Many Misconceptions...

Matt Davis
9.2.07
Land & Bible

Jerusalem OT Walk

Though the city is small, Jerusalem has something to offer every single time that you go. There is so much history and there are so many things to see. Today we really tried to focus on Old Testament happenings in the city. Some very thought provoking sights were King Hezekiah’s broad wall, the “Upper Room”, and the City of David.
We started out the day with a little devotional thought to set our minds on what we were going to be doing today. As usual we sang the song “Hodu Adoni” and it is quickly becoming my favorite Hebrew song. We left Moshe, our faithful bus driver, and headed towards Jaffa Gate, and when we entered the old city we made our way into the Jewish quarter. There, our first stop was at The Broad Wall, or Hezekiah’s wall. In recent excavations, archeologists have found what is believed to be what II Chronicles talks about in chapter 32 verse 1-5. In verse five it talks about how Hezekiah raised towers and outside the broken wall he built another wall, and he made weapons and shields. I was really thinking that whole time on the magnitude of the wall. First off, I’m not used to seeing any walled city, so seeing a wall that is twenty feet thick and made of these huge boulders is pretty amazing. This was in anticipation for the Assyrian king’s attack.
These walls were pretty much all left intact underneath the ground, and built on top of because of the strong foundation it provides. These are stones that are dating back a long time, so it is a good thing to build on a foundation that can take thousands of years of abuse.
We then stopped at a little gallery or museum that had a model of Jerusalem in Hezekiah’s time. It was similar to the Gettysburg map that lights up and shows different keystone points in battle. This one was showed many highlights of the city. Such as, the Gihon Spring, the palaces, the temple, and the northern gate. I was just thinking of how good God is to His people, just the fact that His city is still around.
We had a discussion inside the museum about why the temple was built on the north side of Jerusalem when that is the most vulnerable side. And Bill’s answer hit me like a ton of bricks. He said that probably there is a sense of non-logic to it, just because that was just one more thing to trust God in at the time. There is no real reason except that’s where God said to build it. Mount Moriah was also the place where Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac. So there is a little bit of reason, but for the most part God told them to build it there. Our God is an amazing God.
After the model, we went to a church that is said to be built on the place where the Last Supper happened. This again was an enlightening time. Luke 22:7-20 gives the account of that night. Bill was talking about how it probably didn’t happen like DaVinci’s painting portrays it. They were probably at 4 or 5 tables sitting on cushions and there were most likely women and children there. For after all, Passover was a teaching opportunity. That was why the Jews would celebrate it. But no longer would it be celebrated in remembrance of the Egyptian Exodus, but now we do it in remembrance of Yeshua.
In Jeremiah 7:30-34 in talks about the Valley of Hinnom and what people were doing there. They were worshipping idols, and “burn[ing] their sons and daughter in the fire”, just a whole lot of evil going down there. And Jeremiah later records the Lord’s response to the evil: God’s judgment comes swiftly. So henceforth it will be known as the Valley of Slaughter. So Gehena in the NT would be known as a symbol, not a continuously burning fire. It couldn’t be for several reasons. One, there is no archeological evidence, such as ash, or burnt rocks, etc. Two, think about the trash of 2000 years ago… not much more than broken pottery or bricks. There wasn’t much flammability to the waste. And lastly, Gehena is on the western side of the city. The prevailing wind is from the west. Burning trash and a wind to blow it over the city would be a no go. So we can assume that this is a symbol of God putting an end to sin when it talks about where the worm never dies.
In conclusion to the OT walk we went to the City of David, which is outside the Old City walls that were built by the Turks. We saw a step stone structure and walked Hezekiah’s tunnel. The Gihon spring is a natural water source for the City of David and the tunnel was used to bring water into Siloam. The plan was for two groups of diggers to start at both sides, from the spring and from the pool, and to meet in the middle. We are talking about 1700 feet of digging through limestone. And it isn’t a straight line. There is an inscription of when the two groups met that was discovered by two boys from a neighboring Arab town, that describes the event of when the groups met. It is now in the Turkish museum. It talked about how when they were about 3 meters apart they could hear each other. What an exciting day that must have been!
Well, the water was freezing and the tunnel was definitely not made for broad shouldered men such as myself. A lot of ducking, scraped elbows, and a few knots in the head from standing up, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.