Archives For second temple

The Temple Mount—An Ordinary Hill Made Holy

Abraham saw the acreage. David bought the lot. Solomon built the house.

Nebuchadnezzar tore it town. Zerubbabel rebuilt it. Herod the Great expanded it. Titus flattened it. Before these temples stood on Mount Moriah, it was nothing but a hill used for threshing wheat.

Hardly worth noticing.

Temple Mount aerial from north bb00040095 2 The Temple Mount—An Ordinary Hill Made Holy

(Photo: the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, courtesy of Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

But today, the Temple Mount remains the most precious piece of real estate in the world. And the golden shrine that graces its crest has become the icon for the Holy City of Jerusalem itself.

How did this ordinary hill become holy? Not through battles or land bartering or by popular vote.

God chose it.

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The Southern Steps and Psalms of Ascent Reminders

Who would have ever thought to use stairs as a memory-trigger?

At the southern edge of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, a 200-foot wide flight of stairs represents both original and restored steps from the Second Temple period.

Southern steps with Psalms of Ascent tb n090599 The Southern Steps and Psalms of Ascent Reminders

(Photo: Reading the Psalms of Ascent on the Southern Steps. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.)

Millions of sandals (including Jesus’) shuffled up these steps in antiquity as Jewish pilgrims came from all Israel and the Diaspora to worship the Lord for the annual feasts.

Some suggest the pilgrims sang the Psalms of Ascent on these steps. If so, the place brought to mind critical themes.

The place echoes of our need to be reminded of what we already know.

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Echoes of Rosh Hashanah at the Place of Trumpeting

Whenever I visit the Jerusalem Archaeological Park, I’m eager to walk to the southwest corner of the Temple Mount.

I’ve never been to this corner on Rosh Hashanah or during the Feast of Trumpets, but I’d love to go there then. Archaeologists have uncovered a large portion of the first-century street that stretched north along the original Western Wall.

Excavations below Robinsons Arch from north tb122006922 1024x546 Echoes of Rosh Hashanah at the Place of Trumpeting

Photo: The southwest corner of the Temple Mount at left. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.

One hundred meters north of the corner is the part of the Western Wall where locals and tourists pray. But beneath the ground, Jerusalem’s Central Valley has been filled in with the rubble of the Second Temple’s destruction in A.D. 70.  As a result, the beautiful modern plaza stands about 30 feet above the first-century street uncovered at the southwestern corner.

There at the corner lies a reminder of something Jesus predicted 37 years before the temple’s destruction.

And of a promise He made that could be fulfilled at any moment.

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How Tisha B’Av and the Burnt House in Jerusalem Examine Our Motives

Sometimes it’s tough to dissect our motives. Take prayer for example.

  • We bow our heads to pray, and yet—that’s nowhere in the Bible.
  • We men remove our hats, but again—there’s no verse on that.
  • We end prayers “in Jesus’ name”—but is that really what John 16:24 means?

prayingprone How Tisha BAv and the Burnt House in Jerusalem Examine Our Motives

Photo: Design Pics, via Vivozoom

It’s not that there’s anything wrong, per se, with these self-imposed rituals. It’s the motive behind them that can trip us up.

I can’t help but think about motives when I visit the Burnt House in Jerusalem. Destroyed along with the Second Temple in AD 70, the Burnt House reminds me of a question the Prophet Zechariah recorded about the First Temple’s destruction.

God’s answer to the Jews of that day still rings in my mind. I can’t shake it.

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