age scenario, when the enemies of God will be struck down by Messiah. Apocalyptic language when the bodies of the enemies of God will be food for birds and for the wild beasts of the earth.
David continues, verse 47, Then all this assembly shall know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD’s, and He will give you into our hands. Here is apocalyptic language, Israel at the end of this age will be saved by Messiah’s help, not their own strength.
David runs to battle to meet the Philistine (he is a Messianic figure here, running to fight the enemy). David loads his rock, slings it and it sinks into the forehead of Goliath. He falls on his face to the earth. David runs and stands over the Philistine, takes the sword of Goliath, killed him, and cut off his head with it. Verse 54, And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent.
Interesting bit of information, that David took the skull of Goliath and brought it Jerusalem. Hmmm, where might that be in Jerusalem? It is said the word Golgotha is a combination of Goliath of Gath, hence, gol from Goliath and gotha from gath; golgatha.
The skull at Golgotha is the skull of Goliath.
Though there are those who attest that Yeshua was crucified at this particular place Golgotha, while I was there, it didn’t fit all the scenario that is spelled out in the gospels.
For example, Golgotha is situated northwest of Jerusalem. My question was while in Israel: how could the centurion in Luke 23:45 see the veil of the Temple tear in two just before Yeshua died, if he was standing northwest of the Temple, nearly behind the Temple. The Temple faced east to west. By the way, there is a reason the Temple was structured east to west. The Temple was a symbol of our sins being cast as far from us as east is from the west. Psalm 103:12, As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. The east-west is an infinite direction and our sins removed infinitely from us. The sun rises infinitely east to west, the cycle bringing new mercies each day.
Luke 23:45, Then the sun was darkened, and the veil was torn in two. Verse 47, So when the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified God, saying: “Certainly this was a righteous man!”
This outside curtain is called the Masach. It was a massive 80 foot curtain. Some say even the mantle was broken in two, as well, that held up the curtains. I have just a few minutes left to make my point, so let’s see what we can gather from the Word. From the Word we understand that Yeshua was not killed in Jerusalem, but outside Jerusalem’s walls. Even if people would think Golgotha or Calvary, it is still outside the city’s walls.
John 19:20
It is here that the Jews squabble with Pilate about the writing that is placed above Yeshua on the cross: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Verse 20, Then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus, was crucifiedwas near the city (Jerusalem), and it was written in Hebrew, Greek and Latin.
The book of Hebrews gives us information. Hebrews 13:10-14
Verse 10, We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat
Verse 11, For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. Leviticus 16:27. On Yom Kippur the bull and the goat were sacrificed at the Temple and then their skins their flesh, their intestines were burned outside the camp. The Red Heifer was disposed of this way as well. The Red heifer held special significance in that it had the ability to purify priests from having come in contact with the dead.
Verse 12, Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people, with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Which gate? The Miphkad gate. We are going to further discuss the Miphkad gate and the Miphkad Altar.
Verse 13, Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.
Outside the camp is speaking of the altar on the Mt of Olives called the miphkad altar, also called the appointed place for not only the sin offering of Christ for all of us, but the appointed place for the counting of the heads in a census for the armies of Israel. They were mustered there before and after battles – for the purpose of counting heads. It was the “place of the head, not the place of the skull (Golgotha). The translators called the place of His crucifixion the place of the skull, when it was actually the “place of the head” that was meant. The place of the head was meant for the place on the Mt of Olives.
Some of my research indicates that the Miphkad gate led the Temple priests to the Miphkad Altar on the Mt of Olives. Mifkad means assignment. The last of the ten gates repaired by Nehemiah. It is located near the Temple on the northeast side of Jerusalem not far from the Sheep Gate. “After him repaired Malchiah the goldsmith’s son unto the place of the Nethinims, and of the merchants, over against the gate Miphkad, and to the going up of the corner.” (Nehemiah 3:31-32).
It was at the Miphkad Gate where David decided the take a census of Israel which was against what the LORD God told David. It was as a result there was 70,000 killed by a plague. David saw the error of his way and the great ruin he had caused, he purchased Ornan’s threshing floor and built an altar to the LORD God. (2 Samuel 24:10-25).
I am at the end of the program. Remember to walk by faith, not by sight. Ask the Father to cleanse you from all unrighteousness every day. Keep your spiritual garments clean from spot, wrinkle and blemish. Do two things this week: love and forgive. Love God and love your neighbor.
Rico Cortes will sing the Aaronic blessing.
http://www.7witnesses.com/uploads/3/8/9/3/38938293/the_three_altars_of_the_temple.pdf
The Miphkad Gate, Inspection Gate, or Command Gate:
Posted on June 3, 2015 by joanneholstein
MLA Style Citation:
Holstein, Joanne “The Miphkad Gate, Inspection Gate, or Command Gate:.” Becker Bible Studies Library June 2015.<https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=2875,>.
APA Style Citation: Holstein, Joanne (2015, June) “The Miphkad Gate, Inspection Gate, or Command Gate:.” Becker Bible Studies Library. Retrieved from https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=2875,.
Chicago Style Citation: Holstein, Joanne (2015) “The Miphkad Gate, Inspection Gate, or Command Gate:.” Becker Bible Studies Library (June), https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=2875, (accessed).
http://www.7witnesses.com/uploads/3/8/9/3/38938293/the_three_altars_of_the_temple.pdf
I am at the end of the program. Remember to walk by faith, not by sight. Ask the Father to cleanse you from all unrighteousness every day. Keep your spiritual garments clean from spot, wrinkle and blemish. Do two things this week: love and forgive. Love God and love your neighbor.
Rico Cortes will sing the Aaronic blessing.
