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Israel Study Tour - Joshua Wilderness Institute
April 10-22, 2015
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Day 9 of our Awesome Israel Trip
We started our day off by going to the Western Wall where the Temple stood before being destroyed. We went into the tunnels underneath the Wall and traveled down to the first century level. After going down, we came back up and were given the opportunity to pray on the Western Wall and even write a prayer and leave it there. Many Jewish people do this today because it is the closest place they can get to where the Holy of Holies is believed to have been.
Rabbinic Tunnels
The tour of the western wall tunnels is one of the most popular tourist sites in Jerusalem. These underground tunnels connect the western wall prayer area to the north-west side of the temple mount, passing along the side of the temple mount and under the present day houses in the Old City. Along its path are remains from the second temple period, as well as structures from later periods.
To us, this was impactful because it reminded us about how, through Jesus, we can always be this close to God and he will always hear our prayers. It’s comforting to know that our God knows our prayers before we say them and hears them whether or not we say them out loud. Also, it was awesome because this is a place so dedicated to God and his holiness that Jesus called it his Father’s house. It was crazy seeing all the prayers in the wall and knowing how people have traveled all around the world just to put their prayers in that one wall.
Western Wall
The Western Wall is the most holy place accessible to the Jewish people because of Muslim control of the Temple Mount. Known in recent centuries as the “Wailing Wall,” this was built by Herod the Great as the retaining wall of the Temple Mount complex. The plaza was created as an area for prayer when Israel captured the Old City in 1967. At times tens of thousands of people gather here for prayer.
Our next stop was the Mount of Olives. Here we learned about the second coming and the exact place where it will happen. We saw the whole valley of Kidron and the city from up on this mountian. All over the valley you would see graveyards and tombstones covering the whole hillside. Both Jewish and Muslim graves were here; the Muslims burried theirs on the side of Jerusalem next to the Golden Gate, which is also walled up. This is to make the place ceremonially unclean. Then we walked down a bit to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus came to pray before being arrested. We saw a Catholic Church that was built upon the spot that had three murals depicting Jesus praying, Judas betraying Jesus with a kiss, and Jesus’ arrest. This place was so interesting to go to because, as Jesus came here to pray, he could see the city and he knew exactly what he was going to go through and he still went through it for us. Understanding that kind of love is so powerful.
Mount of Olives
Separated from the Eastern Hill (the Temple Mount and the City of David) by the Kidron Valley, the Mt. of Olives has always been an important feature in Jerusalem’s landscape. From the 3rd millennium B.C. until the present, this 2900-foot hill has served as one of the main burial grounds for the city. The two-mile long ridge has three summits each of which has a tower built on it.
We ended the day by going to the Musem of Israel where we saw two exhibits. Our first was a scale model reconstruction of Jerusalem in the first century. It was so much different compared to modern Jerusalem. It showed us what the Temple and roads and buildings and walls and everything else would have looked like during that time period. Inside the musem we saw the Dead Sea Scrolls and other artifacts that were excavated from the Essene community in Qumran.
Now back to the hotel for some rest, relaxation and reflection. One more day to go!
--Jonny and Annie
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