The Jewish Quarter

MAY 16, 2012

Today we explored the Jewish quarter of the Old City. Early this morning, we began our day up on the rooftops of the buildings in the Jewish marketplace.

Dr. Laney read to us from the Book of Ezekiel and we remembered God’s words of warning to the city of Jerusalem and His promise to make a new covenant with His people one day. As we listened to the scripture, the view of the city from our rooftop was spectacular. In one direction was the Dome of the Rock, the central place of worship for the Muslims. In the other direction was a beautiful Christian church with a steeple that rose high above all the other buildings. Fathers walked their children to school and Jewish men walked to work reading the Torah out loud as they strolled down the narrow streets.

As a group, we are keenly aware of the cultural and religious divisions that have portioned this city into separate worship quarters. And yet there is something unifying about their collective yearning for God and their reverence for His Holiness. Everyday we pray for peace here, and we seek to be instruments of God’s peace as we walk past the residents and greet them with a kind word or a smile.

After climbing down from the roof we made our way through the streets of the Jewish quarter, stopping at various points to examine the excavations of sites from the days of King Hezekiah. We came to one uncovering of the Wide Wall, which was built in the days when the King was seeking to fortify the city against Assyrian attack. At every sight, we pause to read the scripture and remember the historical events as God recorded them in His Word. It’s been said that the Land of Israel is the 5^th gospel, which is read as you walk through the land and experience it personally. Indeed, there is something divinely powerful about reading the Living Word while gazing upon the actual sights.

Together we walked upon the top of the wall that once surrounded the ancient city of David and then crossed the street to visit the archeological excavation of David’s palace. This is now a state park where many visitors come to see the uncovering of the massive stones that have been unearthed in this area. As a special surprise, the much lauded archeologist herself paused to greet us just as Dr. Laney was beginning to explain the significance of her work to our group. Her name is Eilat Mazar and she has made a tremendous contribution to the archeological discoveries of the Bible by identifying this particular dig as the actual palace of David. Until now this site was merely named as a “large stone structure” until she was able to uncover enough evidence to proclaim it as David’s Grand Palace. We had fun standing near the outer walls of his once regal dwelling and looking at the roof tops of the houses below, imaging what Bathsheba looked like bathing in the moonlight. I will never be able to teach that story again without recalling this vision from his palace view.

However, the highlight of today was yet to come. We left the digs and worked our way down the hill, past David’s tomb and then into the opening of Hezekiah’s tunnel.  It was a brave journey to wander into the darkened tunnel, filled with water up to our knees at times. The passage was narrow and cramped. For 45 minutes we crawled through the tunnel imagining the many men who had furiously labored to chip away at the stone from each end of the mountain seeking to provide water for the city from the Gihon spring as the Assyrians were preparing to lay siege to Jerusalem and starve the people out of the city. At one point, we arrived at the very place where the two ends of the tunnel came together. This was a true miracle of God as each of the digging parties would have had no way of truly discerning how to make the two ends of the tunnel meet without His divine guidance.

When we came out at the other end…(I have a new experience regarding the joy of “seeing the light at the end of the tunnel”) we sat beside the pool of Siloam and read the story of Jesus healing the blind man in John 9. Then we journeyed up another long steep and narrow tunnel, which was once used as the sewer system in the ancient city. This was also the passage that the priests used to carry the water from the pool of Siloam to the temple.

Finally we reentered the city through the Dung Gate (the main entrance to the Jewish quarter) and headed back to the university for a welcome 4.5 hours of “seated” classroom instruction. Truly I have never climbed so many stairs in my life! I don’t know how the elderly or the disabled make it around this city. I am just praising God for giving me the necessary spiritual/emotional zeal and physical strength to enjoy every moment of this wonderful journey.

Tomorrow we will be exploring the Muslim quarter of the city and enjoy a special opportunity to walk through the tunnels that reside under the Western Wailing wall. Wont you join me?