Day 07 - Jerusalem : Temple Mount, Rabbinic Tunnels, Western Wall, Herodium, Bethlehem, Johnny's (shopping)

We finally made it to Jerusalem, and today we got to visit the Temple Mount. While the Temple Mount is in the city of Jerusalem, it is still under Palestinian control, which meant that we had to go through a security checkpoint. We were told that we could not bring anything with us that had anything to do with a Biblical study. We had to turn our study books to a page that had no mention of the Bible and could not bring a Bible with us through the check point. Armed soldiers stood by the security official and all of it seemed a bit intimidating, but once we were through the queue, everything returned to normal, well kind of. 

In 1967 Israel was attacked by Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, all at the same time. The Arab countries were not prepared by how fiercely Israel was willing to fight for their country and in six days, the nation of Israel had taken back the Syrian controlled Golan Heights, the Sinai Peninsula and the Egyptian controlled part of the Gaza Strip and the entire West Bank from the country of Jordan, including the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem. It was a major victory for the nation of Israel, but in a move of extreme humility and in the idea of peace, Israel gave back the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, gave control to Jordan for some of the Gaza Strip and even gave back the Temple Mount to Palestinian control, even though it is still seen as the most holy place for Jews in this country. It was so sobering to be standing on the Temple mount, in the place where the Temple of Solomon, and later Zerubbabel, would build the Temple to God. Later, King Herod would beautify and make the Temple the second largest in the world. 

The Temple was built so you entered from the East and the closer you moved West, the closer to the presence of God you would get. The temple was divided into four sections, the Gentile court where all were welcome, the court of the Jews, where only Jewish people could go, the Levite court, where only the priests and Levites could go, and finally the Holy of Holies, where only the high priest could enter, and only once a year on the Day of Atonement. I tell you all this so later when I mention the West Wall it will begin to make sense.

Our second trip inside the old city of Jerusalem was to the Rabbinic tunnels. In Israel you can own the house, but the nation owns the land. Because of this the nation was able to dig underneath the houses that were built around the West Wall to get back to where the street would be in the time of Jesus.  The tunnels were incredible and showed the massive scope of what the Wall would be like in the 1st century and give some insight at how important the Temple was to the people of Israel.

Our last stop in the old city was to the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall. I mentioned before that the Temple mount was the most holy place to the people of Israel and that the Temple was accessed from East to West. The closer to the West you came, the closer to God you got and so for an occupied area, the Western wall is as close as you can get to where the Holy of Holies would have been. It was completely sobering to see the people praying for the nation and even offering our own prayers at the wall on slips of paper that we could stick into the crevices of the wall. We got to pray and observe all that had happened and watch the people mourn the loss of something so significant.  It was an incredibly powerful experience.

Next, we were off to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus. We ate lunch at a shop called Johnny’s while he showed us some amazing hospitality, and after lunch we got to shop in his shop. Johnny is a Christian living in a Palestinian-controlled Bethlehem. It was awesome to be able to bless him and his family by spending some money in his store and helping a Christian family thrive in what appears to be a hostile place. 

The last place we went today was the Shepherd’s field, which we learned was kind of an oxymoron.  Shepherds would not have a field because their livestock would destroy their crops. When the Angel appeared to the shepherds, they would have been invited in to have their sheep eat the left-over wheat of the farmer's field. While doing this, they would be providing fertilizer and creating a place where the farmer could sow the next year's crop without having to burn off the remains of the prior year. In two different places we got to sing praises to God and in my opinion, it was one of the most awesome experiences that I have had yet.