Advice from Israel...

If you learn something new, you should pass it on. You should especially pass this information on if it will be beneficial to those who will hear this information.

I have acquired information that I believe might be very useful to others. Here it is.......

"If you ever go to Israel, don't eat the hot dogs!"

I really mean that. Sparing you the gory details, I have learned from experience that hot dogs are a bad thing to eat in Israel.

Valentine's Day

Yesterday was Valentine's day and I missed Whitney a LOT. So, I thought I would just say that she's wonderful and I love her and miss her very much! So, here are some pictures of us! Happy Valentine's Day!

Approaching Jerusalem...

This past Thursday we went on a field trip around the city of Jerusalem, but not in it. The idea was to see all of the different ways there to get to the city from other parts of Israel. We called it the Jerusalem approaches field trip because we studied all the approaches to Jerusalem. I have posted some pictures of our trip in a flash slide show instead of individually. The slide show runs through the pictures pretty fast so you might have to pause and flip through them manually if you want to view them for longer. And hit the little words bubble button on the slide show and the captions for the photos will toggle on and off.

After every one of our field trip, we are required to write a 1 page summary of what we did on the trip. Here is the paper that I wrote for this field trip. Sorry if it's a little bit long (sometimes you have to go 11pt font, single spaced, .9inch margins and it's STILL a page a and a half!). Hope it's not TOO boring!

One last thing... I reformatted blog by making it a little bit wider. Let me know if it works or if does weird things when you try to view it.



Beginning our Jerusalem approaches field study by stopping at the site of Bethphage. This is the most probable site where Jesus was taken up into the glory cloud after his death, crucifixion, and resurrection. It was here that the disciples asked Him about when He would restore the kingdom to Israel. His response was that they didn’t need to know about the times of the kingdom, but they would be clothed with power – the Holy Spirit – and would be his witnesses all the way to the uttermost parts of the earth! After his ascension, two angels appeared to the disciples and told them that Jesus would return (Luke 24, Acts 1). Also associated with Bethphage is Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. He began in Bethany and headed toward Jerusalem. As soon as he crested the Mount of Olives and caught sight of Jerusalem He began to weep for the city. He wept because the city rejected its long awaited Messiah and would soon be destroyed (Luke 19).

From Bethphage we could look over the modern wall separating the west bank from the rest of Israel and see the town of Bethany. Bethany was the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. It was the town in which Jesus brought Lazarus back from the dead after remaining in Transjordan “too long” and allowing Lazarus to die. We then find out from Jesus that this was allowed to happen so that God would be glorified (John 11).

After Bethphage we continued to the Mount of Olives and caught site of the Old City from the east. We saw the Kidron valley between us and Jerusalem and we also saw the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot. We learned that the reason Judas sought Jesus in the garden was because the religious leaders needed to capture Jesus while he was alone and away from the crowds. If they had arrested Jesus in sight of the crowds, it would have incited a riot. Instead they proceeded with the trials at night so that nobody would know anything about it until it was too late.

From the Mount of Olives we continued on to the Hinnom Valley on the west side of Jerusalem. We stood on a bridge over the valley and were almost literally standing with one foot in Benjamin and one in Judah! On the ‘shoulder of the Hinnom’ we saw the remains of a tomb in which the oldest extant copy of any portion of Scripture was found – a silver amulet from the 6th century BC with a portion of the priestly benediction from Numbers 6 inscribed on it.

From the ‘Shoulder of Hinnom’ we continued on to Bethlehem. In Bethlehem, we read the story of the census going out from Caesar Augustus that all the world needed to be taxed. We learned that the ‘inn’ that Joseph and Mary were rejected from was not an inn in the sense that we think of it, but more likely a guestroom for visitors from out of town. We also went to a field just outside of Bethlehem and read the story of the Shepherds to whom the birth of the newborn king was announced. After hearing the chorus of angels singing praises to God Most High, the shepherds went to Bethlehem to visit the newborn king. The angels only left the shepherd a couple of clues on how to find the newborn king, so they probably had to ask around town for awhile before finding the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger (Luke 2).

From Bethlehem we continued on to the desert fortress of Herod the great called Herodian. This was a fortress built by Herod the Great to keep and eye on the Judean desert and the ascent of Ziz. It is also the final resting place of this man who was considered to be the “king of the Jews.” My favorite part of the day was the irony of singing praises to the real King of the Jews – Jesus the Messiah – in the cisterns under the palace of the earthly “king of the Jews” – Herod the Great.

From Herodian we traveled to a field outside the village of Tekoa – hometown of the prophet Amos. Here we learned about Amos’ message to the people of Israel – turn to the Lord and live. We also learned that Amos’ use of references to nature is very consistent with him having been a shepherd and having lived outdoors for much of his life. We also learned about the attack the Ammonites, Edomites, and Moabites mounted against King Jehoshaphat. When King Jehoshaphat learned of the impending threat against the land, he inquired of the Lord and was told that this battle was God’s battle. Following in the instructions of the Lord, Jehoshaphat went to the ascent of Ziz (the ancient road from En Gedi to Tekoa) the next day with the singers at the front of the Army! He was fully trusting that God would fight this battle. When they reached the other armies, they saw the victory of the Lord because God had caused Israel’s enemies to turn against each other and destroy each other. All the Israelites had to do was collect the plunder, a task that took them 3 days to complete (2 Chronicles 20)!

The final stop on our trip was the valley of Rephaim. It was this valley that the Philistines used on one occasion to mount an attack on Jerusalem. David found out about the plans of the Philistines and inquired of the Lord about what he should do. The Lord told David to go around and cut them off from behind. When David obeyed the Lord and cut off their way of escape, the Philistines went up through the central Benjamin plateau and retreated down the Beth Horon Ridge route (2 Samuel 5)!

Tension

As we have been traveling around Israel, I have noticed that there is tremendous tension between the Arab and Palestinian peoples. This was no new revelation, but the proximity in which this tension exists is astounding. There are places where Jews and Arabs live literally just a couple hundred yards from each other, but would never even think of going to the "other" part of town. This just shows that what the Bible says about the end times (all of the surrounding nations around Israel wanting to drive her into the sea) is true. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. This is a city that desperately needs your prayers.

Here are some photos that hopefully give you a small taste of the tension that exists in this land. I have finally found a good way to post pictures, so there will be more of them coming!

Some various photos...

These are some pillars in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem. They are the remains of a main street called the Cardo. It was called this because the street was the 'heart' of commerce in Byzantine Jerusalem.




This is a staircase from the cemetery in which Oskar Schindler is buried. It overlooks the valley of Hinnom which Jeremiah prophesied would be called the 'valley of slaughter' after the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem. His prophecy came true in the year 586 BC and the nation of Judah was carried off into exile.

















Blogger is acting up right now making it hard to add captions to the posts... I'll update this as soon as it's not being dumb anymore! In the meantime, enjoy the pics... and you can make up whatever you want about them before you really know what they are. you could tell your friends "See! Here's a staircase from mars. There really ARE Martians!"

Old Testament Walk Through Jerusalem

This post is a description of what we did last Wednesday when our group walked through the walled city of Jerusalem looking at various sites pertaining to the Old Testament. The text is a slightly adapted version of a paper I wrote for class after this trip. Enjoy!

Our Old Testament emphasis walk through Jerusalem began in the Jewish quarter of the old city with a stop at the broad wall. The broad wall is a part of the city wall that was built by Hezekiah as he was fortifying the western hill of Jerusalem in preparation for an attack by the Assyrian army in 700-701 BC. Hezekiah made many preparations for the siege of Assyria in 701 BC, but what eventually saved the city of Jerusalem was not his preparations and strong walls, but his trust in the Lord for deliverance. He humbled himself and asked the Lord for deliverance from the Assyrians and the Lord delivered him by killing 185,000 of the Assyrian army in one night! (Isaiah 36-37)

The Broad Wall

Continuing through the Jewish quarter, we stopped at place where we saw a model depicting the old city of Jerusalem in stages all throughout the first temple period (The first temple period is the time beginning when Solomon built the temple in 967BC and continuing on to 586 BC when the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians). We saw the original city of David on the eastern hill of Jerusalem, Solomon’s expansion to the north by adding the temple mount area, and Hezekiah’s expansion and fortification of the western hill. Also in the museum, we saw several clay seals that would have been used to authenticate letters from around the time of Hezekiah and Isaiah. In fact, one of the seals was from someone mentioned in the Bible!

The Model of Jerusalem in the time of Hezekiah

Continuing through the Jewish quarter, we saw the remnants of the Cardo – a large street from the Byzantine period that would have been one of the main arteries (ha!) of business and trade in the city. We also saw a reconstruction of the oldest known map of Jerusalem that dates from the Byzantine period. The map was found in the form of a tile mosaic on the floor of a building.

The Cardo

The Oldest Map of Jerusalem - A Mosaic

After that, we exited the old city through the Zion gate, which bears the marks of years filled with war, strife, unrest, and tension (namely – lots of bullet holes). We were reminded of the promise in Isaiah 60:18 that assures us of the future peace that will rest in Jerusalem.

The Zion Gate

As we continued our walk we saw the traditional sight of the upper room where Jesus would have had his last Passover with His disciples. This could not have been the real room, however, because it was built in the crusader period of Jerusalem – over 1000 years after the time of Christ! In the upper room I learned that Jesus and His 12 disciples were almost certainly not the only people present at the Passover meal known as the last supper. The families of the disciples and maybe other friends and relatives would have been there as well. I also learned a new way of seeing the ‘last supper,’ which might better be called the ‘last Passover.’ When Jesus said “Do this in remembrance of me,” he was not speaking of anytime we take bread and wine. He was specifically speaking of the Passover celebration, which was a commemoration of how God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt – the single greatest expression of God’s redemption in the history of the nation of Israel. Jesus’ point was that they should now remember Him as the center of how God has delivered His people. He was proclaiming his deliverance of the people of Israel as greater than the Exodus of the Old Testament! They were now to remember Jesus when they ate the meal commemorating God’s deliverance of the children of Israel.

Some of our group sitting as the disciples would have sat at the last Passover

The Traditional Site of the Upper Room

Continuing on from the upper room, we continued on to a graveyard on the southern end of the western hill. Interestingly enough, Oskar Schindler is buried in this graveyard. From the southern edge of the western hill, we looked down into the Hinnom valley to the south of the Old City. We learned that the Israelites were at their most wicked during the time of Jeremiah. They were worshipping false gods and even sacrificing their children to these false gods. Jeremiah then prophesied to these wicked people that God would bring punishment upon them because of their wickedness and that the city would be destroyed and the dead would be cast into the Bin Hinnom valley. At that time it would cease to have the name Bin Hinnom, but would be called the valley of slaughter. This prophecy came true in 586 BC when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and carried her surviving inhabitants off into captivity. This is where I first realized how confused and scared the Jews would have been at this time. The city that God had always so wondrously and miraculously protected was now lying in ruins with the bodies of the dead strewn in the streets and the temple of the Lord lying in ashes, burned to the ground. What a perplexing and terrifying time this must have been for the Jews.

We continued our walk to the Jerusalem archeological park where we saw remnants of Herodian architecture at the temple mount. We saw Robinson’s arch, which would have supported a massive staircase ascending onto the temple mount from the streets below. It was here that we also saw the massive stones weighing anywhere from 50-400 tons that were used in the building of the temple mount. Here we were reminded of when Jesus quotes Psalm 118 saying that He is the stone that was rejected and has become the chief cornerstone.

The Jerusalem Archeological Park

Me Standing in front of Robinson's Arch - Remains From the Herodian Period Temple Mount. This is the time when Jesus would have been here!

Towards the end of our day was a trip through Hezekiah’s tunnel, which, as the name suggests, was built by Hezekiah to channel water from the Gihon spring to a pool inside the city. This tunnel was part of the fortification of the city in preparation for the Assyrian siege in 701 BC. The terminus of the tunnel is the pool of Siloam where Jesus later told a blind man to wash and receive back his sight.

My Friend Eli in Hezekiah's Tunnel. It was really hard to get picture of me in the tunnel, so I really don't have any. Sorry

The Pool of Siloam

Concluding our day was a visit to some tombs carved into the rock face of the city of David that might possibly be the dynasterial burial place of king David’s line. From the city of David, we could see the location of the Spring of Rogel (which is now just a well). This spring is the border of the tribal allotments of Benjamin and Judah. It is also the place where David’s son Adonijah declared himself to be king when his father’s health was failing. When David heard that Adonijah had declared himself king, he told Nathan the prophet and Zadok the priest to go to the Gihon spring and anoint Solomon as the successor to the throne. As soon as Adonijah realized that David had declared Solomon king, he went and begged Solomon for and it was granted him provided he lived righteously.

The red circle indicates a minaret built over the top of the spring (now a well) of Rogel

Here's just a little bit of what we've done over the past few weeks. It's been really busy and I haven't had much time to post. There will definitely be more to come.

My Dorm Room

Here are some pictures of my Dorm in Israel.
This is the front of the building.

This is looking down the side of the buildingMy room from one way
My room from another angle.
It's comfortable. I feel blessed to be in such a big room for only 2 guys! Sorry this is so short... I hope it was sweet!

More to come soon...