On this, our first full day of touring, we left at 8:30 AM after a full breakfast buffet. The beautiful Olive Tree Hotel is built on the line of the pre-1967 six-day war that marked the line between East Jerusalem (Palestinian) and Israeli (Jewish) – since 1967 Israel controls East Jerusalem. The hotel is walking distance from Old City. We drove past the Jaffa Gate on the west side of the walled old city, along the Hinnom Valley (in Biblical days the garbage dump, always smoldering – now a rock concert site), six miles to Bethlehem, the distance now filled in with modern building. We saw to our left one of the new Israeli settlements, Har Homa, (population now 40,000) in the West Bank, and this began our exposure to the separation issues. At the 30’ high Wall check point we were refused entrance into the West Bank by the Israeli security. Why? Aladin, our guide, says it seems indiscriminant, since in an hour or two we may get passed through. If our guide and driver were not both Israeli Arabs, would it have made a difference? The fact we were Americans, I thought, would help the cause, but it obviously didn’t. This was the first of our introduction to the sad reality of Israeli – Palestinian stand off. Eddie, our bus driver, took us around back way into the West Bank and we saw impressive steep, tall hills that had been terraced for olive trees since Biblical days. On a smaller road inside the West Bank we had rocks thrown at us by an angry young man. Why? Perhaps because our bus has Israeli license plates – no damage, but again a realization of the anger between peoples, since most all Palestinians are not allowed entrance into Jerusalem He drove us through the Christian town of Bet Jalla, which is just NW of Bethlehem.
Whereas Bethlehem is mostly Muslim, Bet Jalla is home to seven Christian churches (including Lutheran, with school) and in this present era they are really struggling to keep Christians from moving out. We first went to visit the Shepherd’s Field, where the Angel announced to those abiding in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night, that in Bethlehem the Christ Child was born, to be found in a humble and out of the way manger. Aladin showed us the ruins of the Byzantine Nativity church, established as one of Helena’s sacred sites in the 4th century. Soon after her son, Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in323 AD, he sent his mother on a mission to locate from the local people the sites of Jesus’ birth and death. Because of this quick action we have preserved these ancient sites. We were all struck by the steep hills of the area, and the outcropping of rocks everywhere. The limestone creates caves and hollow outs, and it is one of we entered into and read the accounts of the shepherds who found the Christ child and praised the Lord for this wondrous act. We read scripture, sang a carol, then went up the hill to the Chapel of the Shepherds. Designed by the Italian Barluzzi, it has beautiful paintings of the angel announcing to the shepherds, the shepherds going to visit the Christ child, and returning tell everyone what they saw. The acoustics are great and we sang “The First Noel”.
We then went into the Church of the Nativity, along with hundreds of Nigerian Christians and many other pilgrims and tourists from around the world. As with many of the historic sacred sites built upon by Helena in the 300’s, this one also was destroyed when the Persians/Muslims overtook the area in the 600’s. Some, like this church, are later Crusader era edifices. This has the distinctive small/low door cut into the large wooden entrance doors, so that soldiers on horses cannot ride into the Sanctuary. We had to move through a slow line to step down into a lower room built on a rock that signifies the cave area signifying the birth of Christ. Directly above the cave is the chancel of the Orthodox Church. Even though it is ornate, filled with icons, gold gild and long chained candles, it has the majesty of Christ for the world. We then stopped at Nissan Bros. Gift Shop for lunch and then shopping for olive wood crèches, crosses, and much more.
Driving back into Jerusalem, Aladin took us to the Hass Promenade. This is a large viewing area from the south looking dramatically north and up at the Temple Mount, with the Kidron Valley to the east, and the Hinnom/Gehenna Valley to the west. The city code requires exclusive use of Jerusalem limestone on all exteriors, so this unique city is all brightly colored cream white – very striking!
We concluded the day with a visit to the The Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum, which houses many of the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as the Holy Land model of Jerusalem at time of Herod’s Temple. This model was recently moved from a private site, and now more people than ever see it at this site. Though the weather turned windy and cloudy, we so enjoyed seeing the layout of the Jerusalem area in this 50:1 scale model that stretched 30 feet wide and at least 50 feet long. The unique roof of The Shrine of the Book museum is shaped like the lid of the ancient jars that held the scrolls found in 1947 by a shepherd. They comprise most all of Hebrew Scriptures and especially Isaiah. They emphasize the belief that the Sons of Light will face the final battle against the Sons of Darkness. They speak of the coming Messiah, and call on obedience and spiritual discipline. Coming up on Saturday we actually will go to the Qumran community site along the Dead Sea.
In His Service,
Randy
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