Jerusalem’s Burdensome Stone
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has once again thrown down the proverbial gauntlet. Despite his playing to the news cameras and to the international community diplomatic forces trying to force the Jewish state to divide the city where Jesus was crucified, when push comes to shove, Netanyahu says a resounding “NO” to Jerusalem being divided.
The prime minister has, as pointed out before, learned to talk the talk in playing the game to agree on matters of forging some sort of a peace. This is a trick long utilized by PLO head Yasser Arafat and most other Islamists when it comes to seeming to agree to move ahead with peace, but always changing some things at just the right time in the process to prevent negotiations from ever actually coming to fruition. Netanyahu, however, makes no bones about the status of Jerusalem in his thinking.
He said, upon becoming prime minister the first time around: "I will never allow Jerusalem to be divided again. Never! Never! We will keep Jerusalem united and ... we will never resurrender those ramparts… Jerusalem has been the capital of Israel for 3,000 years since the time of King David and we don't expect to change that for the next 3,000 years!"
His present position, despite all of his jockeying to produce sound bites that make it seem he’s for doing most anything to bring about the Roadmap to Peace, is as firm as ever. Netanyahu’s position with regard to Jerusalem is unchanged. He recently made his thoughts even more adamant about Jerusalem and what he considers the most vital matter involved in keeping the city undivided, according to the following news excerpt:
Whoever proposes that giving up the heart of Jerusalem-the Temple Mount-will bring peace, is fatally mistaken, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared on Monday evening. Addressing the Knesset plenum at a special session held to honor Jerusalem Day, Netanyahu said that taking the Temple Mount out of Israeli hands, would bring decline, and the rise of radical Islam in the region and in the world… "Only under Israeli control, will this accessibility... and freedom of religion continue," he said. "The Temple Mount is in our hands and ... it shall remain in our hands." ("PM: Yielding Temple Mount would be fatal mistake," By JPOST.COM STAFF, 05/21/12)
Netanyahu’s assessment of the vital importance of the Temple Mount is far more profound than even he realizes, I suspect. If I might be so bold, I refer to my own writing on the matter, written some years ago.
Mt. Moriah sits at the southern end of the ancient city, crested by a golden dome that represents hundreds of millions whose religion demands of its adherents' blood-vowed opposition to God's chosen nation, Israel. This is the place God picked to have His temple on earth constructed. It is the precise location where the third temple will sit, the temple that will be desecrated by Antichrist, earth's last and most beastly tyrant. Even more importantly, the Temple Mount will be the home of Christ's Millennial Temple. Moriah, then to be known as Zion, will be supernaturally elevated by the tremendous topographical changes caused when the Lord's foot touches the Mount of Olives at His return.
Diplomats of the world have, for the past four decades, engaged in effort after effort to bring stability to the region, at whose heart the city of Jerusalem sits. We remember the many jettings to and from Washington DC, Jerusalem, and other capitals of the Mideast. From Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Madeleine Albright, and Colin Powell to Condoleeza Rice.
America's secretaries of state have burned mega-gallons of jet fuel in trying to find the formula for peace that would defuse the Armageddon bomb. And, the former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, immediately upon resigning, was named by the so-called "Quartet" (US, EU, UN and Russia) as the overseer of continuing efforts toward constructing Mideast peace, which has eluded mankind for thousand of years…
To be even more specific about the importance of the temple mount, here is what one of the foremost Christian Hebrew scholars, Arnold Fruchtenbaum, tells us.
The significance of Israel' s reinstituting the Sanhedrin may be another event that leaves in place the possibility of how the Lord will work out His will with His people. Almost sixty years after a 1900-year absence, the nation of Israel came into existence. Jewish people from the four corners of the world have made aliyah to live in the Land. The Temple Institute in Jerusalem has reconstructed the instruments for Jewish Temple worship; Jewish men determined to be descendants of Aaron, known as the Kohanim, are being trained in ritual practices to serve as Temple priests; and now we have the establishment of an authoritative body to speak to the nation of Israel on matters of Jewish religion. This is significant in light of such passages as Zechariah 12:10 and Hosea 5:15, which speak of a time when the people of Israel will be led into the acceptance of Jesus as their Messiah. The existence of a religious authority for the entire nation will facilitate the multitudes coming to faith. (Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Ariel Ministries Newsletter, Fall/Winter, 2004)
Make no mistake, the Temple Mount–Mount Moriah—is the burdensome stone that Zechariah the prophet foretold: “And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it” (Zechariah 12:3).