As I smelled the hyssop growing wild at the base of the Temple Mount
steps, I was thrust into a place only sight and smell can trigger. I
could hear the streets outside the walls of the city, strangely though, it
wasn’t the sound of the hustling and bustling of modern Jerusalem, it was an
ancient sound… mystical and hypnotic. The voices spoke with prophetic
resonance. There were no minarets, no prayers being offered up to some
false god. It was the sound of peace, the peace of God’s presence upon a people
and a city He loved and called by His name. I could hear the whispers of
a king’s voice singing… Avi Melkenu!
Though it was only a moment, that moment transcended space and time to deliver
a message to me on the very place from which it had originated.
At the base of Moriah, where 4,000 years of history forged a people and a land,
David’s words reverberate off the walls and hills of the City of God. As
David stood before the threshing floor of Araunah, he was offered a free gift
of what would become the hottest piece of real estate the world would ever
know. But instead of receiving this gift freely given, David said these
words; “I will not offer up sacrifices to the Lord my God which cost
me nothing.” Over 3,000 years ago, David paid for a piece of ground
that now lies in the hands of the usurper.
The actual definition of the word birthright means: the basic
right someone has, or is entitled to, concerning properties or monies belonging
to ones family line. Interestingly enough, the word for justice
in Hebrew means to recover that which rightfully belongs to its owner. In
the psalms when David says, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; may those who
love her prosper”, it evokes a sense of immediacy and the provocation to
urgency with which my heart was penetrated as I looked upon the former
devastations where I stood, the city David loved so deeply. Why you
ask? Because the same Spirit that inspired those words in him, reignites
them in me 3,000 years later.
"How long, oh Lord, how long?" That was David’s cry as
he pondered his enemy’s success in trampling underfoot the things that belonged
to God. Once again, in our day, the enemies of David and the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob manipulate world opinion concerning the things of God
and His possessions.
Not long ago, a 64-year-old woman, with
explosives wrapped around her body, blew herself up in Gaza for Allah’s sake.
The twisted perspective that paradise would be realized by such an act of
insanity drives home for me the picture of a people whose agenda it is to
continue Jihad until its ultimate purpose is accomplished: dispossess Jacob’s
descendants and control all that God willed to them through birthright!
I know many will argue that to believe that God is the owner as well as giver,
is conjecture. Yet He is Avi Melkenu – our Father, our King! Others will say
there is no real evidence that David actually purchased the piece of land now
known as the Temple Mount. Yet I would suggest that history, in conjunction
with the continual undeniable archeological discoveries that paint an accurate
view of what the Bible chronicles, validates it as so. He promised that Israel would
become a nation in a day and that He would gather His people from around the
world and bring them back to the land to which He had given to their
forefathers. He promised to restore their native tongue. These are things
we can see with our own eyes, not coincidence. So did Avi Melkenu change His
mind? Never! It is called justice due to birthright! Yet
these are the very reasons the usurper rages against the truth and against
Abraham’s descendants.
The notion that the usurper has the right to possess those things that were
never his is ludicrous and has no grounds upon which to
stand. It is because of this that they seek to conquer, not just the People of
the Book, but anyone else who would stand in their way. Decisions are made
every day concerning these matters, both in the earth, and above. As the lines
become clearer, and the choices become more dangerous, the question must rise
up within us… “from which Stone are we cut?"
Choosing to side with those whose birthright
goes back to the man who chose to follow God from the land of Ur into the Land
of Promise is a choice that is rooted in the word “sacrifice”. The
ancients knew it; David understood it, will we engage it with the same tenacity
they did?
David could have had that piece of land for nothing, yet David understood
the value of sacrifice, not just to God, but also to man. It was in his blood,
and the blood of his fathers. He also understood that by purchasing that piece
of land it would establish birthright for all of his
descendants long into the future. Is it any different for us?
Today, may our yes be yes in our decision
to stand with the birthright of David, establishing justice, being willing to
do whatever it takes, without compromise and regardless of the cost for the
purpose of TRUE shalom and the victory which belongs to Avi Melkenu.
© 2006 Steven Bliss
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