In this week’s Torah portion is the Akeidah, the binding of Isaac. It occurs on Mount Moriah, a “mountain of instruction.” It is also here on the site of the later Temple Mount that Avraham sacrifices on an altar and calls the place YHVH Yireh, for he understood that the Father Himself would “see to” and provide the ram. From this ram we have the two prophetic shofars, the Last Trump of Rosh HaShanah and the Great Trump of Yom HaKippurim. In the place where Isaac resurrected (He 11:17-19), so would the Father’s Son call into the cloud those who would resurrect from the dead. In fact, tradition tells us that a cloud covered the mountain, and that is what Avraham and Isaac saw.
This was not Avraham’s first visit to Jerusalem. He’d brought tithes to Malkhi-Tzedek after the defeat of the four kings. Malkhi-Tzedek is thought to be another name for Shem, son of Noach, and Shalem an earlier form of the name Jerusalem (Targum Onkelos). The first part of the name was added when Avraham called the place YHVH Yireh (Ge 22:14). The foundation rock of a place called Shalem, Mount Moriah, Bethel, and Yerushalayim is part of the centrality of Jerusalem in drawing Avraham to offer Isaac, Isaac to offer himself, and Jacob to anoint the stone.
There is a protrusion of uncut stone on the Temple mount called the Even Shetiyah, or Foundation Stone. “The most important single object in Jerusalem was the Ark, containing the Tablets and the Original Torah. This stood in the Holy of Holies on an outcrop of bedrock known as the Even Shetiyah, literally, the Foundation Stone. The Talmud states that it is called the ‘Foundation Stone’ because it was the foundation of the universe...it was the very first point at which God began the act of creation.” (Kaplan, p. 78) The earth for Adam’s body is said to have been taken from the area of the altar.
From this holy point, it is said the Torah will go forth in the Messianic Age:
And many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
That He may teach us concerning His ways
And that we may walk in His paths.
For the law will go forth from Zion
And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem." (Is 2:3)
It is also said that all prayers of the nations are collected here, then raised to Heaven on its altars. This is why Sukkot (70 bulls) and the Temple altar services, especially the incense altar, were so important. The Divine spiritual influence increases in the world when the altars are functional. A final redemption will be accomplished on the Stone where all physical creation began. This is why we pray in the direction of the Temple Mount. King Shlomo established that when the nations turn toward the holy mountain to pray, that Adonai would hear their prayers in the dedication ceremony of the first Temple. (2 Ch 6:12-42)
In preparation, establishing the place of the Temple required three important steps. They were accomplished in divided prophetic steps by the patriarchs, then purposefully by kings David and his son Shlomo:
- Revealed by a Prophet
- Pursuit of and purchase by a Divinely selected king (Dt 17:14,15)
- Anointing/Dedication
In this place, the spiritual realm can be attached to the physical, much as a soul can be bound to a human body by the Creator. When the Rock is fully functional on the mountain, the spiritual Word can be sent and attached to all creation, restoring and maintaining life. The letter to the Hebrews (7:27; 9:12; 10:10) mentions Yeshua’s dedication of the stone. In last week’s lesson, Daniel interpreted King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream:
“You continued looking until a stone [even, אֶבֶן ] was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them.” (2:24)
The everlasting generations established by the King/Stone are hinted at in Deuteronomy 17:20: “he will prolong the days of his kingdom, him and his children.” When King Shlomo dedicated the Temple, he established the Holy Place, the Royal Line, and the thrones of justice.
The thrones of justice were the court facilities built into the walls of the Temple. It was called the Chamber of Cut Stone. The altar could not be built from cut stones, and no tool or sword could be used to shape them. This is also the appearance of the Even Shetiyah beneath the Ark. When human thought shapes sin and guilt, it profanes an altar (Ex 20:22). On the other hand, human thought serves a purpose in their obligation to execute justice and righteousness through commanded courts. The Word of God is unchangeable, but through Israel’s courts, humans are given the opportunity to “shape” the application of righteousness in individual cases.
In the Messianic age, the administration of Messiah Yeshua will ensure that the thrones of justice are set up and function in righteousness for the poor and needy of the earth. King Nebuchadnezzar had a vision of self-glory, but it would never outlast the everlasting generations of the righteous. Daniel prophesied that the kingdoms of the world would be blown away by the Stone unshaped by human hands in a very specific manner:
“Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” (Da 2:35)
“Like chaff from the summer threshing floors” is not random! The Temple Mount served as a Jebusite threshing floor, but was redeemed by King David to stop the plague on Israel. The march of the destroying angel halted on the threshing floor by Divine command. David cleared the chaff from the threshing floor to prepare for the Temple and the revelation of the Stone cut without hands. He even dug its foundations. The purchase went like this:
- 2 Sa 24:16-18 When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented from the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough! Now relax your hand!” And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite…So Gad came to David that day and said to him, “Go up, erect an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
- 2 Sa 24:21 Then Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be held back from the people.”
- 2 Sa 24:22-24 Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight. Look, the oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood…However, the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
The place was fully revealed to David in a time of plague. The place was more than the beginning of physical creation; it was the place where repentance could open the gates of prayer and Heaven to those who returned. Although the rulers, and even the city, may be taken by the sword, the legitimate king has/will purchase the place without blood. One meaning of shalom is “to fulfill, to repay.” The only blood that can fulfill the plan of Heaven in the place of uncut stone is the Stone’s. Yeshua’s blood covers the price “once for all.” Malkhi-Tzedek was the King of Shalem, a prophetic king who could fulfill the Divine plan with righteousness.
Yeshua will blow away the chaff of the nations when Heaven halts the destroying angel on the Temple Mount one day. I suspect that by that time, whoever occupies the place will recognize that no sinful human being’s blood could ever sanctify the altar or the Even Shetiyah. They will desire for the plague to stop. Like the Jebusites, they will be eager for the true King of Righteousness to take possession of the threshing floor and open the gates of prayer and repentance to the nations.
There is an odd little story in the portion Vayera, that of Avraham’s dispute with Avimelekh over a well that he’d dug. Avimelekh asks Avraham what he means by setting aside the seven ewes. Tradition says that in order to prove ownership of the well, Avraham suggested that both he and Avimelekh bring sheep to the well. When Avraham brought his seven ewes, the water literally leapt up to them, thus proving who had dug it. Perhaps not coincidentally, the area beneath the Even Shetiyah is called the “Well of Souls.” The Stone is protecting those souls beneath the Ark, the Mercy Seat, the Throne.
- When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained (Re 6:9)
It is therefore appropriate that Yeshua brought his blood to the place of uncut stone. The blood at Yom HaKippurim had to be carried from the altar to the Holy of Holies. It was a redemption plan that could not be shaped like gold, silver, bronze or iron of man’s vain thoughts, nor could it be executed by armies with swords and bows, or even a sword thrust through his side. He’d already willingly given up his life to draw from the “well of souls,” who likely leapt up to meet him just as the waters of Avraham’s well leapt up to greet his seven ewes. At the resurrection, the souls will once again leap up to the shofar call of the Ram. Until then? The gates of prayer and repentance are open. No human being can seal them up.
