Tag Archives: Crucifixion

Blood on the Mercy Seat…Facing Mount of Olives

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Leviticus 16:14, Mercy seat eastward. What possibly could be the significance of YHVH’s command to specifically sprinkle the blood of the sacrificed animal on the east side of the mercy seat? Simply this. If one has ever had the privilege of standing on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, it all makes sense. The east side of the mercy seat faces directly toward the Mount of Olives, where the altar of the red heifer was located. It was likely near this exact spot that Yeshua was crucified just outside of the Jerusalem city gates (Heb 13:12), and where he sprinkled his blood as an atonement for men’s sins (Heb 11:24).

View of the Mount of Olives taken from the Dome of the Spirits on the Temple Mount. Some scholars believe this was the location of the holy of holies in the original Temple of Solomon.

View of the Mount of Olives taken from the Dome of the Spirits on the Temple Mount. Some scholars believe this was the location of the holy of holies in the original Temple of Solomon.

At this same spot, one had a full frontal view of the temple, which is why those attending Yeshua’s crucifixion were able to see the rent veil in the temple from the spot where he was crucified (Matt 27:51 cp. 54).

Therefore, the high priest sprinkling the blood of the bull and goat sin offering on the east side of the mercy seat on Yom Kippur was a prophetic act pointing to what would take place some fifteen hundred years later on the Mount of Olives.

Yeshua’s shedding of his blood there as an atonement for men’s sins was a fulfillment of the high priest sprinkling blood on the mercy seat on Yom Kippur. When Yeshua was crucified, although his cross faced the mercy seat in the temple, the holy of holies no longer contained that item. To this day, no one knows what became of it.

The sprinkling of blood on the east side of the mercy seat is a small detail that’s easily overlooked in the Scriptures, but it has profound spiritual and prophetic significance. This detail meshes with other seemingly insignificant details found elsewhere in the Scriptures. When these puzzle pieces are placed together, they form another picture of Messiah’s work. This is another proof that only the hand of YHVH Elohim could have inspired the writing of the Bible. May your faith in the divine origination of the Scriptures be strengthened to the glory of Elohim!

 

Where was Yeshua crucified?

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Leviticus 1:16, Beside the altar on the east part. It is interesting to note that in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, the east side of the altar of sacrifice in the temple faced the Mount of Olives, the base of which is only a few minutes walk (less than 1000 feet) down from the Temple Mount and across the small Kidron Valley.

Cross at St. Augustine

This is the same area where the Garden of Gethsemane is located (also at the base of the Mount of Olives just above the Kidron Valley) where Yeshua prayed before his crucifixion and sweat great drops of blood (Luke 22:44).

Directly above this same spot is where the altar of the red heifer was located (see Mishnah Parah 3:6c and The Temple, Its Ministry and Service, p. 283, by Alfred Edhersheim).

Furthermore, the writer of Hebrews links the place of Yeshua’s crucifixion to the spot where the red heifer was killed (Heb 13:12–13 cp. 9:13).

And finally, we know that from the place of the crucifixion, the front of the temple was clearly visible (Luke 23:45, 47).

We see that the sprinkling of the blood on the east side of the altar (on the side of the altar facing the exact spot where Yeshua died on the cross) is a prophetic shadow picture pointing to the eventual death of Yeshua the Lamb of Elohim slain from the foundation of the world to take away the sins of the world once and for all!

 

How the First Passover Perfectly Pictured Yeshua the Messiah

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For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Messiah, for it is the power of Elohim to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. (Rom 1:16)

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. (1 Cor 1:18)

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved [except the name of Yeshua the Messiah]. (Acts 4:12)

According to the laws of statistical probability, what are the chances of an event happening and then fifteen hundred years later another event occurring bearing an uncanny resemblance to the first one? Now suppose that not only did fifteen hundred years separate the two events, but that they occurred in two different countries several hundred miles apart, which in the ancient world considering the difficulties of travel and communications may as well have been halfway around the globe. Now suppose that the second event involved the death of a person, and that the events leading up to their death including the manner and timing of that death was beyond the control of the individual dying so that in no way could the person dying stage his death to mirror the first event. In fact, those killing the individual possessed no foreknowledge of the event that had occurred fifteen hundred years earlier. What are the chances of this occurring? Well beyond the laws of possibility!

Lamb sacrifice

This is not a fictional story! Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. The details of these two events are chronicled in the pages of the Bible. The first event occurred in ancient Egypt and is recorded in the Book of Exodus chapters eleven and twelve. There we find recorded the details of the children of Israel’s first Passover while they were yet slaves in the land of Egypt. A whole series of events led up to this first Passover, which culminated with each family’s ritual killing of a lamb, smearing its blood on the frame of their doors, roasting the lamb, and then eating it. Doing this insured that YHVH would pass over their homes leaving those inside alive. The firstborn of those whose homes did not have the blood on them were killed.

The second event involved a descendant of those ancient people who was born in a different land fifteen hundred years later. His name was Yeshua of Nazareth, a Jew, and viewed by many of his day as the long-awaited Messiah of Israel. One of the proofs of his Messiahship would be whether he would fulfill the many prophecies that had been foretold Continue reading →

 

Did Yeshua Die on a Cross or a Stake?

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Matthew 10:38, Cross. This is the first place in the Scriptures where the word cross is mentioned. There is often a spirited debate among those returning to the Hebrew roots of the Christian faith as to whether Yeshua was crucified on a cross, a stake, tree or gallows. For the reason that the cross is a symbol that has been tainted by ancient pagan connotations, many Hebraic believers have an aversion to seeing it as the instrument upon which Messiah Yeshua was crucified. This being the case, we must ask the obvious question: which came first? Was the cross first a pagan symbol or was it a God-ordained symbol that was later corrupted by apostate men?

We may never, with certainty, know the answer to this question. But one thing is certain, the origins of the cross as a redemptive symbol are ancient—perhaps as ancient, if not more so, then its uses as a pagan religious symbol. This is proven in the ancient Paleo-Hebrew script, which predates the current square-lettered Hebrew script, where the final letter in the Hebrew alphabet is the letter tav, which looks like our letter “t,” and is shaped like a cross. Because the letters in this ancient Hebrew script were actually pictorial symbols, they were thus descriptive in nature (much like Egyptian hieroglyphics), so the letter tav literally means “ownership, to make a sign, to seal, to make a covenant.”

In the Scriptures we see the symbol of the cross reoccurring numerous times. For example, when Jacob on his deathbed blessed Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, he crossed his arms (making the cross symbol) as he laid his hands on their heads to bless them (Gen 48:14). He then made mention of the Angel or Messenger of Elohim (the pre-incarnate Yeshua) redeeming him from evil (v. 16). This is an obvious reference to YHVH saving Jacob from Esau and Laban (Gen 31 and 32), but is also a future prophetic allusion to the redemptive work of the Messiah at his crucifixion, since Jacob calls on the Redeemer Messenger of Elohim (or the Messiah) to bless his grandsons and their future offspring (v. 16). We know that in Yeshua, the Seed of Abraham, all the nations of the earth were to be blessed (Gal 3:16 cp. Gen 22:18). Certainly, Jacob must have had at least a vague awareness of the future implications of this promise that YHVH had made to Abraham and the redemptive work of the coming Messiah.

Another reference to the cross can found in Exodus 12:7 where YHVH commands the Israelites to kill the Passover lamb and smear the blood therefrom on the side posts and top of their door frames. This is a perfect picture of the cross outlined in blood that flowed from the seven places in Yeshua’s body while he hung on the cross.

We see another outline of the cross in Numbers chapter two in how YHVH instructed the tribes of Israel to be configured around the mishkan (Tabernacle of Moses). If one were to view the encampment from the air as is described in this chapter, we see the outline of a perfect cross. Furthermore, within the tabernacle itself, the furnishings were laid out in the shape of a cross. In essence we see a cross on a cross! Since the tabernacle and all therein was a prophetic shadow-picture of Yeshua himself, we see not so much a cross on a cross, but a picture Yeshua on the cross.

Many more examples could be given, but one will suffice to make the point. In Ezekiel chapter eight, we see YHVH instructing one of his angels to write in ink a mark (literally, a tav or cross) on the heads of his righteous saints in Jerusalem. This tav would preserve them from the destruction that was about to fall on that city (Ezek 9:4). Similarly, in the Book of Revelation in the end times, YHVH will place a seal or mark upon the foreheads of his saints to preserve from his judgments of wrath that will fall upon the earth prior to Yeshua’s second coming (Rev 7:3–4; 14:1). These same end-time saints are those who obey the Torah and who have the testimony or faith of Yeshua who died on a cross to redeem us (Rev 12:17; 14:12). Is this seal a cross? Only time will tell.

In John 20:25 we find another proof that the stake upon which Yeshua was crucified had a horizontal cross beam. There Thomas declares, “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.” The word nails being in the plural in all major English Bible translations indicate that more than one nail was used to secure Yeshua’s hands to the “crucifixion stake.” Had Yeshua been crucified on a stake minus a cross beam, then his hands would have been over his head and nailed to the post with one nail only. The fact that Thomas mentions nails (plural) indicates that Yeshua’s arms were outstretched when attached to the stake requiring a nail in each wrist. This fact seems to favor the idea that Yeshua was crucified on a traditional rather than a simple upright post.

In reality, whether Messiah died on a cross, stake or some other contraption is irrelevant. The fact is that he died for our sins and we must place our trusting faith in him if we are to have eternal life. That is the bottom line! But for those who are adamant that he was not crucified on a cross, they have some ­cross­ reference Scriptures to explain.