Glimpses of Israel - The Temple Mount

by Joseph H Hunting

Four thousand years ago Abraham and Isaac demonstrated the supreme act of obedience to God on Mount Moriah. In those days it was a rocky hill just north of the Jebusite fortress city of Jebus.

A thousand years later on the same spot David built an altar and sacrificed Araunah's bullocks to God, and on this same spot Solomon built his magnificent Temple.

Over the centuries Jerusalem which later embraced Mount Moriah was destroyed and rebuilt on numerous occasions. The valley separating Mount Zion of David's time and Mount Moriah was filled with debris and the two hills merged into one.

Herod the Great levelled the top of the Temple Mount, or Mount Moriah, to be a great platform upon which he built Israel's last Temple. This in turn was totally destroyed by the armies of Titus in 70 A.D.

The Romans regarded Jerusalem as the seat of rebellion and the city was raised to the ground with one exception. The massive retaining wall on the west side of the Temple Mount was left standing as a lasting memorial to the might and power of Imperial Rome. Today, that wall is the last standing relic of Herod's building genius. It is also the most sacred remnant of Israel's Temple.

Perhaps the day is not far distant when Israel will again adorn the Temple Mount with another Temple which could well be the latter-day one referred to by Daniel.