Day Nine in Israel

3/28/08


Today was another packed day of travel. I can’t believe that we leave to go home soon!
We started in the City of David at the Pool of Siloam (John 9). Hubs led a wonderful devotional here.


This is the source of the Springs of Gihon, the only source of living water in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 32:30). We also saw the entrance to Hezekiah’s tunnel. The excavations here are still very new, so scientists have a lot yet to uncover. It was exciting to see the beginning of a new archeological dig!


We hopped back on the bus and headed to the Israel Museum. When we got there, our eyes beheld the most amazing scale model I have ever seen. It is a 1:50 living model of ancient Jerusalem. Every time they find something new, the model makers hop in there and change it. The neatest thing was to be able to see where we had been walking over the past four days. It provided some much needed cohesion for this visual learner!



This museum also houses the Shrine of the Book, the place where the Dead Sea Scrolls are kept (at least some of them). I got to see the Dead Sea Scrolls! It was neat to put that together with our visit to Qumran where the scrolls were found.


Next we went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial. I broke Kosher while I was here and I didn’t mean to do so! I ate my dairy sandwich in the meat section of the cafeteria so I could sit with Hubs. Once I realized what I had done, it was too late. I was horrified to think that I could have been incredibly offensive to some in the cafeteria. Other than that blunder, this was a very sobering visit. The children’s memorial was poignant and moving. Candles are reflected infinitely by mirrors with a recording of the children’s names playing in the background. The architect wanted to memorialize not only the children who were murdered, but also the unborn children of pregnant mothers who perished when their mothers were murdered and the future children of the women who were murdered. What a fitting tribute. The museum itself was very good. I think I could have spent a week in there and not seen and heard everything that was there. In many places, there were video testimonies of survivors. I didn’t stay to watch many of them. It’s hard to see a man in his 80s break down at the memory of the horrors that he experienced. The last place that you walk through is the Hall of Names. This is a rotunda structure filled with bookcases holding Pages of Testimony for victims of the Holocaust. Over 2 million are stored there already with room for 6 million.


We made a short stop at St. Peter of Gallicantu (traditional site of Peter’s denial of Christ in Matthew 26:70, Mark 14:70, and Luke 22:58). The coolest part of this site was the ancient steps that were still standing. Jesus most definitely walked on these steps!




Our last stop in Jerusalem was the Garden Tomb. Many scholars do not believe that this was the actual burial place of Jesus. However, it is an excellent example of what a rich man’s tomb (Matthew 27:57-60) would have looked like. There is a wailing chamber inside where the hired mourners would mourn, and only one of the graves had actually been used (the place for the feet had been carved out). Again, the important thing here is that IT IS EMPTY!

The place was serene and very worshipful. There was a group of Nigerians (the ones we kept running into!) “gettin’ their praise on” while we were there, along with many other nationalities of believers. It was beautiful to hear the Word in so many different languages as we made our way around the garden. This is also the place of the traditional Golgotha. This was a place of execution. When it was found, human remains were recovered at the bottom of this cliff. This was a place of stoning. The accused would be at the top of the cliff with his accuser. The accuser would push him off the edge down to a group of people waiting with stones to throw. What a brutal death. Now at the bottom of that hill is a bus station. While we were there, two bombed busses were waiting to be cleaned up. It had been two weeks since the bombing.


Peace is a popular subject these days. It has always been a topic of conversation in Israel. Having walked and seen the vast majority of this country, I can understand why. The landscape is scarred by war – burned out vehicles and tanks, mine fields, rusting barbed wire with flowers growing all around it, war memorials everywhere. Better than any other country, I believe that Israel’s history shows that true peace cannot be bought, negotiated, or won. The only source of lasting peace is the Prince of Peace (Ephesians 2:14, Isaiah 9:6, John 14:7). I am not naïve enough to assume that accepting Jesus as Messiah fixes everything. I can only believe that it starts and ends with Him (Hebrews 12:2). I echo the apostles Paul and John saying “Maranatha (O Lord, come)!” (1 Corinthians 16:22, Revelation 22:20)