City of David

Welcome! Today is our fourth week of exploring the findings of archaeology that confirm the truths of the Bible. As we have done for several weeks, we will start with a passage involving Abraham, Genesis 14. Let me summarize the context: This chapter describes a series of battles in a war between groups of kings. There is a whole rabbit hole we could go down to talk about the historical evidence for these kings and who they were, but we don’t have time today. Recall that Abraham had taken up residence in Mamre (which we looked at in depth in an earlier message from this series) and his nephew Lot was not too far away, in Sodom. Well, the king of Sodom was one of the kings involved in this war, and when his side was overrun, the other side captured Lot and his family and possessions. Abraham (then Abram) dispatched a rescue party and turned the tide (well, God did, to be more accurate) so that the other side was defeated, and Lot and his family and possessions were recovered. This brings us to the passage:

 

After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. – Genesis 14:17-20

 

Notice his full title: Melchizedek king of Salem. Now some people point out that Salem is based closely on the Hebrew root word “Shalom”, which means peace, so “king of Salem” is very close to one of the titles of Jesus, Prince of Peace, which appears in Isaiah 9. This is absolutely true, but I want to point out that Salem is also a place. In this chapter, eight of the kings are given as name, king of place: Amraphar king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goyim, Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboyim, And so it follows that Salem is not only wordplay but actually the place over which Melchizedek is king.

 

Salem is mentioned also in Psalm 76:

 

God is renowned in Judah; in Israel His name is great. His tent is in Salem, His dwelling place in Zion. There He broke the flashing arrows, the shields and the swords, the weapons of war. – Psalm 76:1-3

 

And so here we see Salem again, and it is made a synonym with Zion. This tells us without a doubt that Salem is Jerusalem. And this makes sense from the Hebrew: Ur (modern Eer) is Hebrew for city. So Jerusalem (Y’rushalaim in modern Hebrew) is “city of Salem.” And the meaning is “city of peace.” And so the third verse in the passage we have just read is very fitting for the name of the city. And so this city from the time of Abraham, with mysterious king Melchizedek, is Jerusalem.

 

Let us jump forward from the time of Abraham to the time of Joshua. As he was conquering the land, we read this:

 

Now Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard that Joshua had taken Ai and totally destroyed it, doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and that the people of Gibeon had made a treaty of peace with Israel and had become their allies. He and his people were very much alarmed at this, because Gibeon was an important city, like one of the royal cities; it was larger than Ai, and all its men were good fighters. So Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem appealed to Hoham king of Hebron, Piram king of Jarmuth, Japhia king of Lachish and Debir king of Eglon. “Come up and help me attack Gibeon,” he said, “because it has made peace with Joshua and the Israelites.” – Joshua 10:1-4

 

These Amorite kings did so, and Gibeon called for help. Joshua came to their aid, and because God was with them, defeated their armies and kings. But apparently the victory was not complete. We know this because of what is said of the allotment of the land for Judah. After spending 63 verses detailing the boundaries and the cities within Judah, the chapter ends with this:

 

Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the people of Judah. – Joshua 15:63

 

Now to be precise, the city of Jerusalem is actually on the boundary between Judah and Benjamin; that is, Joshua 15 describes Jerusalem as part of the boundary. This backed up by Joshua 18:

 

The tribe of Benjamin, according to its clans, had the following towns: Jericho, Beth Hoglah, Emek Keziz, Beth Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel, Avvim, Parah, Ophrah, Kephar Ammoni, Ophni and Geba—twelve towns and their villages. Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth, Mizpah, Kephirah, Mozah, Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah, Zelah, Haeleph, the Jebusite city (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah and Kiriath—fourteen towns and their villages. – Joshua 18:21-28

 

And so most of the town of Jerusalem was considered as part of Benjamin. But neither tribe really had the town; it sits out like a sore thumb due to the fact that it was still held by others. I find this prophetic, for if you look at the history of Jerusalem, it has mostly been held by others. It is highly ironic that this city named as the city of peace has been one of the most captured and recaptured pieces of land, if not the most so, in the entire world. The opening sentence on Wikipedia about Jerusalem says this: “During its long history, Jerusalem has been attacked 52 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, besieged 23 times, and destroyed twice.”

 

Returning to our Joshua passages, at this time it seems like Judah and Benjamin were unable to defeat the Jebusites in Jerusalem despite their wanting to do so. But it also seems like they also became used to the Jebusites and let them live there, despite the commands from God given through Moses in Deuteronomy 20:17-18 that warns the Israelites to completely destroy/remove several groups from their territory, including, specifically, the Jebusites, with the warning that if they did not do so, they would influence the Israelites to worship their false gods (which is exactly what happened.)

 

Now, in Judges 1:8, after the death of Joshua, we read:

 

The men of Judah attacked Jerusalem also and took it. They put the city to the sword and set it on fire. – Judges 1:8

 

But despite this, we also read:

 

The Benjamites, however, did not drive out the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the Benjamites. – Judges 1:21

 

How do we understand this? I would say that there were always some troublemaking Jebusites, and others who were better and cozying up to the Israelites. And so even when the Israelites were successful in conquering the troublemaking Jebusites and eliminating them, they would allow the “nice” Jebusites to stay, but later they wouldn’t all remain so nice and the cycle would continue. I also have another theory, which we will come to later.

 

We then come to the time of David. Almost immediately after he is accepted as king, he goes to Jerusalem. We have this account from 2 Samuel:

 

The king and his men marched to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites, who lived there. The Jebusites said to David, “You will not get in here; even the blind and the lame can ward you off.” They thought, “David cannot get in here.” Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion—which is the City of David. On that day David had said, “Anyone who conquers the Jebusites will have to use the water shaft to reach those ‘lame and blind’ who are David’s enemies.”– 2 Samuel 5:6-8a

 

We learn several important details about the ancient city of Jerusalem. It is described, a least a portion of the city, as a fortress. And David used a water shaft of some kind to take the city, bypassing in some way what one would assume were imposing fortress-like walls. We will have more to say about this.

 

David then took up residence in the fortress and called it the City of David. He built up the area around it, from the terraces inward. And he became more and more powerful, because the Lord God Almighty was with him. Now Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to David, along with cedar logs and carpenters and stonemasons, and they built a palace for David. Then David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel. – 2 Samuel 5:9-12

 

And so this became David’s home, and the power center of Israel. And we learn that David had built a fine palace, a palace made of cedar and stone. We will have more to say about this as well. There are so many events that happened during David’s life that took place in Jerusalem that we could talk about. In 2 Samuel 6, David brought the ark of the Lord to Jerusalem. Picture David dancing before the Lord with all his might, and Michal watching from a window, likely a window of David’s palace, despising him in her heart. Picture the banqueting meals in the palace at the king’s table, with Mephibosheth, lame in both feet, graciously being treated like a member of the king’s household. Picture the night that David couldn’t sleep, having sent his men off to war while staying behind in the palace, and going up on the roof, seeing a woman bathing across from the palace, and giving in to temptation and having her brought to him. Picture David lying on the floor in his palace in sackcloth, begging the Lord not to take the life of the son he had with that woman he saw on the rooftop. Picture the moment when estranged son Absalom is brought back to Jerusalem, but the king did not have him come before him for two years. And picture Absalom working quietly behind the scenes to organize a complete rebellion, an overthrowing of David’s rule. Picture David and his entourage leaving the city, and Absalom entering the palace and taking advantage of the king’s concubines that had been left behind to take care of things. Picture David and a large contingent of men returning to Jerusalem and his palace, David greatly saddened by the death of Absalom, whom he loved despite his terrible deeds.

 

We could say so much more, but I see this as the golden age of the City of David. But did David even exist? For years, many so-called experts argued that there was no David, no united kingdom. Well, I want to show you an important artifact that was only discovered in 1993, in a tel (a raised hill) called Tel-Dan, a location identified as the ancient city known as Dan. The artifact is a stele (pronounced steelee), which is a tall stone slab erected as a monument, often with writing. This particular stele has writing in ancient Aramaic (the language of the Arameans), using the Phoenician alphabet, and was smashed in antiquity, likely by the Israelites when they retook the city. Because the stele is broken, some words are missing, but here is the translation:

 

1'. [ ]...[ ] and cut [ ]
2'. [ ] my father went up [ ] he fought at [...]
3'. And my father lay down; he went to his [fathers]. Now the king of I[s]/rael had penetrated
4'. into my father's land before. [But then] Hadad made me king,
5'. And Hadad marched before me. So I went forth from [the] seven[...]/s
6'. of my rule, and I killed [seve]nty kin[gs] who had harnessed thou[sands of cha]/riots
7'. and thousands of cavalry. [And I wounded ...]ram son of [...]
8'. the king of Israel, and I killed [...]yahu son of [... the ki]/ng of
9'. the House of David. And I made [their towns into ruins and turned]
10'. their land into [a desolation ...]
11'. others and [...Then...became ki]/ng
12'. over Is[rael...And I laid]
13'. siege against [...]

 

The people mentioned are king Joram, son of Ahab, king of Israel, and a son of Ahaziah, son of Jehoram, king of Judah. These kings were contemporaries according to the Bible. Does this account have any correspondence with Scripture? Well, in 2 Kings 9, we have the following:

 

Now Joram and all Israel had been defending Ramoth Gilead against Hazael king of Aram, but King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him in the battle with Hazael king of Aram. – 2 Kings 9:14b-15

 

And so a Scriptural detail is backed up by the enemies of Israel! But the most important detail of this stele are the words “the house of David” (beyt David). That phrase put an end to all the talk that David never existed. What the phrase means is a synonym for being king of Judah. It is in the Bible as well, in Samuel, Kings and Chronicles (which are accounts written of the same time period), and also Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah. So yes, David certainly existed – but you already knew that. The argument that David never existed quickly vanished, and of course it was replaced with new charges about something else. There is no acknowledgment of error, of being proven wrong, as there never is.

 

Let’s pick up our history, following after David. Recall that Solomon became king and did not follow the Lord as well as David did. Yes, he had the Temple of the Lord built on a nearby hill, as we talked about last week. But he also worshipped false gods, and the people followed their leader and did the same. I find it telling that he spent seven years building the Temple, but 13 years to build a palace for himself. This palace was adjoining the Temple, on the same mountain (Moriah), but a bit lower. David had already built a fine palace, on a different hill, but that was not enough for Solomon. Like we have discussed about Herod, Solomon also made building projects in many other locations. Just one example from archaeology – a palatial building has been discovered in Gezer in just the past few years with large stones and pottery dating to the time of Solomon. The stone shapes and sizes and other details make it almost certainly one of Solomon’s projects. We are told of Solomon’s building style in the Bible:

 

All these structures, from the outside to the great courtyard and from foundation to eaves, were made of blocks of high-grade stone cut to size and smoothed on their inner and outer faces. The foundations were laid with large stones of good quality, some measuring ten cubits and some eight. Above were high-grade stones, cut to size, and cedar beams. – I Kings 7:9-11  

 

Those stones were 12 and 15 feet wide! Herodian size.

 

We have previously spoken of the centuries after Solomon. From then the kingdom became divided, and mostly the following years involved bad king after bad king, forgetting the commands of the Lord, and worshiping false gods, with the people doing the same. Prophets warned of coming destruction if the kings and people did not repent, but with few exceptions they continued in their sins.

 

One such exception was King Hezekiah. We have this account:

 

After all that Hezekiah had so faithfully done, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities, thinking to conquer them for himself. When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he intended to wage war against Jerusalem, he consulted with his officials and military staff about blocking off the water from the springs outside the city, and they helped him. They gathered a large group of people who blocked all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land. “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?” they said. Then he worked hard repairing all the broken sections of the wall and building towers on it. He built another wall outside that one and reinforced the terraces of the City of David. He also made large numbers of weapons and shields. – 2 Chronicles 32:1-5

 

There are interesting details here, and note how water comes up again. Stay tuned! How did it all turn out?

 

King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz cried out in prayer to heaven about this. And the Lord sent an angel, who annihilated all the fighting men and the commanders and officers in the camp of the Assyrian king. So he withdrew to his own land in disgrace. And when he went into the temple of his god, some of his sons, his own flesh and blood, cut him down with the sword. – 2 Chronicles 32:20-21

 

Jerusalem is the only city that the Assyrians at that time did not capture. And a tablet has been found written by Israel’s enemies that records the failure of the Assyrians to conquer Jerusalem. (But it does not mention the part about the angel.)

 

We mentioned King Josiah at the start of the series, how he too was a good king, and when he found the Book of the Law in the Temple, which at this time was practically falling apart due to neglect and misuse, he completely rededicated the people and the Temple to following God. 

 

But these good moments were overshadowed by the long periods of evil. As 2 Chronicles summarizes things:

 

The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because He had pity on his people and on His dwelling place. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against His people and there was no remedy. – 2 Chronicles 36:15-16

 

Finally, under King Zedekiah, the Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem. The siege lasted two-and-a-half years, and then, as we read last week in 2 Kings 25,

 

On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, an official of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He set fire to the temple of the Lord, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down. The whole Babylonian army under the commander of the imperial guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem. – 2 Kings 25:8-12

 

There were 70 years of exile, and then Zerubbabel rebuilt the temple, and Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. These walls were smaller, as Jerusalem would have fewer inhabitants, and there was little time for Nehemiah to build the walls as he was constantly threatened by the enemies of Israel during the build.

 

In the succeeding several centuries, Jerusalem regrew, but the location spread out beyond the walls of Nehemiah. This was the nature of the city at the time of Jesus. As we have discussed, the city was largely destroyed (and the Temple completely so) in AD 70. Last week, we mentioned how Hadrian wanted to build a large temple on the Temple Mount, but a revolt by the Jews there led to a change in plans. But Hadrian did rebuild on the ruins of the city, and the layout of what we call the Old City, which is walled, is largely in the layout of Hadrian’s city, which he called Aelia Capitolina; Aelia was a family name, and Capitolina was short for the god Jupiter Capitolinas. Jews were forbidden from entering the city except for one day a year, on the 9^th day of the month of Av (Tisha b’av), where they could mourn the destructions of both the first and second Temples, which both occurred on this date, the first by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC, and the second by the Romans in AD 70. In the fourth century, when Constantine took power, he now allowed Christians into the city, and he removed much of the structures dedicated to the Roman gods and helped rebuild sites revered by Christians. I will not discuss the dizzying changes of power from that time on. Instead, let’s talk about archaeology!

 

Our focus is on the City of David, the “old” Jerusalem before the Old City. The location has been found, and surprisingly, it is not within the Old City walls at all. The first two images show a topological map, and next to it is an aerial photograph. The location is south of the Old City, south of the Temple Mount.

 

The next image is a model reconstruction by archaeologists based on what has been excavated. It also includes a lot of conjecture as to the details, of course, but it does model things based on actual discoveries, and it also takes into account the topology of the area.

 

What I want to show you next are some clips from a video from the YouTube channel City of David. This location was found under the floor of a hundred-year-old house. The home was within the region of the old City of David, and under the floor was found an ancient shaft. This shaft goes down to the source of water, which was outside the city walls. This is the only water source in the region of Jerusalem. As you can see, they go down the stairs, then into a reinforced passageway, and they mention that they have found bronze era chisels that go back to the time of Abraham. So these tunnels existed, at least in part, all the way back to the time of Melchizedek, king of Salem.

 

From here you can see they go down a long, steep stairway. While descending, they explain that the reason the passageway was cut so steep is because it was designed for defense – a retractable ladder, probably rope, was used, and it could be pulled up if an opposing army tried to enter. There is even a large chasm under that stairway! They explained that, using bronze era chisels, it may have taken multiple generations to dig out these passages. It’s hard to see, but she is pointing out in the third picture that chisel marks are actually still visible.

 

It is a long way down! I am not showing you every shot, and yet they keep descending. Can you imagine how easy it would be to hide here in an attack? I wonder if maybe this is why the Jebusites could not be separated from Jerusalem, despite the multiple attempts to do so. He mentions that at the bottom, the chisel marks switch directions, towards them, meaning that somehow there were two teams of chiselers that somehow met in the middle. We have no idea how they accomplished that. Likewise, recall how David finally took over the city: through the water system! And so David, with God’s help, found an entrance to the water system from outside the walls of the city. I wonder if he and his men had to go underwater to find it? In the fourth picture in this set, he points out that the floor has been warn extremely smooth by the countless trips people in ancient times made to the water source to carry up water (thousands of years of use). The people had to be physically fit, as it is a long way back up!

 

The camera is pointing down on the second shot of the next set. This is Warren’s shaft, named after the archaeologist who discovered it in 1867. The deep shaft can be climbed upward by reasonably skilled climbers, but could not have been used for regular water delivery. One theory regarding David’s capture of the city is that David and his men used the shaft to gain the element of surprise in the tunnel, which one might expect would be guarded. The cave behind the woman in the third picture in this set might have been used by the very earliest people in Salem. Pottery was found in a hole excavated within this cave that is even more ancient than Abraham.

 

The first picture in the next set shows a current archaeological dig. The dig began because of a hollowed out hole with the shape used for grinding grain. They found walls, and then realized there was an entrance to a 4000 year old underground home, complete with even a hollowed out shelf.

 

The next set, in the same home, shows a water trough, and he is standing in a hole used as an oven. I wasn’t able to get a good picture, but there is soot on the ceiling over the hole. This “home” dates to the time of King Hezekiah. People were probably living for some time underground in this system, hiding out from Sennacherib. Indeed, 2 Kings 18 tells us that the army came to Jerusalem and stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, and the field commander shouted to them in Hebrew (surprisingly) telling them to surrender, and they would be treated well. The Jewish under-leaders (but not the king, who wasn’t there) told the field commander to speak in Aramaic rather than Hebrew, as they understood it. But the field commander continued to shout in Hebrew, because he wanted all the Israelites in earshot to hear it and pass it on to one another. He told them that the Lord would not deliver them. But if they made peace with him, he would take them to a land like their own, where they could settle and have a good life. He said don’t trust in the Lord, as no other god had protected their people from him. But all the people remained silent. Nobody took him up on his offer. And Hezekiah, hearing of this, prayed to the Lord, and Isaiah proclaimed that the Lord would indeed deliver them. And as I mentioned, an angel struck many in the Assyrian army, and they left. Not long after, Sennacherib died at the hands of his sons.

 

The picture in blue shows an area that used to be filled completely with water. This region is a carved-out area of mountain that used to be open to the sky. There was a fish market nearby. At a later time, the water was diverted from this area to another area. This is most likely the Gihon Spring at the time of David and Solomon. It was here that a young Solomon was anointed as king, ruining the plans of Adonijah who wanted to be king himself. David was very old at this time, near death. The account is in I Kings 1. The diverting of the water was done by Hezekiah, and the new location of the water is in the next set of pictures.

 

Next, we have two pictures of a remaining portion of Hezekiah’s wall around Jerusalem, built to protect Jerusalem from Sennacherib. The wall was 25 feet high, up to 22 feet wide, and 2½ miles in length.

Next is a picture of what has been uncovered of what may be David’s palace! Pottery and other items date the site to the right time era. The site is huge, and the location is the high point of the City of David. It is logical that the site is David’s palace. Remember all the events we pictured going on at David’s palace. They likely took place at this very spot. 

 

I want to finish today with an account of David from I Chronicles 17.

 

After David was settled in his palace, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.” Nathan replied to David, “Whatever you have in mind, do it, for God is with you.” But that night the word of God came to Nathan, saying: “Go and tell My servant David, ‘This is what the Lord says: You are not the one to build Me a house to dwell in. I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought Israel up out of Egypt to this day. I have moved from one tent site to another, from one dwelling place to another. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their leaders whom I commanded to shepherd My people, “Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?”’ – I Chronicles 17:1-6

 

“Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over My people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name like the names of the greatest men on earth. And I will provide a place for My people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also subdue all your enemies. – I Chronicles 17:7-10a

 

“‘I declare to you that the Lord will build a house for you: When your days are over and you go to be with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons, and I will establish His kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for Me, and I will establish His throne forever. I will be His father, and He will be My son. I will never take My love away from Him, as I took it away from your predecessor. I will set Him over My house and My kingdom forever; His throne will be established forever.’”- I Chronicles 17:10b-14

 

God is not talking about Solomon, and the house for the Lord is not the Temple. Solomon, Solomon’s kingdom, and Solomon’s Temple: None of these were eternal. Solomon may have built a Temple for God, but he did not build a house. Likewise, the house that God is talking about is not the land of Israel, nor is it Jerusalem. Israel as a whole, and Jerusalem in particular, have not been places where the people are no longer disturbed, never again oppressed.

 

Who is the one who will build a house for God? Who has done it? Jesus, son of David. It is an interesting title for Jesus. Blind Bartimaeus called Him that. So did the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15 whose daughter was possessed by a demon. So did two additional blind men in Matthew 20. So did Matthew himself, in the very first verse of his gospel. Only the Messiah is the son of David that builds a house for God. Only the Messiah can build a house that lasts forever.

 

And that house was built by Jesus going to the cross to die for our sins. Let us remember Him now. I think of archaeological evidence as we have been seeing in this series as a kind of house-building for our faith. None of it is necessary for faith. But it helps buttress, support our faith. We can lean on it when we are weak in faith. Hopefully this series is encouraging you. But nothing substitutes for Christ Himself. He is all we need. And it is only through Him that our faith is truly protected. Let us press on to know the Lord, as Hosea says.

 

We will remember him now, with the bread and the cup, as He instructed His disciples to do 2000 years ago. I like to imagine that 24-hours a day someone somewhere is remembering Him, worshiping Him, with the bread and the cup. He is worthy of such continual praise!

 

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. – I Corinthians 11:23-26

 

And so, let us proclaim the Lord’s death, until He comes. And when He comes, He will lead us into the eternal house He has built for us, the house of eternal fellowship, eternal protection, and eternal joy in Him.

Moriah

 Moriah

Welcome! Today is our third week of exploring the findings of archaeology that confirm the truths of the Bible. As we did last week, we are going to look at several seemingly unrelated passages, and then as we look at archaeology, we will put these passages together. Our first passage we will look at today should be a very familiar one involving Abraham.

Two weeks ago, we looked at the location of Mamre, a place where Abraham stayed for some time with his extended family and his animals, where Abraham made an altar to God, and where God told Abraham that he and Sarah would have a son, despite the seeming impossibility that that could happen. God did indeed give them a son, named Isaac, and today’s passage takes place a number of years after Isaac is born.

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” – Genesis 22:1-2

This was a shocking, unimaginable request. Over many years, God had shown special care and concern for Abraham, instructing him to leave his home in Ur and go to a place God would show him. God promised to make of him a great nation, to bless him and make his name great. He was told that all nations, all peoples would be blessed through him. God repeated and added to promise after promise, revealing that it would be through his son Isaac that the promises would be kept; through Isaac the great nation would come, and through Isaac, all nations, all peoples, would be blessed.

So how could God now ask Abraham to sacrifice his son? What about the promises? If it was through Isaac that that all this would happen, then the death of Isaac meant the death of a nation, and the blessing that was to be for all peoples would be for none.

Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” – Genesis 22:3-5

Why did Abraham dismiss the servants? Probably because he did not want them to see what Abraham was about to do. Also they might have been able to stop him. The reason the servants came on the journey at all is probably because Abraham was an old man at this time, and needed help with a multi-day journey.

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. – Genesis 22:6-8

Now we don’t know exactly how old Isaac is at this time, but we have two convincing clues that Isaac is a young adult, not a small child. First, the word used to describe him in the previous chapter is the same word used to describe Abraham’s servants in this chapter. Second, Isaac is old enough to carry what had to be a large and heavy quantity of wood over some distance, a distance large enough so that the servants would not be able to hear anything that happened. Note that the wood was cut before their journey even began and loaded up on a donkey, so it had to be a lot of wood.   

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. – Genesis 22:9-10

It is remarkable to me that Isaac does not resist at any time. He could have certainly overpowered his father. I am sure he understood what was happening, although he did not understand why. And his father likewise continued to do what he had been told to do, though I do not doubt it was with many tears. Despite what was happening, Isaac remained completely obedient to the will of his father. But as you know, this story does not end as it appears to at this point.

But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” He said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from Me your son, your only son.” Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.” – Genesis 22:11-14

I want to point out that this is an odd thing that is said “to this day.” It would be one thing to simply say that Lord provides, or more precisely, the Lord provided. It is interesting that the tense is future, the Lord Will Provide, Jehovah Jireh. But the final verse is even more specific. It says that on the mountain of the Lord it will be provided. This mountain? And what will be provided? We will come back to that question, but let’s now move on. Let us look, in our second passage, at an event in the life of David.

Now David is described by God as a man after God’s own heart. David certainly was a sinner, as we all are, and a number of his personal failings – most famously the situation with Bathsheba – revealed his sinful nature publicly and spectacularly. But despite his failings, David kept returning to the Lord. His Psalms reveal a heart that truly burns for God, for his own life to be one used by God, and for God’s glory to be revealed. The contrast between David and Saul, who eventually abandoned all pretense of serving the Lord, could not be greater. But we are going to look at one of David’s failings. This account is given in 2 Samuel 24.

Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.” So the king said to Joab and the army commanders with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.” But Joab replied to the king, “May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?” The king’s word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders; so they left the presence of the king to enroll the fighting men of Israel. – 2 Samuel 24:1-4

Now, we need to discuss that first sentence, which can be confusing to understand. I think we can understand it better by looking at the opening of the parallel account in I Chronicles 21.

Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.” But Joab replied, “May the Lord multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord’s subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?” The king’s word, however, overruled Joab; so Joab left and went throughout Israel and then came back to Jerusalem. – 1 Chronicles 21:1-4

In the 2 Samuel passage, the opening statement “Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel” should be taken to be a summary statement of the rest of the chapter. This is a common speech pattern in 1 and 2 Samuel, as well as in earlier books of the Bible. And when it says “He incited David” in contrast to what we have here which is that Satan incited David, I believe the way to understand this is that God allowed Satan to tempt David, knowing that David would fail, and that the result would be judgment against Israel that was due against them because of their continued sin.

Now, David gave in to the temptation. He wants to see how large his army is. How mighty is his kingdom? How many men able to fight does he have in the whole land? Note that this kind of thinking usually is accompanied with an unhealthy, or shall we say, sinful, view of yourself as the reason for your success, rather than God. The truth is that we are stewards, not owners, of our possessions, and whether we have just enough, or far more than that, it is the Lord who is giver of these things.

But beyond this, it is harder to trust the Lord when you don’t know just what you have. Counting your stuff makes it easy for you to say you trust the Lord, but that is something else entirely. We in America have been blessed with abundance, but this abundance is also a temptation for us to rely on ourselves rather than the Lord. We have insurance. We have retirement accounts. I’m not saying any of these things are sin. But to put your trust in these things and forget the Lord is sin.

Quite ironically, it is David himself who wrote in Psalm 20:7, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” If you really trust in the name of the Lord your God, you do not need to count your chariots and horses, do you? I believe this is why taking a census in the Law of Moses included an interesting requirement. From Exodus 30:

Then the Lord said to Moses, “When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the Lord a ransom for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them. Each one who crosses over to those already counted is to give a half shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, which weighs twenty gerahs. This half shekel is an offering to the Lord. All who cross over, those twenty years old or more, are to give an offering to the Lord. The rich are not to give more than a half shekel and the poor are not to give less when you make the offering to the Lord to atone for your lives. Receive the atonement money from the Israelites and use it for the service of the tent of meeting. It will be a memorial for the Israelites before the Lord, making atonement for your lives.” – Exodus 30:11-16

I believe this half-shekel requirement, which was a small amount, small enough for even the poor to afford, was included in the Law because it forced everyone to remember the Lord. I also think it foreshadowed Christ, but more on that later. In any case, it appears from both our 2 Samuel and 2 Chronicles passages that Joab remembered this law and the warning of plague that went with it, or at least he remembered that the Israelites had always been told to be wary of taking censuses without God giving a command through His prophets to do so.

Both passages explain that indeed, a plague came on the people, an angel of death, an angel of the Lord, struck down thousands of people. David, was in anguish over this, and he then was visited by the prophet Gad. From 2 Samuel 24:

On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” So David went up, as the Lord had commanded through Gad. When Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground. Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” “To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped.” – 2 Samuel 24:18-21

Notice that Gad told David to “go up” to build this altar. We will come back to that later.

Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. Your Majesty, Araunah gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the Lord your God accept you.” But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them. David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped. – 2 Samuel 24:22-25

The threshing floor is highly symbolic. A threshing floor was a place to separate the grain from the chaff, the outer, inedible part of the plant (usually wheat or barley). Threshing involved pulling a heavy sled (usually pulled by an animal) over the gathered plants to crack the husks, breaking it off of the edible grain. Now that the husks were broken off, the next step was to physically separate the grain from the chaff, and this was done by using winnowing forks to toss the combination of grain and chaff into the air. The wind would carry away the lighter chaff, and the grain would fall back to the floor. An ideal location for a threshing floor was on the top of a high hill, where the wind would be strong enough to separate the grain from the chaff.

David also needed to be separated from his sin. The sacrifice of the oxen (who were innocent of David’s sin) paid the penalty for David. But even though David paid for the oxen, it was really God who provided the way out of the situation through the words of the prophet Gad. Note that, just as with Abraham, it was God who told David where to go, where to erect his altar. And just as with Abraham, the sacrificial animal was provided at this location.

The 2 Samuel passage says that the Lord answered his prayer. The 1 Chronicles account gives a little more detail:

David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the Lord, and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering. – 1 Chronicles 21:26

So David saw personally the fire from heaven come down on this place.

We now come to our third passage, our third person interacting with the Lord. This person is Solomon. David had wanted to build a Temple for the Lord, but God said it would be his son Solomon who would do it. 2 Chronicles 3:1 tells us where Solomon would build the Temple, and this passage ties together everything we have discussed so far:

Then Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David. – 2 Chronicles 3:1

Why did God have Abraham take a journey before having His test of sacrificing Isaac? Because it foreshadowed what would happen on this very same spot. Solomon’s Temple became the location where all the people of Israel would go to bring sacrifices, substitutionary sacrifices for their sin. It was here that the sacrifice of an innocent animal would be accepted as substitutionary payment for their sin. And we know that after the Temple was dedicated by Solomon, the glory of the Lord filled the Temple.

But despite this, we know that the history of Israel, and the history of the kings of Israel, was mostly generation after generation forgetting the Lord, choosing to do things their own way, worshiping false gods, and doing many other things that were detestable to the Lord. Finally, God’s judgment culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple:

On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, an official of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He set fire to the temple of the Lord, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down. The whole Babylonian army under the commander of the imperial guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem. Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard carried into exile the people who remained in the city, along with the rest of the populace and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon. But the commander left behind some of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields. – 2 Kings 25:8-12

The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the movable stands and the bronze sea that were at the temple of the Lord and they carried the bronze to Babylon. They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, dishes and all the bronze articles used in the temple service. The commander of the imperial guard took away the censers and sprinkling bowls—all that were made of pure gold or silver. – 2 Kings 25:13-15

Seventy years later, the Temple was rebuilt by Zerubbabel in the age of the Persians. King Darius discovered a scroll of King Cyrus, and he heeded what it said, which includes the following:

Let the Temple be rebuilt as a place to present sacrifices, and let its foundations be laid. It is to be sixty cubits high and sixty cubits wide, with three courses of large stones and one of timbers. The costs are to be paid by the royal treasury. Also, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, are to be returned to their places in the Temple in Jerusalem; they are to be deposited in the house of God. Now then, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and you other officials of that province, stay away from there. Do not interfere with the work on this Temple of God. Let the governor of the Jews and the Jewish elders rebuild this house of God on its site. – Ezra 6:3b-7

And so remarkably, miraculously, the Temple was rebuilt, at the same site as the previous Temple, on Moriah. As you can see, layer upon layer of activity is accumulating at this location.

Shortly before the time of Jesus, Herod the Great was king of Judea under Augustus Caesar. Herod was someone who was Jewish, and wished to be loved by the Jews, but the Jews were wary of him because of his ties to the Romans. Herod is most famous for his building projects (one of which we spoke about previously in this series), but undoubtedly his greatest work was to enhance the Temple location. Here is what the contemporary historian Josephus writes:

In the eighteenth year of his reign, Herod started to enlarge and reconstruct the temple at his own expense, which he knew would be his greatest enterprise… The temple itself was built by the priests in a year-and-a-half and was dedicated in a great celebration.

Herod was immensely proud of his achievement, but Jesus prophesied its destruction in Matthew 24:

Jesus left the temple and was walking away when His disciples came up to Him to call His attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” He asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” – Matthew 24:1-2

It is important to read this prophecy carefully. Jesus is speaking of the buildings on top of the Temple Mount, not the Temple Mount itself. And the prophecy came true in AD 70. The Roman emperor Vespasian ordered that it be destroyed, and his son Titus oversaw the terrible work. Josephus writes:

Around the altar were heaps of corpses, while streams of blood flowed down the steps of the sanctuary… The Romans pitched their standards (images of their false gods) inside the temple court and offered sacrifice… Caesar ordered the entire city and temple smashed to the ground.

And indeed, this is what happened. Jesus’ prophecy came true. The Jewish Temple was completely destroyed. The stones were thrown down off the Temple Mount platform.

In AD 130, the Roman emperor Hadrian made plans to build an entire city where Jerusalem had stood, including a temple to Jupiter at the site of the Temple Mount. This led to a major Jewish revolt called the Bar Kokhba revolution, but the Jews were unsuccessful, and most were forcefully depopulated from the region afterwards. Due to the delays of the revolt, however, Hadrian’s city was not built, and instead a small shrine was built on the Temple Mount including a statue of Hadrian and an idol of Jupiter. This shrine was still there in the fourth century AD, when one of the church fathers, Jerome, visited the site and wrote about what he saw.

Some time when Christianity spread from the third to the seventh century, the period known as the Byzantine era, Hadrian’s shrine was completely removed, so as to restore the “sanctity” of the site. We know this from written accounts of the time describing the Temple Mount as completely barren.

In AD 638, the Muslim Caliph Omar captured Jerusalem. He was shown the Temple Mount, and we have this account of the defeated Byzantine bishop of Jerusalem speaking to Omar, who wanted a place to build a sanctuary. The patriarch said to him:

It is the rock… It is in the center of the world and was a Temple for the Israelites, who held it in great veneration and wherever they were, they turned their faces toward it during prayer.” [We], however,… did not build a church over it because Christ our Lord said in His Holy Gospel, ‘Not a stone will be left upon a stone which will not be ruined and devastated.’ For this reason, [we] left it as a ruin and did not build a church over it.

And so we learn why no church was built over the site in the Byzantine era. Omar had the rubble cleared, but a later Caliph named Abd al-Malkik was the one built the Dome of the Rock, which was finished in AD 692.

So let’s talk about the archaeological evidence we have and look at some pictures. First note that it is not possible to directly excavate Mount Moriah, because to do so would be to literally start World War III. As we go into this, I think it is easy to be somewhat jaded about what we have, because this location is one of the most well-known locations in the world. This is not a surprise like Joshua’s altar from last week. But don’t let this location’s familiarity take away from the fact that it provides powerful evidence of the truth of the Bible. We will start with the most recent constructions and work our way back in time.

The first images show both a topographical map of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, and the second image is a drawing from the 1930s of what was (and is) on the Temple Mount. Our next image shows the entire Temple Mount complex.

The next picture illustrates the Dome of the Rock. The Dome of the Rock has been remodeled over and over, but it still marks the spot, marks Moriah, with certainty. Along with the Al-Aqsa Mosque, these are the major Islamic-era constructions on the site.

Although we have no remaining physical evidence of Hadrian’s shrine, we do have evidence of an arch (not shown) built by Hadrian to support a road which led up to Hadrian’s shrine on the Temple Mount.

As for the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, the next image shows that as evidence we have many huge boulders from the top of the Temple Mount pushed over the outer walls of the Mount that have landed and broken up below.

The next image shows that Western Wall, a section of Herod’s outer wall structure that has been fully exposed to reveal the actual wall that Herod made. (A lot of the other walls are covered up in whole or in part by later constructions, even medieval residences.) Jews consider the Western Wall Judaism’s holiest site, as it is the wall closest to where the Holy of Holies in the Temple was located.

 

Is there remaining physical evidence of Zerubbabel’s temple? Yes. The next image shows a seam on the east-facing wall of the Temple Mount. One of the excavators of this site says this:

The surviving masonry, to the right of the straight joint, is likely to be in origin that of Zerubbabel, though an analysis of the courses visible suggests that there may be about three styles possibly representing rebuilds during the stormy life of Zerubbabel’s Temple.

You can see several styles of stone in the image, all clearly different from the Herodian style.

Now, to find evidence of the Babylonian burn and destruction, we would have to dig in the Temple Mount. But the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, not just the Mount, and there is plenty of archaeological evidence for this. Consider this quote from an excavator:

The massive destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians is apparent not only in the thick layers of charred remains unearthed in structures such as the Burnt Room and the Bullae House, but also in the deep stone rubble from collapsed buildings found covering the eastern slope.

The Burnt Room excavation site is shown in the next picture. Regarding this site, I found the following quote:

The fire that consumed Jerusalem in 586 BCE did not spare the Royal Quarter. Among the ruins was the burnt room of a house that had collapsed in the fire; its floor was covered with a thick layer of ash. Under the piles of debris in the burnt room, the excavators found numerous arrowheads and the remains of a charred wooden piece of furniture carved with a stylized date-palm motif. The furniture, made of wood imported from Syria, is another sign of the elevated status of the inhabitants.

We also have a section of wall just uncovered in 2021 of a section that did not burn. The next image shows this site. From the Jerusalem Post:

The massive structure – some 5 m. wide – was built on the steep eastern slope leading to the city, just a few dozen meters away from the Temple Mount. Probably the steepness of the area preserved the structure from destruction during the Babylonian conquest – a vivid account of which is offered in the Bible – since the invading army likely accessed the city from an easier path.

What about Solomon’s constructions? Again, we cannot dig around at the site of Solomon’s Temple, but from I Kings 9:15, we know he built a palace, terraces, and a “wall of Jerusalem,” among other places. We have found a portion of what are almost certainly Solomon’s walls just south of the Temple Mount. Here is what one of the archaeologists working on the site says:

In the process of excavating through the later layers… we not only discovered well-preserved First Temple period walls, but also intact floor layers with in-situ pottery vessels… Dating the construction of the fortification line to sometime in the second half of the 10^th century [BC] makes King Solomon out to be the best candidate for its architect.

Although we don’t have evidence for David’s altar on the threshing floor or Abraham’s much earlier altar where he was ready to sacrifice Isaac, we do have abundant evidence about David’s life including archaeological sites, which we will discuss later. And we have already discussed Mamre, which validates Abraham.

I want to finish today by talking about the significance of the fact that God choose Moriah as a location for Abraham and Isaac, for David’s altar on the threshing floor, for Solomon’s Temple, and for the rebuilt Temple. And for this I want to go to an inscription on the Dome of the Rock, dating all the way back to the original construction in AD 692. The inscription is a dedication, and it quotes a verse from the Koran:

So believe in God and all the messengers and stop talking about a Trinity…. Say only the truth about Jesus over whom you dispute: he is the son of Mary! It is not fitting that God should beget a father or son.

Think about the fact that this quote sits at the site of the Temple. This quote is saying to Jesus, “You are not the son of God!” We have heard this before. Satan himself tempted Jesus in the desert, three times saying “If you are the son of God.” Satan knew exactly who Jesus was, but he was foolish to think that he could actually defeat Jesus through temptation. But today, he is not so foolish. He wants everyone to think that Jesus was not the son of God, and he even has an inscription over the very site where he once tempted Jesus.

It has struck me that, other than Abraham and David, each builder on Moriah has not done well when it comes to faith. (Zerubbabel, the rebuilder, is an exception.) Solomon pretty completely fell away from faith later in life. Herod showed no signs of faith, and built his giant construction projects so that the Jews would like him. (He is the same Herod that killed the baby boys in Bethlehem as an attempt to kill the real king of the Jews.) And Hadrian, likewise, wanted to use the site to glorify himself (and build an idol to his pagan god). And finally, the inscription on the Dome of the Rock makes it clear what the real purpose of the Dome was – to deny the identity of Jesus, to whom, one day, every knee will bow.

But most importantly, Jesus was the fulfillment of the events on Moriah involving Abraham and David. Remember what Abraham named this place: “On this mountain the Lord will provide.” And He did provide. He provided Jesus, His only Son, whom He loves. By providing a substitution for Isaac, God enabled the promised blessing on all peoples and nations to happen, and that blessing was Jesus, because by believing in Him, we have eternal life. As for David, he learned that the sacrifice on that mountain was necessary to save the people from receiving the just punishment for their sins. David sacrificed an innocent animal on that winnowing floor, and that animal took the place of all the people. This was a foreshadowing of Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. And a winnowing is coming, and those who have trusted in Christ for their salvation will be like the wheat, but those who have rejected Him will be like the chaff. Do you remember what the centurion exclaimed when he saw how Jesus died?

And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how He died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” – Mark 15:39

The verse right before this verse tells us that when Jesus died, the curtain of the Temple, the curtain that kept everyone out of the Holy of Holies, right there on Moriah, the super-tall, thick, untearable curtain, tore cleanly in two from the top to the bottom, as if God Himself reached down and tore it (which is what I think happened). And at that moment, that centurion, and everyone else who has believed, was no longer separated from God by their sin.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. – Hebrews. 10:19-23