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Continued from previous post …conclusion of the Mystery …Why was the Priest by the river and what’s the 2000 year old connection to Abraham meeting a King?
Before tying all the threads together, brief reference to the origin and descendants of the Aaronic Priesthood because…
In Luke 1: 8-23, we see that God chose to speak to Zechariah through His angel Gabriel; while Zechariah is ministering before the Most High God in the Temple, burning incense at the Altar of Incense. 
Does this reveal additional clues to our mystery?
Vs. 8 reminds us that he is ministering before God, which again is inferring, that Zechariah belongs to the seed of Zadok. Is this possible? Maybe…because for God’s angel to speak to Zechariah means positively that he had to be a son of Zadok, for God will not violate His own Holy Word. Ex. 30:7 tells us that the Altar of Incense was the position of the high priest Aaron, and of Aaron’s future sons who would serve before God as high priest.
So for angel Gabriel to also speak to Zechariah while he is ministering
at the Altar of Incense, may mean that God was secretly telling us that Zechariah was the mystery high priest of the family of Zadok.
Different priests had served at this position daily, twice a day, for 160 years, all done in direct violation of the Word of God, bringing corruption of the Temple priesthood.
King David had two high priests, one was Zadok who was descended from Eleazar, the son of Aaron..
(meaning Righteous, Justified).
King Solomon continued keeping Zadok on as his only high priest. 
That was around 1000 B.C. and from 1000 B.C. to 160 B.C., the Zadok’s were God’s high priests of the Aaronic priesthood and of the Temple in Jerusalem, when not in exile.
Around 160 B.C., in direct violation of the Word of God, the Macabees removed the Zadok’s from being the high priests of the Jerusalem Temple.
From 160 B.C. to the opening scene of the New Covenant, the Aaronic priesthood was corrupted.
How would God restore the Aaronic priesthood for the Messiah to be able to come to earth through the Zadok Priesthood?
(Some possibilities:)
God had foretold us in Jeremiah 33:17-19, that the Messiah would be coming from two families, that David would never lack a Man who would reign as King over the House of Israel, and also that Aaron would never lack a Man who would represent the Aaronic priesthood, making a Sacrifice
that would be “for all days”, an Eternal Sacrifice. Jer. 33:18
Another of the last of the Old Covenant prophesies was that the Messiah would come from the family of the high priest. Yeshua of Zadok of Aaron; (not only from king David). See Zechariah 3:1-10 and 6:11-13
This righteous elderly Aaronic priest couple, (Zechariah and Elisheva/Elizabeth); 
who were well advanced in years and walked in all the ordinances
of the LORD, (blameless) … (and who we now also know are possibly the mystery Zadok high priest family;) and with Zechariah’s wife Elisheva now 6 months pregnant; suddenly they invite an unwed pregnant young Miriam/Mary in, to stay/live with them, for the next 3 months! 
This is really telling us a lot! What is their relationship to young Mary/Miriam? The only possible answer is they had to be Miriam’s closest blood-kin family! Miriam/Mary is not only from Judah but she is also from this family, she and Elizabeth are cousins!
When Miriam of Judah is told by the angel Gabriel that she will give birth to a Son who will be Great and who will be called the Son of the Highest, and that the LORD God will give Him the Throne of His father David (Luke 1:32), she is then told next by the angel Gabriel about her ‘karov’, (Hebrew), her close relative Elisheva, of the family of Aaron.
The virgin Miriam (Isaiah 7:14) had a father & a mother. Both Miriam and her mother had to come from this same family as Elisheva of Aaron. What was this relationship? Why has it been kept a secret? Many Scripture prophesies clearly reveal the Messiah would be coming from the family of Aaron [Zadok], besides coming from the family of David!
This great high priest family secret seems to be the key to understand this whole story, and the great mystery of our LORD, Jesus/Yeshua being the very fulfillment of the Aaronic priesthood.
If Zechariah was the mystery Zadok high priest, and as priesthood was passed by God from father to son, it would follow that Yochanan was to be the next mystery Zadok high priest.
But why did God specifically say that their child had to be called Yochanan?
Because God would keep His Word that He had made to Israel and given to the Zadok priests; (found in five places in Ezekiel, from chapter 40 to 48!)
What does all that mean?
Remember that around 160 B.C., the Zadok priest’s were removed as high priests of the Jerusalem Temple by the Macabees, and because of this, the Aaronic priesthood was then corrupted
for the next 160 years, until the opening scene in the book of Luke in the New Covenant and why there is precise geneology recorded, as there had to be proof they were eligible for the position. Every ‘begat’ is significant! Proof of Bloodline was required.
The answer to that mystery is that, the name of the last Zadok high priest of the Jerusalem Temple, just before the Macabees removed the Zadok priests, was Yochanan/John!
God was making sure that this son who would be born to Elisheva and to Zadok high priest Zechariah, would be called Yochanan; the name of the last Zadok high priest, around 160 B.C. [Art Scroll Publications, Yoma Edition, Volume 9, Section: ‘Kohanim Gedolim in 1st and 2nd Temples!]
A closer look at the name Melchi-zedek
Malki-tsedeq: From melek and tsedeq;
“my king is right,” an early king of Salem Palestine/Israel
מַלְכִּיצֶֿ֫דֶק proper name, masculine; king of Salem שָׁלֵם
Original Word: מַלְכִּי־צֶ֫דֶק
Transliteration: Malki-tsedeq
Phonetic Spelling: (mal-kee-tseh’-dek)
Short Definition: Melchi-zedek
מַלְכִּי Malki
־צֶ֫דֶק tsedeq
מלך The noun מלך (melek) is usually translated as king (מלכי, meaning kings of)
The verb מלך (malak), to be or become king.
In the Greek New Testament the name Melchi-zedek is spelled Μελχισεδεκ (Melchi-sedek).
The use of a hyphen in a name is quite unusual, and although Melchi-zedek seems a personal name, it looks more like a title. It consists of two elements, the first one taken from the noun מלך (melek), meaning king:
Note that theTorah includes rules and restrictions specifically for the king, which in itself is highly unusual if not wholly without precedent in the old world. A king had to be chosen by Adonai and not by the people. (Deuteronomy 17:15).
The one and only thing the King of Israel was supposed to do was to create a copy of the Law/Torah, with his own hands, and meditate on his copy all the days of his life. (17:18-19).
צדק The verb צדק (sadeq) means to be just or righteous. HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament confidently assures that: “this root basically connotes conformity to an ethical or moral standard,” also connotes synchronicity with the natural laws by which creation operates and by which mankind functions most fully and most satisfactorily for all parties involved (humans, animals, plants and the Creator.
The individual paleo hebrew letters have meanings:
Melchizedek, the King of Salem and Priest of El Elyon (Genesis 14:18). He has a small but far stretching role in the War of Four against Five Kings. (In the aftermath of which Abraham’s nephew Lot is abducted by the survivors of that war and subsequently freed by Abraham and his coalition.)
So our Messiah as a priest/king in the Order of Melchizedek has dual offices or authority.
David had written that the Messiah would be both a king and a priest just like Melchizedek had been.
From Genesis 14:18 we learn that Melchi-zedek, whose name means King of Righteousness, was both a priest of the Most High God and the King of Salem, (from Shalom = Peace), a Jebusite city that later became known as Jerusalem. When David conquered the Jebusites he made Jerusalem the capital of Israel, and purchased the land on nearby Mount Moriah where Abraham had sacrificed Isaac several hundred years earlier for the Temple location.
Click links for more on Mount Moriah
Never since the founding of Israel had one man been both a king and a priest.
It was forbidden.
Kings came from the tribe of Judah, 
while priests were descended from Levi. 
Some prophets were also priests, (e.g. Ezekiel and Zechariah), and David was a king and a prophet;
however, no one was ever both a king and a priest in Israel.
Furthermore, prophecies in Ezekiel 21:25-27 and Zechariah 6:9-13 tell us the two offices will eventually be united when Messiah comes and that He will be both a king and a priest. And of course in the Book of Hebrews Jesus is called our King (Heb. 1:8) and Our High Priest (Heb. 4:14). This is possible because Jesus is not a priest in the Levitical sense but in the higher order of Melchizedek. All of Hebrews 7 is devoted to this.
In Exodus 19:6 Israel is called a kingdom of priests but in 1 Peter 2:9 we read, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
He was speaking to the Church, calling us a royal priesthood. Only kings are considered royalty.
And in Revelation 1:5-6 it’s even clearer. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (KJV)
Some of the modern translations prefer the word kingdom over kings in the passage above, and it’s true, the Greek word there can be translated either way. They try to compare the Revelation passage with Exodus 19:6 to bolster their replacement theology bias, making the Church look like Israel. But to most conservative scholars it’s clear that both the context and the grammatical structure of the passage require that the Greek word be translated kings. (The same is true in Revelation 5:10 where the same phrase is repeated.)
Kings Of What?
The Bible doesn’t have a specific answer for this, but in Ephesians 2:6-7 Paul wrote, “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
The “coming ages” alludes to the time of the Millennium and beyond where we’ll serve as living examples of the incomparable riches of God’s grace, seated with our King and High Priest on His throne.
First, ‘Lord’, is a title one uses in addressing a superior, and only two were superior to the King. One was God the Father, represented by LORD and the other was God the Son, called Lord. In effect Jesus reminded the Pharisees that David would have referred to a merely human descendant as his son, not as his Lord.
And second, in Hebrew the “word” translated LORD is YHWH, the four initials of the unpronounceable name of God, and used only of Him, while the one translated Lord is a different word, Adonai.
Melchizadek from king and zedek meaning righteousness or the right use of consciousness!
He was born in Salem, in Canaan, which later became Jerusalem. In an era of paganism and idolatry, Melchizedek clung to God Most High and served him faithfully.
Melchizedek worshiped God Most High, the one true God.
Understanding Jesus’ status as our high priest is a key point in Hebrews.
Just as Melchizedek was not born into the Levitical priesthood but was appointed by God, so Jesus was named our eternal high priest, interceding with God the Father on our behalf.
Hebrews 5:8-10 says: “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.”
He was the great high priest who lived at the time of Abraham.
His name means king of righteousness.
Lived 2000 years before Jesus.
He was a man of faith and magnified his holy office.
As a child he stopped the mouths of lions and quenched the violence of fire.
He ordained a high priest after the order of the covenant which God made with Enoch. Gen. 14:28.
He was placed in charge of the Lord’s kingdom as the keeper of the storehouse of God and who God had appointed to receive tithes for the poor.
Abraham gave tithes to him and he gave Abraham the Melchizadek priesthood.
The Melchizadek priesthood was named after him.
Melchizedek gives Abraham bread and wine and blesses him, and Abraham gives Melchizedek a tenth of the goods that he retrieved from the looters.
This action gave rise to the law of tithing (via Genesis 28:22, via Leviticus 27:30 to Deuteronomy 14:22-29; also see Hebrews 7:1-10).
The Order of Melchizedek Is Seen in David and His Seed. 
Beginning with 2 Samuel 8:17 until Ezek. 48:11, we see 52 references in the Old Testament (TaNaKh)_ (to the Zadok (Tzadowq) priesthood. As Strong’s Concordance explains they were:
#6659 Tsadowq tsaw-doke’ from 6663; just; Tsadok, the name of eight or nine Israelites:–Zadok.
The Brown’s Driver-Brigg’s Lexicon gives a brief history of the Zadok (Tzadowq) priesthood: #H6659 Zadok = “righteous.”
The high priest, son of Ahitub of the house of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, and 11th in descent from Aaron; joined David after Saul’s death and supported him against Absalom and Adonijah; anointed Solomon as king a priest, son of Meraioth, father of Meshullam of the house of Ahitub; apparently a nephew of father of Jerusha, the wife of king Uzziah and mother of king Jotham of Judah son of Baana and repairer of the wall of Jerusalem in the time of Nehemiah son of Immer and repairer of the wall of Jerusalem in the time of Nehemiah. A leader of the people in the time of Nehemiah; a scribe appointed by Nehemiah as one of the treasurers over the storehouse; a valiant warrior of the tribe of Benjamin who joined David at Hebron.
The Zadok /Tzadowq priesthood were a “type and shadow,” a precursor to the final resurrected ones who will be part of the priesthood of Messiah in his Millennial Reign. (Rev. 1:6; 5:10).
So why does YaHuWaH say to David in Psalm 110:4 “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek?”
King David was from the Tribe of Judah, and the Messiah was prophesied to come through his “seed.”
Miryam, the earthly mother of Jesus/Yeshua was from the Tribe of Yahuwdah (Judah) and so was His earthly father, Yahuwceph (Joseph).
Even though Jesus/Yeshua was conceived by the Holy Spirit/Ruwach ha’Qodesh, His physical body was human, of the seed (lineage) of King David.
Israel/Yisra’el has not had an earthly king since the Roman Siege in 70 C.E., Messiah is the one who will carry on the throne of David as prophesied:
1 Kings/ Melakiym 8:25 Therefore now, YHWH Elohiym of Yisra’el, keep with your servant Dawiyd (David) my father that you promised him, saying, There shall not fail you a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Yisra’el; so that your children take heed to their way, that they walk before me as you have walked before me.
1 Kings/ Melakiym 9:5 Then I will establish the throne of your kingdom upon Yisra’el forever, as I promised to David (Dawiyd) your father, saying, There shall not fail you a man upon the throne of Yisra’el.
If there would not fail to be a man on the throne of King David’s lineage, then why is there not an earthly king today in Jerusalem? Where is the throne of King David today?
Matthew/Mattithyahuw 26:64 Jesus/Yeshua said unto him, You have said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall you see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Mark/Marqos14:62 And Jesus/Yeshua said, I AM: and you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Hebrews/ Ibriym 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:
1Peter/Keefa 3:22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of Elohiym; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.
Revelation/Chazown 5:5 And one of the elders said unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Yahuwdah (Judah), the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of Elohiym sent forth into all the earth.
It is important now to note the difference between the high priest “Melchizedek,” who is referred to as an individual, and those priests who are “after the order of Melchizedek.”
Hebrews/Ibriym 7:7 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high Elohiym, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;
2 To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;
3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of Elohiym; abides a priest continually.
4 Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils
We can see from the above verses, that Melchizedek is one single individual, but he does have an “order” of priests who will follow in his foot-steps.
Who are they who belong to this order of priests?
The next few verses were addressed to those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes (Rev. 14:4) who also have the name of the Father, (Emet/Truth), written in their foreheads.
When those who are a part of the remnant of the “seed of the woman” (mother from above Jerusalem), are caught up to meet YaHuWaH in the air (1Thess. 4:17), they will be changed into incorruption or immortality (1 Cor. 15:42-53). This it seems is when they will serve in the priesthood of Melchizedek during the Millennial Reign of Messiah here on earth (Rev. 20:4):
1st Keefa (Peter) 2:9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should shew forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light;
Chazown (Revelation) 1:6 And has made us kings and priests unto Elohiym and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Chazown (Revelation) 5:10 ‘And has made us unto our Elohiym kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.’
This has everything to do with us because it is written. ‘you are a chosen people a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for his own possession.’
So if we belong to God, we are a priest, we are one of His cohanim and every priest and holy vessel must be separated from everything else, set apart to God.
Under the renewed covenant, He separates His priests by other means, by what ever it takes to separate them from everything else and bring them to Himself. He will use everything to bring you to Himself, to separate you from the rest of this world, the rejection of man, disappointment, heartbreak, crisis, hurt, sorrow, disillusionment, lack of fulfillment, discontentment, trouble, abandonment and failure. Whatever it takes to separate His priest from the world and bring them to Himself.
That which is separated to God is Holy.
Ex.28:1–2; Ez.44:16; 2 Timothy 1:9; 1 Peter 2:9
The key people involved in delivering Messiah to His death where the Sanhedrin.
Led by the high priest including the chief priests of the temple, the sons of Aaron the same ones ordained by God to offer up the sacrifices.
Why were they so obsessed with Messiah?
They were the priests and He was the lamb.
The sacrifice.
So, (by the Law), they where the ones to initiate His death.
That was their ministry and calling.
Only they could deliver the Lamb of God to His death.
That’s why they conspired and arrested Him and handed Him over to the Romans to be crucified. It was their ministry to offer up the sacrifice. So they killed Him because they were the priests and He was the sacrifice. Although they did not know it! However they were the ones ordained by the Lord to fulfill His Plan. 
The Cohanim’s Confession
When the priest performed the Semikah, which was the placing of the sins of the people on to the sacrifice, they also had to confess their own sins over it. Leviticus 16:21.
They had to do both, for if they did not, the sacrifice could not die for those sins. When Messiah was taken by the priests from the garden of Gethsemane the night before His death, the priests laid hands on Him and there is a record of them striking Him and hitting Him on the face and head, (Matt 26:67; Mk. 10:34; Lk. 22:63 Jn. 18:22), however there was no confession of sin. 
Mark 14:63–64 ‘at that Caiaphas tore his clothes and said, ‘he has spoken blasphemy,’ to which those in the council agreed that he was guilty and deserving of death.’
They condemned Him to death on FALSE charges.
The priest confessed the sins upon the sacrifice in the Semikah but the fact is that the sacrifice was not guilty of those sins.
This sacrifice could only die for those sins if it wasn’t guilty of them.
It had to be innocent and sinless without blemish spot or wrinkle. 
For the Semikah to be performed on the sacrifice of Messiah, the High Priest had to speak over Him sins that He was not guilty of.
Caiphas had accused Him of the sin of blasphemy speaking it over Him.
However the sin that is spoken upon the sacrifice is not the actual sin of the sacrifice but it is the sin of those who speak it.
The blasphemy He was accused of was not Messiah’s sin, it was the sin of the high priest and the priesthood.
They had in fact judged God of blasphemy against himself, God; and to judge God of blasphemy, is itself a blasphemy!
So in fact the priests were confessing their own sin! However, it wasn’t just their sin, because the priest represented Israel; and Israel in turn represented the rest of the world.
In the Semikah of the sacrifice for humanity going back to the very first sin; and the genesis of all sins, were the words that came straight from the devils mouth, ‘you shall be as God!’ which was blasphemy. Genesis 3:5
To follow the logical progression, the sin was confessed over the sacrifice by the High Priest, and the priests touched His head with their hands and by this the Semikah for the sins of man was performed.
Furthermore they confessed our sins upon Him also, for the Scriptures tell us 2 Corinthians 5:21, ‘He made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us.. That we might become the righteousness of God.
Beyond the Sanhedrin it was the high priest who alone was ordained to offer up the most holy sacrifice, the atonement by which the nation sins were forgiven. The one who that presided over the Sanhedrin and was more than anyone else responsible for delivering Messiah to His death, was none other than the high priest.
His intention was murder yet he was the one appointed in the Law to offer up the sacrifice. Messiah was the sacrifice, so it was the high priest who had to offer Him up. Even though their actions and motives were corrupt, God used it to fulfill His purposes through it came salvation for every man who will accept Jesus’s sacrifice.
As He died He found life.
As He surrendered all, He has prevailed over all and overcome the world, so too if we walk in the footsteps of the Lamb we will prevail and overcome the world.
But now we have a renewed covenant, which obviously means there is a new priesthood. So as the covenant changes the priesthood has changed. Was there any passing of the torch so to speak between the old and the new? Was there a recognition or transference; was there a blessing from the priesthood of Aaron to the priesthood of Messiah?
And if so how could it have happened?
Caiaphas The high priest at the time and most of the priesthood was corrupt and plotting Messiahs death. There were some exceptions for example Nicodemus.
However what if there was someone more of a high priest than Caiaphas? What if there was someone who represented the priesthood more than any other individual at the time?
Yeshua as the perfect sacrifice, is also from Aaron from the virgin Mary/Miriam. Miriam carried genetically the perfect fulfillment of two family lines, Aaron and David, which God had chosen, specifically stated in Jeremiah 33:24.
But we also find other prophesies revealing that the Messiah would be coming from the high priest family of Yeshua of the family of Zadok.
For the Old Testament prophesies about the Messiah indicated that He, the Branch, would not only come from the family of Aaron (Jeremiah 33: 18, 21, 24), but even more precisely from the high priest family of Yeshua of the seed of Zadok of Aaron. Zech 3:8 and 6:11-13.
Yeshua is also from Aaron: for the virgin Miriam and Elisheva/Elizabeth of Aaron family; of king David family; of high priest Zechariah and same family as Elisheva of high priest Zadok’s family; and from high priest Zadok, family of high priest Aaron.
The relationship between Miriam (Mary), Yeshua’s mother, and her close relative (karov, in Hebrew), Elisheva (Elizabeth) of Aaron, as described in Luke 1:5, 36-56 shows how these two women were related.
God created our Messiah Yeshua, with absolute perfection, from Heaven from His Father, Almighty God. Also Yeshua is the perfect fulfillment of the two family lines which God had chosen (Jeremiah 33:24); both coming together in a virgin, Yeshua’s mother Miriam. This was prophesied in a few places in the Old Covenant Scriptures. We know that the Messiah was to come from the family of king David, of the tribe of Judah. But what was also prophesied in the Old Covenant Scriptures was that the Messiah would also be coming from the family of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi. Jeremiah 33:17, 18. Isaiah 7:14 However, God had also announced to His Zadok high priest Joshua (Yeshua, in Hebrew) something even more specific about the coming Messiah, through His prophet in the book of Zechariah.
That the Messiah (the Branch) would be coming from this Zadok high priest family of Joshua (Yeshua), of high priest Aaron of the Aaronic priesthood. Messiah Yeshua is the perfect fulfillment of these two families, the high priest family of Yeshua of Zadok, of high priest Aaron, of the Aaronic priesthood, and also the family of king David; all from the Seed of Genesis 3:15, the Seed of Eve. God, the Holy Spirit overshadowed this Seed at the time of the conception of Yeshua in Miriam’s womb. Also, according to the Word of God in Ezekiel 43:18 & Ezekiel 44:15, 16 (& 40:46), God had said that He would only honor the blood sacrifice coming from a priest who was a son of Zadok.
Yeshua is a Son of Zadok through His mother Miriam. However, Yeshua was never, and could never have been an Aaronic priest, simple because Yeshua had no earthly father. For the Aaronic priesthood was only passed from earthly father to son. Yeshua’s Blood Sacrifice would never have been accepted by God, except for the fact that Yeshua is also a Son of Zadok through His mother Miriam.
And Yeshua is also a Priest from His Father, Almighty God. He is Priest of God Most High! Yeshua is KING and Great High Priest of Heaven! He also fulfilled the earthly line of both Aaronic high priests of Aaron and the line of kings from king David! This great Mystery is now revealed and is part of the precious and sinless Blood of our Lord Yeshua! Lord Yeshua is Heaven’s Priest coming from high priest Zadok of Aaron! Melchi Zedek: Genesis 14:18; Psalm 110:1, 4; Hebrews 7:11.
Yeshua’s cousin Yochanan (John) was also the last mystery Zadok high priest of Aaron, as was his father Zechariah (Zacharias). Luke 1:1-80 God used the Opening Scene of the New Covenant to reveal to us this Zadok high priesthood secret mystery.
The highest Ministry of the high priest was to cleanse people of their sins by performing the sacrifices on their behalf. Especially on Yom Kippur each year the day of atonement.
And this is exactly what John was doing in the Jordan River. 
He was cleansing them of their sins by encouraging them to immerse themselves in the waters as symbolic of the cleansing of their sins following true repentance.
So in reality it was John who was the highest priest of Israel, the true representative of the Aaronic priesthood.
Here we see that Messiahs ministry, His priesthood must begin with John. The two priests were standing in the waters of the Jordan River, the place of endings and beginnings, the two priesthoods. John/ Yochanan representing the priesthood of the old covenant and Messiah representing the priesthood of the renewed covenant.
There is where the transference of the priesthood was completed in plain and public view.
As the two high priests stood face-to-face, (Hebrew: al pene); the old priesthood bore witness of the new.
That all righteousness be fulfilled!!
It was here in the Jordan River that John/ Yochanan bore witness of Messiahs ministry and declared it to be greater than his own. Saying ‘I must decrease He must increase’. Here the blessing was spoken and the authority and Ministry was transferred and with the audible and visible affirmation by Adonai as Holy Spirit descended upon Him.
We better understand what He meant by His words, ‘this is My beloved Son in Him I am well pleased,’ because it was heavens confirmation that the old has gone and the new has come. That the priesthood had been given to Messiah and it was all part of God’s will and plan and purpose; and to those who are His, we are called to be priests. ‘Royal priesthood, a holy nation’, as all Israelites were called to be in the first place at Sinai. Then in fear, they changed their minds asking Moses to communicate to the Lord God for them. It is our calling today to be His priest and minister to His will and purposes on the earth.
When Jesus/Yeshua came to John/Yahuwchanon to be baptized: think of the scene, and their knowledge and understanding of the events unfolding before them in real time. It was the custom then that immersion of an individual, required that person to put themselves under the water, completely submerging their whole body.
These two cousins were 6 months apart.
At 30 years old, (legal age for a priest), Yochanan began his ministry by the Jordan river,
around Passover time, in fulfillment of the prophesies related to Eliyahu in Mal. 4.
His cousin Yeshua began His ministry 6 months later, which would have been during the fall feasts. Now look at the words of Yochanan, but from a whole new angle; that of priest, understanding what he spoke to his disciples when he saw Yeshua walking …”Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the whole world.”
When did he say this? During the fall feasts!
As the (mystery Zadok high priest and) prophet, what would have been on Yochanan’s mind? Was he thinking of what he would have been doing during this special high holiday season? That he would have been serving in his rightful position as high priest in the Temple, if the priesthood had not been corrupted?
[Herod’s had two imposter high priests in the Jerusalem Temple].
He would have been doing the Yom Kippur atonement offering in
the Temple, which would have been done for himself, for all the other priests, and for the people of Israel.
Now look again at the words he speaks and just see what God had done through him…”Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the whole world.”
As the true Zadok high priest of Israel, God was now using him to make a brand new declaration about the Atonement of this Yom Kippur Lamb, that this was not just for himself, and for the other priests, and for the people of Israel, but now that this Atonement of the Lamb of God would be for all peoples of the world.
John was the true High Priest (a Levite) that was to offer the “sacrificial goat” that year while Caiaphas, the High Priest was an impostor who was an Edomite appointed by Rome.
John immediately recognized that Adonai had selected the sacrificial goat that year for Yom (pronounced Yowm) Kippur:
Yahuwchanon (John) knew that Jesus/Yeshua was about to become the “sacrificial goat” and that he would be “sent” into the wilderness also as the “scapegoat” to “take away” the sins of the world into the wilderness!
John probably placed his hand on Jesus/Yeshua’s head just as the High Priest did to the scapegoat.
The scriptures tell us that the second goat is to be offered to “Azazel,” which is a Hebrew word that literally means the following in the Hebrew Strong’s Concordance: #5799 ‘aza’zel az-aw-zale from 5795 and 235; goat of departure; the scapegoat:–scapegoat.
In Ezekiel 43:19, 20 and 44:15, 16, we are told that God will only accept the Blood offering coming from a priest who is a son of Zadok!
Yeshua’s Blood Sacrifice had to meet these specific requirements from the Word of God, or His Blood offering for sin would not qualify!
Exactly how did this divine Son of Judah qualify?
Because … (final recap)…
Yeshua is a Priest through His Father,
but He is also a Son of Zadok through His mother Miriam!
God spoke to Miriam through His angel Gabriel in Luke 1:32, telling Miriam that she would give birth to a Son who would be called the Son of the Highest, and who would Reign over the throne of His earthly father (and ancestor) king David. Since there was no human male involved in this conception process of Yeshua (Luke 1:35; Matthew 1:18,20),
God was also recognizing that this Seed of Genesis 3:15, this Seed of woman that was carried by Miriam would be the Seed that God would use to produce this divine Child who would Reign on the throne of His father David as our King, forever.
The writer of Hebrews 7, verses 11-18, clearly states that the Priesthood of Yeshua is from His Father’s side, for the writer specifically refers to the Melchi- Zedek Priesthood of Heaven; and he also says that this divine Son is from the tribe of Judah (but only through Miriam [not through Joseph]), of which tribe Moses spoke nothing of priesthood. However, what was not mentioned, perhaps not even known at the time, was that Miriam was also
of this same high priest family of Aaron as her close relative, Elisheva.
Miriam carried genetically the perfect fulfillment of two family lines, Aaron and David, which God had chosen, specifically stated in Jeremiah 33:24. But we also find other prophesies revealing that the Messiah would be coming from the high priest family of Yeshua of the family of Zadok.
For the Old Testament prophesies about the Messiah indicated that He, the Branch, would not only come from the family of Aaron (Jeremiah 33: 18, 21, 24), but even more precisely from the high priest family of Yeshua of the seed of Zadok of Aaron. Zechariah 3:8 and Zechariah 6:11-13.
John the Baptist standing on the bank or in the waters of the river Jordan was the true High Priest.
Caiaphas was the imposter.
John recognized and witnessed the Messiah being immersed and prepared to become the scapegoat for all mankind. The Lamb of God, knowing the history and discerning the future! John by his declaration knew Jesus was the Messiah and would become the King of Kings and the eternal great High Priest after the order of Melchizadek.
Gods promise fulfilled.
Jeremiah 31:31 – 33; Matthew 3:13 – 16; Hebrews 7:11 – 17
What tribe were the four sons of Aaron from?” Most people would answer, Levi! But when we look deeper into this question, and ask, “Whom did Aaron (the brother of Moses, and sister of Miriam) take for his wife?” We discover his wife is Elisheva.
But who was Elisheva, and what tribe was she from?
Elisheva was the sister of Nahshon, the daughter of Ammnadab.
And who were they?
They were the leaders of the tribe of Judah. (Exodus 6:23, Numbers 1:7 and Matthew 1:4)
What does all that mean?
It means that all the four sons of Aaron and his wife Elisheva were really from two tribes, Levi and Judah. However, history records the Aaronic Priesthood as being just from the tribe of Levi. Why? Because the Aaronic Priesthood was named only after the father’s lineage. [Notice the names Miriam and Elisheva appear twice, the first time in the formation of both the Aaronic priesthood, and then in the divine mystery concerning Yeshua and His Aaronic priest family of the New Covenant!]
Perhaps in a similar way, Yeshua’s Priesthood is through His Father (the Melchi Zedek Priesthood). But God relates Yeshua’s earthly Kingship and His Throne from His father king David through His mother Miriam.
So this most important revelation that Yeshua is also from the high priest family of Aaron, of Zadok, through His mother Miriam was perhaps never revealed, since priesthood was named from father’s side. However, even more importantly, this mystery was not to be revealed and could not be revealed especially in those days, and was deliberately kept top secret.
Why?
Because Herod, if he had known the real identities of the Zadok priests and high priest family, would have killed this whole family.
There would have been no Miriam and no Yeshua!
For Herod had already killed many people, and he had placed his two phony high priests in the Temple.
Yeshua, in the flesh, is the physical fulfillment of both the family line of king David and also high priest Yeshua of Zadok
of high priest Aaron, through the Seed carried by His mother Miriam.
For Yeshua’s Blood Sacrifice on the Cross provided a Perfect Atonement of both the line of kings and also of the line of Aaronic Zadok high priests. Completing the mystery connection of the threads: why the Priest (John) was in the water, to Abraham meeting a King, (Melchi-zedek), to Messiah and God fulfilling His Promises!
Shalom!
SAY THE FOLLOWING FROM YOUR HEART RIGHT NOW…Don’t put it off one more moment…
Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry. I repent of them all and turn away from my past.
I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’ name. Amen.
You are now Born Again by the Holy Spirit of the Living God and you are part of the ever growing family of believers. You will never be the same again!
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Ever wondered what exactly is under that golden Dome on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Israel?
MMM takes A DEEPER DIG Under The Dome of the Rock; (“Kippat ha-Sela” in Hebrew; (“Qubbat al-Sakhrah” in Arabic).
It is front and center almost every time we look at a panoramic view of Jerusalem. Often dismissed as something, not of much importance to believers in Jesus Christ/Yeshua HaMashiach, yet there remains a measure of curiosity and there is great significance to the location we may have overlooked or forgotten…..
…And what is the mysterious “Well of Souls”?
The Dome of the Rock is an Islamic shrine and the Temple Mount is referred to as Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary).
Situated in the Old City of Jerusalem, it was built by the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān.
The construction was initially completed in the late 7th-century, approx. 691 CE; (only 1300 years ago). According to the Islamic tradition, here Prophet Muhammad flew with the archangel Jabrail and met prophets Ibrahim, Musa and Isa (Abraham, Moses and Jesus respectively).
A rock rises towards the roof of the Dome. From this rock, according to legend, Muhammad ascended to Allah. Today, the Temple Mount is a home for the Al-Aqsa Mosque with the Dome of the Rock architectural complex. The mountain is open to tourists at certain times which are not related to the time of Muslim worship.
So why is it of any importance to us?
This mystery connects to events that have taken place over the last 5,000 years, thousands of years prior to the construction of the ‘Dome’.
Then it was called Mount Moriah, on which was also located the mysterious city Urusalima, the forerunner of Jerusalem, (Salem).
Salim/Salem/Jerusalem is inscribed in the Tell el-Amarna Letters, an archaeological find dated to the 1400s BC.
The original name of Jerusalem was Babylonian, Uru-Salim, “the city of Salim,”
or the city of Salem.
” Jebus” makes its appearance for the first time in the Old Testament (Judges 19: 10,11).
In Hebrew, Yerushalayim. 
Mount Moriah is the name of the elongated north-south ridge of rock that rises from the junction point of the Hinnom (Hagai) 
and Kidron valleys between Mount Zion to the west and the Mount of Olives to the east.
It rises through the City of David
and reaches its highest elevation just northeast of the Damascus Gate
in the Old City.
The Temple Mount today covers about 45 acres and is built around the outcropping of the bedrock under the Dome of the Rock.
It is about 118 feet lower than the highest point of Mount Moriah.
Hinnom valley
Kidron Valley
Jewish tradition holds that it is the very same site where God gathered the dust to create Adam before placing him in the garden.
and in Genesis 22. where the Binding of Isaac for sacrifice by Abraham took place believed by many biblical scholars to be the same mountain in the region of Moriah mentioned in the Book of Genesis.
There is a grotto inside the Dome of the Rock where limestone forms into a cave.
In 1 Chronicles 21 it is identified as The Jebusite “Zion” was situated on the southern slope of Mount Moriah, above the Gihon Spring.
After King David captured the city he made it his capital and named it for himself: the ‘City of David’. 
The northern area of the mountain’s summit lay desolate for long after Zion’s capture by David. It was in fact still the private property of Araunah, the city’s former Jebusite king.
For various reasons David did not confiscate the site of the Jebusite threshing floor but preferred to buy it from Auranah for full value: “So David paid Ornan ) the Jebusite [Auranah] for the site 600 shekels’ worth of gold.
And David built there an altar to the Lord and sacrificed burn offerings and offerings of well-being” 1 Chron. 21:25, and a slightly different version at 2 Sam. 24:18-25.
The very same threshing floor where Ruth and Boaz were.
This purchase is an important fact since it demonstrates that the Jews received this area through a legal transaction. They have never sold the rights to Mount Moriah.
King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will buy them for the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David paid Ornan 600 shekels of gold by weight for the site; and David built there an altar to the Lord and presented burnt offerings. – 1 Chronicles 21:24, 25 
The Old Testament describes how an army led by David, the second king of ancient Israel, breached the walls of Jebus around 1000 B.C. David then built a palace nearby and created his capital, Jerusalem. At the site of a threshing floor atop the mountain, where farmers had separated grains from chaff, David constructed a sacrificial altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt and peace offerings.
It was here that King David brought the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the tablets with the Ten Commandments.
In the course of time the mountain had acquired an aura of sanctity and was the subject of many traditions. Indeed, its sacred status may date back to the early Canaanite period, when it perhaps was the cultic center of “El Elyon,” god of Melchizedek, king of Salem:
‘And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine; he was a priest of God Most High [=El Elyon].’ Hebrew 7:1-3
(Salem ancient name of Jerusalem). Gen.14:18.
He blessed him, saying, Blessed be Abram of God Most High, creator of heaven and earth” Gen 14:18.
The Bible calls Yeshua, Jesus, the Great High Priest.
Hebrews 7:17
For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
Isaiah 9:6
The tradition of “Jacob’s Dream” is also identified with Mount Moriah: “He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. He had a dream; a stairway was set on the ground and its top reached to the sky, and angels of God were going up and down on it. And the Lord was standing beside him… Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, … “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the abode of God and that is the gateway to heaven” Gen 28:10-18.
This is perhaps the most colorful representation of the essential nature of the site which some would later claim was the “navel of the world”.
At the summit of Mount Moriah, traditionally, is the “Foundation Stone,” the symbolic fundament of the world’s creation, and reputedly the site of the Temple’s Holy of Holies, the supreme embodiment of the relationship between God and the people of Israel.
According to the Second Book of Kings and the First Book of Chronicles, David’s son, Solomon, built the First Temple (later known as the Beit Hamikdash) on that site.
Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. – 2 Chronicles 3:1
Solomon dedicates the Temple.
Upon the completion of King Solomon’s Temple, famed for its sumptuous splendor, the Ark of the Covenant was placed within its confines.
The sanctity of the site is reflected in the graphic description provided by the Book of Kings: “the priests came out of the sanctuary for the cloud had filled the House of the Lord and the priests were not able to remain and perform the service because of the cloud, for the Presence of the Lord filled the House of the Lord…” 1 Kings 8:11.
Solomon built his palace in the “miloh” (infill), area which separated the summit of the mountain and the Temple from the city below. 
This was also a concrete expression of the divine inspiration that was attributed to his kingship. Other palaces were also built nearby, such as the “House of the Forest of Lebanon” and the House of Pharaoh’s Daughter.
Solomon used dirt to fill in this east-west lateral rift, hence the area’s name: “miloh” (infill), or Ophel , from a Hebrew word referring to the road that ascended to the Temple from the city which at that time was topographically lower and seen as a name on some maps.
King Solomon, according to the Bible, built the First Temple of the Jews on this mountaintop circa 1000 B.C., only to have it torn down 400 years later by troops commanded by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, who sent many Jews into exile. In the first century B.C., the Babylonian Army destroyed the First Temple in 586 B.C. The ark of the covenant disappeared, possibly hidden from the conquerors. Following the conquest of Jerusalem by the Persians in 539 B.C., the Jews returned from exile and, according to the Book of Ezra, constructed a Second Temple on the site.
At the summit of Mount Moriah, the supreme embodiment of the relationship between God and the people of Israel was realized. Upon the completion of King Solomons Temple, the Ark of the Covenant was placed inside, it contained the tablets with the Ten Commandments, the Jar of Manna and Aarons Rod that budded.
In the first century B.C., King Herod undertook a massive reshaping of the Temple Mount. Herod expanded and refurbished a Second Temple built by Jews who had returned after their banishment. He filled up the slopes surrounding the mount’s summit and expanded it to its present size. He enclosed the holy site within a 100-foot-high retaining wall constructed of limestone blocks quarried from the Jerusalem Hills and constructed a far more expansive version of the Second Temple.
It is here that, according to the Gospel of John, Jesus Christ lashed out against the money changers (and was later crucified a few hundred yards away). The Roman general Titus exacted revenge against Jewish rebels, sacking and burning the Temple in A.D. 70.
We are familiar with the much photographed Western Wall, it’s one that’s easily recognizable together with the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
The Western Wall is the holiest site for Jews. Thousands of people — Jews and non-Jews alike — come to this wall every day to pray.
But the commonly known religious site and tourist destination represents only the tip of the Western Wall complex. Its main treasures are found inside a tunnel excavated by Charles Warren from 1864 to 1870.
The tunnel follows the street level of the first century, which lies about 30 feet (9 meters) below the current level of the Western Wall plaza where the tourists and worshipers usually gather. It exposes magnificent stones measuring 45 by 9.8 by 11 feet (13.7 by 3 by 3.3 meters) and weighing 520 metric tons. The stones comprised the foundation of a retaining wall that King Herod ordered so he could create a level platform for the temple complex.
A significant site is found 150 feet (46 meters) inside the tunnel. Above picture is the sealed-off gate, close to the place where the temple’s most Holy place, KOTEL – the Holy of Holies, is believed to have been located. The site of the Western Wall and its tunnel are managed by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation.
The upper part of the Temple Mount where both temples once stood is controlled by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf foundation, financed by the Kingdom of Jordan. Arabs refer to the place as Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary. The complex includes the golden Dome of the Rock, which stands on the supposed spot on Mount Moriah where Abraham prepared to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice.
The area controlled by the foundation also includes the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site for Muslims who believe it was here that the Prophet Muhammad ascended to the “Divine Presence” on the back of a winged horse—the Miraculous Night Journey, commemorated by one of Islam’s architectural triumphs, the Dome of the Rock shrine. 
A territorial prize occupied or conquered by a long succession of peoples—including Jebusites, Israelites, Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, Romans, Byzantines, early Muslims, Crusaders, Mamluks, Ottomans and the British—the Temple Mount has seen more momentous historical events than perhaps any other 35 acres in the world.
The Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls are classified as a World Heritage Site.
During the time of Solomon and of Nehemiah, the walls also encompassed the City of David, an area south of theTemple Mount.
So what exactly is under the golden dome?
The bedrock, or the actual stone, of the top of Mount Moriah. known as the Foundation Stone where all the aforementioned events took place.
(According to a medieval Islamic tradition, the Stone tried to follow Muhammad as he ascended, leaving his footprint here while pulling up and hollowing out the cave below. The impression of the hand of the Archangel Gabriel made as he restrained the Stone from rising, is nearby.) The Stone — known as Even haShetiya in Hebrew and es-Sakhrah in Arabic — is considered the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam.)
It can be seen covered by the Muslim’s Dome of the Spirits.
This is about 285 feet north of where the Ark of the Covenant would have sat on similar bedrock in the Jewish Temple. Today the Muslim’s Dome of the Rock covers that location.
The Well of Souls, also known in Christianity and Judaism as the Holy of Holies, is a partly natural, partly man-made cave located inside the Foundation Stone under the Dome of the Rock.
Below The Sakhra (rock) in the Dome and shows the possible location of the ark lower left part of exposed rock surface.
This is a closer view of the actual bedrock, or the original rock, from the top of Mount Moriah. It is located under the Muslim’s Dome of the Spirits and is located just outside the Dome of the Rock. 
Abraham would have walked across parts of this rock when he came up here to sacrifice Isaac.
This would be close to where the Jebusite threshing floor would have actually been located when David purchased Mount Moriah.
Looking across the pavement that has been built over Mount Moriah to create a level surface. This is the site of the ancient Jewish Temple Mount. The golden Dome of the Rock stands where the Jewish Temple formerly stood.
Notice the location of Mount Moriah on this map showing Jerusalem’ topography.
In a cave under the sacred rock, there supposedly is a mysterious Well of Souls from which the spirits of the dead can be heard.
Whether it is true or not, the Temple Mount is a place of veneration of believers of the three world religions and has a unique energy that can be really perceived. The Well of Souls is a supernatural dimension that is guarded by the Archangel Azrael. It is said to hold power over life and death, and it acts as a receptacle for the souls of the departed. From a purely biblical standpoint, the Well of Souls is referenced as Sheol, the pit where un-regenerated souls are held until judgment.
The Foundation Stone in the floor of the
Dome of the Rock shrine in Jerusalem.
Photo above showing:
1 The cage-like structure just beyond the hole covers the stairway entrance to the cave beneath the rock
2 The round hole at upper left penetrates to a small cave, known as the ‘Well of Souls’, below.
3 Rock (Al Sakhra) where Muslims believe Muhammad ascended to the heavens.
The Well of Souls (Arabic: بئر الأرواح Bir al-Arwah; sometimes translated Pit of Souls, Cave of Spirits, or Well of Spirits in Islam), also known in Christianity and Judaism as the Holy of Holies, is a partly natural, partly man-made cave located inside the Foundation Stone under the Dome of the Rock shrine in Jerusalem.
The name Well of Souls derives from a medieval Islamic legend that at this place the spirits of the dead can be heard awaiting Judgment Day. The name “Well of Souls” has also been applied more narrowly to a depression in the floor of this cave and to a hypothetical chamber that may exist beneath the floor. The famed 19th-century British explorer Sir Charles Warren could neither prove nor disprove the existence of a hollow chamber below the cave. They believed the sound reportedly heard by visitors was simply an echo in a small fissure beneath the floor.
For Believers, the site is known as the Holy of Holies (alluding to the former inner sanctuary within the Temple in Jerusalem) .
Both Jewish and Muslim traditions relate to what may lie beneath the Foundation Stone, the earliest of them found in the Talmud in the former and understood to date to the 12th and 13th centuries in the latter.
The Talmud indicates that the Stone marks the center of the world and serves as a cover for the Abyss (Abzu) containing the raging waters of the Flood.
Muslim tradition likewise places it at the center of the world and over a bottomless pit with the flowing waters of Paradise underneath. A palm tree is said to grow out of the River of Paradise here to support the Stone.
Noah is said to have landed here after the Flood. 
The Mosaic floor covers the opening to the well of souls.
The souls of the dead are said to be audible here as they await the Last Judgment, although this is not a mainstream view in Sunni Islam.
The Foundation Stone and its cave entered fully into the European Christian tradition after the Crusaders recaptured Jerusalem in 1099 and converted the Dome of the Rock into a church, calling it the Templum Domini, (Latin for the Temple of the Lord).
They made many radical physical changes to the site at this time, including cutting away much of the rock to make staircases with 16 marble steps and paving the Stone over with marble slabs.
They certainly enlarged the main entrance of the cave and probably are also responsible for creating the shaft ascending from the center of the chamber. 
The Crusaders called the cave the “Holy of Holies” and venerated it as the possible site of the announcement of John the Baptist’s birth, since Luke says it happened in the Temple.
(Modern scholarship indicates that the Temple Holy of Holies was probably on top of the Foundation Stone, not inside it.)
Here the original granary, (similar to picture above), where the corn was threshed or rather trodden out, upon the plain on either side, and winnowed from the Rock.
The entrance to the cave is at the southeast angle of the Foundation Stone, beside the southeast pier of the Dome of the Rock (Sakhrah) shrine. 
On the way down, bedrock masses project in towards the stair; the one to the right is called “the tongue”. (because, according to legend, when Caliph Umar thought he had discovered the stone which was Jacob’s Pillar in his vision at Bethel, he exclaimed, “Es Salámo Alaykúm” (“Peace be unto thee”), and the stone answered Caliph Umar, “Alaykúm us Salám, wa Rahmat-Ullahi” (“Peace be to thee, and the mercy of God”).
To the left (south) as one descends is a prayer niche where David prayed. 
To the right is a shallower, but ornately decorated, prayer niche dedicated to where Solomon traditionally prayed; and where Abraham and Elijah and Mohammed met on the occasion of his night flight upon El Borak.
This mihrab is certainly one of the oldest in the world, considered to date at least back to the late 9th century. (Some even suggest that it dates back to the 7th century and to the time of Abd al-Malik, builder of the Dome of the Rock — making it the oldest in the world — but this is disputed.
The cave chamber is roughly square, about 6 meters on a side, and ranges from 1.5 to 2.5 meters (about 4.9 to ~8.2 feet) high.
At the center of the ceiling is a shaft, 0.46 meter in diameter, which penetrates 1.7 meters up to the surface of the Stone above. It has been proposed that this is the 4,000-year-old remnant of a shaft tomb. Another theory is that it represents a Crusader “chimney” cut for ventilation to accommodate lighted shrine candles.
Still others have tried to make a case that it was part of a drainage system for the Temple altar of Sacrifice; that the cave was the cistern for the blood, which ran off by the Bir el Arwáh, (Well of Souls) into the Valley of Hinnom.
There are no rope marks within the shaft, so it has been concluded that it was never used as a well, with the cave as cistern. The ceiling of the cave appears natural, while the floor has been long ago paved with marble and carpeted over.
So now we know what is under that golden dome and next time we see a photograph it will serve as a reminder of its place in our history and that it reveals another of the reasons for its ownership and possession being such hotly disputed territory.
Shalom..
Please don’t leave this page before making certain Jesus/Yeshua is your Redeemer, Savior, Lord and soon returning King and that you have a personal relationship with Him.
You are greatly loved and precious in His sight.
It’s all about Life and Relationship, not Religion.
NOT SURE? YOU CAN BE..
You can have His love – His Forgiveness – His Grace and His Compassion and live like Royalty in the Womb of His Mercy..
SAY THE FOLLOWING FROM YOUR HEART RIGHT NOW…Don’t put it off one more day…
Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry. I repent of them all and turn away from my past.
I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’ name. Amen.
You are now Born Again by the Holy Spirit of the Living God and you are part of the ever growing family of believers. You will never be the same again!
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2 X 3000 = A Marriage Made In Heaven?
In the Hebrew Spiritual Calendar, we have just come from 1st Spring Appointed Time of Passover/Pesach to the 4th Spring Appointed Time, Pentecost/Shavuot.
Pronounced sha-voo-ote.
We may have met Messiah along the Emmaus road and been compelled to return to Jerusalem and WAIT for the Promise while Counting the Omer.
These 50 days between the Feasts, are designated as a time of introspection, repentance and preparation; making ourselves ready for His coming, the outpouring of Holy Spirit/Ruach HaKodesh.
The infilling of His power for us to become His witnesses. The Appointed Times/Feasts of the Lord, were part of the annual cycle of Adonai’s Plan of redemption and kept by the Israelites as part of their normal lifestyle.
So why are these Appointed Times important to us?
Here are some things to consider.
If we are the grafted in believers that we say we are; then, as part of the Olive Tree/ spiritual Israel, what affects Israel and what is important to them should also be important to us. We cannot be joined to them in one way and not in others and it’s not for us to pick and choose which bits we want or not.
An understanding of the meaning behind their observances gives a clear picture of Messiah and how it all fits together.
In Deut.16:10-11 and Leviticus 23:15-21, God commands the Israelites to count 50 days from Passover/Pesach to Pentecost/Shavuot. 
(Another name for Shavuot is Feast of Weeks). 
This 50 day count is known as “the counting of the Omer.” An omer is a biblical measure of grain.
On the second day of Passover, an omer of barley was offered in the temple signaling the start of the harvest and the beginning of the 50 day count to Shavuot. 
This is because it’s a commandment of the Lord/Adonai, to always remember the appointed times that He set into the calendar at the time He made His first covenant with the children of Israel.
And because this was an annual rehearsal for them, which they would pass down through the generations until the time that it was fulfilled in the person of Messiah.
Exodus 32:20; Leviticus 23:15– 21. You shall count 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord.
The Omer was parched in fire –
Fire represents Judgment – Gen 19:24; Ex 9:23 Jer 52:13, Rev 20:10
Fire represents Refinement and Purification Ps 12:6; Zech 13:9,M 3:3
Fire represents the Trials of our Faith – 1 Pet 1:7, James 1:2,3,12
The Omer was tossed in the wind – Omer tossed to the wind represents Every Kind of Doctrine – Eph 4:8-14;
A time of counting the days for (50) PENTE the COST of being His disciple. 
Luke 14:25. Prepares us to receive all He will release preparation through fire, repentance and cleansing leads to deliverance and freedom.
I set you free to serve Me.
(Actually meaning to return to the WAY that He had intended for humanity to walk before Him, was now given in Torah/Instructions)
This is in reference to the prophecy in Malachi and will be mentioned later.
This was the observance for the feast of Shavuot.
It takes place seven weeks, or 50 days after the Passover/Pesach. The rabbis realized that this was the same time Moses had gone up on Mount Sinai to receive the guidelines for their new lifestyle having come out of the bondage of Egypt.
(We know it as the 10 Commandments).
So Shavuot became a day to remember the giving of the Torah directions.
It is one of and the 3 annual appointed times of the Lord when all men were required to go to Jerusalem.
then
and now. (Passover, Pentecost and Yom Kippur)
So on the 50th day, the barley harvest ends and the wheat harvest begins, the change in harvest symbolized by the waving of two wheat loaves by the High Priest in the temple before the Lord.
The waving of the two leavened loaves, also, representing those who would be harvested;
both Jew and Gentile – which is why the Torah and the ‘Church’/Ecclesia/Congregation/Called out ones, share the same birthday.
On Shavuot, the holiday celebrating the harvest, the holiday of the first fruits.
Israel marks not just the giving of the Torah by God, (also known as ‘Zman Mattan Torah’, ‘the time of the giving of the Torah’.) but their acceptance of the Torah.
The integration between celebrating the giving of the Torah and our gratitude for the land, between a holiday that is solely connected to “heaven” and one connected to the earth, to the land of Israel. On the one hand, we aspire to reach the highest place, to receive the Torah, and on the other hand, we are connecting to what is under our feet, to the land and its crops to understand that building the Israelite homeland is a process that starts with the earth and continues on up to heaven.
Nothing in scripture stands alone everything is interconnected and when we see how, it becomes clear and all begins to make sense.
One way the holiday is observed is through the reading of the Book of Ruth, the story of a woman who converts to Judaism and accepts the Torah.
It is appropriate to read the Book of Ruth on Shavuot for several reasons:
First, because it gives us a picture of how the poor were treated in the harvest season with sympathy and love.
Secondly, because in the Book of Ruth we are shown the origin of the House of David — King David was the great-grandson of Ruth and Boaz. And it recounts the story of the Gentile woman (Ruth) who becomes the bride of the Hebrew Boaz, the kinsman redeemer.
Their union produced the most famous of all Israel’s kings, King David. Who incidentally, was born on this very same date (Shavuot) and amazingly Shavuot is also the yahrzeit (anniversary of the death) of King David.
In the Book of Ruth, it is written that when Ruth wanted to stay with Naomi she said,
“Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.
Your people will be my people and your God my God.” Ruth first committed herself to another human being, to Naomi, and afterwards to her people and then to her God.
It is well accepted that Ruth, the foreigner represents the largely gentile church redeemed by Messiah Yeshua/Jesus, the Lord of the harvest, as represented by Boaz, who functioned as her kinsman redeemer.
It’s interesting that Boaz instructs her to stay through out the barley and the wheat harvest. For as we have noted in Jewish tradition, the counting of the Omer is said to be a time of preparation for receiving the Torah.
The Exodus was looked on as a gift, while the giving of the Torah required some spiritual preparation or readiness. 
This presents an interesting picture. Do the fifty days between the First fruits resurrection of Messiah Yeshua/Jesus and the receiving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost constitute a period of ‘readiness’ for the congregation of believers, Body of Yesuhua, (church), as well? 
The book of Ruth is replete with symbolism regarding the gentile bride and her kinsmen redeemer.
“So Boaz, said to Ruth, “My daughter listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here …So, Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean until the barley and the wheat harvest were finished.” Ruth 2:8,23
If Messiah Yeshua/Jesus returns for His bride before the 50th day, she would qualify as a first fruits bride (barley); a bride who has made her self ready. While those who are not ready would still be here after the 50th day and become part of the wheat harvest – foreshadowed, possibly by Ruth who gleaned throughout the barley and the wheat harvests? 
A connection to the parable of the 10 virgins and the condition of their spiritual preparedness?
Also indicated in the instructions Messiah Yeshua/Jesus gave His disciples before He ascended into heaven –
“Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift My Father has promised ” Acts 1:4
Is this why He met them on the Emmaus Road? To make sure they were where they were supposed to be?
And meeting with them, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “But you shall receive power when the Set-apart Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judah and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:4,8
Messiah Yeshua/Jesus told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the promise of receiving the power of the Set-apart Spirit came upon them; because, ONLY when this happened could they begin to spread the message of the Good News!
Why did they have to wait in Jerusalem?
First, we are instructed by YHVH that Shavuot is a feast celebrated in Jerusalem – Messiah Yeshua/Jesus was instructing His disciples to keep Torah.
Second, judgment – and blessing – are first for the house of Israel and then for the surrounding nations. Likewise, the Good News began in Jerusalem and was sent out from there.
This is also one of the reasons that Messiah’s disciples and so many other crowds of people, were still together in Jerusalem.
For most the trip back home, only to return it again 50 days later, would have been too arduous, (most walked), so they stayed their through the counting of the Omer.
Briefly noted above,
the love story between Boaz and Ruth
that took place during Shavuot.
But there is another love story
that takes place during the
season of Shavuot.
A love story 5,000 years in the making.
The story of a King who is scorned by His beloved bride and vows to redeem her to Himself. The story of a King’s waiting that transcends time…a price He willingly pays in order to reclaim His precious bride.
Over a thousand years after the giving of the law, when the first covenant was given on Mount Sinai,
the renewed covenant
obtained through Messiah Yeshua’s /Jesus’ death and resurrection…
was energized and quickened by the Spirit of God on the Hebrew feast of Shavuot.
It became known as the feast of the 50th day or pentecoste because the rabbis of the Greek world had to give a Greek name to the Hebrew holy day.
One of the major elements of the Good News is redemption and restoration, another parallel.
We learned from the story of Ruth and Boaz that the season of Shavuot is a season of redemption and restoration. To further this point, we learn that in Jerusalem 3,000 people were added to the assembly of believers.
Why is this 3,000 number important?
At Mt. Sinai, there were 3,000 missing from the House of Israel who should have received the Torah and didn’t because of the sin of the golden calf.
And Moses saw that the people were let loose, for Aaron had let them loose, to their shame among their enemies. And Moses stood in the entrance of the camp, and said,
“Who is for YHVH? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves to him. And he said to them, “Thus said YHVH Elohim of Israel: ‘Each one put his sword on his side, pass over to and fro from gate to gate in the camp, and each one slay his brother, and each one his friend, and each one his relative.’ ” And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day.” Exodus 32:25-
Once the people of Israel were redeemed, they could then offer their first-fruits to YHVH. At Mt. Sinai we see this redemption take place by the marriage covenant that was established.
In comparing the exchange to a marriage or other sacred covenant. Hebrew scholars have shown that it’s Not simply the giving of Torah and giving of the Holy Spirit,
but a covenant of marriage between Adonai and His beloved Israel.
The form of marriage covenant agreement is called a Ketubah;
the Torah (10 commandments) were part of the ketubah/written agreement,
hence the scripture
In Jerusalem thousands of years later, we see this by the ingathering of the lost sheep of Israel; the ingathering of exiled Israel from the nations.
The Spirit of God was given to the believers on the same day that the law of God was given to Israel. The old or first covenant and the re-newed covenant are joined together both being initiated on the same day.
The correlation here is that when the Law was given to Moses, judgment followed, people perished and according to the Scriptures it was about 3000.
However the amazing thing is that on the second sealing of the covenant with His people, when His spirit was given, there was salvation and eternal life for the number of those who came to new life was about 3000. Acts 2:41;
(Israel, His Beloved became His ‘wife’ אִשָּׁה Ishah, pronounced Ee-sha)
Then there’s the more complimentary, dignified word – רַעְיָה Rayayah.
3000 died
and centuries later
3000 came to life
on the exact same Holy Appointed Day of the Lord.
In 2 Corinthians 3:4 -6. Paul wrote, the letter kills but the Spirit gives life. The spirit was given on the same day as the commandments were given.
This was because the Law (\commandments\ directions for living Life before the Lord;) can tell us the will of God.
However only the Spirit can give us the power to live it.
If we live by the Spirit of God we will fulfill the will of God for our lives in the same precise way that the coming of the Spirit on Pentecost fulfilled the Law of the Covenant.
The outpouring of the fire of the Holy Spirit was to empower and enable His disciples then and now. Effectively, to fulfill the plan and purpose of His will in the Earth.
The manifestation of the fire was in direct correlation to the pillar of fire that was with them in the wilderness.
It was His manifest presence with them along with the pillar of cloud during the day.
Elohay Ha Elohim Our God is a consuming fire.
Conclusion to follow soon = marriage made in heaven…
Haverim/Chaverim, Mishpachah
Kha-ve-ri, mish-paw-khaw’
To all Friends and Family!
Please don’t leave this page before making certain Jesus is your Redeemer, Savior, Lord and soon returning King and that you have a personal relationship with Him.
You are greatly loved and precious in His sight.
Its all about Life and Relationship, not Religion.
NOT SURE? YOU CAN BE..
SAY THE FOLLOWING FROM YOUR HEART RIGHT NOW…
Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry. I repent of them all and turn away from my past.
I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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First Things First:
Ephesians 6:2
Mothers are mothers 24/7, 365 days a year, every year. Mothers and single Dads, should be remembered every day! Thank you Adonai/Lord, for Mothers who know and love you and teach their children that Jesus/Yeshua IS THE WAY. (This includes all spiritual Mothers too!)
And also…
‘Who has seen such things?
Can a land be born in one day?
Or can a nation be brought forth in a moment?’ 
Isaiah 66:8 was fulfilled on 5 Iyyar 5708; 14 May 1948.
Mazel Tov YISRAEL!!
Congratulations Israel!
It’s your 70th Birthday!! 
Iyyar 29, 5778 is 14th May 2018 and 44th day of the Omer.
It is 70 years since the independent State of Israel was established.
70 Years is a Biblical generation and has a significant connection to the words of Messiah Yeshua in Matthew 24:32-34: concerning the generation that would see the budding of the fig tree, (the blossoming/establishing of Israel). “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” (70 years from 1948 is 2018). This could indicate that anyone who clearly remembers the establishing of Israel in 1948 will have to be 70+ years of age in 2018 and could be the generation that will ‘not pass away’, until all these things in scripture are fulfilled.
He is near, even at the door! Maybe closer than we think!
“The Israeli Declaration of Independence, formally the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel (Hebrew: הכרזה על הקמת מדינת ישראל). 
It was proclaimed on 14 May 1948; (5 Iyar 5708) by David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization and Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Palestine. 
It declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel, which would come into effect on termination of the British Mandate at midnight that day. The event is celebrated annually in Israel with a national holiday Independence Day on 5 Iyar of every year according to the Hebrew calendar”
Also noteworthy, is the Embassy of USA is slated to be moved to Jerusalem and will officially open on May 14, just days after Israel celebrates the 51st anniversary of the Six Day War and the reunification of Israel’s capital.
……………….
Seeing Jesus/Yeshua
ALL along
THE WAY... The Emmaus WAY!
On the Hebrew calendar we are in the 50 days between Passover/Pesach and Pentecost/Shavuot. This is the time when the disciples were acutely feeling the loss and had questions and doubts. This is just one of the times that Jesus/Yeshua appeared to the disciples after His resurrection.
At that time, it must have felt to them like that door to life, to any kind of future, had closed forever. All of their hopes and dreams of a Kingdom of God had been drowned in death and terror. Jesus/Yeshua of Nazareth – who brought healing in body, mind and spirit to so many; then inexplicably, He had been crucified and buried.
Simon and Cleopas were facing the emptiness of a world without Jesus/Yeshua and the future they once envisioned had, it seemed, been buried with Him. The same injustice and oppression of the past and present looked as if it was all that the future now held. Anyone daring to say otherwise would most certainly end up like Jesus/Yeshua; betrayed by His fellow countrymen, tortured and then executed by the Romans.
To set a scene: It would have been very late in the afternoon on the first day of the week when Cleopas and his friend left Jerusalem to go home to Emmaus.
They’d heard the morning’s disquieting talk among Jesus’/Yeshua’s disciples: the Master’s body has disappeared from the tomb and it made no sense at all. Did the Romans desecrate the tomb and remove Jesus’/ Yeshua’s body because it was their idea to prevent the tomb from becoming a martyr’s shrine and the body from becoming a religious relic?
Jesus/Yeshua seemed to isolate and focus on those who are in the greatest need and He appeared to them first.
These men were in deep grief and confusion, as was Mary.
Sometimes in life, Jesus’/ Yeshua’s first effort is to help us focus on what His word says, so our faith will be established.
Sometimes He hides Himself while He points us to the Bible and its scriptures, because God’s Word is the only true foundation for faith.
Along the road, an hour or so into their walk, a stranger overtook Cleopas and his companion. Jesus/ Yeshua entered the men’s conversation by asking what they were discussing as they walked along. It was very odd that, coming from Jerusalem, this stranger seemed to know nothing of the bloody end of Jesus/ Yeshua of Nazareth; yet he talked like he’s a disciple of Jesus/Yeshua but they didn’t recall seeing him among Jesus’/ Yeshua’s disciples.
As the three walked toward Emmaus, Luke says, “They stood still, their faces downcast.”
Then Cleopas asked, “Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened here in these days?” How is it possible you don’t know what has happened?
“What things,” Jesus asked?
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied, “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and the rulers handed Him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified Him; but we had hoped that He was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place” (vs. 18-21).
These disciples express the deep longing and belief all Jesus’ disciples’ had cherished, that He was the long looked-for Messiah. But, they said, all their hopes are dashed.
The two go on to report incredulously, that some of the women had described seeing angels and other disciples had seen the empty tomb, but they didn’t know what it all meant.
Here are some of the most powerful words in the New Testament: “He said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scripture concerning Himself” (vs. 25-27).
The stranger shares an interpretation of scripture that the two disciples, in their grief, have been unable to understand. Luke doesn’t tell us which scripture passages the stranger refers to, however, it’s not hard to guess which ones they were.
Beginning with the writings of Moses (Genesis through Deuteronomy), and continuing through the writings of the Hebrew prophets, Jesus/Yeshua points out the Scriptures that foretold His ministry, suffering, death, and resurrection.
Maybe He started in Genesis 3, with the messianic interpretation of what God said to the serpent: ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.’ (v. 15)
Next the stranger may have turned to the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 18: 17a, 18-19. ‘Then the Lord replied to me…I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command. Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable.’
Almost certainly the stranger would have quoted from Psalm after Psalm, including Psalm 68 and 22, the opening line of the verse was prophesying that the Messiah would cry out from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” After that maybe He opened the treasure trove of prophecies about the Messiah and His suffering, for Cleopas and his companion, especially Isaiah 9:6-9, 53 and 61 and Zechariah 12 and 13?
He told them that, Messiah/Jesus’/Yeshua’s, death and resurrection, had been clearly foretold in the Hebrew Scriptures. He had tried often to explain this to them, but the disciples’ minds were clouded with popular beliefs that contradicted the messianic prophecies; beliefs that turned the Messiah into a powerful earthly ruler, who would conquer kingdoms and lead Israel to national glory.
There must have been a deeper earnestness in Jesus’ voice as He opened the scriptures to them. Quoting Isaiah 53 which not only predicted the manner of Jesus’ death, but clearly described His resurrection too: “After the sufferings of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied” (v. 11). “Though the Lord makes His life a guilt offering, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in His hand” (v. 10).
Daniel said the Messiah, “the Anointed One,” (v. 26) would be “cut off ” (killed) in the middle of the final week (7 years) of the 70 Week Prophecy, but after His death, He would confirm the covenant with many” (9:27). In other words, He would die, then be resurrected to continue His covenant establishing work with His people.
Cleopas and his friend had been mournfully nursing their dashed hopes, but as this stranger helped them understand that what had just happened, was exactly what God predicted, and planned for since before the foundation of the earth; they begin to feel an amazing hope. By the time the stranger had connected the dots, the two disciples’ hearts were on fire. In (v. 32), the men said, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” They have a new understanding of what God has done in Jesus/Yeshua of Nazareth.
There is no record of how long He walked and talked with them so we don’t know, but as they neared Emmaus, it was late in the evening, and concerned for their friend’s safety, they urged Him to stay with them for the night. Luke says, “Jesus acted as if He were going farther. However they urged him strongly, ‘Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over. So he went in to stay with them” (vs. 28-29).
They brought out food for dinner, and when Jesus/Yeshua took the bread BLESSED AND BROKE IT with them at dinner in Emmaus,
the two disciples understand not only what the stranger has said, but who the stranger is.
“Their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and He disappeared from their sight” (v. 31).
Imagine their shock and amazement. They have just been walking and talking with the resurrected Messiah! The two men jump up from the table. They can’t contain their excitement and joy, They’re on fire; and in the gathering darkness, they must return to tell the other disciples what has happened and they rush back the seven miles to Jerusalem .
It would have taken them several hours to return the 7 miles –
not a safe and sensible trip to be making in the dark. Nor is their destination a safe and sensible one if you’ve been a follower of Jesus of Nazareth.
But nothing can restrain them any longer.
The transformation of their lives that has occurred this evening is one destined to be replayed in group after group of Jesus’ followers.
When Jesus/Yeshua opens our eyes we SEE clearly for the first time in our lives.
There is an amazing change that comes over Cleopas, his traveling companion, Peter and the other disciples, as they go from fleeing and hiding to boldly proclaiming that the one who was Crucified lives again. It’s not a safe thing to say and it will cost many of them their lives. But they cannot remain silent.
Somehow, Jesus of Nazareth – who is supposed to be dead, now has an existence outside of time and space and it lies beyond scientific observation or human understanding.
Yet it affects thought and action, time and space. A new future, one filled by the risen Messiah, springs out of the ruins of a future, that seemed empty of all life and hope. The future belongs to God and God is there, calling us forward into a new existence.
There are many lessons in this beautiful story for us today.
Luke wrote his gospel, so that we may know the certainty of the things that we have been taught. Luke 1:4
Below the charts indicate, who was there, and how their questions were answered by the certainty of the things they’d been taught.
Jesus/Yeshua cares for all His followers. There are no “insignificant” disciples to Him. We must never feel we are unimportant to God or Heaven Plan. He gives equal care to all His children, and special care to those who are in greatest need.
So Who Was Cleopas??
Not everyone agrees!… so here are some options:
One tradition has it (and it is possible) that Cleopas was the brother of Joseph, husband of Jesus’ mother, Mary.
Another claims Cleopas’ companion on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:13-35 may have been his own wife? 
Cleopas wife may have been Mary, (John 19:25) ‘the wife of Cleopas who stood at the foot of the cros’.
And she was the same Mary that was the mother of James the Lesser and Jude.
Luke 24:34 identifies Peter as one of the two on the road. Luke 24:34 1611 KJV: Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.
1 Corinthians 15:5. And that he was seen of Cephas — As mentioned Luke 24:34 , who saw him before any of the other apostles. He appeared, indeed, after his resurrection, first of all to Mary Magdalene: and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same.
1 Corinthians 15:5. And that he was seen of Cephas Or Simon Peter; for Cephas was a name given him by Christ, ( John 1:42 ) .
However rabbi Paul states that Yeshua was seen of Cephas before He was seen of all twelve, which agrees with the fact that Luke mentions that it was the “them” that were with the “apostles” (verse 33) that mentioned Simon’s sighting, not the Emmaus “they” of verse 35. (1 Corinthians 15:5). This was not another Cephas, one of the seventy disciples, as Clemens suggests {g}, but the Apostle Peter himself, to whom it is certain the Lord appeared.
Or was Cleopas a woman, the wife of the second person returning to Emmaus? The reference to appearing to Peter in Luke 13:35 was Simon Peter and was he the companion traveller? verse 18 names Cleopas as the other disciple.
While most people assume Cleopas is a man, the Greek spelling has a feminine genitive (possessive) ending so that some scholars speculate that this could have been Peter’s wife on the road to Emmaus with him. It appears that they were going back to where they lived as indicated in the verse ‘The man came in unto their home’.
The Greek spelling of Cleopas Luke 24:19 is Kleopas while the spelling of Clopas in John 19:25 is Klopa. The letter o in klopa is omega, while the letter O in KleOpas is an Omicrom. Both words are in the genitive case with Klopa = masculine and Kleopas = feminine.
Some say “Cleopas” name in high Greek (HaLane`Katara) means: “Glorious Father,” but Cleopas’ name is an abbreviated form of “Cleopatros,” a more common Hellenistic name at the time of Yeshua meaning: “son of a renowned father.”
?????
The fact remains there were 2 travelling back to Emmaus, which is 7 Miles from Jerusalem. Luke 1:26-38; 2Peter 2:4-11
The journey – walking and not recognizing!
Jesus/Yeshua wants to ground our faith in His word, the Scriptures, even more than giving us the emotions of joy, Jesus/Yeshua may reveal Himself to you in seemingly special ways, but never contrary to what His word teaches.
The fact they did not recognize Him may have been due to His new Resurrected body being perfect, not looking anything like He was the last time they saw Him. Or maybe He could adjust His outward appearance, now He was not constrained by space and time and had supernatural qualities?
Lastly, one can wonder what would have happened if the two disciples from Emmaus had not urged Jesus/Yeshua to stay with them.
Would they have missed the opportunity to know it was Messiah who had been talking to them?
Messiah agreed to stay only when they urged Him to do so.
Do we need to urge Jesus/Yeshua to be with us more than we do?
Not because He is unwilling, but because He never forces Himself on anyone?
How many blessings have we missed because we haven’t been more serious about seeking God, or because we haven’t urged Him to stay with us on our Emmaus journey of discovery and relationship?
What blinded them, is the same thing that sometimes blinds us, which is ?? 
The Appearance to the 10 Disciples ‘While they, [Emmaus travelers], were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace/Shalom be to you.”’
Revelation – eyes open…
Joy on return..
Can people SEE that we have been with Messiah?
Gospel readings have given us accounts of people who looked at Jesus, walked with Jesus, and talked with Jesus but did not recognize Him.
What is it that kept them from recognizing Him? 
What blinded their eyes? What stopped their ears?
Could it be that they, had an idea, of who Jesus/Yeshua was supposed to be. They had formed Him in their minds in their own image and likeness. Yet their image and ours puts limits on the man who is essentially, God.
So, when this man appeared to them in the garden and on the road they did not recognize Him.
He didn’t fit the image they had formed. He far exceeded it and it makes them, in a way, blind and deaf, if only for a time.
In some ways seeing is deceiving.
Matthew 9:27 ‘As Jesus went on from the two blind men followed him calling and saying, take pity on us son of David.’
These two blind men began following Jesus. How could they follow Him if they were blind? 
Blind from birth they no doubt knew their way around the local area and were able to follow along with the crowds. 
And really, why would they follow him? They have not seen any miracles or witnessed any great wonders. Yet in the Scripture above they seem to be the first to recognize that He WAS the son of David, THE Promised long awaited Messiah. They heard what was happening as people were being healed and they surely heard the words that He spoke.
These two blind men following Jesus could not rely on their eyesight for anything yet all their senses testified that they were in the midst of the one they have been waiting for, the great deliverer of Israel.
How often do we ignore what our senses are plainly telling us. 
Sometimes our faith can be so one-dimensional that we are unable to see the truth even when it’s standing right before us.
Seeing as how blind men can follow the Messiah, perhaps we too would do well to occasionally close our eyes.. And see what we can see.
The two disciples don’t recognize Him until the breaking of the bread. Many commentators say that they saw the wounds in His hands at that time and they knew it was the Lord. It may have been the wounds, however it was more likely what He said. 
Perhaps what He said were once again, those life changing, universe shaking words, unparalleled in the history of creation: “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Whether it was the words of Our Lord, the action of His Breaking Bread or His physical appearance, we do not know for sure. What we do have is a record of the reaction of the two men, “…they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem…” The seven mile walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus became a seven mile jog from Emmaus to Jerusalem – on that same day!
The reaction was to run and tell others. Mary ran too, at the Lord’s command, to tell others. Miriam of Magdala, we know her as Mary Magdelene, was by the empty tomb weeping over the death of her teacher/ rabbi. 
As She turned around and saw him standing there she did not realize it was Him and apparently thinking that He was the Gardener she said, tell me where you put Him and I’ll get Him. 
He replied by speaking her name, Miriam. She answered, Rabboni, meaning teacher/rabbi. All she could think about was that her beloved rabbi/ teacher was gone and yet He was standing right there beside her.
In our day to day walk, it is easy for us to get bogged down by problems, or by what we think is missing in our lives, what we don’t have, or what we long for. We can easily end up like Miriam, so filled with sorrow, focusing on what we don’t have in our lives, blind to seeing the treasure that is right in front of us each and every day.
So, do you and I walk around kicking stones like the men/women on the road to Emmaus, or are we like the men/women on the road back to Jerusalem? He has risen indeed!
Let us run to everyone crying out, “I have seen the Lord!”
Each of us at some time in our life will find ourselves on the road to Emmaus. We each have been told fanciful stories of grace and mercy that are often more than we can believe. We have been told of stories of power beyond comprehension.
Many have heard personal witnesses from others who have claimed to have seen the Savior or who have felt the presence of His love and power. The question will be that while we journey upon our own road of mortal life, how will we respond?
Will we believe those who have testified of the Savior and accept his redeeming blood, or will we lack the faith required to believe? 
When the Lord comes to us through the service of others will we invite them in to sup with us and to partake of those things of which we have been blessed?
Though these two disciples at first did not believe, it seems that because they were so willing to serve, that the Lord allowed their eyes to be opened and their hearts to be softened, so that the presence of the Lord would abide with them.
In that moment of faltering faith and fear, that must have filled their hearts that day as they walked to Emmaus; they had not forgotten the words of their Master, to serve others. In their attempt to follow the Lord, He blessed them beyond description.
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled.
And they realized that they had been with Jesus. — Acts 4:13
The Apostles Peter and John were men who were like Jesus. One day when they went to the temple to pray, they healed a man who had been lame since birth. Then they preached with such boldness that 5,000 people believed that same day (Acts 3–4).
It was unmistakable. Even their enemies could see that Jesus/Yeshua had profoundly impacted these men. Could a statement like that be said of us? 
Could it be said of us, that we have been with Messiah Jesus?
Seeing and being with Jesus/Yeshua on THE WAY.
The greatest blessings we could ever know or have in our life, we already have.
Jesus/Yeshua is the answer, He IS
the way
the truth
and life 
and He’s standing right beside us –
we just have to open the eyes of our hearts, to see the blessings and treasures that already fill the Emmaus WAY of our lives. 
The WAY begins at the Genesis, Chapter 1, verse 1 and continues through to Revelation 22:21; for the WAY, is the whole of scripture and the WAY we should go.
Complete restoration and new direction –
Forward and upward.
It is THE Truth and THE Road that leads to LIFE EVERLASTING PS.139:24.
It’s the Emmaus WAY – His Way of Being, Living and Doing, not ours and
letting Him walk with us when He chooses to come alongside and joins Himself to our journey. Then He opens the scriptures to us and in so doing, He opens the eyes of our understanding. Eph 1:17-19 that we might SEE and KNOW Him.
I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE – THE BREAD THAT CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN.
Shalom Haverim/Chaverim –
Friends, חברים
Phonetic Spelling: Kha-ve-ri
and Family – Mishpachah מִשְׁפָּחָה
Phonetic Spelling: mish-paw-khaw’
Shalom Friends and Family!
Shalom Haverim/Chaverim, Mishpachah
ומשפחה חברים שלום
SHäˈlōm Kha-ve-ri, mish-paw-khaw’
Please don’t leave this page before making certain Jesus is your Redeemer, Savior, Lord and soon returning King and that you have a personal relationship with Him.
You are greatly loved and precious in His sight.
Its all about Life and Relationship, not Religion.
NOT SURE? YOU CAN BE..
SAY THE FOLLOWING FROM YOUR HEART RIGHT NOW…
Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry. I repent of them all and turn away from my past.
I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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