The traditional Temple Mount is a symbol of rebellion.
In a recent lesson it was shown that two mountains in Israel, Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, are geologic symbols of blessings and curses. If you missed it, please see “Two Mountains.”
The Jews, both religious and secular, and most Christians believe that the traditional Temple Mount is located on Mount Moriah. Most assuredly, Solomon built the first Temple on Mount Moriah (2 Chronicles 3:1). But where is Mount Moriah? The name only appears twice in the Bible. Once in the Second Chronicles reference, and once in Genesis chapter twenty-two. There must be another name for this mount.
As I have reported on more than one occasion, the Lord told us where the Temple was to be built, and that place was Mount Zion. This is the place where the Lord chose to place His name (Deuteronomy 12:5, 12:11, 16:2, 16:6) and for the Israelites to worship Him (Psalm 9:11, 48:2, 74:2, 76:2). And the Bible makes clear that Mount Zion is in the City of David (2 Samuel 5:7, 1 Kings 8:1, 1 Chronicles 11:5, 2 Chronicles 5:2).
Therefore, Mount Moriah is another name for Mount Zion, and the Bible tells us that Mount Zion is in the City of David. The traditional Temple Mount is not Mount Zion.
The prophet Jeremiah was commissioned by the Lord to tell the people of Israel that they had rebelled against the Lord and had turned to pagan gods and idols made by their own hands.
Among the many sins of Israel noted by the Lord, He described two specifically. First, “they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters,” and second, “and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13) The Lord is the metaphoric spring of blessing and salvation, but the Israelites, by making idols with their own hands and then worshipping them, had dug metaphoric cisterns which could provide no blessings,. You can see why the Lord was offended.
The traditional Temple Mount fits this description of the sin of Israel. It has no source of fresh, running (living) water, but has cisterns. The City of David, which the Bible tells us was the location of the Temple, has the Gihon Spring. History says that the Temple was built over the Gihon Spring, a source of “living” water. (Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates, Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, Letter of Aristeas, R. H. Charles, Volume 2, page 83, verse 89)
Just as Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal are geologic pictures of blessings and curses, the mythical Temple Mount is a picture of the rebellion of Israel because it only has cisterns. Rain water was collected in cisterns beneath the mount. In the Second Temple period an aqueduct was built to bring water to this location. There is no source of water on it.
The world today clings to the mythical Temple Mount as something holy, despite the lack of Scriptural or even historic evidence. It is pure tradition, and by clinging to this unverified tradition with its cisterns instead of springs of living water, the Jews today are symbolically rebelling against the Lord, as stated by Jeremiah.
But when the Lord Jesus sets foot on earth, the Jews and all the world will recognize Him as King of kings and Lords of lords, and the rebellion will cease. How I look forward to that day!