Blood on the Mercy Seat!
Jonathan Gray’s book, “Ark Of the Covenant”, reveals
some fascinating facts about Jesus’ crucifixion. The book describes how Ron Wyatt spent two years digging on Skull
Hill in Jerusalem, eventually discovering the site of Jesus’ crucifixion. There were the remains of a first century
building extending out from the rock cliff face and surrounding the site. This building is presumed to be an early
Christian building.
Inside the building there is an “altar stone” set in
the stone wall extending out horizontally from the cliff face, reaching almost
directly above the cross-hole.
The
building also contains a large circular tomb seal stone (it was 13 feet 2inches
in diameter, nearly 2 feet thick, and weighed about 13.8 tons). Jesus’ tomb was later found nearby and this
stone was an exact fit.
There is a large crack running from the left side of
the cross-hole, and another vertical crack in the cliff face behind. These appear to have been caused by an
earthquake.
After exploring the crucifixion site Ron and his
team decided to break through into the rock cliff face. They soon discovered a cave, which turned
out to be just a small part of an extensive honeycomb of natural caves and
tunnels inside Mount Moriah. They spent
about a year exploring many of these cavities until on 6th January
1982 Ron entered the cave that contains the Ark of the Covenant.
The Ark of the Covenant was stored inside a
thin-walled stone case. It had a flat
top that was within four to five inches of the ceiling. This stone top was cracked completely in
two, and the smaller section was moved aside, creating an opening into the
stone case. Directly above this opening
there was a crack in the ceiling, on which a black substance was
deposited. Some of this black substance
was also splashed onto the stone lid.
It quickly dawned on Ron what had happened. This crack was the bottom end of the crack
that they had found next to the cross-hole up above. This was confirmed when Ron later pushed a metal tape measure up
the crack in the ceiling. It came out
at the left-hand side of the cross-hole.
They discovered that the crack extended through 20 feet of solid rock.
The fulfilment of the type is stunning. On the annual Hebrew Day of Atonement (Yom
Kippur), the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies three times – once with
a special incense offering and twice to sprinkle the blood of the
sacrifices. When he entered with the
blood of the sacrificed animal, he would sprinkle the blood upon the Mercy
Seat. After three hours in the darkness
of the Most Holy Place, the high priest would come out with the empty basin,
hold it up, and proclaim, “It is finished”.
Then the people would know that God had accepted the sacrifice and their
sins were forgiven.
Jesus was in darkness on the cross for three hours
(Luke 23:44) before he gave the triumphant cry “It is finished” (John
19:30). When Jesus died shortly
afterwards there was an earthquake that split the rocks open (Matt 27:51). We now know that the rock was torn open at
the very base of the cross-hole on the left side. When the centurion thrust his spear into Jesus’ side (most likely
his left side in order to pierce his heart), two copious streams, one of blood
and the other of water, flowed out and down his side, down his legs, and into
the cross-hole. The blood went into the
split in the rock and flowed down all the way until it sprinkled onto the Mercy
Seat of the Ark that was buried in the cave about 20 feet below.
We clearly see the hand of God at work arranging
this event. Jeremiah and/or some temple
priests hid the Ark of the Covenant in the cave during the Babylonian siege of
Jerusalem in 587 – 586BC, having no knowledge that the Messiah would be
crucified above that spot over 600 hundred years later. The Romans who cut out the post holes for
crucifixion crosses had no knowledge of what lay beneath them, nor that they
were positioning the centre hole precisely in the right place. Until Jesus died there was no way for blood
to trickle down because there was no crack.
Not only did the earth quake and the rocks tear apart, but the stone lid
of the case enclosing the Ark of the Covenant was split in two directly beneath
the crack, and one half of the lid was moved aside to allow the blood to
sprinkle down onto the mercy seat of the Ark.
How apt that the “blood of the everlasting covenant” (Heb 13:20) should
fall upon the Ark of the Covenant!
This site is in Mount Moriah, the same mountain that
God directed Abraham to with instructions to sacrifice his son Isaac. “And he said, Take now thy son, thine only
son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer
him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee
of” (Gen 22:2). God was indicating that
His son would one day be sacrificed on the very same mountain. “So Abraham called that place "The LORD
will provide"; as it is said to this day, "On the mount of the LORD
it shall be provided"” (Gen 22:14, NRSV).
As Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw
it, and was glad” (John 8:56).
Note that in the Bible two places are referred to as
the “mountain of the LORD”, mount Sinai (Exodus 18:5) and mount Moriah (Gen
22:14). The two are linked together by
the Ark of the Covenant, which contains the two tablets of the Law, engraved by
God himself.
There was yet another stunning discovery to be
made. Ron Wyatt took samples of the
blood in the crack and on the stone lid, and had it analysed. Using an electron microscope it was possible
to find the chromosomal content of the blood.
It was human blood, but very peculiar.
Normal blood has a total of 46 chromosomes. When a child is conceived, 23 chromosomes
come from the mother and 23 come from the father. One of these pairs determines the gender. For this pair, the mother always provides an
“X” chromosome (so called because its shape somewhat resembles the letter
X). If the father provides an X
chromosome then the child will contain the chromosomes XX and will always be
female. If the father provides a “Y”
chromosome (shaped to some extent like the letter Y) the child will have a
chromosome combination of XY and will be male.
All eggs produced by the female will be identical, containing only the X
chromosome. For her to produce a male
offspring the addition of a Y chromosome is necessary.
The blood analysis from the Ark chamber showed a
total of only 24 chromosomes. Of these
23 were derived from the mother, and there was one Y chromosome. This indicated that the blood belonged to a
male. No human blood like this had ever
been known to exist. This evidence
shows not only that this was indeed Jesus’ blood, but also confirms the virgin
birth! Jesus did not have a human
father, the Y chromosome was provided by God’s Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35).
What amazing times we live in, that only now should
these amazing details about Jesus’ crucifixion be revealed! It is only in recent years that we have had
the technology to examine and understand the significance of this blood.
Article by Keith Robichaud, Bournemouth