Wow...wow...wow. I am blown away thinking about this day. It was beautiful and incredible and overwhelming that we did this.
We started our morning on the Mount of Olives. Brian, Peter, and Heather led our group in singing How Great Thou Art and 10,000 Reasons.
It was a gorgeous day as we looked out over the city. I couldn't help but think that Christ and his disciples would have sat in this same area and looked to the city. While we see the Dome of the Rock monopolizing the skyline, they would have seen the incredible Temple. I can understand the confusion they must have felt when Jesus foretold in Matthew 24:1-3 that the temple would be destroyed. They couldn't even imagine that.
Bryant went on to preach from Acts 1:9-12. After making anywhere from nine to eleven appearances to the disciples after his resurrection, Jesus ascended to Heaven from this spot. We then spent some time studying end times from Zechariah because the Mount of Olives is extremely important at that time. In 14:1-2, we see that the Anti-Christ will lead forces against Jerusalem, and there will be a horrible battle. In 13:8-9, we see that 2/3 of the city's residents will be killed while the remaining 1/3 will call on God to save them. In 12:10-11, there will be a conviction of Israel of its sins which we similarly see in Matthew 24:29-31. Back in Zechariah 12:8-9 then 14:3, we see that Christ will touch down here on the Mount of Olives after He ascends and fights the final battle at Armageddon. In 4-5, we see the that Mount will split in two. Wow...that's where we are sitting!
We continued learning that in Ezekiel 44:1-2, Jesus will descend from the Mount and triumphantly enter Jerusalem through the Eastern Gate which we could easily see just to the right of the Dome. Currently this gate is very securely sealed shut. A Muslim cemetery has been built in front of it. However, something will have changed as the Temple will be rebuilt and this gate will be reopened. What a day that will be for our King!
We see in Zechariah 14:9, Revelation 20:1-4, Isiah 9:6-9 and 11:4-10, and Micah 4:1-8 that Christ rules from Jerusalem after His return. Bryant then read from Zechariah 14:16-17 which shows how delegates from countries will come to Jerusalem each year to keep the Feast of Booths also known as the Feast of Tabernacles. This feast is one of the three holy feasts still celebrated by Jewish individuals. It is a remembrance of the 40 years of wilderness and is celebrated at the end of the harvest. Bryant speculated that maybe, just maybe, Jesus will return one year during this Feast. The two other Jewish feasts, established in the Old Testament, have parallels in the New Testament. Passover which celebrates the blood of the Lamb passing over God's people while in Egyptian captivity, is also when Jesus was killed and became our sacrificial lamb. Pentecost was established to celebrate the first harvest and first fruits of the season in the Old Testament, and it was when the Holy Spirit came on the disciples after Jesus' death and led to the first fruits of the church. Currently, there is no New Testament parallel to Tabernacles, but we know that God does nothing by coincidence. How perfect (in our human eyes) could it be if Christ returned at the end of His harvest. Of course, we also looked at Acts 1:6-8 which reminds us that no one except the Father knows when this return will occur.
Talk about chill bumps as we looked out over this city and visualize the return of Christ. How appropriate that we ended our time on the Mount by singing In Christ Alone.
We we descended the Mount, we walked past a cemetery with many prominent Jewish individuals and came to a garden. The garden is filled with olives. How do you get oil out of olives? You press it, of course. What is the place where you press olives called? Gethsemane. Yes, we were looking at the Garden of Gethsemane. This remnant is much smaller than what it was in Jesus' time. However, it has been determined that some of the roots of these trees at least 2,000 years. Was Jesus in this part of the garden? Maybe, but we don't know for sure; we do know he was in this area though.
We had a few minutes to walk inside this lovely Catholic church which sits by the garden.
After that visit, we sat on the steps and had this view. The rod iron shows a cross around the Greek letters for Alpha and Omega. It means "Beginning and End" and it's my favorite name for God. Sitting in front of us on top of the hill is the currently sealed Eastern Gate. The very tip of the Dome can be seen behind it. Here Bryant spent a few minutes teaching on Mark 14:32-38. In these verses, Jesus is in the garden, and we see pure and raw terror in Him; He sweats tears of blood. He asks His disciples to pray for him, but they fall asleep. This is stressful for Jesus because He knows they don't fully understand what is about to happen. He asks that they be kept from temptation. He wasn't referring to the temptation not to sleep, but instead the upcoming temptation to desert Him and not be faithful. In verses 39-42, we see such determination in Jesus. He could have run away and escaped from the garden; it wouldn't have been difficult, but He pressed on with His father's will.
We then back up the hill and on to an archaeological site. We walked on a road that all visitors who came into Jerusalem would have walked; that includes Jesus. We can see the stones laying on the ground that the Romans pushed down when they destroyed the Temple and sacked Jerusalem. These stones were massive, and they left huge cracks in the ground. The Muslim call to prayer came while we were here. I had never heard this before; it was much longer than I realized.
We walked around to the Southern Steps of the Temple. This is where Mary and Joseph found Jesus preaching when he was 12 years old. We also looked at Acts 2:14-47 which is where Peter is teaching at Pentecost. This is just seven weeks after Passover, seven weeks after Jesus had been crucified. This is a changed man preaching! He had denied Christ previously, but he saw Christ after His resurrection, and he is now powerfully preaching to his fellow Jews. We see that 3,000 people were baptized that day. We could see the ritual cleansing pools just below the steps. It would make perfect sense that Peter would have been preaching on this spot, and those individuals were then baptized in those pools. We were sitting there!
We then walked inside the outer walls to visit the Western Wall of Herod's Temple that the Romans destroyed in 70 AD. Jews still come here to pray for many things, including for their Messiah to come. They fill the cracks of the wall with little pieces of paper that they have written their prayers on.
Katherine and I (in the middle of the picture) took this opportunity to visit the women's side of the wall on the right and pray for the Jews, Arabs, and our families.
Ryan and Brian went to the men's side of the wall to pray as well. They also walked further to the left which had a large library in it. It also had a place where you could look down to see the depth.
Some of the Jewish men praying.
What an incredible morning. We left this area and drove into Bethlehem. Bethlehem is actually in a Palestinian controlled area, so we took our passports with us since we were entering another country. At first, it wasn't what we expected. There was a lot of graffiti and there was trash everywhere.
About 80% of Bethlehem is Muslim while the other 20% is Christian. We ate lunch at a Christian owned restaurant, and then we headed over to a really cool area.
Along with our visit to Mount Megiddo, this is my other favorite spot of our entire trip. Two important events happened somewhere in these fields. First, these are the fields that belonged to Boaz where he met and took care of Ruth. Ryan and I have Ruth 1:16 engraved on our wedding rings, so this story hold a special place for us. Second, these are the fields where shepherds would have roamed thousand of years ago. I could picture what this looked like in the dark of one evening when suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and proclaimed in Luke 2 "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." And then suddenly, the night sky lights up as a multitude of angels appears to praise God and say "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!" Micah 5:2 tells that the Savior will be born in Bethlehem, and when the wise men visit Herod a couple of years after Jesus' birth, they confirm this location in Matthew 2. How could we not stop here to sing "Oh Come All Yea Faithful" and "O Little Town of Bethlehem."
A few amazing things that stood out to me while seeing these fields:
---Augustus was simply a pawn in God's story. At this time, Augustus was all-powerful which is how he was able to demand a census which would force Mary and Joseph to go to Bethlehem to fulfill the Micah 5:2 prophecy. Now, Augustus is just a minor detail in the all-important Jesus story.
---Bethlehem sheep were often raised to be sold as blood sacrifices at the Temple. This meant they had to be free of blemishes. In order to protect them and keep them pure, shepherds would often swaddle the lambs. They would have understood what the angels meant when they said the shepherds would find the baby swaddled. This message is almost prophetic to the shepherds as the swaddled baby they sought would be the ultimate blood sacrifice.
---How amazing that shepherds, who were seen as unclean by the Jews, were the first to hear of Christ's birth. They were also the first evangelists as they told their story to Mary and Joseph.
---We see in Luke 2:19 that Mary "treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart." It's very possible that young Mary was a little unsure or afraid of everything going on. She can be reassured by these shepherds and ponder all the wonders of what is happening in her heart as only a mom can.
From here, we walked back to see a cave that would be a much more realistic place for Jesus to have been born. While this particular place we went was cleaned up and suited for visitors, you could imagine what it would like as a dirty place to keep animals and their feed. Definitely not the quiet, serene, quaint stable that we typically picture in our minds.
We walked up and visited the lovely Church of the Nativity too.
From here, we went over to a Christian run olive wood carving factory. The moment we walked in, the smell hit me. It's the smell that comes every Christmas season as I open the box holding the olive wood nativity Meme brought back for me when she visited here in the early 1990's. It really made me miss Meme and wish I could talk to her about our trip.
We had the chance to shop in the Bethlehem New Store too (www.nissanbros.com), and I was so glad that we bought the girls olive wood nativity scenes almost identical to mine from Meme. Here's a picture of them set out at our home. I hope this is something they will treasure for many years to come.
After this, we left Bethlehem and returned to Jerusalem. We had about hour before dinner, so we took a walk through the city with the Foxes. Brian had spent some extra time here, so he knew his way around well. We wound through some alleyways and ended up across from the Western Wall. Brian was reminded of the verse that says (with my paraphrase): "They say all these things with their lips, but they do not love me with their hearts." We took this opportunity to pray for all the people here. Open their eyes Lord. Let them see you.
So, as I said at the start of this blog entry: Wow...wow...wow. I am blown away thinking about this day. It was beautiful and incredible and overwhelming that we did this.
