Shalom-shalom; peace, in the name of Yeshua. This is Crystal Sharp and welcome to the Ancient Scrolls program. January 20, 2019.
If by chance some of you enjoy the teachings on this program, I am now in the process of putting these teachings on a website called Ancient Scrolls online.com.
That was the sound of the shofar: “Rise up, O LORD! Let Your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate You flee before You!’’
I will recite the Sh’ma:
Shema, O America, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. The first commandment is to love the Lord Your God with all Your heart, with all Your soul and with all Your strength.
Father,
We thank You for being God; for being the King of the Universe. You are the King over heaven and the earth. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein. Psalm 24
Psalm 138
I will praise You with my whole heart; before the gods I will sing praises to You. I will worship toward Your holy temple. And praise Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your word above all Your name.
We pray for Your justice and righteousness to prevail over the deep darkness of this nation. We pray for Your Spirit of repentance to saturate the church and the nation.
We pray for Your martyrs overseas who endure severe persecution for the Word of God (which this means Torah), and have the testimony of Yeshua. We pray for Your true heroes of faith who love You more than they love their lives. We pray You would send angels to minister to them.
In Yeshua’s name we pray, Amen.
Today we are going to continue talking about the altar in Revelation 11, the Temple Mount (Mount Moriah), the abomination of desolation found in Daniel and use some information from the Maccabees for it; and the Dome of the Rock and the al-Qas fountain.
Last program we had gone over the history of the Temple Mount. Right after the flood of Noah, his son, Shem (also known as Melkitzedek), used the Temple Mount as a site to honor El-Elyon which means God Most High. In Chronicles we learned that during the reign of King David, the Temple Mount was a threshing floor.
King David purchased the Temple Mount, or the threshing floor, from Ornan the Jebusite for 600 shekalim, and erected an altar there to the Sovereign God. Later in King Solomon’s rule, he constructed a house for the Lord there, the Temple or the Beit HaMikdash.
Since then, the Temple, Temple Mount, has been under the influence of several entities: the Shemites, the Jebusites, the Hebrews, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Persians, the Romans and Muslims, the crusaders; and looking at the Word, it looks like it is about to return to Israel; at least a portion of it is.
Revelation 11
John states: Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying: “Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there. But leave out the court which is outside the temple, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.
Now the Book of Revelation was written 2000 years ago, and John is told to measure the Temple of God, the altar and those who worship there. It doesn’t matter at the writing of Revelation if the Temple was destroyed or not. What matters is the Temple Mount is being measured for future service of the Temple and altar. It is being aside; because later there will be nations who will desire to build their abominations, their temples and structures on the site where the Temple stood as if to say to God their man made gods are supreme over Him the God of Israel.
It was on my second trip to Israel (2013) that the tour group I was with had permission from the Arabs to stand on the Temple Mount. We were instructed to not go beyond a certain area, but we were allowed to look toward the Dome of the Rock, and the al-Qas Fountain that was between us and the Dome of the Rock. Looking at these structures one would wonder how Revelation 11 could ever be fulfilled; to build a temple or erect the Altar of the Lord.
The Muslims state the Dome of the Rock is built over the Temple site where the second temple stood, and there have been and are other sources who are of the opinion the Holy of Holies was situated where the al-Qas Fountain now sits. When looking at these structures on the Temple Mount you would think Revelation 11 will never happen because they are occupied by other structures.
But most recently an article published by Breaking Israel News disputes these claims that the Dome of the Rock sits where the Temple of God once stood, and that al-Qas Fountain is not the place where the Holy of Holies was situated. In this article Rabbi Moskoff states when the Dome of the Rock was built in the seventh century, the Caliph Abd al-Malik had ordered it built. He asked the Jews of Jerusalem where the Temple had stood.
He, the Caliph, noted ruins there on the Temple Mount and assumes they were from the Second Temple; but they were actually the ruins of the Roman Temple of Jupiter that was built by Hadrian after the second Bar Kochba Revolt in the second century. The Jews intentionally mislead the Caliph into thinking the ruins of the Temple of Jupiter was the site of the Temple of God. The Caliph built the Dome of the Rock on another pagan site.
This is the reason John in Revelation measured for the portion on the Temple Mount to be given to the Temple, the altar and the worshipers. Years ago God knew the nations would attempt to construct places of idolatry where His house once stood, so 2000 years ago He measured off His portion to be used at a later time.
The Temple Mount had gone through tremendous changes over the centuries due to various constructions of Temples and structures. So the mountain top has been altered at different stages in history; so those once precise locations have become blurred after several thousand years of disturbances. That factor plus the Jews in that area deceiving the Caliph, all these things, years later, looks like factors could possibly work in the favor of Israel.
II Chronicles 3:1 states that the Temple was built on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite and threshing floors were noted to be flat areas, not located on peaks of the mountain. In the days of Solomon, the peak of the mountain was located where the Dome of the Rock now sits.
Anyway, Rabbi Moskoff came to the conclusion that the Holy of Holies stands to the southwest of the Dome of the Rock. This is very interesting news, and he is receiving support from other rabbis concerning his research. The next few months are going to be very interesting.
The fulfillment of Revelation 11 is becoming more of a reality in our generation. It is sensational that we are eyewitnesses to such profound events. These events will lead to the fulfillment of Yeshua’s teaching on the end times in Matthew 24.
Yeshua and His disciples are at the Mount of Olives and He is asked what would be the sign of His coming and of the end of the age.
In verse 15, Yeshua speaks on one particular event “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (whoever reads, let him understand; this portion of the verse was added later from a marginal note in a manuscript by a scribe, now it is included by translators) Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.”
It is of importance that Yeshua mentions Daniel to relate to events from the past that are going to have some significance in the future. A pattern or patterns are going to be repeated. Daniel was written five hundred and some years before the time of Yeshua’s ministry.
Anyway, Yeshua is making reference to Daniel. I would say His audience already understands the abomination of desolation in Daniel. There are a couple of places in Daniel that makes mention of abomination of desolation: chapter 11:31 and chapter 12:11.
I am just going to read these two verses and nothing else, because Daniel has the ability to weigh one down with history, and it is time consuming to put information together on the history, the opinions of scholars and sages concerning those empires, emperors, kings and kingdoms. So I will be brief.
Daniel chapter 11:31 And forces shall be mustered by him, and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress then they shall take away the daily sacrifices, and place there the abomination of desolation.
The sages know this portion to have been fulfilled multiple times and I agree with them. This would have occurred during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes (god manifested, calling himself god); and Paul expresses this occurring in the future in 2 Thessalonians 2:4. So Paul had knowledge of history, and that patterns repeat themselves over time; and this is expected to happen until the end of the age (and I am talking about men, or man, having ambitions to be a global ruler, a ruler of the world) “. . . who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the Temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”
Verse 8. And the lawless one will be revealed, whom the LORD will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. Daniel in chapter 2 when interpreting a dream of Nebuchadnezzar speaks of a global king of the world, the anti-christ, and that this global leader will be destroyed by God. We see Paul agreeing with the interpretation of Daniel, that this global Czar will be destroyed.
Now in 70 AD Titus, the son of Vespasian, breached the walls of Jerusalem, he sacked and burned the Temple; not one stone was left upon another (just like Yeshua said it would happen in Matthew 24:2. There were no ruins, not one stone); not even a stone from the Altar was left on the Temple Mount. Titus did not build anything there, nor did he place an image there. He left it desolate.
There was no image placed there until Hadrian in the 2nd century (135 AD). A temple of Jupiter (The Greek equivalent would be Zeus) was built on the place where the Dome of the Rock now sits. He placed a statue of himself on a horse where the al-Qas Fountain is today. He was thinking to build his Temple over the site of God’s temple. So these temples are abominations standing on the holy place, the temple mount. Not just the Temples but also those images of the mythical gods. Let us talk about the abomination on God’s altar.
Daniel chapter 11:31 And forces shall be mustered by him, and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress then they shall take away the daily sacrifices, and place there the abomination of desolation.
Daniel makes mention of the daily sacrifices being removed which is an offering of a lamb to God in the morning and evening, along with a meal offering and a wine libation on the altar.
Antiochus Epiphanes I Maccabees 6
Not long after this the king sent an old man of Athens to compel the Jews to depart from the Torah of their fathers, and not to live after the Torah of Elohiym: and to pollute also the Temple in Jerusalem, and to call it the temple of Jupiter (Zeus) Olympius; and that in Geriziym, of Jupiter the Defender of strangers, as they did desire that dwelt in the place. The coming of this mischief was sore and grievous to the people: for the Temple was filled with riot and reveling by the other nations, who lay with whores, and had to do with women within the circuit of the holy places, and besides that brought in things that were against Torah.
The altar was filled with profane things, which the Torah forbids (this is the slaughtering of pigs on the Lord’s altar, which is a direct affront to the God of the universe; because pigs are highly toxic, carrying diseases and parasites, eating their own feces). Neither was it lawful for a man to guard days of Sabbath or the Lord’s feasts, or to profess himself at all to be a Jew.
And the chapter continues on expressing the misery of the Jews by the hands of the nations. (Josephus Jewish antiquities 10. 275-276.)
These are all patterns that show us what is coming in the future in Revelation 11 when the Altar of the Lord is installed on the Temple Mount. There is already on the Temple Mount an abomination standing there on the ruins of another abomination the Temple of Jupiter. It was destroyed and so this other abomination will be destroyed as well. So it is going to be very interesting—soon—with a portion of the Temple Mount returning to the Jews for worship of the Sovereign God of the Universe.
I would just say this that we are at the end of days. Those things that God tolerated years ago by the nations will not be tolerated much longer, and the reason is that the appointed time for Christ’s return is at hand. The division between the children of God and the children of Satan will become more apparent.
I am going to end the program. Rico Cortes will sing the Aaronic blessing in Hebrew from Numbers 6:24-26.
If it is God’s will I will be here next program. Remember to walk by faith and not by sight. Do two things this week: love and forgive. Ask God to cleanse you from all unrighteousness every day. Keep your spiritual garments clean from wrinkles, spots and blemishes. Love God, love your neighbor.
