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!

Arriving in Israel

As you regular visitors know, this is a devotional, exegetical bible-study sort of blog.  Due to my present circumstances, it is going to look more like a travel blog.

At 5:05 p.m. local time, my two friends and I arrived at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, Israel.  Just writing those words seems unreal.  My very confused body only adds to the surreality of the experience.  Local time is now 8:30 p.m., as I begin this post.  That is seven hours ahead of good old Eastern Standard.  Even though I was able to sleep for about six hours on the plane (it's an 11-hour flight from JFK to Tel Aviv), I'm going to head off to bed after finishing this first entry.  None too soon....

It was pouring rain when we arrived.  Our driver, Jiries, commented how unusual it was for them to get such a "gully washer".  (You can imagine he did NOT use that terminology...) . I replied that we had just brought "showers of blessing".  :)

Arriving in the neighborhood where our rented flat is, we tried to find it with no success.  The locals who were renting it to us via Airbnb were not answering the phone.  In the pouring rain, my close friend from childhood, Debbie, and Jiries were wandering around trying to find the place.  It was tense for a few minutes.

Our neighborhood lies within walking distance of the Old City.  In fact, and I'll take a picture in the daylight tomorrow, you can see the Temple Mount from our balcony.  The neighborhood used to be near the border between Israel and Jordan, years ago before the war, and snipers would regularly shoot down onto targets from the tops of buildings.  Chris, Debbie's 17-year old nephew (and my other traveling companion), read online that the Israeli Black Panther party was founded in this neighborhood.  The upper floors of the buildings are newer than the lower ones.  Our flat is on the 3rd floor.

Jiries drives a Skoda, which is a manual transmission car (a newer model) made in the Czech Republic.  He is a very capable driver, based on his driving us from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem this evening.  He will be taking us on tours for part of this week that we are here.  Because we arrived at the start of the Sabbath, the airport was and the roads have been practically deserted.  Driving near Old Town Jerusalem we saw many Orthodox Jews walking, wearing their ecclesiastical regalia, including big black hats (tonight with rain slickers over them).  Visitors to orthodox neighborhoods must enter on foot.  No vehicles are allowed, and we are not sure if that is merely a Sabbath phenomenon or not.

I stared at the walls of the Old City, straining to see through the car's rain-strewn windows.  The city walls were last rebuilt in the 1541 by an Ottoman Turk who ruled the Ottoman Empire for over 40 years, Suleiman the Magnificent.  Jerusalem has 8 city gates, including the oldest....the Eastern Gate (also called the Golden Gate or the Mercy Gate) which faces the Mount of Olives and which was sealed shut by Suleiman in 1541.  Suleiman was one of the greatest of the Ottoman caliphs, and he ruled the empire for 46 years.

Perhaps the holiest gate in all the city, Jews have long predicted that when their Messiah comes He will enter through the Eastern Gate.  (Is there any wonder Suleiman sealed it?)  Suleiman was too late, though.  Jesus entered the city through the Eastern Gate on Palm Sunday, riding on the back of a donkey.  Messiah has already entered through that gate in triumph, (see Matthew 21) with worshippers shouting, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!"

Zechariah 14:4, Ezekiel 43:4 and 44:1-3  and 46:12 are all passages/verses that are interpreted by Bible scholars as being messianic prophecies and some having dual fulfillment.  Jesus fulfilled some OT prophecies when when he entered the city through the Eastern Gate on the first Palm Sunday.  Because Zechariah 14:4, a "return of Jesus Christ" or "second coming" scripture, indicates that His feet will not only touch down on the Mount of Olives but will literally split the mount in two, it goes to follow that He would afterwards enter the city again by the Eastern Gate.  Scriptures even describe it as being sealed (centuries before that occurred).  How marvelous to anticipate that great day when it will be opened yet again, on the day Messiah returns!

Shabbat Shalom!  And, good night.....