Why, hello there! Fancy meeting you here. Since we’ve bumped into each other, I’d like to share a thing or two about our day today.
We started out with a brief tour of Temple Mount. It is an incredible place with an incredible history. Currently it is under Muslim control with the Jordanians being the ones in charge and not the Palestinians. This used to be the place where the Jewish Temple resided. This place, this mountain, this area has an incredible history that dates back to Abraham. Maybe you’ve heard of Mt. Moriah? If not, check it out in the Old Testament. The people of God have been here for more than a couple centuries, and one day they’ll have it back.
From there, we went toward and viewed the Eastern Gate of Jerusalem. This is the nearest gate to the Temple Mount (and the oldest of Jerusalem’s old gates) and was blocked up by Sultan Suleiman of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. He blocked this gate because of the Jewish tradition that the Messiah would come through this gate. The Divine Presence used to appear through this gate and will do so again when the Messiah returns (Ezekiel 44:1-3).
We toured some more of Jerusalem seeing a couple other gates, the Pool of Bethsaida, and St. Anne’s Cathedral. We saw parts of the Via Dolorosa (stations of the cross), too.
After lunch, we walked through a couple different sections of the old city and wound up at the tomb of King David (yes, that King David … the one who ruined Goliath’s fun) and the Upper Room.
Finally, we were able to experience the places that we read about in Luke 22-24. Go ahead … read it … you won’t be disappointed, and then you’ll want to travel here in 2015.
Finally (yes, again), listen to these words from Stan Pegram as he talks through some of what happened in the Scripture I told you to read above.
Stan talks about a portion of Jesus’ last hours. from BMZ TV on Vimeo.
Until tomorrow … which is our last day here.