The restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount – Part five

Editor’s note: This post originally appeared on David’s Tent, a ministry of Israeli believers Avner and Rachel Boskey. The Boskey’s have ministered at Tabernacle of David, and we consider them trustworthy and Biblically sound.

This is part five of a six-part newsletter.

Part one looked at the recent 13 minute ‘walk around’ the Temple Mount by Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and the immediate international explosion. Then it examined the histories of Roman, Byzantine and Islamic laws forbidding Jews to walk on or pray on the Temple Mount.
Part two looked at attitudes and policies concerning the Jews/Temple Mount during the Early Islamic times, the Crusader period, the Ottoman Turkish occupation, the British Mandate, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, as well as Israeli Minister of Defense General Moshe Dayan’s decisions regarding the ‘status quo’ in the aftermath of the June 1967 Six-Day War.
Part three looked at Temple Mount developments between 1967-2022
Part four focused on what the Bible teaches about the Temple Mount and the Last Days
This newsletter looks at the central place of the Temple Mount in the Last Battle, the Messianic kingdom and the location of Messiah Yeshua’s throne
Part six will focus on the Eternal Order and the New Jerusalem in relation to the Temple Mount

No Temple on the Mount

Since 70 A.D. there has been no operating Temple on the Temple Mount. Since then, Messianic Jews have been excluded from worshipping within the Jewish community by their rabbinic competitors, being barred for the most part from synagogue attendance. But this is not surprising in light of the fact that Messiah Yeshua was also persona non grata in the eyes of Israel’s leaders.

Rabbinic Judaism restructured itself after the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D., developing liturgies and theologies which were a Rabbinic form of Replacement Theology: Since atoning sacrifices were no longer accessible, a decision was made to ‘replace’ them with quasi-atoning emphases on prayer services, acts of repentance, and good deeds. Modern streams of Judaism (especially Reform and Conservative) do not teach the need for atonement though Temple sacrifice and often see the concept as a primitive appendix. However, most Orthodox Jews pray and look forward to the eventual building of a Temple and the resumption of sacrifices.

Today, only perhaps 15% of all Jews (which includes a significant majority of Orthodox Jews) hope for the rebuilding of the Temple, though some traditional Jews might also lean in that direction. How are followers of Yeshua supposed to weigh in on this issue? A handful of Messianic Jewish leaders look warmly on the rebuilding of a Third Temple, but the overwhelming Messianic Jewish position is not to support such a move. Why is that? What prophetic issues are involved here?

The Mount of Atonement – Rabbinic or Messianic?

When national or even international sin rises to a high enough level, God must step in to bring righteous judgment (think ‘Noah’). Such was the case in Ezekiel’s day, when he was forced to prophesy: “Therefore on account of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the Mountain of the Temple will become high places of a forest” (Ezekiel 9:6-7). The prophets called on the whole Jewish nation to repent, to confess sin and to make atoning sacrifice – the basic building blocks of a biblical and spiritual revival.

The prophets conveyed the divine challenge to repent, and stated that it is to be initiated par excellence from the Temple Mount: “Blow a trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm on My Holy Mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the Day of YHVH is coming; Indeed, it is near” (Joel 2:1).

The Scriptures tell us that, at various times throughout Jewish history, Israel’s leadership abandoned God’s pattern of atonement and set up counterfeit systems of atonement which simply could not get the job done. The prophets described this as a two-step spiritual dynamic: abandoning God and His commands; and replacing them with self-made traditions that cannot go the distance:

“For My people have committed two evils: They have abandoned Me, the Fountain of living waters, to carve out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that do not hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13).

This was manifested in a striking way after Jeroboam and the Ten Tribes rebelled against King Rehoboam son of Solomon at Shechem:

And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will return to the House of David. If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the House of YHVH in Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will return to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah. And they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.” So the king consulted, and he made two golden calves; and he said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold your gods, Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt!” And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. And he made houses on high places, and appointed priests from all the people who were not of the sons of Levi. Jeroboam also instituted a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he went up to the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves which he had made. And he stationed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. Then he went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, the month that he had devised in his own heart; and he instituted a feast for the sons of Israel and went up to the altar to burn incense. (1 Kings 12:26-33)

Nearly 1,000 years later, Rabbinic Judaism set up a non-biblical system of atonement after the destruction of the Second Temple. From 70 A.D. until 132 A.D. certain activities – liturgies, prayer services, acts of repentance, and good deeds – were advocated by the Pharisaic-rabbinic leadership as having atoning power. But these things were not true: there were no more Temple sacrifices, and the only effective atonement (Messiah Yeshua’s atoning sacrifice on the cross) was not recognized or accepted by the rabbis.

The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews (the Messianic Jews) challenged his readers that, as faithful followers of Yeshua, they would also need to bear the reproach of being associated with a crucified Messiah. That would involve stepping outside the confines of the major stream of Judaism that had rejected the Messiah, and instead holding faithfully to Messianic Judaism that honored and preached Messiah Yeshua: “For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the Holy Place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore Yeshua also suffered outside the gate, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood. So then, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Hebrew 13:11-13).

The recognized leaders of the Jewish people had rejected King David’s Greater Son (see Matthew 12:6; 22:41-46). The purity of the Temple system had turned spiritually unkosher. The prophet Isaiah reminds us of a similar dynamic in his own day, where kosher atoning sacrifices turned unclean before the face of YHVH:

This is what YHVH says: “Heaven is My throne and the earth is the footstool for My feet. Where then is a house you could build for Me? . . . But I will look to this one, at one who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at My word. But the one who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a person. The one who sacrifices a lamb is like one who breaks a dog’s neck. One who offers a grain offering is like one who offers pig’s blood. One who burns incense is like one who blesses an idol. As they have chosen their own ways, and their souls delight in their abominations, so I will choose their punishments and bring on them what they dread . . . Hear the word of YHVH, you who tremble at His word: Your brothers who hate you, who exclude you on account of My name . . . will be put to shame. A sound of uproar from the city, a voice from the Temple, the voice of YHVH who is dealing retribution to His enemies” (Isaiah 66:1-6)

Messiah Yeshua wept over Jerusalem and prophesied that this city and its House (the Temple) were about to be destroyed, because of her spiritual rebellion and rejection of David’s Greater Son:

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your House is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (Matthew 23:37-39; see Temple Mount context in Matthew 21:23; 23:16-22)

Once again the words of Isaiah could be applied to the people of Jacob: “The entire head is sick and the entire heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is nothing healthy in it – only bruises, slashes, and raw wounds” (Isaiah 1:5-6).

A wing and a prayer on the Temple Mount

The Hebrew Scriptures do not avert their eyes when dealing with bad news. One astounding example of this is the prophet Daniel, who was given a startling prophecy by the angel Gabriel (Daniel 9:21) in 9:24-27. Gabriel lays out a clear and detailed time-line of some bad news coming down the pike. He refers to the people under discussion as Daniel’s Jewish people. Specific locations are described – the Holy City (Jerusalem), the Holy Place (within the Temple) also called the Sanctuary (the House of YHVH), and the place of sacrifice and grain offering (the holy precinct within the Temple compound). Messiah will come to the Temple Mount, and then He will be killed (cut off). Jerusalem and the House of YHVH will be destroyed. These events actually came to pass in 70 A.D. when the Herodian Temple was destroyed and the city of Jerusalem was largely destroyed.

Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your Holy City, to finish the wrongdoing, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place. So you are to know and understand that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with streets and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the City and the Sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined (Daniel 9:24-26)

Gabriel then looks down the corridors of time and focuses on an evil person who will eventually enter into a covenantal agreement with the Jewish Temple leadership, allowing for animal sacrifices and grain offerings to be jump-started. It’s worth noting that this future scenario pre-supposes that a rebuilt Temple standing will be standing at that time – and that event has not yet come to pass. This person will single-handedly halt these Jewish sacrifices and offerings after approximately three and a half years. And at that point someone enters the scene, “the one who makes desolate,” who enters “on the wing of abominations:”

“And he will confirm a covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering. And on the wing of abominations will come the one who makes desolate, until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, gushes forth on the one who makes desolate” (Daniel 9:27)

Paul gives us apostolic commentary on this prophecy: “[T]he Day of the Lord . . . will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the Temple of God, displaying himself as being God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?” (2 Thessalonians 2:2-5).

Messiah Yeshua adds greater detail: “Therefore when you see the Abomination of Desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the Holy Place – let the reader understand – then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get things out of his house. And whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. But woe to those women who are pregnant, and to those who are nursing babies in those days! Moreover, pray that when you flee, it will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. And if those days had not been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short” (Matthew 24:15-22).

These prophecies shed important light on some aspects of the Last Days, as well as the order of those events:

A Third Temple will be rebuilt on the Temple Mount with the permission from a person of strong authority
Sacrifices will be offered up there
After 3 ½ years the sacrifices will be stopped
A person connected with abominations comes and makes great desolation
Someone known as the Abomination of Desolation will be stand in the Holy Place inside the Temple
He will take his seat in the House of YHVH and display himself as being God
An unprecedented and worldwide great tribulation kicks off at this point which involves huge loss of life

The majority of Messianic leaders today are aware of these coming apocalyptic events. This explains why they are not supportive of present efforts to rebuild the Temple or even to import red heifers to the country of Israel.

Trampling of the Temple Mount

Let’s look at one last prophetic passage which concerns the Temple Mount and the Holy Compound:

“Then there was given to me a measuring rod like a staff. And Someone said, ‘Get up and measure the Temple of God and the altar, and those who worship in it. Leave out the courtyard which is outside the Temple and do not measure it, because it has been given to the nations. And they will trample the Holy City for forty-two months. And I will grant authority to My two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth’” (Revelation 11:1-3)

This passage notes that the actual Temple and altar will be under Jewish control for forty-two months yet future, while the Temple courtyard will be “given to the nations” – the Gentile nations (and their armies) who will trample the Holy City (Jerusalem), also for forty-two months. The difficulty in interpreting this passage is not with what is written – the words here are very clear. The challenge come in interweaving other biblical texts which add color and detail to this scenario, yet at the same time make it difficult to smooth out all the dramatic details (see Zechariah 12; Ezekiel 37; etc.)

The Last Jerusalem Battle in front of the Temple Mount

Some of us would like greater clarity about events which are not clearly laid out in Scripture. As a result, there is a strong temptation for some of us to ‘fill in the blanks’ and to be dogmatic where the Bible is not dogmatic. An example of such a temptation concerns the gathering of the armies of the world against the Jewish people and the Jewish capital of Jerusalem. Passages like Ezekiel 38-39, Zechariah 12-14 and Joel 3:1-17 are tantalizingly terse in their descriptions. What can be concluded from these passages is that various events will occur:

International armies will come up to Jerusalem, wage war, divide the city and cause huge personal damage and death
The Jewish people as a mighty army will fight against those forces and have victory (see Zechariah 12:1-9; Ezekiel 37:9-10; etc.)
Messiah Yeshua will return to destroy the Gentile armies and to judge those nations

There are still some pieces of the puzzle which are missing. This should hold us back from dogmatism in dealing with the interpretive tensions here. The key needs of the hour still are study, repentance and intercession.

Down on the threshing floor

The Scriptures have led us on an amazing journey as we have looked at the past, present and future of the Temple Mount – from Abraham’s place of sacrifice to David’s threshing floor. Zechariah shows us that all the nations will undergo a severe threshing as they attack Jerusalem and her Temple Mount. What was Araunah’s threshing floor will be the place of threshing and judgment for all the nations:

Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes staggering to all the peoples around . . . It will come about on that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will injure themselves severely. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it (Zechariah 12:2-3)

And now many nations have been assembled against you who say, ‘Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gloat over Zion!’ But they do not know the thoughts of YHVH, and they do not understand His plan. For He has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor. Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion! For I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs bronze – so that you may pulverize many peoples, and dedicate to YHVH their unjust profit, and their wealth to the Lord of all the earth (Micah 4:11-13)

Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you people of Israel. I will help you, declares YHVH, and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I turned you into a new, sharp threshing sledge with double edges. You will thresh the mountains and pulverize them, and make the hills like chaff. You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the storm will scatter them. But you will rejoice in YHVH! You will boast in the Holy One of Israel! (Isaiah 41:14-16)

Ezekiel’s Temple and Jerusalem – the prophetic dimensions

What will occur on the Temple Mount during Messiah’s millennial earthly reign? Ezekiel’s prophecies convey the lion’s share of the information needed to receive a clear vision.

Many followers of Yeshua stay far away from Ezekiel, since he prophesies things that they do not believe, or do not want to believe. Many believers once scorned and smirked about Ezekiel’s vision of the Jewish dry bones returning to their Promised Land (Ezekiel 37:1-14) – until the Jewish people began to return to their Israeli homeland. Today, with over 1/3 of all Jewish people back in their ancient Promised Land, many Christians are more open to what Ezekiel prophesies regarding other Last Days issues.

In Ezekiel 40-48 the prophet makes 60 references to the future geographical location of the Temple and the Sanctuary. Detailed descriptions are given of the future altar, the future sacrificial system and the future professional functions of the priests. Some believers are taken aback by these things. Their understanding up to this point has been that God’s calling on Israel and His gifts to them (see Romans 11:28-29) have ended. These believers have been raised with a Replacement Theology framework, and have been taught that the Promised Land no longer belongs to the Jewish people, that there will be no regathering of the people of Jacob to the Land of Israel, that there is no more priority calling in Romans 1:16 and that Ezekiel’s 40-48 descriptions are simply spiritual allegory.

But the biblical text does not see things that way. See what the angelic messenger instructs Ezekiel to do and say by:

In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was taken, on this very day the hand of YHVH was upon me and He brought me there. In the visions of God He brought me into the Land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain, and on it to the south there was something like a structure of a city. So He brought me there. And behold, there was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze, with a thread of flax and a measuring rod in his hand. And he was standing in the gateway. And the man said to me, “Son of man, see with your eyes, hear with your ears, and pay attention to all that I am going to show you! For you have been brought here in order to show it to you. Declare to the House of Israel all that you see.” And behold, there was a wall on the outside of the Temple all around . . . (Ezekiel 40:1-5)
Then he brought me to the Sanctuary, and he . . . also measured the length of the sanctuary . . . and he said to me, “This is the Most Holy Place.” Then he measured the wall of the Temple (Ezekiel 41:1-5)
Then he measured the Temple, a hundred cubits long . . . also the width of the front of the Temple . . . The doorposts of the Sanctuary were square . . . The altar was of wood, three cubits high, and its length two cubits. Its corners, its base, and its sides were of wood. And he said to me, “This is the table that is before YHVH.” The Sanctuary and the Inner Sanctuary each had a double door” (Ezekiel 41:13-23)

YHVH the God of Israel then soberly instructs Ezekiel:

And YHVH said to me, “Son of man, pay attention, see with your eyes and hear with your ears everything that I say to you concerning all the statutes of the House of YHVH and all its laws. And pay attention to the entrance of the House, with all the exits of the Sanctuary” (Ezekiel 44:5)

Ezekiel’s Temple and sacrifices

It is the God of Jacob who directly tells Ezekiel that certain Levites will in charge of certain aspects of the sacrificial ministry – slaughtering burnt offerings and sacrificing them on the altar in the House of YHVH:

But the Levites who went far from Me when Israel went astray, who went astray from Me following their idols, shall suffer the punishment for their wrongdoing. Yet they shall be ministers in My Sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the House and ministering in the House. They shall slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them. . . (Ezekiel 44:10-11)

The God of Jacob informs Ezekiel that the Davidic prince will in charge of subsidizing certain aspects of the sacrificial ministry, the grain and vegetable offerings – and all this on the Jewish feast days as described in Leviticus 23. The word ‘atonement’ is also mentioned in this passage.

This is what YHVH God says: “And it shall be the prince’s part to provide the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the drink offerings, at the feasts, on the new moons, and on the Sabbaths, at all the appointed feasts of the House of Israel. He shall provide the sin offering, the grain offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings, to make atonement for the House of Israel” (Ezekiel 45:9, 17)

These Scriptures clarify some aspects of what will be happening in this Last Days Temple. Sacrifices will be part of the divine program.

During the time of the Mosaic Covenant, sacrifices ‘covered over’ sins on a yearly basis (that is the meaning of the Hebrew word kaparah, from which comes the word ‘Yom Kippur’ or ‘Yom Hakippurim’ – the Day of Atonement). These repeated sacrifices actually did not take away sin: “But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:3-4). Those Mosaic sacrifices looked forward to Messiah’s New Covenant atonement. When believers take communion or ‘the Lord’s Supper,’ they are looking back in time and remembering what Messiah Yeshua did on the cross. As Paul says, “In the same way He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the New covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:25-26).

In the same way as Mosaic sacrifices looked forward to Messiah Yeshua’s atonement, so the sacrifices in the Messianic Temple which Ezekiel describes seem to be a reminder – a memorial – looking back on Messiah Yeshua’s atoning sacrifice.

The return of the Shekinah

In Acts 1, an angel addresses the Apostles: “And after [Yeshua] had said these things, He was lifted up while they were watching, and a cloud took Him up, out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, then behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them, and they said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Yeshua, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven’” (Acts 1:9-11). The angel told the Apostles that, in the same way as Yeshua departed, “in the same way” He will return.

Ezekiel informs us that in the same way that the Shekinah Glory, the Holy Spirit, departed from the Temple Mount, the Glory will return in the same way to the Temple Mount:

Then he led me to the gate, the gate facing east. And behold, the Glory of the God of Israel was coming from the way of the east. And His voice was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone from His Glory. And it was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, like the vision which I saw when He came to destroy the city. And the visions were like the vision which I saw by the river Chebar. And I fell on my face. And the Glory of YHVH entered the House by way of the gate facing east. And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner courtyard. And behold, the Glory of YHVH filled the House (Ezekiel 43:1-5)

An interesting matter to consider: this passage describes the Glory of YHVH returning to a pre-standing Temple, the House of YHVH. This is the clear presupposition of this passage. But where does that pre-existing Temple come from? The passage does not explain the matter to the reader. Will that Temple be built before Messiah’s return, according to the specifications that YHVH gave to Ezekiel in chapters 40-48? Or is there some other solution? A prayerful ‘wait and see’ approach is best here.

In Ezekiel 44, YHVH Himself addresses the prophet, telling him to pay strong attention to the details regarding the rebuilt Temple, since they are extremely significant:

Then He brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the House. And I looked, and behold, the Glory of YHVH filled the House of YHVH, and I fell on my face. And YHVH said to me, “Son of man, pay attention, see with your eyes and hear with your ears everything that I say to you concerning all the statutes of the House of YHVH and all its laws. And pay attention to the entrance of the House, with all the exits of the sanctuary” (Ezekiel 44:4-5)

The stress that God puts on the Jewish people understanding these matters, leads us to consider making these issues a priority in our study of the Scriptures.

Get you up on a High Mountain, Zion!

At the time when Messiah Yeshua returns to reign over the earth from the Temple Mount, some geographical changes will occur across this planet. Isaiah points this out:

Now it will come about that in the last days the Mountain of the House of YHVH will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills. And all the nations will stream to it (Isaiah 2:2-3)
Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low. The crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth. The Glory of YHVH shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together – for the mouth of YHVH has spoken (Isaiah 40:4-5)

The highest mountain on earth, according to Isaiah, will be the Mountain of the House of YHVH. Ezekiel 45:1-8 also describes the future dimensions of the Temple Mount and its surrounding areas, the Levitical area, and Jerusalem with its surrounding farmland. The Temple itself will be approximately one mile square, while its surrounding area will be approximately 50 miles east-west and 20 miles north-south. The top strip will contain the Temple Mount at its center; the middle strip will be for the House of Levi; the bottom strip will have Jerusalem in the middle (ten miles square) with farmland on either side. These dimensions will require major geographical alterations. A space of approximately 30 miles north-south will lie between the Temple Mount and the city of Jerusalem.

Ezekiel describes this new geographic order at the beginning of his vision in chapter 40:

In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was taken, on this very day the hand of YHVH was upon me and He brought me there. In the visions of God He brought me into the land of Israel and set me on a very high Mountain, and on it to the south there was something like a structure of a city.(Ezekiel 40:1-4)

The Temple Mount river

A new river will bubble up from under the House of YHVH and will flow eastward to the Dead Sea.

Then he brought me back to the door of the House. And behold, water was flowing from under the threshold of the House toward the east, for the House faced east. And the water was flowing down from under, from the right side of the House, from south of the altar . . . And behold, water was spurting out from the south side. When the man went out toward the east with a line in his hand, he measured a thousand cubits, and he led me through the water, water reaching the ankles. Again he measured a thousand and led me through the water, water reaching the knees. Again he measured . . . and it was a river that I could not wade across, because the water had risen, enough water to swim in, a river that could not be crossed by wading . . . Then he said to me, “These waters go out toward the eastern region and go down into the Arabah; then they go toward the [Dead] Sea, being made to flow into the Sea, and the waters of the sea become fresh. And it will come about that every living creature which swarms in every place where the river goes, will live” (Ezekiel 47:1-11)

This new river with fresh waters will flow out from under the Temple Mount and then split into two, half heading to the Dead Sea and half to the Mediterranean:

And on that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea. It will be in summer as well as in winter (Zechariah 14:8)

The prophet Joel also received prophetic revelation about this river:

And on that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah will flow with water. And a spring will go out from the House of YHVH and water the Valley of Shittim (Joel 3:18)

The abundance of water flowing up from under the Temple Mount will change the climate of dusty Jerusalem. The city of God’s appointed feasts will end up looking like Venice, with rivers and canals:

Look at Zion, the city of our appointed feasts. Your eyes will see Jerusalem . . . But there the majestic One, YHVH, will be for us a place of rivers and wide canals on which no boat with oars will go, and on which no mighty ship will pass. (Isaiah 33:20-21)

The Temple Mount – a Throne but no Ark

Jeremiah was once granted a special revelation about Messianic Jerusalem. The Ark of the Covenant (which was originally located in the Holy of Holies on the Temple Mount) will no longer be located there. Instead, the very presence of King Messiah will be there, sitting on the Throne of YHVH which will also be the Throne of David!

And it shall be in those days when you become numerous and are fruitful in the land, declares YHVH, they will no longer say, “The Ark of the Covenant of YHVH.” And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor miss it, nor will it be made again. At that time they will call Jerusalem “The Throne of YHVH,” and all the nations will assemble at it, at Jerusalem, for the name of YHVH. And they will no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil heart (Jeremiah 3:16-17)

For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us, and the government will rest on His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom – to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of YHVH of armies will accomplish this (Isaiah 9:6-7)

These remarkable prophetic promises will surely come to pass. In our next newsletter, we will look at what perspectives the Eternal Order and the New Jerusalem will bring to the ‘prophetic table.’

How should we then pray?

Pray for God to grant clear vision to believers worldwide, to the Jewish people and to Israeli leaders regarding God’s heart and perspectives concerning the Temple Mount

Pray for YHVH to grant intercessory prayer strategies to His saints regarding the Temple Mount, both present and future

Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

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