Day 07 - Jerusalem: Temple Mount, Western Wall, Rabbinic Tunnels, Herodium, Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem

Hello, Jerusalem! We started our day at The Israel Museum. There, we got a look at a model of the city as it mostly was in the first century. Then, it was on to the Shrine Of The Book where the Dead Sea Scrolls are housed. Center stage is the complete book of Isaiah, found fully intact! Next we went to Herodium, Herod The Great’s palace and mausoleum. From here, you get a full view of the surrounding area, including the little town of Bethlehem, our final stop for the day. Christmas may be over in America, but Bethlehem is still decorated for Christmas, thanks to some different church calendars. After enjoying some shopping at a store owned by Palestinian Christians, we went to the Church of the Nativity. Not only is this the site of Jesus’ birth, but also the place where Jerome completed the Vulgate. We then ended our evening enjoying the incredible hospitality of the family that owns the store we shopped at earlier. They treated the entire group to dinner where we also experienced some traditional Bethlehem dancing by a local dance troop. And the icing on the cake was being joined at dinner by GTI founder and owner Tom Harrington!

My favorite part of the day was at the top of the Herodium. As we looked at the large palaces and structures Herod The Great built, Rich reminded us that as brilliant as Herod was, we didn’t travel all this way to see him. Instead we came because of a baby born in an obscure village in the shadow of the greatest empire the world had ever seen. That baby would become the single most important figure in history. I’ve seen so many groups in Israel from all over the world and none of us are here because of Herod, Rome, or simple love of history. We are here because of Jesus. No matter what situation seems larger than life, we can always trust that Jesus is bigger!

Daniel Surratt