Day 10 - City of David, Hezekiah's Tunnel, Pool of Siloam, Davidson Center, Southern Steps, Western Wall, Rabbinic Tunnels

Shalom!

We started our day with a devotional and time of worship. Our wonderful quartet led us in several songs, including Happy Birthday to our fearless leader, Laura! During the devotion Terry covered Psalm 121, a song of ascent that was traditional sung as the Hebrews made their pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

I lift up my eyes to the hills-
Where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
the maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip-
he who watches over you will not slumber;
Indeed, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD watches over you-
the Lord is your shade on your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

The LORD will keep you from all harm-
he will watch over your life;
The LORD will watch over
your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

As Americans we don’t face persecution, but we do face trials. The Psalms remind us that the Lord is with our coming and going. As children of God, we are in His hands forever. What a comfort.

CITY of DAVID

It was a windy but gorgeous day in the City of David today. We actually started the morning in the old City of David and saw what’s called the House of Ahiel. It was clearly the home of a noble from the sixth century. The home had many rooms and refuse within it contained many fish from the Mediterranean Sea, which would have had to have been transported inland to the city. The house also contained bullae, which were pieces of clay marked with a seal to close letters. Some of these bullae bore the exact names from the book of Ezekiel, and are appropriately dated to be the very persons referred to in the Old Testament. It was another instance in which archeological findings have confirmed information contained in the Bible, even before the time of Christ. More proof that the Bible is true!

After the House of Ahiel, we went down into the tunnels carved out to reach the springs that were used to provide water to Jerusalem. One of the things that made the City of David so special was that it was capable of fortification on top of a hill and that it had fortified access to water from these springs. Even in the time of the Canaanites, walls were built so that people could go down to the springs without having to expose themselves outside the city’s fortifications. The Canaanites also dug channels to irrigate crops on the side of the hill and they disguised the outlets to look like natural springs. Parts of the tunnels were very tight, but it was invigorating to walk through passages that were integral to the city so long ago.

POOL of SILOAM

From there we walked down to the Pool of Siloam, in which Jesus healed the bind man in John 9. As the story goes, Jesus and His disciples saw a blind man. The disciples were under the assumption that he was blind due to sin, a common misconception in that time. As a result of this alleged sin (and therefore being unclean) the man would not have been allowed to worship in the temple. Jesus dispelled the notion that ailments or maladies were brought about by sin. He put mud on the man’s eyes and told him to go wash his face in the Pool of Siloam.

Jesus could have performed this miracle without the mud and water. We could easily question why he would have this blind man trek over to the pool, as opposed to healing him on the spot. Sitting beside the pool (now empty) it was easier to imagine the blind man emerging from the pool and looking up with first sight to see the temple of God. His first sight undoubtedly would have been one of the most beautiful to anyone. To top it off, he would now be able to visit the temple and worship freely.

This story is a great reminder of two things:

1)      There is often a purpose to things in our life that don’t make sense to us. God sees the bigger picture.

2)      Who’s really blind and who can see?

WAILING WALL / WESTERN WALL

From the pool, we went up to the outer walls of the Temple. The scale of the walls is difficult to comprehend even as you’re standing next to them. They’ve excavated enough debris so see down to the main street that ran along the western wall of Jerusalem at the time that the Romans systematically dismantled the Temple and pushed many of the massive stones over the sides of the walls. You can see where some of the stones landed and left enormous craters in the ancient street. We were able to walk around to the Southern Steps where people of the day, including Christ and his disciples would have entered and exited to reach the Temple. Sitting in a place where they would have walked, Terry encouraged us all not to leave Jesus in Jerusalem. The trip has been full of so many fascinating sites, that it’s impossible to have a single favorite place or even day. But sitting on these steps and receiving this message is an indisputable highlight.

Even as we travel home and resume our normal, day to day, may we always remember that our time in Israel was not by accident.

Take Jesus with you and share your experiences from this amazing trip.

We are now the caretakers of these stories.

After lunch we went up the Wailing Wall and the Rabbinical Tunnel which run north along the Western Wall. Though the site is not of particular religious significance to us, it was moving to witness the devout prayers of Jewish men and women, who are part of a tradition to whom this city and site have been of central importance for thousands of years.