“The Place” – Five Big Promises God Made at Mt. Sinai
Mt. Sinai is famed as the place God gave the 10 Commandments to Moses. What many may not realize is that God also made five big promises at Mt. Sinai about “the place” that were key to the Israelites’ destiny and to the future Messiah.
The place – what were these promises? God promised to lead the Israelites to the land He promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as the place for their descendants to possess; the place to establish a kingdom of the nation of Israel; the permanent place for His Name to dwell; the exclusive place for Israel to observe the Passover; and the place for the judgement seat of Israel.
God just didn’t say exactly where the place would be. Great faith in these promises was required for a fledgling nation of people who had just fled the only life they had ever known – slavery in Egypt.
Spies on a recon mission found the land promised to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in Canaan to be occupied with many enemies, their kings and their militaries. Moving to that place seemed an impossible task, especially for a ragtag nation of former slaves without a military. In fact, doubts and lack of faith by the Exodus generation at Mt. Sinai would cost them from seeing God’s promised land.
A kingdom required a king and his dominion over a land with boundaries, but the Hebrews were a people isolated in the desert wilderness without a king or a country. Everywhere they would trek, the local inhabitants would go to war to defend their lands to keep out the Israelites. Every kingdom had a seat of the Throne, the monarchy’s base of power, which for security reasons must be located in a fortified city protected by a military. If there was no king, no land, and no fortified city for the Throne, how could there be a kingdom?
For a permanent place for the Name of God to dwell required a temple to replace the temporary Tabernacle tent with its Most Holy chamber. A temple also required protection from heathen enemies inside a defensible, centralized city. Fundamental to a theocracy, this temple had to be located in the nation’s capital.
According to the Law, the Passover was to be celebrated at its appointed time requiring the sacrifices to be offered by the priests of God at the central place of worship. For a perpetual place to observe the Passover required a permanent sacrificial alter in close proximity to the Temple with enough open space surrounding it to accommodate tens of thousands of people and priests.
A high court to judge the most important and most complicated cases of the nation in the place God chose, by its definition, was to become the judgement seat of Israel. As the highest court in a theocratic government, it had to be located in close proximity to the seat of the Throne and the Temple. This highest court was part of the hierarchal judicial system structure previously implemented by Moses.
None of these promises seemed like even the remotest reality to the Israelites who, after 400 years, were starting from scratch after escaping from under the harsh rule of Pharaoh. Yet against all odds over the coming centuries, these five prophetic promises did become a reality.
Israel conquered its enemies and took possession of the land promised by God to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the land of Moriah where each of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel were allotted their own land apportionment. Israel’s now formidable military protected the nation even before the establishment of a kingdom.
A king, the most famous in Hebrew history, was born in Bethlehem in the lineage of Judah fulfilling the royal prophetic blessing of Judah by his own father, Israel. The giant slayer, King David, conquered and occupied the fortified city of Jebus or Salem, soon thereafter called Jerusalem. The city became the seat of the Throne of David over the kingdom of Israel.
King Solomon, son of David, built the Temple still known to this day as the Temple of Solomon, its Western Wall remnants a most holy place for Jews today. This new Temple was consecrated and blessed by Solomon where the first sacrifices offered on its permanent alter were burned by fire sent down from heaven.
The Passover was observed at its appointed time with the sacrifices offered by the priests of God on the permanent altar at the new Temple.Annual pilgrimage to the Passover would resume after the Babylonian captivity at the Second Temple until Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome.
Lastly, the judgement seat of Israel, the highest court in the land for both civil and criminal cases, was established in the capital city of Jerusalem. Civil cases were judged in the Hall of Judgement, initially decided by the famed wisdom of Solomon, on the porch of the King’s palace.
Built into the northern wall of the Temple was the Chamber of Hewn Stone. It served as the meeting place for the 70 elders of Israel, later to become known as the Great Sanhedrin. In a theocratic government where God’s Law serves as the criminal code, the highest level of criminal offenses, including some capital death cases, were judged in this Chamber.
God’s five big promises at Mount Sinai laid the ground work for the appearance of the House of David and the subsequent prophecies of the Messiah tied specifically to its legacy. Once the Throne of David legacy was established, over the coming centuries prophets Isaiah, Zechariah, Jeremiah and Micah would reveal specific prophecies announcing the Messiah would come from the House of David, son of Jesse, of the Tribe of Judah, the son of Jacob.
Isaiah’s prophecy of “My Servant” described a cruel sacrificial-type judgement resulting in a death verdict which, during the period of the Second Temple, could only be rendered in the seat of Israel, Jerusalem. Jeremiah and Zechariah each issued two prophecies that the Messiah would come from the Branch of David. Zechariah prophesied God would comfort the descendants of David in the city of Jerusalem as they mourned over the death of the one whom they had pierced, their depth of mourning as for the death of a first born only son.
With 100% accuracy of the fulfillment of all five big promises made by God at Mt. Sinai about “the place” – from the Exodus to King Solomon’s reign, which in turn fulfilled the prophetic promises made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Judah – what are the odds it was all just an extraordinary coincidence?
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 Genesis 17, 22, 35, 49; Exodus 23, 33; Deuteronomy 12, 16, 17.
 Numbers 14.
 Exodus 18; Deuteronomy 1, 17, 19; Numbers 11.
 1 Kings 6; 2 Chronicles 3.
 I Chronicles 6; Leviticus 9; Nehemiah 11.
 II Chronicles 8.
 1 Kings 3, 4, 7.
 Exodus 18; Deuteronomy 1, 17; Numbers 11; I Chronicles 19. Shachter and Freedman. “Introduction to Sanhedrin.” Soncino Babylonian Talmud. <https://israelect.com/Come-and-Hear/sanhedrin/index.html> Ariel, Yisrael. “The Chamber of the Hewn Stone.” The Temple Institute. 2014. <https://www.templeinstitute.org/illustrated/hewn_stone_description.htm> Ariel, Yisrael. “Blueprints for the Holy Temple.” <http://www.templeinstitute.org/blueprints-for-the-holy-temple.htm>
 Schoenberg, Shira. “Ancient Jewish History: The Sanhedrin.” 2017. <http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-sanhedrin> Shachter, J. and Freedman, H. “ Sanhedrin.”
 Isaiah 7, 9; 11; Jeremiah 23, 33; Zechariah 3, 6, 12.
 Isaiah 52-53. Sanhedrin 16a, 17a. Shachter, J. and Freedman, H. “Sanhedrin.” Josephus. Antiquities. Book IV, Chapter VIII.14; Book XX, Chapter IX.4. “Ancient Jewish History: The Beit Din.” Jewish Virtual Library. 2017.http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-beit-din>
 Zechariah 12.
 2 Chronicles 6.