Day 5: The Road of Sacrifice

Day #5 Jerusalem Temple

            Today, our feet travel holy ground. Though the glory of Solomon and Herod’s Temples has been long gone, an intangible mystery still lingers on our path leading to this Temple site.

            King David first envisioned the Temple on this mount. For most of his life, he dreamed of building the ultimate worship center—a magnificent place where God’s presence, His Sh’khinah, would dwell with His people.

            But it was his son Solomon, a man of peace, not David who would build the temple. What a place it was! Visiting dignitary the Queen of Sheba was overwhelmed. She told Solomon “The report I heard in my own country is true. . . . Indeed, but not even half was told me . . .”

            A thousand years later, Herod the Great would rebuild and expand Nehemiah’s as a token gesture to ingratiate the Jews. This Temple that Jesus knew so well, stood like a royal crown in the middle of the city, the purest white marble and golden gilt would have reflected brilliantly in the desert sun. Jesus walked these courts as a twelve-year-old boy, marveling rabbis with His insight as He would again twenty years later.

            But this ground you walk today is also known as Mount Moriah, the place Abraham built an altar and prepared to sacrifice his son, Isaac. In keeping with His promises to Abraham, God stopped him from killing his son here. Instead, He provided Himself a Lamb then as a picture and fifteen hundred years later as the reality.

            Directly east of the Temple outside the Damascus Gate, Jesus’ blood dripped on the same soil on which God had promised to provide that Lamb—not far from the spot Abraham and Isaac were introduced to a new way of trusting God.

Read All About It: 

Abraham and Isaac: Genesis 22:1-14; David prepares to build Temple; Solomon builds Temple; Jesus visits Temple as a young boy: Luke 2:42-50; Temple curtain tears: Matthew 27:51, Mark 15:38, Luke 23:45

Today’s Memory Maker:

In your free time, get a pass at the Jaffa Gate (approx $7) and walk around the top of the temple mount walls (allow at least two hours.)  It’s the best place to view the Kidron Valley, Gethsemane, City of David, Mt. of Olives, etc.)

Map: Jerusalem: Mount of Olives, Old City, Temple Mount, Mount Moriah.