All gates will be open!

Today’s adventure started by going thru security at the Temple Mount. We learned from Ronen (our tour guide) that 4000 years ago there was nothing on this site. It didn’t seem like a prime location to build a temple - not defensible, not on a trade route, no water, but God chose Mt Moriah as the place.

David wanted to build God’s temple there. Nope! Solomon did build a temple for God there, but King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it - burned it and expelled the people to Babylon, modern day Iraq.

Herod wanted to build a temple on Mt Moriah, too, but not for God ... for Herod. He was the biggest builder in all of ancient times. Some of the original stone pavers are still there today. The larger ones were indicative of that time period showing that those stones were likely walked on by Jesus. The Jewish people went to Jerusalem 3 times per year: Passover (April), Shavuot (June), and Sukkoth (October). Herod knew there would be as many as 400,000 people there at those times and saw it as a money making opportunity.

Today, the standing temple is for Muslims. Omar, Mohammed’s cousin, conquered Jerusalem and built the Dome of the Rock in 691. The Crusaders conquered the temple and put a cross on top of the gold dome, but alas, Muslims took control again and today it remains a mosque.

We visited the Western Wall or Wailing Wall where men and women are separated for prayers. We wrote our prayers on small pieces of paper and stood in line to place them in the cracks or crevices. After our prayers were voiced, custom is to back away from the wall so as to not turn our back on God. Later we learned that every 3 months Jews take all the prayer notes and bury them on the Mt of Olives.

On the Mt of Olives we read in Ezekiel 44:1-3 which talks about the Eastern Gate in our day will be shut. And then we read Revelation 21:22-25 which tells us in the New Jerusalem all gates will be open. We learned to connect the dots from Mary washing Jesus’ feet with pure nard to anointing the King with nard to nard being the aroma of the King to nard being used for burial. 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 says that WE are the aroma of Christ. We talked about the Zechariah 9:9 prophecy being fulfilled in Mark 11:7-10.

We walked down the street on which Jesus rode the donkey colt to a place where we talked about Gethsemane. We read from Mark 14 and learned that this takes place in the area of Essenes. We know this because in all other areas the women carry water. God is in the details! Jesus and His disciples were reclined at a triclinium table, not like the daVinci painting. There was just so much meat in this lesson that it is being continued tomorrow. We are 44.