June 18, Wednesday - We hike through water

This marked our first full day in Jerusalem and it was a full day.  John came to meet the Jerusalem group at our hotel and we walked over to the Temple Mount.  The Temple Mount is essentially and artificial platform upon which had been built the first and second Temples.  Four huge retaining walls were built first by Solomon and later expanded by Herod so that the temple could be built right on top of the location where Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac – the top of Mt. Moriah.  That same spot is sacred in the Muslim religion not only because of Abraham but they also believe it is the spot from which Muhammed left for his nighttime ascent to heaven.  You can read up on the history of the various times this area has been under control of various religious groups but in short, after the 1967 war when Israel recaptured Jerusalem control of the top of the Temple Mount was left under Muslim control. 

Currently the main structures on the top are the Dome of the Rock – a shrine covering what is believed to be the rock at the top of Mt Moriah, and a large mosque.  There is some dispute about the exact location of the top of Mt Moriah because you were supposed to be able to see from the east gate directly into the holy of holies in the Temple.  The visible East Gate lines up with the location of the Dome of the Rock.  However excavations have found evidence that the original East Gate was a short way further north on the East wall.  There is a small domed area covering this as an alternate location for the top of the mountain.  Because of the uncertainty of where the holy of holies was and the overall sanctity of the temples, devout Jews will not come up on the top of the Temple Mount so as to not accidentally walk into areas which would have been forbidden for normal Jews.

We discussed how it is in the story of Abraham and Isaac that the word love is used for the first time – love between a father and son.  God stops Abraham from sacrificing his son, but God lets his own son be sacrificed for us less than 2 blocks from here.

Because most Jews will not go on top of the Temple Mount the next most holy spot to pray for them is along the exposed area of the Western Wall.  This is the area which is as close to where the arc of the covenant would have been kept in the temple that is easily accessible.  There is another spot further along the wall which is closer but you need to travel through the excavation tunnels along the wall to reach that spot so most Jews pray along the wall in a large open area.  Men have one side where they can pray and a separate section of the wall is reserved for women.  Anyone can pray along the wall and you find thousands of pieces of paper with prayers written on them pressed into cracks in the wall.  Several of us left personal prayers along the wall too.

Jews believe the Messiah will come to restore his reign on earth only after the third temple has been built.  Needless to say this is a controversial topic since it would mean the destruction of the Dome of the Rock and probably the mosque also.  There is an organization headquartered a short way from this area called the Temple Institute.  Their main purpose is to research all the sources they can find in order to reconstruct not only the various items for the third temple (such as the show bread table, and incense table) but also the vestments that the priests will wear.  They have already completed many of these including a 9 ft high gold Menorah which is on display overlooking the western wall and Temple Mount. 

From here (after lunch) we walked down to King David’s city which is on the south side of the Old City.  We did not spend much time here but did talk about how David saw Uriah’s wife bathing (Uriah was off at war) and had an affair with her.  As punishment for his sin (adultery and orchestrating Uriah’s death so he could marry his wife) the son that Bathsheba has dies. 

Hezekiah’s Tunnel is just a short distance from here.  John warned us to wear shoes that could get wet and we got a chance to experience why as we descended down to the tunnel. King Hezekiah built the tunnel as an aquifer diverting water from a spring outside the city walls to a pool inside the city in preparation for an attack from the Assyrians.  It was built by having two teams of workers working from either end of the tunnel toward the middle and it still took almost 15 years.  It is considered an engineering wonder having had to be built in such a way that the water flowed into the city, but not at so fast an incline as to erode the tunnel.  It has a 6% grade and extends for 1750 feet.  Being a tunnel it is also totally dark, only about 2 feet wide and about 5 feet tall.  It took us about ½ hour to walk (slosh) through the tunnel.  We walked through water the entire way.  It was normally 8-12 inches deep but some places were at least 18 inches deep.  John had purchased small flashlights for us all but knowing what was coming I had brought a small headlamp that worked great.  It was hard to imagine what it would have been like to be working on cutting the tunnel.  Only one person could probably fit at the face of the tunnel and they would have had to pass the cut stone back from person to person to take it out of the tunnel.  Lighting would have been by candle or torch. 

Hezekiah no doubt prayed that God protect them and the city when the Assyrians were going to attack but he also prepared the city too.  Sometimes when we pray for help, the help we get is the time and opportunity to help ourselves.

The tunnel ends at the Pool of Siloam.  The bible tells the story of a blind man asking Jesus to help him see.  Jesus asks him if he really wants to see and when he says yes, Jesus makes a mud paste, puts it on his eyes, and tells him to wash in the Pool of Siloam.  Many of the times that people ask to be cured by Jesus He first asks them if they want to be cured or what it is they want specifically.  This is because being cured will drastically change their life and He wants to be sure they really want that.  We discussed this in our group about not only that we need to think about what we ask God to do for us, but also how it can make us afraid to turn our life over to God thinking that it will change our lives in ways we don’t want.  Again it all comes back to trusting God that He will only ask us to do what we are capable of with Him.

At this point the basketball group headed back to Bethlehem and the Jerusalem group did a little shopping.  Later that night we met John at one of the restaurants which is a favorite of his and his wife’s.  We had a great dinner and it gave us ‘older’ folks a chance to sit and relax together.

At this point it is a little harder to say how many miles the group has walked since we are doing more side trips in smaller groups but overall it will be the same so I’ll just report what my group has done from this point on.  So as of the end of today we have walked 46 miles (over 140,000 steps) on this trip.

(Note: the text for this day is now complete, but pictures and links are still missing.  I’m 2 days behind in writing and we leave tomorrow to go back home.  I really do plan to complete this (perhaps I’ll get the text posted before we leave) and get pictures loaded because I know I’ll need this to help me remember so much of the trip.  In some respects I cannot believe it is already time to leave, and yet it seems so long ago since we hiked in the Sinai Desert!)