Last week we examined the history of the foundation stone of a place called Shalem, Mount Moriah, Bethel, and Yerushalayim. It is part of the centrality of Jerusalem in drawing Avraham to offer Isaac, Isaac to offer himself, and Jacob to anoint the stone.
The protrusion of uncut stone on the Temple mount is 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.
When the Stone is fully functional on the mountain in an operating Temple, the full force of 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 toward that purpose. 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)
- “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)
How Yeshua's kingdom would destroy Babylon, Medea-Persia, Greece, and Rome is prophesied in the Torah, not just Daniel. And how that mountain can fill the whole world with life is also found in the Torah. All mankind was formed from the earth of the Temple Mount, and the Stone will provide the way back to resurrection. The marriage prayer of Isaac and the purchase of Sarah's tomb in Hebron both speak to the great plan of the Foundation Stone.
- Now Isaac had come from going to Beer-lahai-roi; for he was living in the Negev. Isaac went out to meditate (H7742 suach) in the field toward evening; and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, camels were coming. Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac she dismounted from the camel. She said to the servant, “Who is that man walking in the field to meet us?” And the servant said, “He is my master.” (Ge 24:62-65)
Isaac is praying in the field when he lifts his eyes to see the camels approaching. This tells us Isaac’s emotional state in the field, which is borne out by what follows, that with Rivkah’s arrival, he is comforted after his mother’s death. The word suach is found in Psalm 102:1
- A Prayer of the Afflicted when he is faint and pours out his complaint (sichu, שִׂיחֹֽו ) before the LORD. Hear my prayer, O LORD! And let my cry for help come to You.
This prayer is one of someone who has been afflicted or “humbled.” He is grieving. Isaac is mourning for his mother Sarah, whom his father buried at Hebron, said also to be the burial place of Adam at Eve because it is an entryway back to the Garden. Out of that humbling, the person Isaac, who is “lower,” cries out for help from someone greater, YHVH. Isaac is mourning for his mother in the same place that Ishmael’s mother Hagar was humbled and cried out for someone greater to help. Prayer should always acknowledge the One greater as the source of help.
Because of the timing of this prayer, Isaac is credited with instituting the Minchah, or three o’clock prayer, according to his evening (afternoon) meditation in the field. The Hebrew word sikha implies a conversation. Ultimately, prayer is a conversation with Adonai.
Jacob is credited with the proto-type of evening prayer. He encounters the gate of Heaven at Beth-El, quite by accident. He wasn’t aware of where he’d slept until he awoke. Rabbi Sacks calls this kind of prayer, “Bumping into God.” Isaac demonstrates how we seek Adonai with purpose; Jacob demonstrates how He may seek us when we need Him, but don't expect to find Him.
- Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.” So Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top. (Ge 28:16;18)
Jacob used the even stone, placing his rosh, or head, atop it. This is consistent with the “Head of the Corner stone,” or l’rosh pinah, preached multiple times by Peter and Paul. The word that describes when Jacob "came" to the place unwittingly is vayifgah, from pagiah:
- וַיִּפְגַּע to encounter, happen to meet, reach, entreat, make intercession
Rabbi Sacks, may his memory be for blessing, wrote of Jacob: “He bumped into God. There are spiritual experiences we have when we are least expecting them-when we are alone, afraid, thinking of something else altogether. That was Jacob’s vision of prayer. Not everything in the life of the spirit is under our control. The great transformative experiences-love, a sudden sense of beauty, an upsurge of happiness-happen unpredictably, leaving us surprised by joy. The glory of Jacob’s epiphany is that it happened at night, in the midst of fear and flight. That is prayer as pegia.”
The formal prayers were evolving in the Second Temple era, and they were a common prayer for both Jews and “God fearers” in Acts of the Apostles. Peter and John observe the hour of prayer:
- Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.
In Acts, Peter and John are still accustomed to praying in the Temple at the appointed hour, and they encounter a lame man, likely a Jew, at the hour of Minchah prayer, the ninth hour. This is three o’clock, the time of the Isaac prayer.
Cornelius is also in Minchah prayer when he is visited by the angel. “He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius.” While many English readers would picture Cornelius kneeling in prayer with clasped hands as Christians do today, the true picture would look much different. Cornelius learned of the One God of Israel from Jews; therefore, he learned how to pray from Jews. Picture Cornelius standing in his home facing Jerusalem. He takes three steps back, then three steps forward, symbolically stepping into the Presence of Adonai.
Cornelius’ Minchah prayers are accompanied by acts of kindness to the Jews of his community. He offers not only the sacrifice of his lips, but good deeds of the Torah. The text calls Cornelius a “God-fearer.” A God-fearer is a Gentile, a “proselyte of the gate,” who has accepted the one God of Israel and who has begun to keep some of the commandments.
Cornelius the God-fearer also observes the Jewish hour of prayer: “And Cornelius said, ‘Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing.” In the waning decades of the second Temple, the hour of prayer is the ninth hour. This places the prayer “between the evenings,” between noon and sundown, three o’clock.
Even the time of month when Cornelius prayed is evident. The Torah ordains "On your days of rejoicing and your holy days and on your month’s beginning, you shall blow the trumpets over your offerings that they may be to you a memorial (zikaron) offering before your God.”
Just as the Jews placed goodwill money offerings in the Temple trumpets to accompany their prayers, Cornelius’ good deeds are offered with prayer, and together they ascend as a memorial offering, a zikaron, for the angel says, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.” Acts 10:4.
Cornelius’ Minchah prayer and gifts to the poor parallel Peter’s Minchah and gift to the poor, not silver and gold, but healing. Rosh Chodesh, the first day of the lunar Biblical month, is a day appointed for sacrifices of prayer and good deeds to be an especial zikaron to Adonai. This may be Cornelius’ exact day of prayer. When one is fasting as Cornelius says he is the day of his visitation, a significant benediction of the Shemoneh Esrei is inserted. The fasting benediction is a fervent plea to Adonai to answer the prayer:
- Answer us, Adonai, answer us, on this day of our fast, for we are in great distress. Do not pay attention to our wickedness; do not hide Your Face from us, and do not ignore our plea. Please be near to our cry; please comfort us with your kindness – before we call to You answer us, as it is said: ‘And it will be that before they call, I will answer; while they are speaking, I will hear.’ For You, Adonai, are the One Who responds in time of distress, who redeems and rescues. (Artscroll)
The answer to Cornelius’ fervent Minchah prayer is that indeed, while he is yet speaking, Adonai hears and answers. Just as Isaac poured out his grief to El Shaddai in the field, longing for the comfort of his mother, the camels stroll in with the answer to his prayers and Rivkah, a source of comfort. The two Acts specific examples of the Minchah, or “Isaac prayer,” are related. It is a Jewish doctrine of Gentile inclusion built on Song of Songs 1:3:
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Your oils have a pleasing fragrance,Your name is like purified oil; therefore, the maidens love you.”
One interpretation of this verse is that the "maidens" are the descendants of righteous Gentiles like Ruth, who convert to the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Whereas before they had no hope in this world or the world to come, now their descendants can become kings and priests of Israel. The strangers and aliens who had no hope are gladdened by the two fragrant oils of Israel: the anointing oils of priest and king, and the purified anointing oil of Mashiach Yeshua. Now their descendants can become priests and kings. A royal priesthood.
Cornelius is rewarded with not only acceptance of his zikaron offering of Minchah prayer, but redemption for his whole household, and the gate is opened for the unification of the Jew and Gentile in the Commonwealth of Israel. The Orthodox Jewish translation of the New Testament plainly connects the zikaron (remembrance) to the unification of Jew and Gentile through the sacrifice of Messiah. Paul urges the Ephesians to
- Have zikaron (remembrance) that you were at that time unrelated and separate from Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, having been alienated from the citizenship in the Am Berit, from Yisroel, being strangers to the Beritot HaHavtacha, lost, and having no tikvah (hope) and without G-d in the Olam Hazeh. But now in Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua, you, who formerly were in the outermost courts, have been brought near by the kapparah of the dam of Moshiach. Therefore, then, no longer are you zarim and aliens, but you are fellow citizens of the Kadoshim and bnei bayit members of the household of G-d. (Eph 2:11-19)
The translation draws out the tradition of the Even Shetiyah, the foundation stone of the altar/Holy of Holies. Yeshua's blood (dam) covering on the Stone has begun the process of smashing the images of the kingdoms of the world. The mountain will now begin to grow among the nations. Yeshua as the Stone is the one who can reconcile the Gentile nations to their holy place of of Creation and give them hope to inherit the hidden light, the Name like ”purified oil” of the world. This Stone causes the mountain of the Torah to fill the whole world with an everlasting kingdom.
The KJV translates the same passage, emphasizing the “peace” or fulfillment aspect of the priest’s Malkhi-Tzedek’s place of Shalem. Isaac was sacrificed on Mt. Moriah, evoking the place-name as “YHVH Yireh.” This gives us Yerushalayim, two fragrant, purified oils for all:
- Therefore remember, that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh…that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ...For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one…that in Himself He might make the two into one new man…for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household…
And then, Paul preaches Peter’s Stone doctrine to the Ephesian "glad maidens":
- AND HE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY, AND PEACE TO THOSE WHO WERE NEAR; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.”
Paul uses the “corner stone” doctrine similarly to Peter. Peter demonstrated the Minchah answer to prayer. While the Jewish lame man poured out his “Isaac prayer” and only had hope of handouts of silver and gold, kingdoms of men, Peter gives him the answer to his prayer in physical healing, signified by entering the Temple gates. He can hope for more!
Likewise, Paul holds out this hope to non-Jews, evoking the building aspect of the Stone. Although the physical Temple is far from the Ephesians, nevertheless, the blood offered there is incorporating them into the spiritual building. It is the blood of a priest and king of Adonai sprinkled on the Even Shetiyah. That Stone will cause the non-Jews to become part of a Mountain that fills the whole world. That stone, then, is the chief and the foundation stone and the tower of defense for His people, all the definitions of l'rosh pinah, or "CORNER stone."
The prayers of the patriarchs give inspiration each day to Jew and non-Jew alike.
We are all children of Abraham. Some are physical descendants, but some are spiritual descendants, leaving the faith of their fathers and embracing the path to the Land, Covenant, and People of Israel. We stand in the place like Abraham. We have been brought near and enjoy the comfort and peace made by Yeshua’s blood. Because of his grief and sorrow, like Isaac’s, we have hope both in this world and the World to Come. We walk in the field of the world and the Word, seeking a dialogue with the Holy One.
We know also that there will be times when we will “bump into God” on our daily journey. Even when we journey through places of idolatry, the “bump” will remind us of the One who gives us hope of return...and that we will return to the Place untainted by the world. We will resurrect.
