Well, I am finally getting around to publishing a few things on the happenings of last year...Nothing like waiting until the new year to do so huh?! Anyway, I shared these things with First Baptist Bonham a couple months after I returned from Israel last Spring. Below is a few brief highlights of some of the things that I witnessed on my trip to Israel so that you could get a glimpse for yourself into the land and times of the Bible.
- The Saddest Thing: The Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The Western Wall is the holiest site for current day Judaism. The Jews believe that the presence of God continually dwells there. Each day, thousands of Jews come to the Western Wall courtyard to pray. During my visit, I watched as Jew after Jew came there to pray, but it occurred to me that their prayers have gone nowhere because they have missed the true Messiah, Jesus Christ. As my dad and I stood in the Western Wall courtyard, we prayed that their eyes would be opened and God would bring about the ingathering of the Jews that He promises by the Apostle Paul in Romans 11. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is a similarly saddening place. The church stands on the traditional site of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial. Throngs of Catholics, Armenians, and Greek Orthodox flood through the church to touch and kiss the rocks where Jesus is believed to have been crucified, taken from the cross, prepared for burial, and buried. As I stood watching people “purify” handkerchiefs and other items on these rocks, I prayed that God would open their eyes to the resurrected Savior and worship Him rather than a rock.
- The Weirdest Thing: Floating in the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is 10 times saltier than the ocean! It is also the lowest place on Earth. Actually, the Dead Sea is a hyper saline lake. The high concentration of salt is what allows a person to float unassisted in its waters. When you get down into the water and lift your legs, you naturally float without any effort of your own. It is almost like floating on a pool noodle without the noodle. Just be careful to not swallow the water!
- The Most Inspiring Thing: The Garden Tomb. This the alternative site for the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. There are many good reasons to think that this is the more likely site, but without more information, we cannot be definitive. But even if this site isn’t the actual tomb where Jesus was buried and resurrected, it provides a great illustration for the context of the event that promises life to all who believe in the resurrected Christ. The contrast between the bright, airy, and refreshing Garden Tomb and the dark, depressing, and apparently hopeless Church of the Holy Sepulcher couldn’t be more pronounced.
- The Most Astonishing Thing: The Great Architectural Feats of Herod the Great (and others). From the huge expansion of the Temple Mount to doubling the height of a mountain at Herodion to the amazing water works at Masada, Herod’s architectural genius is apparent. As I walked through the Land I was in constant wonderment that ancient people where able to construct such amazing structures with none of the modern equipment that we assume are necessary for building truly amazing things.
- The Most Moving Thing: Yad Vashem: Yad Vashem is Israel’s memorial museum for the victims of the Holocaust. Part of the museum is a memorial for all the children killed in that horrific and atrocious event. All of the children’s names are read aloud in a section of the memorial. It takes more than a year for all of the names to be read. The museum also chronicles the events that lead up to the slaughter of more than 6 million Jews (and another 5 million non-Jewish people) in just a few short years. What moved me as I walked through this memorial is the capacity of people for terrible evil, the power of deception, and the enduring pain of Israel.
These are just a few of the amazing things of the Holy Land.
