Caption transcript for Bearded Bible Brothers and the Third Temple of Doom!: “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (4/8)

• 00:01 ♪♪♪
• 00:10 ♪♪♪
• 00:18 ♪♪♪
• 00:28 ♪♪♪
• 00:30 Joshua Colson: Help, somebody.
• 00:33 Stop.
• 00:38 Oh boy, we’re gonna need another temple.
• 00:42 Joshua: Exodus 25, 10 through 11 and 16, “And they shall make an
• 00:46 ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits shall be its length,
• 00:49 a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half
• 00:51 its height.
• 00:52 And you shall overlay it with pure gold.
• 00:54 Inside and out you shall overlay it, and shall make on it the
• 00:57 molding of gold all around.
• 00:59 And you shall put it in the ark the Testimony which I give you.”
• 01:04 Joshua: The ark of the covenant is the most sought after relic
• 01:07 throughout history in the entire world.
• 01:09 Powerful governments and leaders have tried to obtain it.
• 01:13 ♪♪♪
• 01:17 [laughter]
• 01:24 Joshua: Even Adolf Hitler during World War II.
• 01:27 Countless movies, such as “Raiders of the Lost Ark,”
• 01:30 center on it, but its creation and history began very humbly in
• 01:34 a desert at the foot of Mount Sinai.
• 01:38 Caleb Colson: Numbers 10:33, “So they set out from the mountain
• 01:41 of the Lord and traveled for three days.
• 01:43 The ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them.”
• 01:47 Caleb: In the past, the ark of the covenant would lead millions
• 01:49 of Israelites through the desert and sometimes to battle.
• 01:53 Just as a litter would carry a king before a procession, four
• 01:56 priests would carry the ark on gold plated poles.
• 01:59 It was literally a mobile throne for the presence of God.
• 02:03 When it wasn’t in transit the ark would lay to rest in the
• 02:06 tabernacle’s holy of holies.
• 02:08 The Mishkon, or tabernacle was literally the original temple,
• 02:11 and it was also mobile.
• 02:13 In Timna, southern Israel, there is a beautiful representation of
• 02:17 the tabernacle you can visit today.
• 02:19 Now, it’s important to understand the connection with
• 02:21 the tabernacle of the temple and the ark of the covenant in order
• 02:24 to understand the coming third temple and the necessity for the
• 02:27 ark’s return.
• 02:29 Let’s follow the historic trail of the ark in order to find when
• 02:33 and where it was lost.
• 02:36 Joshua: Joshua 18:1, “Now the whole congregation of the
• 02:39 children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up
• 02:43 the tabernacle of meeting there.
• 02:45 And the land was subdued before them.”
• 02:48 male: You know, the children of Israel were actually led by the
• 02:51 ark of the covenant for 40 years coming through the wilderness
• 02:54 all the way up into Jordan, and we know that three tribes stayed
• 02:57 over on that eastern side, and then the rest of them came over
• 03:02 into Canaan across the Jordan, you know, heading into Jericho,
• 03:05 and Jericho is the only spot we actually see where they brought
• 03:08 the ark into the battle.
• 03:10 Outside of that, we don’t really see that.
• 03:12 Caleb: That’s right, yeah. Not until it gets lost.
• 03:15 We’ll get to that later.
• 03:16 Here at this, you know, spot in Shiloh, it would eventually
• 03:19 come, but first it was at Gilgal.
• 03:21 The ark of the covenant remained at Gilgal in the tabernacle for
• 03:25 14 years during and after the conquest, and then you find that
• 03:30 it’s temporarily removed, just like, for momentary situations
• 03:34 like when Joshua did the blessings and curses on Mount
• 03:37 Ebal and Mount Gerizim.
• 03:38 It was there, and when Joshua commissioned the people of
• 03:42 Schem, Shechem, he gave his farewell address with the ark of
• 03:46 the covenant there.
• 03:47 So yeah, it got around a little bit.
• 03:50 Joshua: Well, Shiloh right here would be where the tabernacle
• 03:53 would reside for 369 years.
• 03:56 For the entire duration of the Book of Judges it’s right here,
• 03:59 and then you see that during the time that Eli and Samuel served
• 04:02 the Lord, still here.
• 04:04 Where Joshua delineates the land to everyone, here.
• 04:08 This would actually be the capital of Israel during that
• 04:11 time period.
• 04:12 Caleb: That’s right.
• 04:13 So this was a very special place.
• 04:15 Joshua: Samuel 4, 1 and verse 4, “Now Israel went out to battle
• 04:20 against the Philistines, and encamped beside Ebenezer; and
• 04:23 the Philistines encamped in Aphek.
• 04:26 So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from there
• 04:29 the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, who dwells
• 04:32 between the cherubim.
• 04:33 And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with
• 04:37 the ark of the covenant of God.”
• 04:40 male: You know, the famous, or really infamous, Battle of
• 04:44 Ebenezer, it’s this moment where they actually bring the ark into
• 04:48 one of the battles, but this is a battle that the Lord is
• 04:50 actually not with the children of Israel.
• 04:52 You know, it’s a really sad story in the scriptures because
• 04:55 Eli is warned time and time again about his sons, you know,
• 04:58 Hobni and Phinehas, and he’s told like, you’ve got to correct
• 05:02 your sons, and he won’t do it.
• 05:03 I mean, they’re eating the meat before it’s boiled.
• 05:06 They’re breaking all kinds of laws.
• 05:08 They’re fornicating like, in the temple.
• 05:11 Like demonic acts, honestly, destructive acts that they are
• 05:14 just staying in, and because of that, the hand of the Lord was
• 05:17 actually removed from the children of Israel in
• 05:19 that battle.
• 05:21 Caleb: It’s terrible, and the Philistines, of course, capture
• 05:23 the ark and they literally become the first raiders of the
• 05:26 lost ark.
• 05:28 I mean, its terrifying, but the Bible implies that Shiloh here
• 05:32 was destroyed by the Philistines.
• 05:34 Joshua: The archaeologists actually, they uncovered a burnt
• 05:36 layer in Shiloh that they dated to 1075 BC.
• 05:40 So yet again, Bible proven by archaeology, science,
• 05:44 everything else.
• 05:45 So once they did take that, the Philistines did take the ark of
• 05:48 the covenant, they headed towards, well, their
• 05:50 Philistine coastline.
• 05:52 So I think it’s time we go to the infamous city of Ashdod and
• 05:55 find out what happens next.
• 05:57 Caleb: Let’s go to Ashdod. Joshua: Look, he’s so excited.
• 05:59 He loves Ashdod.
• 06:00 I don’t know why he likes it so much, but–
• 06:01 male: I’m down for Ashdod.
• 06:03 Joshua: He actually loves to float in the Mediterranean.
• 06:04 I’ve watched it happen before.
• 06:05 His locks just glisten on the top of the water.
• 06:08 Caleb: 1 Samuel 5, 1 through 2, “Then the Philistines took the
• 06:12 ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.
• 06:16 When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into
• 06:19 the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon.”
• 06:25 male: Well guys, we made it to Ashdod Yam Fort.
• 06:29 Here we are right on the Mediterranean Sea.
• 06:34 You know, back in the day we had two cities of Ashdod.
• 06:39 You had the Ashdod harbor, which is around here, and then you had
• 06:43 the city of Ashdod, which would be Tel Ashdod, that’s about 3
• 06:47 miles southeast of here.
• 06:48 Joshua: Well, if this doesn’t look Philistine to you, it’s
• 06:51 because it’s obviously not.
• 06:52 This fort was built by the Umayyad Muslims.
• 06:55 It was called something I can’t pronounce, but we’ll put it on
• 06:57 the screen, and it was made to protect Ashdod Yam Fort.
• 07:01 This is one of five Philistine cities in the Bible, Ashdod,
• 07:06 Ekron, Gaza, and?
• 07:08 Caleb: Ashkelon?
• 07:10 Joshua: That’s the one.
• 07:11 Caleb: This is where the story of the ark of the covenant comes
• 07:13 in, because after the Philistines captured the ark of
• 07:14 the covenant, many archaeologists believe that they
• 07:17 took it here to Ashdod Yam, not to inland Tel Ashdod, ’cause
• 07:21 they never found a great temple to Dagon inland.
• 07:25 So the Philistines, I think, bit off more than they can chew.
• 07:29 They bring the ark of the covenant here and God starts to
• 07:32 judge them, just like the modern Palestinians get the judgment of
• 07:36 God when they took captive our people on October 7th.
• 07:40 So let’s see what God does to those Philistines.
• 07:45 Joshua: 1 Samuel 5:3, “And when the people of Ashdod arose early
• 07:49 in the morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the earth
• 07:54 before the Ark of the Lord.
• 07:56 So they took Dagon and set it in its place again.
• 07:59 And when they arose early the next morning, there was Dagon,
• 08:02 fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of the lord.
• 08:05 The head of Dagon and both the palms of its hands were broken
• 08:08 off on the threshold; only Dagon’s torso was left on it.”
• 08:14 male: You know, I love the story of the ark and Dagon.
• 08:18 It’s been one of my favorites since I was a teenager, to see
• 08:21 the power of God completely take out this false god of
• 08:25 the Philistines.
• 08:26 It’s absolutely amazing.
• 08:28 Faces don’t melt off like in Indiana Jones, but another part
• 08:32 of that is there is this influx of mice or rats that completely
• 08:36 consume the area, and then the people are just covered in
• 08:40 tumors and boils, which just goes to prove, man, you don’t
• 08:43 mess with the King of Kings and the king of the universe.
• 08:47 Joshua: These Philistine cities, they were all independently run,
• 08:49 they had their own kings.
• 08:51 Always makes sense, right?
• 08:53 Kings are awesome.
• 08:54 King of Ashdod got together with the Dagon boys and was like,
• 08:58 “We’ve had enough.
• 08:59 I don’t know what we’re supposed to do with this ark of the
• 09:01 covenant thing.
• 09:02 We gotta move it somewhere.”
• 09:04 So they all agreed, we wanna move it to Gath, ’cause that is
• 09:06 our most awesomest, toughest city.
• 09:09 I think we should go to Gath.
• 09:11 Caleb: I’ve always wanted to go to Gath.
• 09:12 Let’s go.
• 09:14 Caleb: 1 Samuel 5, 8 through 9, and the Philistines said, “‘Let
• 09:17 the ark of the God of Israel be carried away to Gath.’
• 09:20 So they carried the ark of the God of Israel away.
• 09:22 So it was, after they had carried it away, that the hand
• 09:25 of the Lord was against the city [of Gath]
• 09:28 with a very great destruction; and He struck the men of the
• 09:31 city, both small and great, and tumors broke out on them.”
• 09:36 Caleb: Oh my goodness, we made it to the top of the Philistine
• 09:40 Acropolis of Gath, and the site is epic.
• 09:45 You know, Gath was obviously the Canaanite name for this city.
• 09:48 Hebrews had a different name for this city called Tzafit, which
• 09:51 means observation point, because from here you can
• 09:54 see everything.
• 09:55 You can see people–an army coming from miles on in, and
• 09:59 literally, you know, this place, this Tel was larger than
• 10:03 Jerusalem, nearly every city in Canaan at the time period.
• 10:07 Joshua: Well, at that time period, the 800 years in which
• 10:10 Canaan and the Philistines occupied it, was when it was
• 10:13 its largest.
• 10:14 Biggest rocks, tallest structures.
• 10:16 At that point, the city walls averaged about 33 feet tall
• 10:20 because, well, it housed giants.
• 10:21 You had Goliath, his four brothers.
• 10:22 They could be peeking over the top in the old standard 8
• 10:24 feet fence.
• 10:25 It’s pretty intense.
• 10:27 I mean, 800 years, not a bad amount of time to rule from
• 10:31 one spot.
• 10:32 Caleb: Longer than America.
• 10:33 Joshua: You know we’re hitting 250 this year.
• 10:35 male: God bless America.
• 10:37 male: Guys, this altar right here, it’s a Philistine altar.
• 10:41 It’s one of the oldest altars discovered from this age, and
• 10:46 what’s so crazy about this altar is not just that it’s out here
• 10:50 in the middle of nowhere, but that it is actually, dimension
• 10:55 wise, the same as what we would have seen on the altar of
• 10:59 incense in the tabernacle.
• 11:02 So this would be the size of where the ark of the covenant
• 11:06 would have been, and this could be the very spot they put the
• 11:08 ark of the covenant when they captured it.
• 11:10 Caleb: It is possible because they haven’t found any other
• 11:13 temples on this site, but the interesting thing about this
• 11:16 altar that sends shock waves through the world when they
• 11:19 discovered it is it wasn’t like the Canaanite or Hebrew altars
• 11:22 that had horns on each corner.
• 11:24 It only was two-horned altar.
• 11:27 Nowhere else in Israel has this ever been discovered, but it’s
• 11:30 linked to the Minoan altars, the horns of consecration.
• 11:34 They honored the Minotaur.
• 11:35 They honored the bull.
• 11:37 You know, Zeus Velchanos, that was a way of honoring him
• 11:39 because he was the father of the Minotaur.
• 11:42 Joshua: It was like they had the same two pillars in this temple,
• 11:46 the one that was also in Gaza where Samson pushed over and
• 11:50 knocked the whole thing down.
• 11:52 They had those here as well, and so you can see that the ark
• 11:55 probably didn’t stay here too long before it was whisked away
• 11:58 to Ekron, which isn’t too far from here.
• 12:00 Caleb: I wanna see where those pillars are.
• 12:02 You can knock the temple down, Josh.
• 12:03 Joshua: 100% if the red bugs don’t get to it first.
• 12:07 Caleb: Philistine Temple, cray, cray.
• 12:09 Joshua: Why is it that every temple either plays the
• 12:11 “Friends” song in the background or has demon bugs?
• 12:13 male: Or both.
• 12:15 Joshua: That’s fair.
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• 12:47 Caleb: 1 Samuel 5:10, “So it was, as the ark of God came to
• 12:51 Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought
• 12:54 the ark of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and all of
• 12:58 our people!
• 12:59 Now the ark was in Philistia for 7 months, until the rulers
• 13:03 finally gave up and sent it back to Israel with the trespass
• 13:07 offering of 5 golden mice, and 5 golden tumors.”
• 13:12 Caleb: The people of Beit Shemesh were so excited when
• 13:15 they saw the ark of the covenant being drugged by these two milk
• 13:18 cows coming up from the road that came from Ekron.
• 13:21 I mean, they were working in the field of Joshua.
• 13:23 Imagine that sight after the trauma and the terror of losing
• 13:27 the ark, to see it finally returned after all those months.
• 13:32 Joshua: Exodus 25, 17 through 18 and verse 22, “You shall make a
• 13:35 mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits shall be its
• 13:39 length and a cubit and a half its width.
• 13:42 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you
• 13:45 shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat.
• 13:48 And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from
• 13:51 above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which
• 13:55 are on the ark of the Testimony.”
• 13:59 Joshua: Now, I know that everyone knows the depiction of
• 14:02 the ark of the covenant from my man Indy–
• 14:05 Indy, but honestly, I think
• 14:07 that the ark looked a little bit more like you would see a king’s
• 14:10 throne when he’d be carried by litter.
• 14:12 Not the stuff for a cat, but like, the men who were slaves
• 14:14 who would carry the poles and the kings would be on it.
• 14:17 But if you look at the ark in that light, the back of it was a
• 14:22 solid piece of gold of a cherubim that was hammered so
• 14:25 that its wings were upright for the back and its head were on
• 14:28 the armrests of it.
• 14:29 Caleb: That’s absolutely the same depiction that the
• 14:32 Canaanites made their thrones out of.
• 14:34 It’s not that God was mimicking the Canaanites.
• 14:36 You know, Lucifer saw what God’s throne looked like in heaven and
• 14:40 he was just counterfeiting it on Earth, but archaeologists
• 14:43 discovered at Megiddo this inscription that showed what the
• 14:46 king that was sitting on his throne looked like, and his
• 14:48 throne was just that.
• 14:50 It was, you know, two cherubim that were the armrests and the
• 14:53 wings going up in the back.
• 14:55 They found in Byblos this Phoenician–a Hiram king had the
• 15:01 same looking throne, cherubim, you know, armrests, their heads
• 15:05 and wings going up, and finally you see this in Egypt.
• 15:09 Clearly many of the thrones of the pharaohs, just like King
• 15:13 Tut, Tutankhamun, had that same throne that they discovered.
• 15:18 Caleb: 1 Samuel 6:19, “Then He [God]
• 15:21 struck the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the
• 15:24 ark of the Lord.
• 15:26 He struck fifty thousand and seventy men of the people, and
• 15:29 the people lamented because the Lord had struck the people with
• 15:31 a great slaughter.”
• 15:34 Caleb: But things did escalate quickly, and they suffered a
• 15:37 heavy price for their disobedience to God, and they
• 15:39 knew better.
• 15:41 They were Levites.
• 15:42 I mean, come on guys.
• 15:43 But they gave, you know, a message to the men of Kirjath
• 15:45 Jearim begging them, please, take the ark from us.
• 15:48 We can’t deal with this anymore, and the Kirjath Jearim
• 15:51 men accepted.
• 15:53 Joshua: And that’s why we’re actually right here at the site,
• 15:55 the ancient site of Kirjath Jearim.
• 15:57 Caleb: 1 Samuel 7, 1 through 2, “Then the men of Kirjath Jearim
• 16:01 came and took the Ark of the Lord, and brought it into the
• 16:03 house of Abinadab on the hill, and consecrated Eleazar his son
• 16:07 to keep the ark of the Lord.
• 16:08 So it was that the ark remained in Kirjath Jearim a long time;
• 16:11 it was there twenty years.
• 16:13 And all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.”
• 16:17 male: As we’ve been granted access here to this very special
• 16:19 place, this is actually owned by France, Viva la France.
• 16:24 You know, this is a Catholic convent, Our Lady Ark of the
• 16:28 Covenant Church right here, and it’s an amazing place because
• 16:33 the ark of the covenant was actually here for 20 years, and
• 16:37 then Saul had it moved to Nob.
• 16:40 Joshua: Well, after Saul’s slaughter of the priests of Nob,
• 16:43 that tabernacle was moved to the hills of Gibeon, and we actually
• 16:46 went there not too long ago when we were looking at, was it
• 16:48 Samuel’s tomb?
• 16:49 That’s what I thought.
• 16:55 Caleb: So guys, we know this place is special.
• 16:57 On this hill was the house of Abinadab according to scripture.
• 17:01 male: But what’s so amazing about all of these locations,
• 17:05 right, is when the ark is moved by David, we know that he moves
• 17:10 it out the first time, he kind of does it a little bit the
• 17:13 wrong way.
• 17:14 Throws some things, a little bit of a snafu, little snag, little
• 17:17 issue, some dead joker, that’s what happened.
• 17:21 Joshua: Based off of everything you said, I probably would have
• 17:24 had to learn from it as well.
• 17:25 David and them actually carried it on a cart.
• 17:27 The previous guys, like you’re talking about, they used to take
• 17:29 the ark of the covenant and put it on poles, but you had the one
• 17:33 guy, right?
• 17:34 Whether he was sweaty, itchy, tripped, I don’t know, but he
• 17:36 touched the ark of the covenant and died instantly.
• 17:38 So obviously, to prevent that from happening, that was what
• 17:40 the cart was about.
• 17:41 But they would go to Obed-Edom and keep it there for 3 months
• 17:44 until David was able to actually take it to Jerusalem for its
• 17:47 final resting place.
• 17:48 Caleb: Obedience is important.
• 17:49 Don’t touch the ark.
• 17:51 Caleb: 2 Samuel 6, 15 and verse 17, “So David and all the house
• 17:55 of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with
• 17:59 the sound of a trumpet…and set it in its place in the midst of
• 18:02 a tabernacle that David had erected for it.”
• 18:06 Joshua: Following the trail of the Ark of the Covenant brought
• 18:08 us to the city of David.
• 18:09 Somewhere around here, David built his own minuscule tent or
• 18:12 tabernacle for the ark, while the main tabernacle stayed
• 18:14 in Gibeon.
• 18:16 Now it’s time to talk about some of the theories of the
• 18:18 disappearance of the ark.
• 18:20 Thanks to my twin Indiana Jones, one of the most famous, the
• 18:22 Pharaoh Shishak took the ark in.
• 18:25 1 Kings 14:28 says, “And he took away the treasures of the house
• 18:28 of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house.”
• 18:31 The treasures could have been a tribute from Rehoboam to Shishak
• 18:35 to leave.
• 18:36 Now, some claim that the holy city of Axum, Ethiopia has the
• 18:39 ark hidden in a church, and that the Ethiopians swapped it with a
• 18:43 forgery during the reign of Solomon.
• 18:45 Come on, I think somebody might have noticed a bunch of
• 18:48 Ethiopians started running off with lightning bolts zapping at
• 18:51 them, people falling over dead.
• 18:54 Doesn’t make sense.
• 18:55 Caleb: 2 Maccabee’s 2, “The records show that it was the
• 18:58 prophet Jeremiah…
• 18:59 prompted by a divine message…
• 19:01 gave orders that the Tent of Meeting and the ark should go
• 19:04 with him.
• 19:05 Then he went away to the mountain from the top of which
• 19:07 Moses saw God’s promised land.”
• 19:11 Caleb: This is cool, man.
• 19:14 Hirchie Schaffner: You know that passage that we just heard, you
• 19:16 know, it says that Jeremiah was a possible sneaker-outer of the
• 19:22 ark, that he got it out because he had this vision and this
• 19:26 understanding, and there’s a lot of writings that say that, but
• 19:28 the problem in the timeline is that during that Babylonian
• 19:32 captivity, Jeremiah was actually already in prison.
• 19:35 Joshua: Yeah, when they were at the gates of Jerusalem,
• 19:38 he wasn’t free.
• 19:40 He was in a cistern.
• 19:42 He was in a prison.
• 19:43 Caleb: There wasn’t a lot of stuff going on.
• 19:44 Joshua: Okay, I mean, I’ve heard of crazier things happening for
• 19:47 people in prison, but I get it.
• 19:49 This right here is incredible.
• 19:51 I love caves.
• 19:52 As much as I love being on the top of Jerusalem, we’re
• 19:54 currently under Jerusalem not in the direct sunlight, which
• 19:57 is amazing.
• 19:59 Zedekiah’s cave, if you haven’t heard of it, listen up,
• 20:02 it’s amazing.
• 20:03 This is also known as Solomon’s Quarries.
• 20:05 Why?
• 20:06 Because they believe that this right here was used to
• 20:09 harvest some of the rocks that made the Temple Mount.
• 20:12 Dr. Christian Widener: Yeah, absolutely.
• 20:14 They even found some of those partially quarried here in the
• 20:16 very back, and I think only about half of this cave is fully
• 20:19 explored, and so you can see that it’s still like, rock chips
• 20:23 and things, you know, that they used from quarrying in here are
• 20:27 still under here.
• 20:28 Caleb: There’s lots of ancient writings about Solomon digging
• 20:33 tunnels beneath the Temple Mount, passages.
• 20:35 We know there were, you know, water drainage pass, there were
• 20:38 cisterns, but they claimed, according to rabbinical
• 20:42 writings, that Solomon foresaw the destruction of his temple,
• 20:46 and so he created these passages to bury, to hide, you know, the
• 20:51 important articles of the temple like the ark of the covenant,
• 20:53 and we know they actually used it for that circumstance when
• 20:58 King Manasseh was wicked and he was, you know, violating all the
• 21:01 protocols of God and setting up these apostate idols in the
• 21:04 temple, they hid the ark of the covenant from him.
• 21:07 The priest did, somewhere beneath the Temple Mountain.
• 21:10 When Josiah, he becomes king, he says, “All right, it’s safe.
• 21:13 You can bring it out, guys.
• 21:14 Everything’s cool now.
• 21:16 I’m gonna follow the Lord.”
• 21:17 So this is a very awesome place, and I really want to explore it
• 21:20 and see what we can find down here.
• 21:23 Joshua: According to the Jewish Sage Rashi, “There is a cave
• 21:26 from the palace of Zedekiah to the plain of Jericho and he fled
• 21:30 through the cave.”
• 21:32 Caleb: All right, guys, everybody’s been wondering why
• 21:34 this is called Zedekiah’s cave.
• 21:36 Well, there is a legend, it’s written in the Mishnah, this
• 21:40 extracurricular story that coincides with the biblical
• 21:43 story of Zedekiah escaping Jerusalem during the siege of
• 21:47 the Babylonians.
• 21:48 So they say that he went into this cave right here, and it
• 21:51 literally goes for miles deep all the way to the plains
• 21:55 of Jericho.
• 21:56 So he was escaping there, and they say that God sent a buck to
• 22:01 follow Zedekia up above so that the Babylonians chase the buck,
• 22:06 following the length of this cave all the way to the plains
• 22:08 of Jericho.
• 22:10 When Zedekai gets out, they’re like, Ha, got you.
• 22:12 They capture him, and as you know, Nebuchadnezzar gouges his
• 22:15 eyes out after killing his sons before his eyes, and the
• 22:19 weeping, the mourning of him seeing his sons die is why they
• 22:23 call this Zedekiah’s cave, ’cause this is Zedekiah’s tears
• 22:26 here, the spring of water that comes down, and that’s where we
• 22:29 get the legend.
• 22:31 Dr. Christian: Yeah, and there’s also a legend that these tunnels
• 22:33 were how the ark was taken out of the temple and hidden because
• 22:37 it certainly disappeared after the destruction of Babylon.
• 22:40 There was no record of it being found.
• 22:42 So where did it go?
• 22:43 These tunnels are definitely one of the possible locations.
• 22:46 They haven’t found exactly which of the parts of this cave might
• 22:50 have led out, but I think that’s partially also because tunnels
• 22:53 out can also be tunnels in.
• 22:55 We’re right here on the edge of the northern wall, and so
• 22:58 there’s a bit of a security risk for the people of the city.
• 23:02 So some of these, they just haven’t explored enough to be
• 23:04 able to find them.
• 23:05 Joshua: That’s what’s incredible about this area of the world is
• 23:07 because of the tension that’s going on for so long, there are
• 23:10 places yet that have not been explored because you want to
• 23:13 say, oh, it’s 2025.
• 23:14 Like, surely somebody’s come through every crevice, but
• 23:16 they haven’t.
• 23:18 The things that could be hidden in these caves probably are only
• 23:22 second to me about to taste Zedekiah’s tears.
• 23:24 Caleb: You better not do it, Josh.
• 23:26 Joshua: Why can’t I taste it?
• 23:27 Caleb: You’ve drunk so many tears, water, and grease, and
• 23:31 polluted water.
• 23:32 It says don’t drink on the sign.
• 23:34 Joshua: No, I was reading the Hebrew.
• 23:35 It says do drink.
• 23:36 It’s–well, forbidden might be mistranslation.
• 23:38 It says drinking the wa–it says drinking the water is forbidden,
• 23:41 not the tears.
• 23:42 Caleb: Your Hebrew is definitely fuzzy.
• 23:44 Joshua: Let me see.
• 23:45 I don’t know what the problem is.
• 23:47 It’s natural mineral waters.
• 23:57 Caleb: Revelation 11:19, “Then the temple of God was opened in
• 24:00 heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple.
• 24:03 And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an
• 24:06 earthquake, and great hail.”
• 24:09 Joshua: We know that John was shown the ark, the mercy seat,
• 24:14 in his vision, but many people think that the ark that’s going
• 24:18 to be abominated here on Earth is going to be a replica because
• 24:21 they believe that the ark, the real one, was taken up by God to
• 24:24 prevent that from happening.
• 24:26 So how could we know for sure that that ark is going to be
• 24:30 a replica?
• 24:31 Check this verse out.
• 24:33 Caleb: 2 Thessalonians 2, 3 through 4, “The man of sin is
• 24:37 revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts Himself
• 24:41 above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he
• 24:44 sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he
• 24:48 is God.”
• 24:50 Caleb: Well, gentlemen, that reference in 2 Thessalonians 2,
• 24:54 3 through 4, for the beast to sit in the temple and declare
• 25:01 himself to be God, he needs something to sit on.
• 25:03 This is the mercy seat, I believe.
• 25:04 This is the ark of the covenant he’s gonna defile.
• 25:07 That’s why I believe it’s gonna be in the third temple, but when
• 25:12 you look around at all this, you know, search that has gone on
• 25:16 throughout the centuries, everybody wants to find the ark
• 25:19 of the covenant, everybody wants to find the treasure.
• 25:21 I thought, okay, let’s ask the head guys that are building the
• 25:25 articles for the third temple now, the Temple Institute.
• 25:28 I said, “What do you guys think about the ark of the covenant?
• 25:31 You know, do you need it?
• 25:32 Is it important now?”
• 25:33 They said, “We’re not worried about this, guys, because we
• 25:36 believe that the ark will appear when it’s time, that Mashiach is
• 25:40 gonna make it appear, you know, God’s gonna make it appear.
• 25:43 It’s all gonna be okay.”
• 25:44 I don’t know, maybe they know something we don’t know.
• 25:46 Joshua: I feel like they have an intern named Mashiach who’s
• 25:48 gonna bring–hey look, it appeared.
• 25:51 Hirchie: But along with that, all these theories of multiple
• 25:54 ones being hidden, and replicas to throw people off, there’s
• 25:57 also a theory that Israel is actually in possession of the
• 26:01 real ark, that they’re kind of hiding it, keeping it solitary
• 26:06 until that third temple is built, and it does make sense as
• 26:10 a possible scenario because why reveal that and create World War
• 26:14 3 and every Christian getting ready to sell their houses for
• 26:18 the rapture, and, you know, chaos coming in because of this
• 26:21 one world order when people know that’s coming.
• 26:23 Dr. Christian: Right, yeah, so that’s another piece
• 26:25 of the puzzle for the search
• 26:26 for the ark is Jeremiah 3:16, “When you multiply and
• 26:30 increase in the land, in those days this is the Lord’s
• 26:32 declaration, no one will say again, ‘The Ark of the
• 26:35 Lord’s Covenant.’
• 26:37 It will never come to mind, and no one will remember or miss it.
• 26:40 Another one will not be made.”
• 26:42 And you go, hm, all right, so how does that fit into–but we
• 26:47 definitely know we had almost 2,500 years of Jewish history
• 26:51 without the ark.
• 26:52 So the second temple didn’t have the ark during the whole time
• 26:55 that it was–and so that’s really already been true.
• 26:58 Does that mean it’ll never come back?
• 26:59 I don’t know that it means it won’t ever come back.
• 27:01 It’s already sort of not come to mind and not been a part of, you
• 27:05 know, normal Judaism’s practice, but it does say another one
• 27:10 won’t be made.
• 27:12 So, you know, that’s something.
• 27:13 They’ve been making the temple articles.
• 27:15 They made the Menorah.
• 27:16 They’ve made all these other things–
• 27:17 Joshua: That is interesting.
• 27:19 Dr. Christian: But no one’s tried to make the ark.
• 27:20 Caleb: Because the authentic is the authentic.
• 27:21 The first is the first.
• 27:23 Joshua: But they’re saying, correct me if I’m wrong, the
• 27:24 Temple Institute, the rabbis, they’re all saying that all they
• 27:26 really need is the ashes of the red heifer to be able to begin
• 27:31 the temple construction, and we know from following the story
• 27:35 that–and trying to mark the heifers, up that they have those
• 27:39 heifers, and that’s an ongoing story that we want to continue
• 27:42 because what happens next with these heifers and these ashes
• 27:45 and the temple and everything else is going to navigate all
• 27:49 of history.
• 27:51 So you gotta stay tuned for that, and as we go, Sha’alu
• 27:54 shalom Yerushalayim.
• 27:56 Caleb: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
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• 28:24 Israel, Greece, and Petra, and
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• 28:27 always, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.