This is REALLY cool!!!

 

Are you familiar with the verse in Proverbs that says: Pro 25:2  It is the glory of God to conceal a thing; But the glory of kings is to search out a matter. Well, I certainly don't consider myself a King, but I believe that God also reveals golden nuggets to His people. I feel like that is what He has done in this study!

 

I believe God (for whatever reason) has special, set-apart, sanctified places on this Earth. Places that are particularly special to "Him". I believe He has special places for each of His children also and that in His timing He leads us to those places.

God once said to Moses: Exo 20:24-25  An altar of earth you shalt make unto me, and shall sacrifice thereon your burnt offerings, and your peace offerings, your sheep, and your oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto you, and I will bless you. And if you will make me an altar of stone, You shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if you lift up your tool upon it, you have

polluted it. 

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As God showed His servants special places for sacrifices throughout the Bible, He certainly considered Jerusalem to be one of those special places. Here are just a few verses where God said He would place His name in Jerusalem:

 

1Ki 11:36  And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a light always before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name there. 

2Ki 21:4  And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.

2Ch 6:6  But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel.

2Ch 33:4  Also he built altars in the house of the LORD, whereof the LORD had said, In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever. 

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So we see that the Lord said: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. And we see that He definitely recorded or placed His name in Jerusalem. So, now we come to the golden nugget. A thing you would probably not even consider since the Lord concealed it, but unto some of His servants He has revealed it. 

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I began to wonder if the place where the Lord had Solomon build His temple (the place where many sacrifices were offered) is the very same place some earlier sacrifices were set-apart to be made. Please read on and see what you think about this.

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If you remember, one of the first people to seek after the Lord (after Noah's flood) was Abram, later re-named Abraham. He did not even know the Lords name, but He believed in Him and chose to follow His voice to a "very special" place where the Lord would lead him.

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We will skip over all the lands where Abraham spent time journeying after God, so we can focus on one particular place, a mountain called Moriah.

 

Gen 22:1  And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. 
Gen 22:2  And he said, Take now thy son, thine "only" son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. 

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Some Bible movies portray Abraham being angry at God and even yelling at Him in some movie versions. I believe that (at first) Abraham may have questioned how the Lord could ask such a thing. But I also believe from the Bible verses shown below that Abraham had full confidence that Isaac would live, even if it meant the Lord raising Isaac from the dead! See if you agree:

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Gen 22:4  Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. 
Gen 22:5  And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. 
Gen 22:6  And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. 
Gen 22:7  And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? 
Gen 22:8  And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. 

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Did you catch that? Abraham told his servants, the young men, "Stay here with the ass and Isaac "AND" I will go to Moriah and worship AND come again to you.

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I think Abraham already believed that even if he sacrificed Isaac, that the Lord would raise him from the dead to fulfill His promises to make Abraham the Father of many nations THROUGH his son Isaac! 

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Is it not very interesting how God told Abraham to take his son, his "only" son to Moriah and offer him for a sacrifice? Abraham had another son, Ishmael,  through Hagar, but God tells Abraham to take his son, his "only" son to Moriah and sacrifice him. The interesting part is that later the writer of Hebrews refers to Isaac with these words: 

 

Heb 11:17  By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his "only begotten son", 
Heb 11:18  Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 
Heb 11:19  Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. (Did you catch that! Abraham accounted it to God by faith that He was able to raise Isaac from the dead!)

 

The Lord only refers to "One other" with the words "only begotten Son" and that was His own son Yeshua, whom offered Himself up as a sacrifice for us.

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I also find it interesting that Abraham told Isaac even before they arrived on top of Moriah that "God Himself will provide a lamb for the sacrifice." We know that God then did provide a ram for the sacrifice, caught by his horns (or head) in the thicket. Gen 22:13  And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

 

One thing I find interesting is that God's son Yeshua had the thorns of a thicket placed on his head also. The other thing I find interesting is that there is a wide held belief amongst Jews that says that the two rams horns (or shofars) removed from the ram that God provided as a substitute for Isaac, would be blown by God Himself. They say the first one was blown on top of mount Sinai when God sounded the trumpet and gave the ten commandments. They say the second horn will be blown by God at the coming of His Messiah to Earth! 

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I hope that these same Jews will one day read our new testament that states:

1Th 4:16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: AND 1Cor 15:52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed!

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Moving on in this study to the real golden nugget. Now let us look at something that at first probably looks completely unrelated, but then I will show you how it is completely relevant!

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So, in 2 Samuel chapter 24, we see in verses 10 - 25 that David was going to be chastened for numbering his troops and The Lord was offering David to choose 1 of 3 judgments. David chooses 3 days of a plague and 70,000 people died!

On the 3rd day, God stops the angel's sword and tells David to build an altar at the exact spot where the plague was stopped. To see the full story click here

2Sam 24:16  And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing place of Araunah the Jebusite. 

2Sam 24:25  And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel. 
 

So, I think that this place that David is told to build an altar and sacrifice to the Lord could be the exact same spot that Abraham was told to sacrifice his only son Isaac! Why do I think this?

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At the time Abraham went up to Moriah, it was a barren mountain top. Abraham had been promised that everywhere he laid the sole of his feet would be an inheritance for his people one day, not for Abraham himself, but for his descendants. King David was a descendant! But remember that Abraham lived approx 1000 years before David. When David captured the City of Jebus, he changed the name of the City to Jerusalem.

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And finally, the final golden nugget that brings it all together:

 

2Chr 3:1  Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

 

Yes, Ornan was also known by the name Araunah! So, I think it is amazing that Abraham took Isaac to Mount Moriah to sacrifice him on top of that "barren"

mountain. Nearly a thousand years later the Jebusite's built the City of Jebus on that mountain and eventually David overtook that City and re-named it Jerusalem. David built an alter on mount Moriah and offer to the Lord, and after that his son Solomon built the Temple at the same spot, for doing even more sacrifices to the Lord!

 

The most special part for me personally was that the Lord blessed me to be able to travel to Israel in 2004 to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. I was taken by our tour guide to a spot that was excavated and that they believe was the place where Solomon's temple was actually built, which was not the spot called the Temple Mount with the Golden Dome that everyone thinks was the spot that Solomon's temple was built.

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So, whether that was actually the same spot that Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac and David sacrificed on the threshing floor of Ornan, I do not know. But it was still very special to have been able to visit the land and see so many spots where all these things in the Bible actually took place!