Day 08 - Jerusalem: City of David, Hezekiah's Tunnel, Israel Museum, Model of Jerusalem, Shrine of the Book, Yad Vashem

The City of David, Hezekiah’s Tunnel, the Mount of Olives! Wow, what an incredible experience we had today. It is amazing that the people of those times had such engineering talent to be able to start at both ends of such a long tunnel and chisel their way to a meeting point underneath the city. 

Then there was the Israel Museum with the Dead Sea Scrolls and that model of the city. What a great way to get the perspective of the Holy City.

Finally, the Holocaust Museum. 

Sobering . . . .

One display told that many of those who participated with the Nazi’s in the murdering of Jews in the Ukraine (as I recall) were highly educated young men, about half of whom held doctoral degrees in economics, law, philosophy, and political science. Perhaps the Body of Christ could learn an important lesson from that. Would our world be different if the values and teachings in those disciplines were shaped by the people of God? I am quite certain the answer to that question is a resounding “YES”!!

Another interviewee spoke of her Jewish father. She said, “he was very clever and an excellent businessman. Why did he not see what was coming? He also was quite wealthy. Why did he not leave the country?” How is it that smart, wealthy people can sometimes not correctly interpret the times and respond wisely?

The most haunting question for me, however was “would I have fallen in line with the mania that characterized Germany of the 1930’s?” What does it take for good people (Christians in particular) to recognize and respond in a godly way to institutionalized evil? Is there an indication of that reoccurring in our culture today?

God needs us to allow his Holy Spirit to work through each of us to confront the forces of evil that seek to divide and alienate us from each other on the basis of ethnicity, economic status, belief system, cultural traditions, or any other identifiable differences. We MUST NOT allow such evil as characterized the Nazi’s to ever gain a foothold ever again.

Steve Coe