Israel, Day Eight - - Shabbat Shalom, Yerushalayim! (Updated)

The sun has just risen over the Old City.  Church bells are ringing.  The pigeons on the balcony are cooing an avian symphony.  It is another gorgeous early spring day in Yerushalayim.

This will be my last blog post from The Land, which I have come to love so.  What is it about this place to provoke so visceral a reaction in so short a time?  I can't explain.  My friend, Ellen, warned me that I would never read my Bible the same again, after visiting this country.  At the time, I thought hers was an exaggerated statement, but no.  She was so right!

Yet to his son I will give one tribe, that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put my name.

1 Kings 11:36 (ESV)

Even God chose Jerusalem, out of all the cities of the world, to put His Name here, and to establish the kingdom of David, which He has decreed will never end.  The last Davidic ruler will be Jesus Christ, when He returns to Earth, His feet touching down on the Mount of Olives to split it in two.  After He decisively and swiftly wins that great, last battle, Yeshua Hamashiach will then set up His kingdom, and He shall reign for ever and ever.  Hallelujah!

On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward.

Zechariah 14:4 (ESV)

I began my first Israel post with Zech. 14:4.  It is fitting that I bookend my last post with it as well.  Verse 5 states that, when He returns, all of His saints will be with Him.  And, who does the Bible proclaim as "saints"?  Anyone and everyone who has acknowledged with the heart in this earthly life, that Jesus is Messiah and Lord and King, and who believe that He is the only way, truth and source of everlasting Life.  I know as much as I am sure of anything that I will be with Him on that day. My prayer is that you have made the same decision, that His Holy Spirit lives within you too. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Revelation 22:20 (KJV)

I'm going to go ahead and post this, but my plan is to round out the post (to update it) after our last day here, when I am in the Tel Aviv airport.  We are headed there after we pack up this morning.  I'm eager to share with you about that magnificent coastal city, as well.  I wish we had had time to see Haifa...and Petra, over in Jordan.  Maybe next year, when I return?  As my dear friend and traveling companion on this trip, Debbie, has already been saying..."Next year in Jerusalem"!

https://youtu.be/z-j_1e13qlE

Update:

Our last day in Israel featured seeing a few more sights in Jerusalem's Terra Sancta neighborhood:

• the Church of St. John the Baptist, 
• walking up the 106 step path to the Church of Annunciation, 

And then, 

• driving by the Israeli cemetery, Mt. Herzel, where all the nation's prime ministers are buried, 
• driving by the Knesset (Israel's Parliament, which as it happens is directly across the street from the Israeli museum and we didn't even realize it when we were there). 

Then, saying good-bye to Jerusalem, we drove on to Tel Aviv, where we walked around the beautiful Zodiac park and Wishing Well Bridge, traipsing through cobblestone streets and along the sea wall in beautiful Jaffa.  This was the first time any of us Three Americanos had seen the Mediterranean Sea.  We ate another delicious fish dinner, similar to the one we ate in Galilee, at an establishment called The Old Man and the Sea.  It is right by the pier, there in Jaffa.  Delicious!  I am going to greatly miss Israeli salad....

After dinner, we roamed around downtown Jaffa a little while, until time to go to the airport.  Here is our last picture in Israel.  The joy on our faces is, I think, reflective of the time we spent there.  The entire trip was a tremendous blessing!

At the moment, I am writing this from New York's JFK and wondering where I can find an appropriate psychotherapist, because I already want to go back to Israel!  If you have followed along on this trip, I hope you enjoyed the experience!  After I recover from the inevitable jet lag, I will be in the book of Ruth next.  See you then!