A STORMY WINTER WEEK
The first well-developed winter cyclone visited Israel this week with hailstones the size of golf balls in Haifa, water-spouts off Tel Aviv, flooding in low lying areas and rain all over the Land. It was a steady, wetting rain that lasted 2-3 days and soaked deep into the soil, boding well for a good winter (which here in Israel means one with plenty of rain).
It is not only the weather that has been stormy this week as Jerusalem has been rocked by yet another week of escalating violence. The rains helped to dampen the rioting in the early part of the week but on Wednesday afternoon, another terrorist drove his car into pedestrians at a light rail stop in East Jerusalem, not far from the previous week's similar attack, which had killed a baby and a 22 year old woman. In this week's attack two more people were killed and around 14 treated for injuries in the city's hospitals. The terrorist, Al-Akari, a 38 year old Palestinian from East Jerusalem, plowed his car first into a group of Border Guard police officers, killing Chief Inspector Jadan Assad , a Druze officer. He continued to drive around running down pedestrians and a cyclist, Shalom Baadani, 17-year-old yeshiva student, who died of his wounds on Friday. Al-Akari had ties to Hamas, which claimed responsibility for the attack. The same evening a Palestinian registered vehicle rammed a group of soldiers near Bethlehem, injuring three soldiers, one seriously. This incident may have just been a traffic accident as the driver claims, but nevertheless it added to the atmosphere of danger in the city, coming on the heels of the previous night's attacks.
That same night the Police in conjunction with the Jerusalem Municipality began putting concrete barriers at the light rail stops in East Jerusalem. While this will prevent attacks at those sites it adds to the feeling of siege in the city, and no doubt the terrorists will find another target.
Meanwhile Palestinians were taking to the social media and proclaiming the "Intifada of Cars". “From Palestine we brought to the world the intifada of stones. Now we are bringing from Palestine the intifada of running over (or trampling),” read a message on one popular Palestinian Facebook page.http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/25497/Default.aspx
These attacks are only one aspect of the current unrest in Jerusalem. Every day we are subjected to rioting in various places around the city, where scores of young men throw rocks, Molotov cocktails and shoot fireworks at Jewish homes, police and passersby. The editor of the International Jerusalem Post, described daily life in Jerusalem these days eloquently:
It is being called “The Silent Intifada,” but not by me. When bereaved families cry and emergency vehicles wail on their way to yet another terrorist incident in the capital; when police helicopters hover above hot spots in Jerusalem; shots ring out; and the sound of fireworks being thrown at Jewish homes can be heard almost every night, these are indications that there is an intifada going on and it’s not a quiet one, just lo-tech – so far.
In the early hours of the morning, the intifada is particularly noisy in my neighborhood, like so many others in Jerusalem.
It is then that the muezzin can be heard calling the residents of nearby Arab neighborhoods for prayers. The volume is much greater than that needed to wake the sleepy devout; in colloquial terms, it is loud enough to wake the dead. This is not an act of religious freedom – it is part of the ongoing psychological warfare. And the sermons sounding out oh-so-loud and clear in the wee hours are not calling for peace and quiet: They are adding fuel to the intifada flames, broadcasting the message of jihad.
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/My-Word-No-golden-silence-in-Jerusalem-381072
What began back in April as the expression of anger by a few score disenchanted youths is becoming more and more focused as a battle for the Temple Mount, incited by Muslim preachers and political leaders. Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad called for a 'day of rage' on Friday to protest what they claim is Jewish desecration of the Muslim holy sites. Ironically, if there is any desecration of these sites occurring, it is that caused by the daily violence of the rioters who use the mosques as a base for launching attacks on Jewish visitors and police.
Also on Friday Hamas announced the creation of a new army in preparation for a new confrontation with Israel. A senior official with the Izz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said that this new "People's Army" would include 2,500 soldiers which were to serve as the vanguard "for the liberation of the al-Aqsa mosque and of Palestine".
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4589331,00.html
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| The Temple Mount as seen from the end of my street today |
This all raises the question: whose mountain is it? In my last post I quoted a neighbor of one of the car terrorists who remarked "Why do [Jewish] rightists enter Al-Aqsa every day? It's a Muslim mosque, no Temple Mount or anything. What kind of stories have you been telling yourselves? Don't get near Islam's holy places, it's playing with fire. We were here from before Israel was established, this is our land." This statement says it all. Muslims believe the Temple Mount, which they call Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary), to be their holy site, theirs alone. They do not permit Jews or Christians to pray there.
The Al Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount is considered the third holiest place for Muslims. According to Muslim tradition Mohammed made a mystical night journey, either physically or spiritually, on a winged white beast called Burqa to the 'farthest mosque' and ascended to heaven. This journey is referred to only once in the Koran:
Glory to (Allah) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless, in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things). (Al-Isra 17: 1)
According to the Hadith and other Muslim writings Mohammed was then taken up into the seven levels of heaven, meeting other prophets including Jesus, Moses and Abraham.
Tradition has it that this 'farthest mosque' is the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, but this seems unlikely since the first Muslim mosque on the Temple Mount was built by the Caliph Umar, the second of the successors to Mohammed. At the time of Mohammed no building was standing on the Mount. The present Al Aqsa mosque was built by the Fatimid Caliph Ali as-Zahir in the year 1035 AD after a series of earlier structures were destroyed by earthquakes. Also on the Temple Mount stands an older structure, the Dome of the Rock, which was completed initially in the year 691 AD, some 59 years after the death of Mohammed in 632AD.
The Koran does not identify the site of the 'farthest mosque' as Jerusalem, and in fact Jerusalem is not mentioned by name at all in the Koran. The early Arab historian and the biographer of Mohammed, Al-Waqidi, identified the 'farthest mosque' as being one of two located in the village of al-Gi'irranah between Mecca and Ta'if. The linking of 'the farthest mosque' with Jerusalem only appears much later in the Hadiths and other Islamic writings. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamization_of_Jerusalem
Muslims believe that their claim to the 'ownership' of the Temple Mount however goes back much further, long before Mohammed, even to Adam. Here is a summary of events as Muslim's see it:
- The Al Aqsa mosque was first built by the Prophet Adam
- Ibrahim (Abraham) rebuilt the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem (as Ibrahim and Ishmael had rebuilt the Kaaba in Mecca)
- The Prophet Daud ( King David) began the rebuilding of the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Prophet Suleiman ( Solomon) completed its building.
- Suleiman's mosque was destroyed in 587 BC by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon
- The Jews rebuilt their Temple on the same site in 167 BC but it was destroyed in 70 AD and the Jews were banished from Jerusalem.
- The site remained barren and was used as a rubbish tip for nearly 600 years until the Great Caliph, Umar bin Khattab, liberated Jerusalem in 637/8 AD, and began the construction of a timber mosque on the site.
- The Umayyad Caliph, Abd' al Malik ibn Marwan in 691/2 AD began the construction of, Dome of the Rock
- Israel occupied the Al Aqsa Mosque in 1967
This insidious rewriting of history and the appropriation of the First and Second Jewish Temples of the Bible by Islamic scholars is the basis for current Muslim belief that the Temple Mount, or the Noble Sanctuary as they call it, belongs to Islam and neither Jews nor Christians have any claim. The Bible gives a very different story.
When Solomon completed and dedicated the First Temple he prayed to God and the LORD replied, saying
“I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built to put My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually"
1 Kings 9:3
Here am I and the children whom the Lord has given me!
We are for signs and wonders in Israel
From the Lord of hosts,
Who dwells in Mount Zion
Isaiah 8:18
For the Lord has chosen Zion;
He has desired it for His dwelling place:
14 “This is My resting place forever;
Here I will dwell, for I have desired it.
Psalm 132: 13-14
The Temple Mount belongs to the LORD, the God of Israel, forever. He has chosen this place to manifest his presence on Earth until the end of days. However the Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Solomon's Temple in the year 586 BC because the Israelites of the southern Kingdom of Judah had abandoned the worship of the LORD and turned to the worship of idols. Seventy years later, God commanded Cyrus, the King of Persia, to send the Jews back to Jerusalem build Him a house there (Ezra 1: 1-2). This second temple was dedicated in the year 515 BC and stood for approximately 500 years. It was modest in comparison to Solomon's Temple but God promised its glory would exceed that of the former Temple:
In the seventh month, on the twenty-first of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying: 2 “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, saying: 3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing? 4 Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ says the Lord; ‘and be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land,’ says the Lord, ‘and work; for I am with you,’ says the Lord of hosts. 5 ‘According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!’6 “For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; 7 and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts. 8 ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts. 9 ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the Lord of hosts.”
Haggai 2: 1-9
In the years 20-18 BC Herod the Great completely rebuilt it and the prophecy of Haggai was fulfilled as the 'Desire of All Nations', Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah, came to it (Luke 2: 21-24) , calling it his Father's house (John 13:2).
After Yeshua's death, resurrection and ascension to his Father's house in Heaven, the Second Temple was totally destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. The Romans then erected on the Temple site a temple to their gods, Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, the patron gods of the new city of Aelia Capitolina. At the beginning of the 4th Century, the Roman Emperor Constantine embraced Christianity and the pagan temples were destroyed. In 361 a pagan Emperor, Julian the Apostate, brought Jews back to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple but two years later the building, still under construction, was destroyed by an earthquake. During the Christian period churches sprang up nearby but the Temple Mount was left vacant and became a rubbish dump. It was thus the Muslim invaders found it in the 7th Century when they invaded Jerusalem.
This is not the end of the story however. The Bible clearly speaks of a Third Temple from which the Messiah will reign at the end of days.
Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH!
From His place He shall branch out,
And He shall build the temple of the Lord;
13 Yes, He shall build the temple of the Lord.
He shall bear the glory,
And shall sit and rule on His throne;
So He shall be a priest on His throne,
Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH!
From His place He shall branch out,
And He shall build the temple of the Lord;
13 Yes, He shall build the temple of the Lord.
He shall bear the glory,
And shall sit and rule on His throne;
So He shall be a priest on His throne,
And the counsel of peace shall be between them both.”’
14 “Now the elaborate crown shall be for a memorial in the temple of the Lord for Helem, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Hen the son of Zephaniah. 15 Even those from afar shall come and build the temple of the Lord.
Zechariah 6: 12-15
I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of Yahweh of Hosts will be called the Holy Mountain."
Zechariah 8:3
It is no wonder then that the Enemy of the LORD God of Israel, will try and derail the rebuilding of the Third Temple and the establishment of the reign of the Messiah on Earth. The anti-Christ wants to sit on the throne himself. This struggle will bring war to Jerusalem, the war when all the nations will come up against her as is prophesied in Zechariah 12:1-14,
Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. 3 And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it. 4 In that day,” says the Lord, “I will strike every horse with confusion, and its rider with madness; I will open My eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. 5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength in the Lord of hosts, their God.’ 6 In that day I will make the governors of Judah like a firepan in the woodpile, and like a fiery torch in the sheaves; they shall devour all the surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left, but Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place—Jerusalem.7 “The Lord will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall not become greater than that of Judah. 8 In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the Lord before them. 9 It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
10 “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. 11 In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 And the land shall mourn, every family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; 13 the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and their wives by themselves; 14 all the families that remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves.
I do not know when these words will be fulfilled but it seems very likely it will be soon. The battle lines are being drawn and the Enemy is mobilizing his proxies to try and conquer Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. He will not succeed but only bring about the return of the Messiah. Hallelujah!
MARANATA , LORD, COME!!!
![The scene of the car crash September 13, 2015 resulting from a rock-throwing attack in East Talpiot, Jerusalem in which Alexander Levlovitz, 64 [inset] was killed. (Arik Abulof/ Jerusalem Fire and Rescue Services/Courtesy)](http://cdn.timesofisrael.com/uploads/2015/09/rescue-and-fire-e1442184606802zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.jpg "The scene of the car crash September 13, 2015 resulting from a rock-throwing attack in East Talpiot, Jerusalem in which Alexander Levlovitz, 64 [inset] was killed. (Arik Abulof/ Jerusalem Fire and Rescue Services/Courtesy)")
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