Israel Touring Day 8

It's hard to believe our final day of touring had arrived, and man, was it incredible!

We started our day at the Pool of Siloam which is at the end of Hezekiah's Tunnel system.  Here, Bryant preached on John 9:1-34.  This is the story of a blind man who Jesus made mud for, applied it his eyes, and sent him to these pools to wash off the mud; when he washed it off, he had his eyesight.  It was another healing miracle of Jesus.

 There are several things that we can learn from this story.

---In 1-7, the people want to know who is to blame for the man's sin; mankind is always looking to assign blame and find the reason for why.  Jesus is there to glorify God, and this miracle allows that.

---In 8-12, he knew it was Jesus who had healed him, but since he was blind when it happened, he didn't know what Jesus looked like.  This shows us the difference between having the head knowledge of who Jesus versus the heart knowledge of who He is.

---13-25 show that his parents won't answer for the healed man.  Instead, he knows his testimony, and he states it before the educated elite.  Jesus often appealed to the common man over those who "should" know better.

---We see in 26-34 that the Pharisees are concerned with the fact that this miracle occurred on the Sabbath.  Their love of legalism overcame their concern and love for another.

After he preached, Bryant, Brian Fox, and Lee Taylor led a time of prayer where anyone who was in need of physical healing could be prayed over.  While Ryan and I did not need that, it was wonderful to see others receive this blessing.

Afterwords, we had the chance to explore the tunnels a little bit.  This system was built to ensure a fresh water supply to the city in case of attack.

 After leaving Siloam, we went up to the House of Caiaphas.  This was the beautiful view from there.

 This was quite an incredible place to be as we looked at its significance in history.  We can see a road that was excavated several years ago.  This is the road that anyone going from Lower Jerusalem (Garden of Gethsemane) to Upper Jerusalem (Caiaphas' house) would take.  That means that when Jesus was arrested in the garden, this is the road He would have walked to come before the high priest (Mark 14:53).

We can see in Mark that this was a lynch mob mentality of the people here as they set up a mock trial (Mark 14:56-59) in the very courtyard where we were standing.  In 14:60, He doesn't respond to their false accusations.  Jesus is in trouble for breaking laws (Pharisees kept to their legalism), but it is finally decided He should be executed in 14:61-65 for what they believe is blasphemy as He agrees that He is the Christ and He will be seated at the right hand of God.  In this same courtyard, just after the condemnation, we also read in Mark 14:66-73 of Peter denying Christ three times before the rooster crowed, just as Jesus said he would.  This lines up with Luke 22:54-62 where it says after he denied Christ three times, "the Lord turned and looked at Peter."  Can you imagine what the look on Christ's face was?  Can you imagine the shame and guilt Peter felt as he looked at Jesus and heard the rooster crow?  Unfortunately, we can relate to Peter as we too deny Christ at different times, and we know that knot in your stomach feeling when we've disappointed someone.  This statute represents Peter's denials, and it kind of took my breath away to think about everything that happened at that time.

 After that powerful teaching time, we were able to go downstairs under Caiaphas' house.  This is where any Jewish prisoner would have been held.  Somewhere in this underground prison is where Jesus was held the night before He was crucified.  Can you imagine?

 Of course we don't know what Jesus did while being held here.  Could He have slept?  Could He have talked to others?  Did He spend this time talking with His father?  We don't know.  But Bryant stood and read Psalms 88 as that could have been a very appropriate prayer for Jesus at that time.

After this emotional visit, we had time to visit the inside of the beautiful church that now sits on top of Caiaphas' house.

 As we left this area, we drove to the Israel Museum which holds two extremely fascinating areas.  First is the scaled model of the city during the second Temple period.  It was incredible!  I had never been able to fully picture in my mind just how dominating the Temple would have been at that time; this helped me see that.  It made me think again about being on the Mount of Olives and what the disciples must have thought when Jesus told them that no stone would be left standing of this massive structure.

 Being able to see this model really helped pull together everything from our time in this amazing city as we could see where and how events would unfold.

 The other incredible exhibit here that we visited were the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Given how old these are, we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the exhibit, but it was really, really cool to see these ancient manuscripts.  The Esserines were a people group of Jews who didn't like the Roman influence.  They decided to move out of the city to the desert area to avoid them.  They believed there would be a final battle between good and evil where they were the good.  When the Romans begin to attack, they though it was the final battle, so they wrote down A LOT of their history, prophecy, and traditions.  Their idea was to hide these in clay pots inside a cave until the battle was over, so they could recover them and start their new life with the right groundwork.  Of course, the Romans totally wiped them, so this knowledge was lost until a shepherd boy in 1947 was looking for his lost goat and stumbled upon them.  Many of their writing are our Old Testament.  The book of Esther was not found as it was probably not considered a holy book at that point since there is no mention specifically of God.  However, the entire book of Isaiah was found and every single word from start to finish is identical to the current version which is dated over 1,000 years later.

How incredible that God hid His word just before the first wave of dispersing the Jews began in 70 AD, and that He revealed His word again in 1947, just one year before Israel became a nation once again.  God inspired His word, and then He protected it.  Absolutely stunning.

We ended our day in the most perfect way possible.  We visited the site where Protestants like us believe was called Golgotha.  This is where Jesus was crucified.  It fits the Biblical description in that it looks like a skull, and it would have been outside the city walls.  However, it's near the city and would have been on a very busy Roman road.  I often think of the crucifixion as taking place on a hill far away on a really tall cross.  Really though, that's just not a logical conclusion given the purpose.  It makes sense that it would be near a busy area, and not too high off the ground as they want passersby to be able to look at the criminal in the face.  They want people to be reminded of the strength and might of the Romans and what would happen to them if they tried to rebel; it served as a warning system. 

 From there, we walked a short distance to what we believe is the Garden Tomb where Jesus would have been buried.  We don't have absolute certainty of this location.  However, there are several Biblical items that make us think so.  "Garden" at that time would refer to a working agricultural area, not a pretty ornamental garden.  A wine press was found here indicating this was a vineyard or winery.  Additionally, many tombs were found here which could explain why the angel asked why the women "look for the living among the dead?"  This particular tomb was set up as wealthy individual's tomb which would have made sense for Joseph of Arimathea.  When this particular tomb was uncovered, there was an inscription on the wall with a cross and the words for Jesus Christ, Alpha and Omega written on it.  The last piece of evidence is that even with all these things, the tomb itself was empty.  Jesus is risen indeed!

In addition to seeing this empty tomb, we studied Luke 23:33-49 and 24:1-12.  There are several things we see in these scriptures:

---Jesus says only seven things while hanging on the cross.

---The two criminals hanging near him initially are both mocking Jesus and telling Him to save Himself and them.  Like most of mankind, they want to use Jesus to benefit themselves.

---While Jesus is dying though, one criminal has a change of heart and mind and asks Jesus for mercy for his sins.  How encouraging this must have been for Christ!  This criminal became the first follower of Christ because of His sacrifice on the cross.  The centurion follows after that, and then many others are convicted.  The impact of the cross is beginning!

---At His death, the veil inside the temple is torn from top down.  This is one of my most favorite parts of the Bible (can you have a most favorite part?).  Only God could have torn this incredibly thick veil in two, and it started at the top.  He acknowledges that no intermediary is needed to come before Him anymore.  We can come directly to Him because of the sacrifice of Jesus.

---The women had prepared everything beforehand for the burial because of the Sabbath; they knew they would not be able to prepare the items on the Sabbath.  They had seen him die and seen him buried.  They knew where to go for the tomb.  This is not a case of mistaken identity.

---The women were the first to find out that Jesus had risen.  Jesus has always valued women which was extremely counter-cultural at that time.

---When Peter and John find out that He is risen, they run to meet Christ.  Imagine the hope that must have filled Peter when he heard.  He had denied Christ, and now he hears that Christ is alive!  They can reconcile and he can be restored which we had discussed by the Sea of Galilee a few days prior.

We concluded our time by singing "Were You There" while passing out the Lord's Supper.  We ate and drank in remembrance of Christ as He instructed.  We then sang "Because He Lives" which brought me to tears as I was overcome with emotion.  What an amazing moment.  I can rest in the fact that my Savior, Jesus Christ, is not in the tomb.  He is alive, and He will return in all His glory to this Holy City.  Come Lord Jesus, come!

There is really no nice and neat way to summarize this trip.  I am incredibly thankful I had this chance.  I wish every believer had the opportunity to take this trip.  I can say with certainty it deepened my faith.  I love knowing that I saw where Jesus was born, grew up, ministered, healed, taught, prayed, and sacrificed His life.  I have seen where He will return one day.  He did this so that we as sinful humans can have a full life here that leads to an eternity with Him in Heaven.  Praise be to God for all His blessings!

Israel Touring Day 7

Whew, this was almost an information overload day!  I think I would like to do this whole day over.  My mind was still contemplating everything I saw yesterday.  I didn't do a great job of taking in all the information and sites today.  Because we were going to spend time near the Dome of the Rock, security would not allow us to carry anything other than our phones with us which means I didn't have my notebook to write down all my notes.  I'll still try to explain what we saw and did though.

We started by going back to the Temple Mount which is currently controlled by Muslims and is where the Dome of the Rock sits.  The Dome is really quite lovely from the outside; we are not allowed inside since we are not Muslim.

 As we walked towards the Jewish Quarter of the city from the Dome, we passed the other side of the Eastern Gate.  One, this helped me see just how far it actually is from the Mount of Olives which was a good perspective from yesterday.  Two, it is really amazing to see how thick it is right now, but know that it will be reopened at some point, and Jesus will return through it.  Third, it is actually pretty easy to see how the Temple can be rebuilt in the future with the entrance right near this gate.  There's plenty of room on the Temple Mount for both the rebuilt Temple and the Dome to stand.

 As we continued walking, we saw the Church of Saint Anne; she is the mother of Mary, and this was supposedly Mary's birthplace.  We sang a couple of praise songs in here and noted what wonderful acoustics it has.

We continued walking and came to the Pools of Bethesda.  Here is where Jesus healed a lame man on the Sabbath which really upset the Pharisees.

 We then began the walk on the Via Dolorosa which has "the 14 stations of the cross."  Much of this is actually Catholic tradition more than Biblical fact.  It was interesting to see for us, but it really didn't mean much to us.  This walk ends at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher which is where Catholics believe marks where Christ was crucified and buried.  The Bible seems to point to another place though, so Ryan and I didn't spend much time inside here.

 From here, we walked to what is believed to be the Upper Room which is above King David's tomb, and it is where Jesus had His last supper with the disciples.  It's believed the disciples gathered here after Jesus' resurrection and the Holy Spirit came upon them.

 After lunch, we returned to the Garden of Gethsemane, but this time we went in to a private section.  Bryant was able to teach on Jesus' time leading up to His time in the garden, including the last supper.

 We had a little bit of time to explore the garden and quietly reflect and pray.  Ryan and I sat by this tree together to do exactly that.  It was really lovely.

 We ended our day at Yad Vashem which is a Holocaust memorial museum.  It was incredibly well done.  It was humbling, emotional, and sobering, and I wish every single person had the chance to visit here.  I also wish we'd had many more hours here to take it all in.  Moshe asked us as we arrived "Who is a Holocaust survivor?"  I would have defined that as any Jew in Europe during World War 2 who survived.  He answered that it is all Jewish individuals.  In their eyes, Hitler's goal was to annihilate the Jews, so any Jew is a survivor because they beat his goal.  That kind of blew my mind a little to consider it that way.

We started our walk at the Avenue of the Righteous to the Nations.  It is an area dedicated to the individuals who helped any Jew survive World War 2.  There were several recognizable names such as Oskar Schindler and Corrie Tin Boom, but it also honored those who helped in smaller ways because all actions were appreciated, whether it helped one Jew or many.  The picture below is of the tree planted in honor of Oskar and Emilie Schindler.  As I often do when I think about that awful time period, I wonder how I would have responded as a Christian at that time.  Would I have been bold enough to help? 

 Rightfully so, photography is not allowed inside the memorial.  I'm actually glad for that as people jockeying for great pictures would have been a big detraction.  Every area shed new light on the horrors of this atrocity.  Even the architecture made you think.  The further along you went in the museum, the smaller and more crowded the areas.  It's meant to give the feeling of being shoved and pushed along in a cattle car, like many people felt as they were transported by rail to camps.  Towards the very end, there's a round room where there are black files all around.  The goal of this room is to have a file for each of the six million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust.  They've already got over four million in there, and they believe they will be able to get another million through research.  However, they believe around a million will never be discovered and honored.  Entire villages were destroyed and no one was left to tell of the individuals there.  

We needed to leave, so we didn't have time to go visit the children's area which is a memorial to the 1.5 million Jewish children who were killed.  Honestly, I'm not sure I could have seen it without crying.  My heart breaks just thinking about it.

As we walked out, this is the beautiful view we saw from the back of the memorial. 

 This was carved in stone at the back exit of the memorial.  Tell your children, and let them tell their children, so that things like this may not happen again.

After ending the day at Yad Vashem, Ryan and I really weren't very hungry.  We had taken in a lot today, so we needed some time to decompress a little.  We walked from our hotel to the nearby Arab market, and I bought a beautiful scarf (a souvenir I love getting from each country).  Then we stopped in the Jewish market area for some ice cream.  Lastly, we met up with Brian and Katherine to walk around and catch up with them.  Katherine had actually missed out on the day as she stayed to take care of Bryant's wife, Anne, who was sick.  Just before bed we were able to FaceTime with our girls, so that was a great way to end the day.

Lots of things to take in today.  Beautiful and interesting things for most of the day, but what an emotional memorial to visit as well.  I am so thankful we had the chance to see Yad Vashem.  May I never forget my time there.

Israel Touring Day 6

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.