Day 2 Old Testamen Jerusalem Walk

Day 2 Old Testament Jerusalem Walk

The lecture today on the Land Between being a testing ground for faith was enlightening. The land was perfectly situated to be a land that would have to have God to both give it and keep it.  All the surrounding nations were much more powerful than Israel…so God would have to fight the battles in order to achieve victory.  Although the land was shielded geographically on 3 sides, the Northern arena was vulnerable… God would have to be the strong tower there and be Protector. Would He be dependable? He had said He would fight their battles.  And then the necessary water was in very small supply… Israel would need to trust God to be the Provider of rain and good crops. He had promised blessing for obedience.  Would He be enough?  A sure test of our faith today is to believe that our God is able to do all that He says He will do and that it will be enough. (Beth)

(Ted) Elaine’s sharing of Psalm 121 from the balcony overlooking the foundations of David’s Palace gave new meaning to the setting of the song.  I am not sure it was written at that spot but I could envision David looking around at the surrounding hills as he wrote the song. As a song of ascent, I envisioned voices echoing over these valley as pilgrim walked to the city on the mountain. The steep angle of the valley helps us understand how David walking on the roof of his palace in the evening could see a woman bathing in a home perched on the slope of the Kidron valley below him.

My daughter shared with us her amazing 2004 trek through Hezekiah’s tunnel. So I came to the tunnel with all these ideas of what the journey would be like. Charles Warren, discoverer of the tunnel, writes of his four-hour trip, squeezing and crawling through the narrow tunnel by candle light.  The candle went out part way through and the rest of the journey was traversed in darkness.  We used flashlights as our only source of light, as the dream became reality.  It makes me think of heaven when anticipation, imagination and written record will become existential reality.  As others in our group stated, We marveled that the tunnel that was dug by two teams of excavators, starting at different ends of the task, mining through solid rock with iron tools would meet in the middle. It was definitely a God thing, a blessing.  In order for the water to run from the Gihon Spring under the wall into the city, the floor of the cave had to be sloped slightly and have no major dips.  The high ceiling on the city side made me feel some-what normal--there are others who accomplish tasks by trial and error engineering.  They had to lower the floor repeatedly to get the water to flow.

 

I appreciated the John 9 comments on “light”. When Jesus says "I am the light of the world" he identifies himself as the source of spiritual light, the miracle of regeneration. The blind man, who was in perpetual darkness, will see the light by the sheer grace of a merciful Savior.  The blind man’s faith was demonstrated by his arduous walk from the temple mount down a set of extensive steps to the pool of Siloam in order to wash the spittle mud from his eyes.  We walked on a portion of those steps which have been excavated underneath an Arab neighborhood. 

Siloam means “sent”, John used a play on words: Jesus sends the blind man to wash his eyes, and God sent his Son to heal us. Healing the blind is an Old Testament miracle sign which would identify the Messiah. It is an exclusive sign for it had never been accomplished by anyone before Jesus heals the blind.  Isa. 29:18 “out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.” Isa. 35:5 “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened… Isa. 42:6-7 “I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind.” (NIV)