Jerusalem walking

Field Study 2: Jerusalem walking

In this field study and this past week I have been amazed at the history and the stories that are connected to Jerusalem. There is an incredible amount of stories and history wrapped up in and among the places and people of Jerusalem.  The question, ‘where have you put your trust?’ was a question that kept on recurring to me throughout the day.

            At church on Saturday I had the opportunity to talk with a lady that has come to Jerusalem from Mexico. Her story and her trust that God is leading her is incredible. It seems that everyone that I have met has a story. And many of them come to Jerusalem trusting that God is leading them.

2 Chronicles 32:7-8

  “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him.  With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.”

            It isn't new. I've been learning that often nothing is new here. The conflicts over land have been conflicts that have gone on over 'that' piece of land for the past five thousand years. The clashes between the different groups of people are the clashes between the 'same' groups of people that have been going on for the past thousands of years.  Holy places are built where other holy places previously have been, and roads follow the same paths.  People and nations are tempted and struggle with the same things.  And God pursues his people again and again.

Psalm 121

A song of ascents.

1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—    where does my help come from?

2 My help comes from the Lord,

 the Maker of heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot slip—

    he who watches over you will not slumber;

4 indeed, he who watches over Israel

    will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord watches over you—

    the Lord is your shade at your right hand;

6 the sun will not harm you by day,

    nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord will keep you from all harm—

    he will watch over your life;

8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going

    both now and forevermore

            We started off the morning by going into the old city. After the war of independence there was an opportunity to do a salvage dig because all of the residents of that part of the city were not there for a period of time. In the process of this they uncovered some things that have shaped our picture about Jerusalem and the events that have gone on around there. One of these was the 'broad wall'. Although there is still debate on the size of ancient Jerusalem, we know that Hezekiah ruled there when Sennacherib king of Assyria came to attack.  In a frantic effort to protect themselves from the sweeping conquest of Assyria, he had all the springs dammed up, the wall fortified and another wall build.

This sign was found by boys from Bishop Gobat's School,
the Anglican school for boys was located where JUC is now
until the war of independence.

This wall, the broad wall, was a wall that literally cut through houses. The edges built up with large stones and the middle filled with rubble and smaller stone. Maybe the people, hearing how Sennacherib was systematically take out all of the other cities, desperately threw the stones from their houses on the walls hoping that maybe they could escape with their lives.

Yet, it wasn’t this wall that save the people of Israel. It wasn’t that fact that the Assyrians no longer had access to the springs in the surrounding area but Hezekiah’s faith and persistence that God was the only one who could protect His people. It was Hezekiah crying out to God to deliver them, and God slaying many of the Assyrians that night they were camped outside Jerusalem’s walls.

From there we went to look at Hezekiah’s water system. Before we went done into the tunnel, we climbed up to the top and looked out over what was once David’s city. The oldest part of Jerusalem and the part that is believed to have had David’s palace built there. From on top we could see the Kidron valley along the east of the hill, the Tyropoeon valley ran the length of the other side. These defended the city of David from the east, south and west leaving the most vulnerable point to the North.  Directly north of the city of David stood the temple mount. A threshing floor that had David bought, a Holy place for people to gather. A place believed to be the place where Abraham trusted God when he was told to sacrifice his son.  Maybe this is the place that David had in mind when he wrote a Psalm of praise, maybe he had his eyes on the mountain that protected the city to the east and the west and realized that the only one he could put his trust in fully was the Lord.

John 9:27 He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”

            The idea of trusting God came up again when considering the two stories of Jesus healing the blind man (John 9) and Jesus healing the man at the pool of Bethsaida. The man in John 9 displays incredible trust in Jesus when he poses the question to the Pharisees, “Do you want to become his disciples too?” Earlier Jesus’ explanation to the disciples about this man’s disability, that it wasn’t sin that caused it, but that it was so that God might be glorified through it. That makes sense, and that explanation for the bad things that happen is what I had been familiar with growing up.

John 5:14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”

But then we encounter another story, the healing of the man at the pool of Bethsaida in John chapter 5.  Just four chapters earlier and it seems as if Jesus’ approach is completely different.  It was helpful to hear about the remains of the Aesculaptic cult that were found nearby. The cult of Aesculapium was a cult to a Greek god of healing. It was particularly popular among soldier, and on this side of Jerusalem, with the Antonium nearby, there was no shortage of soldiers. Jesus asked this man who was sick for 38 years if he wants to get well. Instead of answering yes or no, he refers back to an idea that the first one who gets into the pool after it is stirred will be made well. Jesus still heals him and later confronts him the temple. Maybe this man, how wasn’t impaired from birth, had his trust in the wrong spot. Maybe he had more trust in the myths and healing practices of the cult just north of the temple instead of God.

Interesting thought!

We were taught that the temple was destroyed by fire. Because the temple was built of limestone, which tends to be a porous rock, the Romans placed a pile of burnable stuff (trees, wood, ect.) against the walls and got out of the way. As the fire got hotter it caused the water in the rocks to expand and explode throwing rock off of rock.  What was left to do was simply use levers to push the remaining rocks off of the temple mount to the streets below.

We made a stop at the base of the temple mount. There is an extensive archaeological site there where they have uncovered the southern steps and many buildings. We saw some mikvahs and briefly talked out them.  On the larger ones the people would actually enter on the one side and leave on the other. It makes me wonder.  Did people put their trust in this massive temple? A temple that would be destroyed by human hands?  Was it their rituals and purity that comforted them?

         At the corner of the temple mount they have found the place where the trumpeter would sound and blow the horn. We considered this and wondered maybe this was the place where Christ stood while the devil tempted him to jump off. Even after fasting for 40 days, weak, hungry and being so close to death he was able to put his trust in his Father, and rebuke the devil once more.

 Matthew 23:37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you 

were not willing. 38 Look, your house is left to you desolate.

 From sitting on the southern stairs we considered Jesus’ word to the Jews. The list of warnings included many images that can be seen from the steps of the temple. The white washed tombs covered the hill to the east. The rules and regulations the ruling priests of the temple had kept people at a distance from God, while their own lifestyle didn’t measure up.  Jesus ends it off with a plea. Echoing what the prophet Isaiah spoke to the people of Israel about a hen gathering her chicks under her wings. Looking south from the steps of the temple, two mountain ranges come together protecting and shelter Jerusalem which is on a slightly lower mountain, the Mount of Olives to the East and the Watershed Ridge to the right.

The two mountain ranges meeting south of Jerusalem

 Maybe this is God’s way of pleading out to us to trust him, to let him be the one who will gather us up like a hen gather’s her chicks. It raises the question in my heart, what do I put my trust in? Have I put more trust in the defenses I can build up or the superstitions that don’t even realize we hold to.  Have I put my trust in what I can accomplish by my own will?

Just some fun stuff

Life is going well here. School has started, most classes are in full swing, and it's the holidays already.

The weather has been beautiful and predictable, about 30 during the day and down to  around 20 at night and a breeze that picks up in the afternoon.  

I found this little guys by a window (on the outside) the other day. They are pretty cool looking, I've seen a couple, but they are fairly quick when they want to be. 

Last night was the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, or feast of trumpet. Some of went out and around, it was interesting seeing everything shut down. The old city seemed very empty! We went to the western wall expecting to see a crowd, but there wasn't many people there either. I guess most of them celebrate it with their families at home. But it looked really cool!

The first one is looking out towards the Mount of Olives (the dark areas are the cemeteries)

Looking back towards the temple mount

This morning we did some baking. It was fun. We made Challah bread with apples in it for Shabbat tomorrow and some cakes for this evening. It was fun braiding it, I really didn't have a method other than trying to weave it together sort of. 

And to end off for tonight.... A fun geography fact :) 

So the Hinnom valley is right next to J.U.C. and the Hinnom Valley is also known as Gehenna. 

Gehenna is translated into English (from Greek I think) as 'Hell'. 

It is a fun play on words :) 

Old City Walk

So classes have started and things are getting going.  One of the classes that I get to take this semester is Physical Settings of the Bible. We started class on Sunday with a walk in the old city. For each field study that we do we will have to write an 'impression report'. The format is flexible so I thought that I could write it so that others could read it as well.  I have added pictures for fun too!

Walking the Old city gives a completely different perspective from simply looking at the maps and seeing the pictures. Outside the city it looks large, the hills and valleys are still quite visible and the structures are relatively new. Inside the city things change. The buildings look much older and in the Jewish Quarter one ancient ‘Cardo’ has been excavated and sits nestled into the modern market. The Old city is packed together; the streets are built up, down and around everything. Stairs are common in the ‘streets’ to adapt to the steep landscape on which the city was built. Scents from the many small shops mingle together in the street, people come and go from the shops, carts, and the odd truck, squish through the narrow space.

We started off thinking about the rock that we came from.  The study of geography is connected to the Bible in significant ways, the only thing is, is that we do not yet understand the geography. Walking around Jerusalem is the best way to soak in the geography that now surrounds us. Feeling the descent and the rise as we crossed over to the other side of the Hinnom valley was the first part. It brought us to the top of a hill, part of the watershed ridge, from which we could look back across at Jerusalem and the school.

Picking out land marks, and getting our bearings is something that we will have to get used too.  We identified some steeples and the windmill, which we were then standing in front of, that will help us find our way back to where we belong.  It reminds me of something greater, as a metaphor for life, we have land marks; we have things that we look for those bring us back to where we belong. We have traditions, people and events that remind of where we have come from and what direction we need to go to get back home. Yet just like landmarks, they require us to look at them and observe them in order for them to be effective.

After getting our bearing we headed back to the wall, we talked about where cities are built. They are built on a solid foundation, on the edge of a valley so that the rock can help protect them from enemies, and in a place that is connected to other places.

“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness
    and who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut
    and to the quarry from which you were hewn;

Isaiah 51:1

 

From there we headed into the city, down to the ‘Cardo’, the ancient marketplace. This was the main street of Jerusalem.  Then we went up to a place where we could look out over the temple. The temple mount, not the highest mountain in the region, yet it is the mountain that has been the site for the temple or holy place since the time of Abraham.  On the top of this mountain there used to be a threshing floor which was bought from Araunah the Jebusite (2 Chr. 3:1). Threshing floors and such places were connected with being blessed by God, and this place has been blessed by God.

After looking over the temple we went a little higher onto the roof tops. A couple interesting facts about public spaces and how roof tops are public in the city. Here we further discussed how the rocks we grow up on shape who we are and who we become. Looking back to our own lives, how the places where we grew up have shaped us to who we have become. For me coming from an agricultural community has shaped the way that I appreciate the patterns of weather or noticing or such. My family and community have instilled values and priorities in me both good and not so good.

In the same way Israel was placed in a land, on rocks and that is shaped who they are.  The rocks here produce just enough to live on. Year to year they rely on the rain and the blessings from God to let their crops grow.  But nearby lived the Philistines, nearby was an international trade route where excess was common.  We read Psalm 73 and thought about how it matters where we look. We can look out to the people around us, who seem to have it so easy and good, or we can look the other way, to the rock that God has place us on, to the rock where God established his temple, and remember where God has brought us from and where he is leading us.

One last stop for our afternoon: the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the place believed to be the site where Jesus was crucified and buried. This was fitting for today as early today in church the sermon was about Rosh Hashanah and how we are to remember. There is a tradition that remembers the creation of the world and man on Rosh Hashanah. Inside the church there is a chapel of Adam.  On the orthodox pictures of Christ on the cross always has a skull and cross bones in a hole at the base of the cross. This is to represent Adam who they believe was buried at the same site where Jesus was much later crucified. Whether it is true or not it is a beautiful picture of the second Adam dying to set the first Adam free. (Matthew 27:51-54) There is a crack in the bed rock behind the glass that they believe also came from this event.

Israel: Day 1

Arrived in Israel!

So I have arrived. The flight was long, the layover longer, but it was good. I left from Toronto Wednesday evening and arrived at the Warsaw Airport Thursday morning. I then had a 14 hour layover in Poland. The Poland airport isn't that big, and I don't speak Polish, so I got lots of reading done and some sleeping too. It was fairly relaxing. They have a room that is for relaxing. It has more comfortable chair and the repetitive announcements that all airports have are not broad-casted in there! 

 

After Poland it was a shorter flight to Tel Aviv and then an inter-city shuttle to get to Jerusalem. 

I arrived fairly early and have spent the day settling in and getting familiar with where things are. And taking a nap that ended up being five hours long instead of only one.....

This is the view from my room. That is a pomegranate tree that is there and some other citrus trees as well. I haven't figured out what they all are yet.

I have my own room, and it is a fairly large room as well! here are a couple pictures.

Blessings from Israel!

Israel! 3 days til depature

Israel!

So I have had this blog for a while, but I have been very inconsistent in keeping it updated. But in a couple days I'm going to be much further away and I have heard from many people that they would like to know what is going on and how things are going. So I'm going to make more of an effort to keep this updated on what is happening, what I am learning and what God is doing in my life.

I'm getting excited! I don't know everything that is in store and I definitely have a lot to get done before I leave. I have to pack most of my stuff still (once it is unpacked from being at camp), appointments, I get to go to my sister's midwife appointment and probably hear the baby :) , and get last minute things done!

I fly on Wednesday evening and will arrive in Israel early Friday morning. I have a layover in Poland for about 13 hours.

I'm excited to see where God is leading me. He has been faithful in many ways and I trust that He is working everything together for His glory!

*Also, after Wednesday, I will no longer have the cell phone that I have had. The number will no longer be mine. I will be available through Skype, Facebook, or Snail Mail!

For now.... I should be packing....

Enter God's Rest

As I was reading this morning this passage caught my attention,

Hebrews 4:6-11

⁶ Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, ⁷ God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted:

“Today, if you hear his voice,
    do not harden your hearts.”^[d]

⁸ For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. ⁹ There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; ¹⁰ for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works,^[e] just as God did from his.¹¹ Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.

It is about entering God's rest and the Sabbath day. In the proceeding verses the author of Hebrews outlines that God created the Sabbath and because of some of the Israelite's disobedience the were not permitted to enter in to God's rest, but that has been changed, God has opened up the way to His rest and has declared that it is Today.
Maybe this is trying to remind us that if we will let God speak to us and are willing to hear his voice we don't have to caught up in the overwhelming busyness of life. We will not be saved by what we do, but rather we can rest because God has shown us grace.
To go a little further, maybe because we are God's people we have the privilege of participating  in God's rest everyday. We are reminded that it is by grace that we are saved and we don't have to continue to strive for what we cannot attain.

The Next Chapter

So a lot has happened over the past while and I am in a place where I am looking forward to what is to come. Eager anticipation is probably the best way to describe it.
This spring I will have completed four years at Redeemer studying Youth Ministry. I am excited for that. It has been a good four years, the classes and profs have been great. The community is definitely something that I will miss. I am looking forward to my final semester that is coming up and the classes that I get to take. I'm sure that it will teach me even more and will be good.
This past spring I had the opportunity to travel to Israel for a two week study tour. It was with 'That the World May Know Ministries'. It was an amazing trip. I learned so much and saw many different places that brought the scriptures to life. The places, the people, the culture, it all is intricately woven together to create the Bible that we study.
After returning home I started to entertain the idea that I could go to school in Israel. I had heard of a school in Jerusalem and so  I looked into it a little. The programs sounded really interesting.
I tucked the idea away for a while. I wanted to make sure I wasn't thinking about it just because we had a good time in Israel so I didn't say anything to anyone until at least a couple months later, but a couple months later I was still thinking about it, and kind of excited about it.
Through much prayer and consideration I continued to look at going to school in Jerusalem as an option. I talked with people around me and everywhere I looked it made sense to at least apply to go. The only thing that continues to nag at me is the fact that I can't see exactly where this is going to lead to.
In late October early November I completed the application and sent it in. I wasn't that long before I got a package back in the mail that included an acceptance letter. Along with the acceptance letter was a set of maps and a couple books that I get to go through before I go to Jerusalem in September.

So for now I have to get a bunch of paper-work in order, work through the books and continue to get excited about what God has in store. 

In the mean time I will complete one more semester at Redeemer (I'm really looking forward to the classes I get to take), graduate in May and find somewhere to work for the summer. 

I am looking forward to this next chapter, seeing what all God has in store and where this might lead me too.