Three Valleys and Two Hills...

So, for my class "Land and the Bible", after every field trip we will be writing a report about that day. It doesn't matter what about, it just has to be regarding what we did that day. It can be about what you learned, what you saw, what you liked, what you observed, so its very open and free. So what I thought I would do is post them on the blog so you guys can read what we did that day. This is what I will be turning in to my prof. so without any further delay.... The Old City.

Matt Davis
Land and the Bible
8.28.2007
Field Report #1

Wow, can someone please wake me up? Today was the first time we all went into the Old City Jerusalem. It was amazing. Here’s why: We saw everything from entering the Jaffa gate, touring the Citadel, meeting Shaba, going in to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, exiting out of the Damascus gate, walking around the north eastern corner of the city walking into Stephen’s gate, seeing the pools of Bethesda, sang in Saint Anne’s Church, walked past the Golden gate (or Eastern gate), had a great view of the Mount of Olives, walked back into the city through the Dung gate, walked passed the Dome of the Rock, and viewed the Western Wall, and trekked back to the Jaffa gate. All in one day!!
One of the many blessings while doing this is to have a person who knows all about the land leading you. And that’s all I’ll say about that. Some of the highlights and enlightening moments that happened today were probably being inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, singing in St. Anne’s, and reading scripture looking over the Kidron Valley.
After seeing the Citadel and changing money with Shaban, Bill took us to the Holy Sepulcher and gave us a little bit of background on the site. I learned that this is actually a good candidate for the actual site for the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. But wait, didn’t Jesus die outside the city wall? Yes He did. The why is the Sepulcher inside the city? Well, the Old City should be called the Modern Old City, because the walls that we see today are close to 550 years old. The walls were built by the Turks. And the city when Jesus was alive were not far from Golgotha, but still outside of the city. The reason this is important is because the Jewish thought was that dead bodies were unclean, so you would bury someone outside of the city walls. And another good evidence for thinking this was the actual place was because of a tomb that was found really close that dated to the first century. Thus meaning that it was outside of the city.



While we were leaving I saw something that was a little disheartening, in the entrance there is a slab of rock and there were people kneeling down and kissing it. Not only adults but children as well. And I later found out that that slab of rock was believed to be the place where Jesus fell while He was carrying the cross to Calvary. And I was talking with someone about how sad that was because that is not what God wants, a show or a worship of things because that becomes an idol very quickly. God wants the heart.
We all were walking around the city and Bill took us to where the Pools of Bethesda are and it is on a site where there is a church made all of stone, and when we walked past it the first time I noticed that people were singing in it so I wasn’t sure if it was a Mass going on or some sort of church service so I just glanced inside quickly and moved on to be with the group. So after Bill had us read John 5:10-18, about how Jesus healed a man who was lame for 38 years at the pool of Bethesda, we all went into the church made of stone. After we all had gotten situated sitting down, Bill lead us in a song, conducting us to stop on certain notes to hear the beautiful echo of our voices. We sang “It is well with my soul”, “My stronghold” and another song, and it was just a reminder that as beautiful we all sang, and as good as we thought we sounded, that is only a taste of how glorious praising God will be. After all of us left an Asian tour group went into the church and sang “It is well with my soul” as well, but they sang in there own native tongue. Same song, different language. That was another reminder that God is a God who doesn’t have any limitations. God is a God who has no boundaries, weaknesses, or shortcomings.
The last highlight that really caught my attention and made me think, and what I thought was pretty amazing is when we were standing just outside of the city walls on the east side, looking at the graveyard just opposite of us across the Kidron Valley, and Bill had us read Matthew 23:27 where Jesus pronounces a woe upon the Pharisees for they are like white washed tombs. Before we read it Bill called our attention to the grandeur of some of the tombs. The ones that were extravagant probably thought they were pretty hot stuff or else really rich. Now to think about how big some of those graves were and to think about how important the people inside thought themselves to be and to further think about what was actually in those tombs now was quite the mental picture. And reading this part of scripture, Jesus was probably on the Mount of Olives and the cemetery, or grave yard would be in sight, so the people and the Pharisees would know exactly what Jesus was talking about. It just became so much more real to me because I know what graveyards look like, at least the ones in the States. The ones in the states are green and colorful, and well just a flat piece of marble in the ground neatly manicured. But the ones here in Israel are packed together and all the same color and kind of ugly, but yet pretty in a weird sort of way. Now, I thought I had an idea of what the white washed tombs looked like, but I had no idea. After seeing it, it is like I’m reading a whole different passage.
It was great to spend some time in the Old City, and I know that I will be spending many more hours exploring it and the surrounding areas on my own.

Here is the Mt. of Olives and the tombs