I Love To See the Temple

Our field trip to see the temple was awesome! The temple mount was one of my favorite places in Jerusalem. I loved the Spirit there and I really missed being able to go to temple, so it was cool at least see the remnants of the ancient temple.


Here's a pretty accurate model of the 2nd temple and surrounding courtyards and the such.


These are stones from the 2nd temple (Herod's temple which was standing at the time of Christ and destroyed by the Romans in 70AD) It was prophesied that not one stone would be left standing upon another, and obviously that's true. Titus (the commander of the Romans) commanded his soldiers to leave the temple standing, but they disobeyed his orders and threw the stones off of the temple mount.


This is the "trumpeting place" or the pinnacle of the temple. It is believed that the place where Christ was tempted of Satan to jump.


Jewish families love to come to Israel for their sons to have their bar mitzvas by the temple. It was pretty cool to see that going on. You can see the 13 year old boy, between his parents, reading from a Torah scroll.


This is at the base of the temple mount (just next to where that bar mitzvah was going on, and right across the cobblestone road from where the temple stones where thrown). This is where the shopkeepers sold animals for sacrifice and changed money. Eventually this practice was moved onto the temple mount and that is where they were when Christ cleansed the temple.


This is a miqvah. The shadows make it kind of hard to see, but it is a ritual bath. These were found in the homes of wealthy Jews and at any holy place. Before entering the holy site, the Jews would walk down the 7 steps on the right into the purifying water, and then up the 7 steps on the left. Then they could not touch anything unclean such as a dead body, someone with leprosy or an unclean animal or they would have to wash again.


You can see the excavations of the temple mount. The black dome on top is the Al-asqa mosque. It is on the south end of the temple mount, across from the Done of the Rock. This is in the Muslim area but it is the Israeli government funding the excavations, so it is a rather controversial thing with Muslims being kicked off of their land and the stuff. That's a hard dilemna because this is something that is very important and sacred to the Jewish people. I have no solutions, but the conflict is interesting.


The gate behind us has now been closed off, but it was an entrance to the temple mount and we are standing on the one place in the holy land where Jesus definitely walked, either entering or exiting the temple. That was a cool thing, but it was more 'Oh, that's cool' than a profoud spiritual experience. Nonetheless, Christ loved the temple and I do too. It has been great to be able to go again so often.