Since my last post, I basically just been hanging out in Jerusalem. Very cool place. There are two main parts, new city and old city. The old city is the area inside the original walls of Jerusalem. It is divided into 4 quarters. Jewish, Arab, Armenian, and Christian. Each quarter has its own feel, smell, and cleanliness. About 40,000 people live inside the old city. I did not realize how large it was until I got lost this morning for about an hour. Note to self: Get a map before you start walking thru the old city. I finally camp across a bedouin shop owner who was very kind. He took me in his shop, introduced me to his brother, called someone he knew from Texas and put me on the phone with them. Awkward. He then took me to the 3rd level of Jerusalem, the rooftops. He explained to me how the Armenians came to Jerusalem, brought as slaves by the muslims to build the mosque. He was hilarious. He was laughing at the Jews because they are waiting for their Savior and they believe that he will come from Bethelehem, the City of David, but they wont give him a visa so he can come to Jerusalem to save them. Right now the town of Bethlehem is not considered to be part of Israel and the people there have very few rights. Very odd. He finally sold me a map and I was on my way. The city is made up of narrow alleys and small shops. I finally made it to the Western Wall.
Its also known as the Wailing Wall, because the Jews mourn over their Temple and this is as close as they can get to the place where the Temple used to be. To the left of the Wall is a small hallway, full of Jewish text. There were men praying, reading, talking. There were also 10 cameras on the back wall controlled by the Muslims who are weary of the Jews tunneling under their Mosque.
This is really the only significant place that I took pictures of inside Jerusalem. Most of the other sites have been buried with a church on top. Each church claiming a significant role in the trial, crucifixion, and burial. Beautiful churches but I prefer to see the sights that haven't been commercialized, I guess you could you say. I will get to some of those in a second. This morning I started out at the Mt. of Olives. This is the place Jesus ascended and the place that He will return from Heaven after the tribulation. But thats a whole different story, but very cool none the less.
- View of the old city from Mt. of Olives. The highest place in Jerusalem. That is the eastern wall of the old city.
Jewish Cemetery on Mount of Olives
- Largest of Jewish cemetery in the world – many believe that it started during the time of King David. Reason for that is the Biblical significance of the mount of olives and the direction of east from Jerusalem. The bible in picture or literally depending on your theological view sees the presence of God always coming from the east. Life comes from the east. God living – in/on the Ark comes from the east.
- Burial Practice in Jesus' day- practice double burial. When a person died – the body had to be put in the ground within 24 hours. The first burial was very quick - just in a cloth. In 6 to 18 months they would return and dig up the remains of the person. The flesh was gone. The bones would be put into a small box and placed in a family tomb. They would slowly fill the small box.
- it is a Jewish custom to visit a grave once a year and place a rock on the grave, flowers will die and wither, but a rock will last forever.
- Zechariah 14:1-5 – says that the Messiah will come and he will stand with his feet on the Mount of Olives and he will assemble the nations before him in the valley and he will judge them. So the Jewish people said that God comes from the east – therefore the Messiah will come from the east – the judgment will take place towards the east and for that reason the cemetery was built on the Mount of Olives because they wanted to be first in line on the day of Judgment.
I then walked down the hill to Gethsemane. There was no Garden here at the time of Jesus, just an oil press and a group of olive trees. Olive trees have no rings, so it is very hard to date them, but most believe that the trees that are still there are the original. There was a beautiful church built next to the Olive trees built upon the rock the Jesus supposedly prayed on.
O So yesterday Larry and I went to two sites that were really awesome. The first place we stopped was a town called Beth Shemesh. The valley to the east of this town is where Samson lived.
- Samson grew up in this Valley
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Years later in this same valley, the Ark of the Covenant was returned by the Philistines. Quick story: The Israelites were in trouble, they werent living right and they were losing battles. So they run to God for a quick, we are in trouble, fix. So they decide to take the ark into battle to help them win. It doesnt work, they are defeated and the ark is captured by the Philistines. So the Philistines put the ark in the their temple of Dagon. They enter the temple the next day and the statue of Dagon is lying face down facing the ark. So they pick the statue up. The next day they come in and the statue is lying in the same place but his head and arms had fallen off. This is where we get the term dag on, because thats what the Philistines said when they saw the statue. Thats a joke that I stole, but i think its hilarious. Anyways. The philistines are starting to worry about this ark. The people of the town start getting tumors so they decide to move it to another town and the same thing happened. After seven months the Philistines had enough. The decided to return the ark, but they were very curious about the Lord. They wanted to know if this was a coincidence or if it was the Lord. So they put the ark on a cart behind two cows and said if the cows walk to Beth Shemesh then we will know that it was the Lord. And sure enough they let the cows go and watched them walk right to Beth Shemesh. The people of this town saw the ark coming and rejoiced. They placed the ark on this rock.
1 Samuel 6:18 - The large rock at Beth Shemesh, where they set the Ark of The Lord, still stands in the field of Joshua as a witness to what happened there.
About 6 miles south of this valley is another town called Azekah. Between and Socoh sits a valley between two hills. This is the valley where David killed Goliath. More than any other place, seeing this really brought the story alive to me.
A view of the valley from the hill the Philistines camped on.
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The battle took place to the right those white tents. The Israelites were camped on the opposite hill.
The field were David killed Goliath
A view from the Israelites side to where the Philistines camped.
- the stream where David picked 5 smooth stones, it is dry most of the year, only flows after a rain.
- 5 stones from the stream bed
I could have stayed at this place all day. Its not even marked, I had to just park on the side of the road and hike up the hills. On the Philistine side was a young boy watching over a flock of sheep and on the other side was a farmer. I could just picture Goliath walking down into the valley calling out the Israelites. Then David walking down picking up 5 stones as everyone watched. This boy was headed for certain death and every one just stood by. I can imagine the panic that followed Goliath falling to the ground. It would have been hard for the Philistines to even see the stone, it must have looked like Goliath just got hit by a sniper or just fell over dead. I love Davids motives. He wasnt doing this to be brave or to get glory, or to show his brothers up. David is saying, ‘I want the world to know who God is, so I’m going to do what I do."
And the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.
- 1 Samuel 17:46
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