What is the Temple Mount and Why is it Important?

Introduction to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem

Today, the Temple Mount is a 35-acre platform built by King Herod on Mount Moriah in the heart of Jerusalem. This is where both the first and second temples once stood. It is now recognized worldwide as the place of the unmistakable, golden Dome of the Rock. Today, you may hear about it on the news as a place of tension, Palestinian riots or Jews being arrested for simply praying.

Biblical and Prophetic Significance

The Temple Mount is also perhaps the single most important location when it comes to biblical history colliding with our current events, as we look towards its prophetic fulfillment as a seat of power for the ruling, Jewish king and messiah.

God’s Chosen Location

Why so much drama around a 2,000-year-old platform? Ultimately, there is only one answer: because God has chosen it.

Genesis 22 has the first reference of God choosing this location, long before a temple was constructed and long before the city of Jerusalem was founded. In this verse, Abraham is told to take his son Isaac to the mountains of Moriah: “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you” (Genesis 22:2).

Significance in the Exodus

Ironically, the first time the word “love” is used in the Bible is in the same verse. Abraham was to sacrifice “your only son, whom you love” on mount Moriah. The first time the place, Moriah, is mentioned, it’s a place of obedience and love for an only son.

God Brings Israel to “The Place”

Hundreds of years later, as God is bringing Israel out of Egypt, He’s telling them about a specific place He is bringing them to. Exodus 15:17 “You will bring them and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, The place, O Lord, which You have made for Your dwelling, The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established.” This place will contain the Temple Mount.

Moses’ Guidance and Clues

This was their first clue. God was bringing them to the “mountain” of His inheritance and the place where He dwells. But the clues would not stop there. Throughout their time in the desert, Moses kept speaking of this unique location, what it would be like and what God wanted them to do there. It became known simply as “the place.” This is what Moses said Israel should expect at “the place that He chooses.”

Features of “The Place”

The Lord dwells there – Exodus 15:17; Deuteronomy 12:5; 12:11

His Name would be established – Deuteronomy 12:5; 12:21; 12:26; 14:23-24; 16:6; 16:12

God has chosen this place – Deuteronomy 12:18; 12:26; 14:25; 16:7; 18:6

God promised it, prepared it and will give it to them – Exodus 23:20; Numbers 10:29; 14:40

Worship, sacrifices, and offerings – Deuteronomy 12:6; 12:11; 12:13-14; 26:2

Eating before the Lord – Deuteronomy 12:7; 12:18; 14:23

Rejoicing before the Lord – Deuteronomy 12:7; 12:18; 16:11

Celebrating the feasts – Deuteronomy 15:20; 16:15-16

Sacrificing of the Passover Lamb – Deuteronomy 16:2; 16:6-7

Works of your hand are blessed – Deuteronomy 12:7; 16:15

Disputes are settled – Deuteronomy 17:8

Judgments and verdicts are declared – Deuteronomy 17:10

Levites come to serve the Lord – Deuteronomy 18:7

Reading of the Law to all of Israel – Deuteronomy 31:11

Who would not want to live at a place like this? God would be in the midst of His people and in their everyday affairs. After slavery in Egypt, this description probably sounded like “heaven.” But first, they must enter this “Promised Land.”

David’s Realization

400 years after Moses, in the time of David, Israel still viewed their many battles as fulfilling what Moses and Joshua had told them to do. David had conquered Jerusalem. Established it as the seat of power in Israel and was becoming widely loved as king. Yet they had still not found “the place.”

In 1 Chronicles 21, David had sinned by numbering the people and a devastating plague was released on Israel. At the word of the Lord, David went to Ornan’s threshing floor. He went up the hill to the north of his palace, to build an altar and to call on the Lord.

“Then David built an altar to the Lord there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And he called to the Lord and He answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.” (1 Chronicles 21:26)

The Temple on Mount Moriah

God had descended in fire in Sinai, fire had come forth out of the tabernacle in the desert, but no one had ever seen fire come down from heaven! This place was unique, as if God Himself dwelled here. David realized that this was THE place, the house of the Lord God (1 Chronicles 22:1). They had been living in “the place” and hadn’t realized it!

David later writes, “For the LORD has chosen Zion; he has desired it for His dwelling place: ‘This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it’” (Psalm 132:13–14).

Solomon Builds the Temple

Years after David’s death, and as Solomon begins building the Temple, the Bible ties the loose ends of God’s intentions for this special place together.

“Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.” (2 Chronicles 3:1)

Historical and Future Importance

The same mountain that God led Abraham to was the same mountain that God led David to. It was the same mountain that God would lead all of Israel to at the Temple and one day will bring all the world to. Many years later, God told Ezekiel, “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever” (Ezekiel 43:7). This would not only be God’s resting place but the location of His earthly rule forever.

Satan’s Ambition

Yet when God chooses, there is an evil enemy who challenges us to usurp. Isaiah 14:13-14 tells us of Satan’s ambition for this exact location: “But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”

Spiritual Warfare Over the Temple Mount

He wants his throne to be above God’s and to “sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north.” There is only one place where God said His throne was and where he will assemble His people. It is literally up the hill from David’s palace in Jerusalem, up the hill to the north, on mount Moriah where the Temple was built. Quite literally, there is one location on earth where the God of the Bible said He would rule from. It is the same location where Satan’s ambition has been striving for. If there was ever a location that was the pinnacle of spiritual warfare in the earth, where an ultimate evil is challenging God, it is the Temple Mount. The fight over Jerusalem is about who will rule and be worshiped on this hill.

Historical Neglect and Revival and Al Aqsa

Through the centuries, after the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 AD, the Temple Mount was reportedly used as a trash dump until the Islamic conquest in the 7th century. It was during this time that both the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque were built. Yet even by the 10th century, it was still not a primary location for Islam. Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Koran and even the name Al Aqsa is translated to mean “the farthest place” suggesting its original lack of significance in the Islamic world. At that time, the Islamic historian Mukaddasi laments that “the mosque is empty of worshippers…the Jews constitute the majority of Jerusalem’s population” (985 AD). 300 years into Muslim rule, no one cared about Jerusalem.

During my research for my photo book Jerusalem Rising, I found and included old photos from the late 1800s showing the surrounding areas of the Temple Mount overgrown with cacti, being used to grow vegetables and the actual Temple Mount platform neglected and covered in weeds (Jerusalem Rising, pg 130-140). 800 years after Mukaddasi’s complaints, it still was not valued or maintained as any significant religious site.

Modern Significance

All of this changed in 1967, when Israel reclaimed the Temple Mount for the first time in 1900 years. From a spiritual sense, the Jewish prophets foretell the return of the Jewish people to the land and their cities. This means the prophesied restoration of Jewish worship of the God of Israel is not far behind. There is only one place where the Bible says that will happen. This is the same location that it has always been- the Temple Mount. When this ancient enemy, who wants the location of God’s throne, realizes that God is fulfilling His words, his panic sets in knowing his time is short and the spiritual war is intensified.

One hundred years ago, no one cared about the Temple Mount. Now a Jewish Jerusalem is in place. More and more Jews and Christians are visiting and honoring this place for its history and future promise of worship and ruling Kingship. The nations are raging over it, insisting it was never Jewish to begin with and has no spiritual connections. The battle is the ultimate source of the tension and what you are seeing on the news.

The Prophetic Future

According to the Jewish prophets, at some point soon, the King will arrive on the Mount of Olives, directly across from the Temple Mount. He will enter a Jewish Jerusalem to defend His people when all nations are gathered against Israel. I do not think a couple buildings on His Mount Moriah will be a concern for Him.

Isaiah 2 tells us that “In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. He will judge the nations, establish justice and peace.” From where will He do this…? The mountain of the Lord’s temple or the Temple Mount.

The Stage is Set

I don’t know how it will unfold, when the 3rd Temple will be built or what political scenarios will surround it. I do know that today God is fulfilling His word in the most practical ways in the exact locations that the prophets said that He would. Most would agree we are in “the last days” and for the first time in history we are beginning to see the nations of the earth choosing to rally against Israel. The stage for the King’s arrival is being set.

One thing is for sure… All eyes on the Temple Mount.

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“The wilderness and the dry lands shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom.” Isaiah 35:1