The Land of Israel

[0:00] In November, Maureen and I, along with our daughter and one of our granddaughters, had a chance to go to Israel. And people often ask me, what was the most significant thing?

[0:17] Well, of course, there's the polite things that you have to say, like the company, the people that you met, the sites that you saw. And then, of course, then you start to move into and to actually walk where Jesus walked.

[0:30] And now we're starting to become close. Because if I answered that question, I would say, for me, it's made reading the Bible come alive. Absolutely come alive.

[0:43] Because Sermon on the Mount. I can sit there on a little stone and see Jesus in my own mind giving the Sermon on the Mount.

[0:57] And I could go on, and I hope maybe by the time we finish in an hour, you'll see what I mean. But a small introduction. Israel isn't a big country.

[1:08] I heard when we were there that it was the size of Vancouver Island. So when I got home, I ran off a map of Israel and a map of Vancouver Island to the actually same scale.

[1:20] And you can see not only are they virtually the same size, but they're almost the same shape. And Vancouver Island on the left, Israel on the right. It's not a big country.

[1:32] It's 450 kilometers from Elat in the south to Mount Hermon in the very north. It could be driven in a day. It would be a hard drive.

[1:44] Some of the roads are just too lane and narrow. Israel is kind of like a Neolithic dagger. It's only a mile or so wide at the very south where it touches the Gulf of Aqaba.

[2:00] Elat is important. It's part of the exodus of the children of Israel. Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are sort of in the middle.

[2:13] And then Mount Hermon is in the very north. But I thought what I would do, why do I say it makes the Bible so interesting?

[2:24] Maybe I can tell you. Abraham was called by God to leave Ur of the Chaldees. Well, actually, his father started it off. And they ended up in Haran.

[2:36] And then Abraham was told to go south into Palestine. Now, I agree that this is a Bedouin. But if you read the scripture and you look at the Bedouin culture in Israel, you realize that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob very much lived life, that the Bedouins, some of the Bedouins still live today.

[3:01] In tents, they were sheep, goat, camel herders, and they were somewhat nomadic. They moved around. And we can imagine here Rebecca preparing some savory food to give to Jacob to take into his father because Isaac was ready to give a blessing, he thought, to Esau.

[3:31] And there's Jacob. He's gone out into the herd, and he's picked up some young goats, and he's preparing this savory meal for his dad.

[3:44] This is an interesting picture. It is the city gates to Dan. Now, we know that Abraham was in Dan.

[3:59] Dan is in the very north of Israel. This, of course, is protected by this Quonset structure over top. It's sun-dried bricks. But this goes back pre-Abraham days.

[4:12] And if Abraham did visit Dan on his way south, he went through that gate that you see there. We know that Abraham was in Dan because he chased after Lot.

[4:26] And the Bible tells us that he was in Dan, and he went on north to Damascus to rescue Lot. This is Shechem.

[4:38] Now, Shechem, at present, you can't really go into Shechem. You can with a Canadian passport. But if you're with Israeli guides and an Israeli bus, you're not allowed into areas that the Palestinian Authority has.

[4:55] But Shechem is a very important spot. And I'm imagining maybe I'm on the place where Abraham built an altar on his way south.

[5:09] This is the hill country. The Bible talks about the patriarchs going up into the hill country. And if you hiked up the hill and over the top, you would arrive at Bethel.

[5:22] Bethel being another place that looms large in the Old Testament as a place where there were altars built.

[5:34] Jacob also, up on the top of the hills there, rested on his way when he was escaping the wrath of his brother Esau. The Bible says he picked up a rock and used it as a pillow.

[5:49] And he had a dream that night of a staircase that went from earth to heaven with angels ascending and descending. The Bible narrative tells us that Abraham kept moving south into the Negev.

[6:06] And I kind of chuckle a little bit. There's no shortages of rocks. And I have to say, I did ponder as to whether this really was the promised land.

[6:17] It is the promised land in Scripture, but when you look at a lot of Israel, compared to our Canadian prairies, you have to sort of think it's anything but the promised land.

[6:32] And Maureen's dad, I think, made the best comment that I've ever heard. He took a trip to Israel. And we asked him, well, what about it? And he says, well, it's just a pile of rocks.

[6:43] He said, I don't know what they're fighting over. Now, oak trees loom large in Abraham's life.

[6:55] And you'll find that in Scripture. Now, a famine came in the land, and Abraham and Sarah went down to Egypt to survive the famine.

[7:09] And you're looking at Abraham and Sarah and their camel caravan there. You're also looking at one of the pyramids. And you think those were antiquity when Abraham saw them.

[7:22] The great pyramids in Giza were a thousand years old when Abraham saw them. We see them now, and we think that they belonged to a long, long age.

[7:34] They were antiquity in Abraham's time as well. Now, there is a story.

[7:53] When Abraham went to Egypt, he said to Sarah, Sarah, you're a beautiful woman. And I want you to tell everybody that you're my sister.

[8:09] And so Abraham and Sarah, there's a slight truth to it, if you find their lineage. But it was a fabrication.

[8:21] And Abraham was afraid that he would be killed because of the beauty of his wife. And you know the story that Pharaoh ended up putting Abraham and Sarah out, drove them out of Egypt.

[8:38] He said, you've brought this curse upon us. Why did you tell us this? And they went back to the Negev. And now we have the story of Lot.

[8:51] Lot appears, and there was a discussion. The land couldn't support all of our flocks. When you look at the land, you can begin to wonder why that would be.

[9:06] It's quite surprising. I don't know where these great flocks that the patriarchs had, where they found enough to eat. But anyways, they decided that their flocks were getting too numerous.

[9:22] And it was time that they separated them up. There's Maureen's sister, Sheila. She's a farm girl. And she knows how to move the flocks around.

[9:34] Lot looked out into the Jordan Valley. And he saw the well-watered Jordan Valley. And he decided that he would move down into the Jordan Valley.

[9:46] And Abraham stayed up in the islands of Judea. Now we have the story of Lot being captured.

[10:11] And Abraham got a group, I think, around 400 men, soldiers. And he chased up after Lot's captors up into Dan, which I showed you a picture of the city gates, and even further north up into Damascus.

[10:31] Every male in Israel has to serve three years in the military. Every female has to serve two years, unless you're a mother.

[10:44] You're exempted if you're a mother. The ultra-Orthodox also are exempted, as are Palestinians exempted. However, the law has just expired, and the ultra-Orthodox now have to serve in the military.

[10:58] And I just read an article last night in Christianity Today. There's a movement among Palestinian Christians to also serve in the military to try to help bridge the ethnic difficulties.

[11:17] There are consequently young soldiers everywhere. And they all carry their artillery with them, as I call it. And I talked to a few of them, and I asked them if they were loaded.

[11:29] And they never did give me a straight answer as to whether they were loaded. But they do get every second weekend off. And Israel, being such a small country, they can travel home.

[11:40] They travel free on any transportation in Israel to go home for the weekend. And they take their gear with them, including their rifle. Now, there's Dan.

[11:54] Again, Abraham spent the night in there. Let's pretend, anyways. And he also went over the pass into Damascus.

[12:04] There's the road to Damascus. Now, I don't know whether Paul was on this road.

[12:14] We'll speculate that he could have been. There's two routes. He could have gone over land, and he would have gone over this pass. Mount Hermon, which isn't in the picture, is just off to the left. And that is the main pass that goes over into Syria.

[12:31] Now, on the way home, Abraham met Melchizedek. And on the left-hand side, there's more of a Mesopotamian person.

[12:41] So if you prefer that as an image of Abraham, you can remember that. Abraham as Mesopotamian. And he met Melchizedek, the king of Salem, the priest of God.

[12:56] And he was offered bread and wine. And the story is Abraham gave him a tenth of all his booty that he collected after rescuing Lot.

[13:07] And he was told that sin is still a thriving business amongst the Canaanites. And he was told to go further south into the negative.

[13:23] And now we have the story of Abraham didn't have an heir. A servant was going to be his heir. And there was an acceptable convenience, but it was an interesting arrangement where Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian maid, was given to Abraham as a wife to bear children.

[13:50] And the custom of the time then meant that Ishmael was Abraham's son. And then angels come and visit.

[14:07] And they ask, where is Sarah, your wife? And you can see the tents. The tents are very interesting. Of course, there's the male side of the tent and there's the female side of the tent.

[14:19] And you can well imagine the eavesdropping that went on in a patriarchal society. The men are all gathered on their side of the tent.

[14:30] And I'm pretty confident most of the ladies are, at least some of the time, are lined up with their ear to the wall. We know that Abraham was told that God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.

[14:48] This is the Dead Sea. And the Bible tells us that the fire and brimstone came down and consumed everything, and everything was dead.

[15:01] And the Dead Sea is truly dead. There is nothing lives in the Dead Sea at all. It's 32% salt. You all know the story about you can't swim in it, and you can't sink, you float.

[15:23] And Lot and his wife left. And they were told not to look back. And I like this picture. There's a style of art in which forward and backwards are shown together.

[15:39] You can see Lot's wife. She's looking forward, but she's also looking backwards at the same time that she's captured as salt.

[15:52] I can't guarantee that that's Lot's wife. But for me, it's Lot's wife. And then we know the difficulties between Isaac and Ishmael.

[16:11] And Ishmael taunting Isaac and Sarah being very upset. And she asked Abraham to drive Hagar and Ishmael out.

[16:23] And Abraham reluctantly did it. But she was sent away, and she put Ishmael, she was in the desert, she put Ishmael under a shrub, and she said, I can't stand here, I can't bear to see him die.

[16:41] And at that point that God intervened and told her that, yes, her son was going to be the progenitor of a great nation, and that is the Arab people.

[16:53] And the Arab people acknowledge Abraham as their forefather through Ishmael. And of course, if you get into Arab literature, you'll soon find that Isaac was an insignificant son.

[17:07] Sarah was an insignificant wife. The really important wife was Hagar and Ishmael. But of course, that just adds an interest into the controversy that goes on.

[17:20] Now Abraham was told to take his son to a mountain and to sacrifice him there. This is a mosaic in an old synagogue.

[17:34] And you can see in the mosaic in the fore part of it there, you can see the altar with the flame. You can see Abraham there with a knife.

[17:45] He's ready to slay Isaac. He's holding Isaac up there. You can see then behind Abraham a ram caught in some thorns. And you can see the two servants and the donkey that went with Isaac to Mount Moriah.

[18:01] And this is a mosaic that was just recently uncovered about 20 years ago. And it illustrates the story.

[18:11] Sarah died and she was buried in the cave in Hebron. And this building is where Abraham and Isaac's or Abraham and Sarah and I believe Isaac's grave is.

[18:30] Hebron is Palestinian Authority controlled. Israel has maintained little avenues of access to various settlements that are within Hebron.

[18:41] It's a tense area. We had to go up a little access road that the Israeli military contains to get there. It's gated or fenced on each side.

[18:54] It happened to be a Friday. The Muslims and the Jews share this but as it was Friday it was their day and we were as non-Muslims we weren't allowed in.

[19:06] So that's as close as we got to Abraham and Sarah's grave. a servant went back to Mesopotamia to Laban's home to find a wife for Isaac.

[19:31] And you know the story of he asked God that would the woman that drew water from the well and if she also offers to draw water for my camels that is to be the woman and there's Rebecca.

[19:49] And there's a beautiful story told and it's particularly poignant in the message that Rebecca comforted Isaac in the death of his mother.

[20:01] So there we have Isaac on the left and Rebecca on the right. This was a remarkably beautiful girl too.

[20:13] I wished I had gone up a little closer but I thought it was a little bit rude to and to. Now you also know the story of Isaac going out to get wild game to prepare a meal or no Esau rather to prepare a meal for his father before the blessing and the whole subterfuge with Rebecca and Jacob.

[20:48] So he was told to go out and pick two young goats and bring them in and his mother would help prepare them. And then he had to flee Isaac's wrath and Rebecca encouraged him to go as did Abraham.

[21:06] And up over the top of that hill I've already told you the story is Bethel and that's where Jacob spent one of his nights on the way there.

[21:21] And he also found as Peterson translates it a stunningly beautiful woman Rachel but he was also offered Leah first as Laban said the custom is the youngest daughter the eldest daughter gets married first so Jacob had married Leah worked another seven years and got Rachel and he also returned through Shechem and he built an altar there and Jacob also bought land there and down below there's a terrible story of the rape of Dinah one of Jacob's daughters and how his sons all got together and ultimately murdered all of the people in Shechem also off in the distance is Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal and there's a whole story of blessings and curses being talked back and forth between those two mountains you can see them off in the distance there on the way to

[22:37] Bethlehem on the road to Bethlehem Rachel died in childbirth giving birth to Benjamin and they stopped there on their way home and there's the road from Jerusalem to Bethlehem they stopped there and Rachel's tomb is still there today or what is purported to be Rachel's tomb the children of Israel then eventually went down into Egypt and were enslaved and God wanted to free them and he spoke to Moses in a burning bush in the desert of Sinai and there's the whole story there of what Moses was instructed and eventually they were taken out of Israel or out of Egypt rather and led back to Israel and at Mount Sinai Moses climbed that mountain and on top of that mountain you can see a little shrine that's there on the top of that mountain he was given the law the Ten Commandments all the instructions for building the tabernacle and there's a very wonderful model a full-sized model of the tabernacle in the

[23:53] Negev Desert there's a woman there that I think must be the world's authority on the tabernacle I think she was a wonderful knowledgeable person my mouth was open the whole time I couldn't believe what I was hearing we as kids growing up in the brethren assemblies we had all kinds of little talks on the tabernacle we didn't find them interesting and we always assumed that they were for a bygone people this woman gave us the tabernacle as gospel and I I just have it was just one of the most exciting moments of our visit and to see the whole thing in full scale and in situ I mean this could well have been a spot the tabernacle was on I don't know but it certainly looks like it belongs and

[24:53] I had to cut the picture off on the left hand side because if I included more there was some parked cars and they kind of spoiled the illusion but there's the altar there on the left hand side and it's so big and it had to be carried and I said to her how did they carry this and she said well there was 200,000 Levites she said I think four of them maybe just carried it for about 15 minutes and then were spelled off and I said well how did they travel you can't travel without water you have to be drinking water every hour I'd forgotten my Sunday school lesson she said well there was a pillar of cloud over the tabernacle by day and it became a pillar of fire at night and when the pillar of cloud moved you wonder why it moved well God was moving them yes but God was the scout that was going ahead and finding the water because they couldn't exist without water and so all of this was moved this is the holy of holies the the and the tabernacle the chest

[26:05] I took liberties of opening the curtain because you know when Jesus was crucified the veil in the temple was rent from top to bottom so this is a new testament picture I couldn't have gone into the holy of holies I didn't feel right about it because only the high priest was allowed in there once a year but it was a model and we did take a few liberties there's the table of showbread and they had to put twelve loaves of fresh bread on every day the twelve being represented of many things one of which of course is the twelve tribes of Israel and then there is the priest and his garment and then the high priest and his special garment and Maureen has a brooch so after this is over I want you to go and look at the necklace and the candlestick which is now the symbol of

[27:19] Israel the menorah and it was out of one piece of gold it was to have three arms each side this is one of the purported oasis that the children of Israel were in on their way to the promised land this is Elat this is right on the very south of Israel now right at the head of the Gulf of Acapa the Red Sea this is salt water this is the ocean that we're on and we know that the children of Israel did pass through there it's a seaport as well as a resort town for Israel at the present time sorry and they sent the spies in to search out the land and you know the story they were in for 40 days there was 12 of them a representative from each of the tribes of Israel Caleb and Joshua were the only ones that gave positive reports the other 10 said they're too strong for us but they did report it was a land flowing with milk and honey as you say and they brought home a great piece that was so big that two men had to carry it and they said it is full of pomegranates so there's the children some of the children of Israel enjoying the fruits of the promised man now they had they they had a lot of opposition as they traveled north from

[28:55] Elat Edom and Moab the Amorites wouldn't let them pass through they had to make deals with everybody to pass through and you know that happened what around 1200 BC and here it is 2000 plus AD and there's still troubles you can't go up through that area without a lot of difficulties on the Israeli side we're looking across to the Jordan side and as far as I can see the total border is all mine and they tell you there's fences there I got aside and got the fence eliminated but you just are told you can't drive through there it's all mine so it's still a tense area and you heard the story of Balaam and who was asked to curse the Israelites as they traveled north and his donkey that spoke to them and then on the plains of

[30:03] Moab before they went to enter the promised land they had a census and the children of Israel finally reached the Jordan River now where they crossed you can't get to because it's that mine area this is the Jordan River a little further north that we were able to get access to Israel is interesting and visiting there is very interesting because as a child I always pictured the Jordan River as being like the Fraser River and when God dammed it up it was mighty impressive it was mighty impressive you kind of wonder why God really needed to dam it up but nevertheless some people have suggested to me that the Jordan River in the time of Moses was a much bigger river than it is now there is so much water well there's such a larger population and there's so much more water now is taken out of the

[31:11] Jordan River it is a source of water for Israel and of course a huge source of water for Jordan as well Israel gives a designated amount of water every year to Jordan now I'm going to have to move the story along because if we're going to get into Jesus in the time that we got allotted we got to move along but there's David David and Goliath David becoming king there's also the children of Israel taken into exile and then into Babylon and then we have Gabriel visiting Mary and Gabriel visited Mary in Nazareth and told her that she was going to be the mother of Jesus and you know the story of her very positive response and how joyful she was now here's another representation of Gabriel visiting

[32:21] Mary and telling her that she's to be the mother of Jesus and you can see Jesus in her stomach there if you look closely it's not the best picture but you can see now this is an orthodox sort of a catholic representation and I add this little aside if any of you want to travel in Israel the first time I went to Israel I went with a brethren sort of anti-catholic anti-orthodox bias and I saw this sort of thing as catholic and almost well not what good brethren people thought this time I went hopefully I'm a little more mature and when you look at it no it might not be our cup of tea as the expression goes but when you look at it it is a wonderful representation and it is portraying a lot and it's worth sitting and looking and now I can take you out and I can show you the well that they say this is

[33:35] Mary's well in Nazareth and this is where the angel is thought to have visited Mary to make this announcement now I'm also carrying on on some of what you see and what you expect to see we then have the birth of Jesus and of course this is what we would expect to see this is the western art the Christmas card version of how the birth took place when you actually get to the church of the nativity it's a totally different experience this is the church of nativity in Bethlehem and to get into it you have to go through that little door just on the left you have to bend over now there's a whole history of that it was done so that the crusader knights wouldn't ride their horses into the church of nativity and that other things there's other stories that you had to bend over because in that sort of position if you were the wrong person you were a lot easier to accost but you go into the church to nativity and you go down to the grotto and that's where they say

[34:52] Jesus was born so once again I just encourage you yes I have to tell you how I felt about it it wasn't very satisfying not satisfying at all and I don't know whether I personally would bother going back there again but I encourage you to do it unfortunately now tourism is so big in Israel but you probably had to line up for half an hour three quarters of an hour just to get in there and you were only allowed in there for a minute or so before other people push through but that's the way it is now an angel came at the birth of Jesus out to shepherds that were in the field and told them about announced with great joy the birth of the Savior and there's the shepherds joyful going in to see what they had been told and that is the that is western art there's the shepherd's field now there's about four different shepherd's fields but that's one of them and that's just outside

[36:11] Bethlehem and that could well be where the angel came the angel host came to announce the birth Jesus was circumcised after eight days and then when the period of purification required of mothers was up he was taken to the temple in Jerusalem because the firstborn son that the scripture says the firstborn son that opens the womb is holy to the Lord and Jesus was taken to this now it's changed but you're looking at the spot where Jesus was taken to the temple as you know was finally destroyed in 68 AD by the Romans and it's been a Muslim site ever since and that's the dome of the rock it's a it's a

[37:16] Muslim Muslim shrine that's over Mount Moriah the Muslims hold that Mount Moriah is where Mohammed ascended to heaven the Jews hold that Mount Moriah is where Abraham was sent to sacrifice Isaac it's also where the Solomon temple and the Herod's temple were built it is now a Muslim shrine but and non-Muslims now are not allowed in there at all but you can imagine if you will Joseph and Mary ascending these steps with baby Jesus in their arms and they were met by an old man Simeon and Simeon took Jesus in his arms and he was told that he would not see death until he had seen the Savior the Messiah and in addition to Simeon was another old lady

[38:27] Anna she was up in her 80s maybe 90 and she meditated and served in the temple every day and she too was part of this experience of greeting Jesus in the world and you also know about three wise men three scholars came from the east and they inquired of Herod and I like that picture because just off on the right hand side is the wailing wall the Herodian wall of the temple so you know you're on locale and the three wise men also went to worship Jesus now because of that visit Herod then went about a massacre of all the baby boys two years and under in the Bethlehem area and Joseph was told to get to Egypt with the mother and child and after

[39:38] Herod died they were told to go back to Nazareth and now we're now at the Sea of Galilee and the people sitting in darkness have seen a great light and when Jesus started his ministry he left Nazareth and went down to Capernaum and much of his ministry was centered on Capernaum it's where Peter lived Peter's mother there's a house purported to be Peter's mother I don't show pictures of it because it's just foundations and it's really not too illustrative but this is a Catholic or an Orthodox monastery that is in Capernaum I like this picture this is the synagogue in Capernaum and we know that Jesus preached in the synagogue I have to tell you that this synagogue is dated from 400

[40:39] AD it's Byzantine what you're looking at was not there in Jesus' time but they say and I think it's quite plausible that in a small village if you're going to rebuild the church you rebuild it on the foundations of the church that was there in a small village you don't just go and build a new church in another site and so I like to feel that you're at the synagogue not the actual synagogue that Jesus was in but you're in the location where Jesus opened the scrolls and taught the people then as Jesus was going around the lake he saw fishermen fishermen casting their nets and he called them and he said look rather than catching birch and bass

[41:42] I want you to catch I want you to be fishers men and then just up from Capernaum is the hill Jesus went up the hill and sat down and taught the lovely sermon on the mountain blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven and here we are up on the Mount of Beatitudes looking down to the Sea of Galilee below now boats Jesus frequently got in a boat and went across the sea or he got into a boat and pushed out because there was such a crowd of people around as a platform to speak moderately recently they have found remains of a boat in the mud that they date to

[42:53] Herodian time or Jesus time and this is a the boat obviously is just fragments and it doesn't photograph well but this is a model made from that boat and I think it's quite illustrious you can see the hold where they would put fish you can see the fore deck where they would cast the debt and when Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat you see as a kid in Sunday school I was used to a rowboat a little rowboat and I couldn't figure out how Jesus could comfortably sleep in a rowboat but when you see a replica of an actual boat that dates to Jesus time you can see now how all of the disciples could be in the same boat and you could see how Jesus could rest in the back of the boat there's stories that Jesus told about canaries and what is a canary worth just small change but in God's eyes he he's valuable and of course the story is of course is that we're valuable too we also are told about

[44:09] Jesus often went up into a lonely place and one of the lonely places he went up to be away from the sea of Galilee is the feeding of the 5,000 up in hills similar to what you're looking at you can see the sea just off to the left of the picture then there's thunder in the desert the story of John the Baptist and one of his well one of the prophecies is that it was to be thunder in the desert and it's attributed to John the Baptist and then this is Chorazin woe to you Chorazin woe to you Bethsaida if the things that have been done in Tyre and Sidon that have been done in your town

[45:10] Tyre and Sidon would have repented long ago it will be easier on Tyre and Sidon at the judgment day than you in Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum woe to you as well I'm paraphrasing Jesus' words but this is some of the remains of Bethsaida which is just above and this is synagogue in Bethsaida the remains that are there did I say Bethsaida I meant Chorazin and I also visited Bethsaida and Bethsaida is particularly exciting because some of the roads roadways now that they have excavated they date to Herodian times so they are the roads that Jesus walked on and the people would sit on the side of the road and hope to touch his robes and be healed as he went by this is Caesarea Philippi this is one of the most surprising places that we visited

[46:15] Caesarea Philippi is way north getting up close to the foothills of Mount Hermon it's a long walk from Galilee Galilee is 200 feet below sea level we're up around 3,000 feet Jesus walked a long way and strenuous walks we had the pleasure of driving up there but it is here that Jesus asked the disciples who do people say that the son of man is and Peter replied you are the Christ the Messiah and there's this whole exchange and this was one of the most sites that I just wasn't prepared for but it's one of the headwaters of the Jordan River the Jordan River has hardly any catchment area at all the Jordan really is fed by three large springs coming out of Mount

[47:22] Hermon Mount Hermon is just a big limestone mass that the snows of Mount Hermon that you read about in scripture all melt down through and the Jordan River flows out of three springs that are coming out of Mount Hermon eventually Jesus made his way back to Jerusalem and he must have traveled down through the Jordan River because we know that he went through Jericho and had the encounter with Zacchaeus this is the Mount of Olives Bethany and Bethage are just on the other side of the mountain here and this is the mountain that then on Palm Sunday that Jesus descended down into Jerusalem I'm standing taking the picture in the old city we're looking across to the Mount of Olives and you say well it's all white well it's all graves why is that because the

[48:27] Jews believe that Messiah is going to come first is going to come to earth on the Mount of Olives and they want to be buried on the Mount of Olives because they will be the first to see Messiah now you kind of smile about that and that's a nice story but why do we build our churches facing east we build our churches facing east because in the medieval period the tradition started because we would see the light of the second coming so we we have more of these traditions than we realize and they are important to us now this is what Jesus would have seen as he walked down the Mount of Olives the Dome of the Rock was not there but you are looking at some of the walls of the Temple

[49:29] Mount that Jesus would have seen and the Temple would have been where the Golden Dome is now when he entered into the Temple one of the first things he did was get rid of all the money changers and the people buying and selling goods there's the whole story of the cleansing of the temple then they went out for a Passover feast and Jewish tradition says you rest on your arm and your left arm and you enjoy the Passover feast so there's a little Sabbath supper or Shabbat as they would call it Shabbat supper that we enjoyed when we were in Jerusalem and it's a lovely little ceremony of eating and blessing blessing one another and prayers and worship it's all tied up in one wonderful meal then after supper they went out to

[50:38] Gethsemane and there's some very old trees that are still olive trees that are still in the area of Gethsemane Jesus was eventually arrested and taken to Pilate I've shown you that stone because the second line on the right hand side you can see the name Pilate P-I-L-A-T-U-S Pilate scholars this is a very important stone because it's actual archaeological evidence and of course scholars really like archaeological evidence written evidence you know the gospels you know I'm talking about high criticism circles but when you actually get archaeological evidence of what the bible is telling you it really is quite reinforcing but there's evidence of

[51:45] Pilate as they say chiseled in stone and then Jesus was made to carry us cross out to Golgotha and this is repeated regularly by groups the Via Della Rosa that you've heard of large groups come regularly and carry a cross and reenact this final walk of the Lord and he was taken to Golgotha which means a skull a place of the skull now I'm going to show you this and then I'll have to digress and show you something alternate this is not the traditional site of Calvary and the tomb it's called the Garden Tomb and it's moderately recently known within the last 150 years but

[52:49] I think for most of us here this is a very satisfying Calvary a place of the skull I think you can see the skull and it fits the main road is behind us and the walls of Jerusalem are behind us and the Romans would have made an example out of Jesus Jesus wasn't just taken to a remote place where nobody could see it they wanted everybody on the main road to see what happened if you transgressed Roman authority and there's Jesus was placed by Joseph of Arimathea in a newly cut tomb in the rock where no one had been now I digress a little bit there's the church of the holy sepulcher this is the traditional site of Calvary and there's a whole story here that I don't think

[53:52] I have time to tell you but I will just take you in there is Calvary and there's a woman it's quite dark in there it's hard to get a picture there's a woman in green leaning down and she's actually putting her hand in a socket in the stone where the cross was raised Morian and I went there and I put my hand in the stone and I respect it I did find the garden tomb a lot more satisfied but I tell you this and there inside is the tomb that Jesus was buried in the line up to get in there was an hour or more long but first thing on Sunday morning after the Sabbath Mary Magdalene came and the other Mary they came at Daybreak to the tomb to keep vigil and when they arrived there there was an angel and the angel said he's not here he is risen and there's the empty tomb and

[55:09] Jesus told Mary to tell the disciples to go to Galilee and he would meet them there so they went to Galilee and this is the traditional spot where Jesus met the disciples and had a meal of fish and spoke to them in the story of Jesus asking Peter Peter do you love me and the three times that that story was asked if you do feed my sheep and then there's the ascension and the great commission going into all the hope and preach the gospel and lo I will be with you to the end of the age and then we have Pentecost and Jerusalem was full of Jewish people from all over the world and they heard the

[56:11] Pentecost story all in their own language there's a lot of negroid Jewish people Yemenites Ethiopians they all the Ethiopians of course traced their Jewishness back to the Queen of Sheba who supposedly carried Solomon's child but that's another whole story and then the prophecies your young men I believe will dream dreams your children your sons and daughters will prophesy your old men will dream dreams and then

[57:30] Peter and John going to the temple and the beggar accosting them and they said silver and gold have I none but they did tell them about the risen Lord and then there's the story of Stephen Stephen the first martyr this is Stephen's gate in Jerusalem and this is the traditional site that Stephen was taken out and probably stoned traditionally stoned about where I'm standing and then there's the story of Paul or Saul rather and his conversion on the road to Damascus which is just over the hills there then there's the story of Joppa Peter and Joppa in the house of Simon the

[58:30] Tanner and he had a dream in which the piece of cloth was lowered from heaven with clean and unclean animals and he was told to kill and eat also it's in Joppa at the home of Simon the Tanner that Cornelius servants came down and asked Peter to go to Caesarea and tell Cornelius about the Messiah about the gospel and there's many other things I could tell you but paraphrase Hebrews there are so many more things that I could tell you but time is getting short I just I could tell you about Dan about Jeroboam setting up an alternate altar to the temple in Jerusalem setting up the golden calf this is the altar in Dan that has been recently excavated and they put a framework of the altar in there just so that you could see it but this is where

[59:49] Baal worship the golden calf all started in Israel up in Dan and we're on the border with Syria Israel fought many battles to first of all to gain the land to subdue the Canaanites and Israel continues to fight this is the Valley of Tears and one of the largest tank battles in history took place here in the Yom Kippur War there were so many tanks 400 Syrian tanks down below us that they were running into one another and apparently the story is they were side by side they couldn't turn their turrets their guns and they all got confused with Israeli and there's quite a story and of course you're talking about some may ask me how is the

[61:00] Palestinian question going to be resolved this happened on Yom Kippur which is the holiest day in the Jews for the Jewish nation and Syrians came across with 400 tanks to be met by 40 Israeli tanks and you know if you read about this story God won't get a lot of credit but if you want my opinion I think God helped the 40 Israeli tanks just as he helped Israel all through the peace and I believe yes I'd like to end the demonstration on a positive note okay okay uh sufficient to take out hill a holy that y s y put to everybody in a h n other