Day 8 – The Herodium, Church of the Nativity, and the Israel Museum

We’ve reached the Jerusalem stage of the trip. This morning, we’re heading out to the Herodium and Bethlehem, now almost suburbs of Jerusalem, to see the important places at the beginning of Jesus’ life.

This trip has been fascinating every day!  Today we started at Herodium, another one of Herod’s magnificent fortresses.  This was the only place he named after himself. From here he could see his temple in Masada, the Temple Mount, and also the town of Bethlehem. Later, he turned this fortress into his own mausoleum. He planned to die there and to build a monument that would never be forgotten.
The takeaway from here was that Jesus was born under the shadow of King Herod, literally and figuratively! God sent his son as a baby, that should have been killed by Herod, to overcome the world! The meekness of a baby because His power is sufficient. 

“For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

- 2 Cor. 12:10

After that we went to see the church of the Nativity.  Because of Covid, the crowds are small and we were able to go into the cave to see what it would have been like for Mary to have her baby. Jesus was not born in a stable like we portray it but in a cave. 
There are three different churches that make up the Church of the Nativity: Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Armenian. In the Greek Orthodox church, they found the original baptistry from the time Constantine’s mother commissioned the church. Getting to see that was a highlight for us.

Next, we went to Johnny's! A great place to buy olive wood carvings and pretty jewelry.  We were some of the first tours to shop since Covid. There were some really great people there. 

Lastly, we went to the Israel museum and saw several of the actual pieces that had been taken from the sights we had seen earlier. Seeing these artefacts helped us tie the whole trip together. We also got to see a replica or model of old Jerusalem. Very cool. It will help seeing that before we go into the city of David tomorrow! 

- Kim and Randy Warren