What’s Carved in the Tablets? 3
Notes and Citations
→ These notes and citations originally appeared at the end of Part Two. In an effort to shorten that rather long lesson, I am posting these separately.
[1] www.splitrockresearch.org and many, many other researchers have explored and present well documented findings. Michael Rood offers video footage of the remains of the Egyptian army at the bottom of the Gulf of Aqaba (as do others). The remaining standing pillar on the Egyptian side of the Gulf of Aqaba remains (almost, it was moved uphill to protect it from rising sea levels) in the exact spot where Solomon erected it and the footing is still visible on the Arabia side.
The beach at Nuewieba in Egypt is melted as if by a massive pillar of fire (videos are also available of this, as well as documents online).
The Hellenistic site in Egypt lacks every aspect required in order for it to be the real Mount Sinai, including that it is still in Egypt. Google Earth has it all. Zoom in and you can find the altar, 9 of the 12 pillars, the remains of the altar to the golden calf, and the blackened top of the mountain. It is also east of the Splitrock at Rephidim, and “upriver” from the Gates of Moshe (Bedouin Arab name for a rock formation on the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba).
See also Galatians 4:25.
UPDATE: AS OF DECEMBER 19, 2019: the Saudi government is issuing tourist visas and allowing archaeological investigations and tours of the Mountain and the surrounding areas. This is a SIGNIFICANT change as a prior you would have been arrested for going out there.
[2] The set apart Name of YHVH was not changed in Hebrew writings or the Tanakh meant for Hebrew readers. As the Septuagint was translated by 70 Hebrew scholars by Greek decree (Alexander the Great, indirectly), they reformed the Name to read Adonai to protect the Father’s Name against abuse or profane usage by those that do not fear and love Him. The use of Adonai persisted only in writings presented for Gentile presentation and was not changed in Hebrew writings until after the Bar Kochva revolt when the Pharisaical leadership deemed it safer to yield to common sense (the Romans were executing anyone speaking His Name), and added to the oral Torah (the man-made traditions, takanot and ma’asim, Talmud) a rule against using the set apart Name. This persists even today in the majority of all Hebrew literature. However, His Name is still known and will be known by His people.
[3] I actually had a little difficulty with this portion of the word study. The verse in Joel says “delivered”, which is the Hebrew word, malat (maw-lat), which does not *only* mean “save”, but it IS in the morphology of the word. I had to go to the Acts and Romans passages to look up what word is used in Greek. It is sōzō (sode-zo) which means: to save, that is to deliver or protect. So, there you are. Word study in action.
[4] Renewed: This is the contextually correct rendering of this word. In Jeremiah 31:31–34, we read the initial giving of the renewed covenant:
Yermeyahu 31:31–34 — 31) “See, the days are coming,” declares יהוה, “when I shall make a renewed covenant with the house of Yisra’ĕl and with the house of Yehudah <see also Heb 8:8–12, Heb 10:16–17>. 32) not like the covenant I made with their fathers in the day when I strengthened their hand to bring them out of the land of Mitsrayim, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them,” declares [יהוה ] 33) “For this is the covenant I shall make with the house of Yisra’ĕl after those days, declares יהוה: I shall put My Torah in their inward parts, and write it on their hearts. And I shall be their Elohim, and they shall be My people. 34) “And no longer shall they teach, each one his neighbour, and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know יהוה,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares יהוה. “For I shall forgive their crookedness,and remember their sin no more.”
If it isn’t a renewal of the original covenant, the original instructions with the changes laid out in blood by the sacrifice of Messiah, why will He write His Torah on our hearts and minds? If we are not to follow “the Law,” how can our deeds be lawless? Why is Shaul in a rush to return to Jerusalem for Shavuot in Acts 20? Why is he meeting with other believers on “the first of the Shabbats” in verse 20:7 (another lesson on this).
The question is posed, if we are not law abiding, what are we?
Here we reach the end of the lesson. What is carved into the two stone tablets that are kept inside the Ark of the Witness? The Witness — the Tabernacle of Yeho’Vah. The Book of the Covenant, the Torah, was placed on the outside of the Ark (the throne of Elohim) as the witness against the people. Ever wonder what that means? That’s another lesson.
