In order to raise the surrounding mount to a level with the
floor, the place of the altar on its summit, a foundation platform of
stupendous structure was built. To was to form this foundation platform that
the Lord gave commandment, as we read in 1 Kings 5, 17, "And the king
commanded, and they brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, to
lay the foundation of the house.'' This broad platform level and secure, was
for the erection of the Temple, its courts, and other buildings.
And the foundation was of costly stones, even great stones, stones of ten
cubits. and stones of eight cubits (1 Kings 7.10 - in plain language, about
twenty feet and sixteen feet in length. These firm foundation stones remain
intact beneath the surface to the present day. One of the great services which
the Palestine Exploration Fund Committee has rendered to the Church of God is
the investigation which they have so skilfully carried on in respect to this
foundation platform, it is an oblong structure, in round numbers about one
thousand five hundred feet long, and about one Thousand feet in breadth it is
known as the Haram-ash-Sherreff or Noble Sanctuary of the Mohammedans.
The surface is nearly level, carpeted with grass; cypresses are found there,
and oratories and mosques. About the centre of the enclosure is a platform
nearly square, about sixteen feet in height, formed in part of masonry, in part
of the native rock, and paved with stone slabs, on which stands that which is
now known as the Mosque of Omar, which the Mohammedans call Kubbet-es-Sakhra,
or "Dome of the Rock." Above the surface of this platform time has
done its work; siege after siege has committed ravages; but below the surface,
to a depth of sixty, seventy, or one hundred and twenty feet, there have been
discovered those vast stones of which we read in the Sacred Record, so closely
joined that scarcely a pen-knife could be put between the joints; without
cement, firm and immovable. On some of them may be seen the marks of the
builders, in red vermilion.
This foundation platform is built upon Mount Moriah-Moriah,
the vision or manifestation of Jah or Jehovah; as it was said, "In the
mount of Jehovah it shall be seen." In that wondrous twenty-second chapter
of Genesis, we have not only foretold God's own Lamb which He has provided, but
we have there the mount of Jehovah-JIREH. Solomon as a wise master-builder,
went deep, and laid the foundations upon a rock : hence their security. Let us
learn from it afresh the lesson of our Lord in the seventh chapter of Matthew,
that, however '' well builded," however skilfully erected, our house may
be, if built on sand, when the hour of trial comes and the overwhelming scourge
passes through, it must come down. When God lays judgment to the line and
justice to the plummet, He will sweep away every refuge of lies.” It is on
GOD that the firm foundations of our faith for time and for eternity must rest.
If our faith is in Christ, it must be in THE CHRIST OF GOD, founded upon the
character, the perfections, and the attributes of the unchanging, eternal God.
"Trust ye in Jehovah for ever: for in Jah (Jehovah) is the Rock of
Ages" (Isa. 26.4). Jah—the title of God in the eternity of His
existence, "inhabiting eternity," to whom past, present, and to come
is one eternal NOW. Jehovah—the title of God as the everlasting one,
"that is, and was, and is to come." God’s PURPOSES and PLANS
connected with the ransom of man in time, and the monument of His eternal glory
to be erected thereupon in eternity, were laid deep in the counsels of
eternity; the work was according to the eternal purpose, the purpose of the
ages, which He purposed in our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 3.11). The FATHER in
eternity laid the stupendous plan. The SON laid down His life to accomplish it.
The eternal Spirit renders the work effectual in each believing soul.
"Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ
" (1 Cor. 3. 9—11). " This is the stone which was set at nought
of [by] you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there
salvation in any other : for there is none other name under heaven given among
men whereby we can be saved " (Acts 4.11, 12). If faith is to be steadfast
and secure, it is not to be for ever laying and relaying the foundation.
"Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of
faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and
of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment" (Heb. 6.1, 2). Let
these vast truths be taught as the rudiments and foundations of our knowledge
of Divine things - unchanging, immovable. There can be no glory to God, no
salvation to men, where there is no Divine foundation. It is no building of
God, no habitation of God through the Spirit, if the DIVINITY of Christ is
denied. The rock foundation of our faith must be "God manifest in the
flesh." As the Apostle says, "To whom coming, as unto a living stone,
disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also as lively
[living] stones, are built up a spiritual house.
Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief
corner-stone, elect, precious:
and he that believeth on Him shall not be confounded [ashamed] " (1 Peter
2. 4-8). Christ Himself, in His person and work, is the chief corner-stone of
the whole. The ROCK is the truth of God which He reveals to the soul, as in the
case of Peter (see Matt. 16. 15-18), when he confessed, "Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered and said unto him,
"Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood bath not revealed
it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee, That THOU
art Peter [a stone] and upon this rock I will build My church." Then we
also read, "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus
Christ Himself being the chief corner" [foundation corner] (Eph. 2. 20).
The apostles and prophets of the New Testament dispensation, through whom the
truth of God was revealed and given to us, built upon those great and grand
foundation truths contained in the inspired Scriptures of the New Testament in
full confirmation, dovetailed in, and builded together with the massive truths
of the Old; resting upon the same foundation. Every doctrine of revealed truth
is truth as it is in Jesus - all centering in His blessed person, all in
harmony with His work, accomplished at no less a cost than the incarnation,
sufferings, and death of the Son of God.
Then, again, where there is no DIVINE, ETERNAL SPIRIT, there can be no Christ.
Who is the Christ? The Christos in the Greek, which means the ANOINTED - "
The Spirit of Jehovah is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me" (see Luke
4. 16-21)----is the answer. You cannot have Christianity without Christ; you
cannot have Christ without the Spirit; you cannot have the Son without the
Father, nor the Father apart from the Son. To take away or deny one of these
foundation truths is to disturb the whole, for these things, like those great
massive stones of the Temple foundation, are embedded together.