Day 8

East Gate and Grave Yard............Palm Sunday Road

Garden of Gethsemane..... Hezekiah's tunnel

Pool of Siloam.............................Southern Steps of Temple Mount

South wall of Temple Mount....... Herodian Stone

April 2, 2008

Bible Study Theme: “Let the Lord’s will be done in my heart.”

Places Visited:

Jerusalem
Mount of Olives
Golden Gate
Palm Sunday road
Gethsemane
Hezekiah’s Tunnel
Pool of Siloam
Southern Steps of Temple Mount

We ascended to Jerusalem today! You say that you are ascending to Jerusalem even if you are coming here from Mt Everest, because you are coming to the home of the Most High God! We drove in on the road from Jericho and had to stop at a security check point before entering the city. From here we could see the large security wall being built around the city. There was much excitement and anticipation as we made our way to the Lords Holy City.
Our first stop was a look out over the city. As we got out of the bus we noticed that it was quite chilly outside. After taking in the beautiful view of Jerusalem we headed to the Mount of Olives! It is fixed on a hill facing the East Gate of Temple Mount.
The East Gate is known by many names. In Christian literature it is called the Golden Gate. Jews would pray for mercy at this gate so it is commonly referred to as the Mercy Gate. In Arabic, it is known as the Gate of Eternal Life and in ancient times, the gate was known as the Beautiful Gate. The important thing to note is, the gate faces east from Temple Mount and prophecy foretells that the Messiah will enter the Temple and set up His throne by way of the East Gate (Ezekiel 43:4).
It was prophesied by Ezekiel about 2500 years ago, that the East Gate would be sealed, not be opened and no man may enter by it (Ezekiel 44:1-2). About 2000 years after this prophecy the East Gate was sealed up with brick and mortar by decree of Sultan Suleiman “the Magnificent” leader of the Ottomans Empire in 1543. Suleiman may have intended to prevent Messiah’s return, but by sealing the gate, a Muslim fulfilled a Hebrew prophecy. The Turks also placed a grave yard in front of the gate, believing that the Messiah would not walk on a grave site and risk impurity. This would also stop anyone from pretending to be the Messiah, as Jews will not walk on graves.
We learned that the gate was nearly opened twice. In 1917 during World War I a Bible believing Christian name Edmund Allenby laid siege on Jerusalem. At the time Jerusalem was being used by the German allies, (the Turks), as a stronghold. Allenby knew of the prophecy and did not want to blow open the gate, so he ordered leaflets dropped by a war plane saying the war was over and to surrender. They surrendered and the gate was not opened.
The second time the East gate was nearly opened happened in 1967. King Hussein of Jordan ordered a construction crew to open the East Gate because it had the best access to Temple Mount. Within hours of this order, the Six Day War broke out. During which Israel took control of the Jordanian occupied territories. The gate was never opened. Therefore the gate remains sealed to this day, waiting on the Lords appointed time to be reopened, most likely an earthquake (Zech 14:1-4), will provide a nice path through the grave site and bring down the brick and mortar. I guess we’ll wait and see.
We left our vantage point of the Beautiful Gate and walked down the Mount of Olives on Palm Sunday Road singing Hosanna in the Highest! It is a narrow roadway almost like an alley. What an awesome experience to walk and sing out Hosanna, Hosanna, along the traditional path Jesus took in his triumphal entry into the Holy City. (John 12:13-15). On the south side is an ancient Jewish cemetery and on the north side toward the bottom of the hill is the Garden of Gethsemane!
Gethsemane is a garden of olive trees (Matt 26:36-57). This is where Jesus took Peter and two others to pray and watch (lookout) and they fell asleep three times. During His intense prayers to the Father, Luke 22:44 notes Jesus was sweating what seemed like drops of blood. I did a little research on this phenomenon and found: “So great was the stress that tiny blood vessels were rupturing in his sweat glands and emitting as red drops, that fell to the ground (see Luke 22:44).This symptom of severe stress is called hematohidrosis.” (christiananswers.net). “Luke is also the only gospel writer to mention the bloody sweat, possibly because of his interest as a physician in this rare physiological phenomenon, which spoke eloquently of the intense spiritual agony Jesus was suffering…”(Dr. Henry M. Morris, The Defenders Bible, original notes for Luke 22:44) Shortly after this event the chief priest came and arrested Jesus in the Garden. The story of Jesus in the garden is told in Matt 26:26-46, Mark 14:32-42 and Luke 22:39-53.
After a short wait we entered the garden and had a bible study. After the study we had time to pray, so we all spread out through the garden picking our spots of solitude. I picked an Olive tree that looked sad and broken intentionally. I wanted to remember how we enter into a conversation or the presence of God, weak and usually broken and only by the grace of God could we be pruned and bear fruit. After praying for about 30 minutes, I got up and took a stone with me to remember what Jesus said to the Pharisees, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.” (Luke 19:40)
We left the Mount of Olives and went to the site of Hezekiah’s Tunnel (2Kings 20:20, 2Chron 32:30). This was a really neat experience, but not if you are afraid of tight spaces filled with water. The 1750 foot tunnel goes under the city from the source of water to the Pool of Siloam. (Nehemiah 3:15, John 9:7). We had a bible study here about how Jesus took clay and placed it on the eyes of a blind man and said “go wash it off and be healed” The blind man washed his eyes in the pool of Siloam (which is translated sent). The pool is located in the Arab quarter so it is not fully excavated yet. There is what looks like a weed garden on the unexcavated site now. Maybe someday the entire pool will be revealed, that would be an awesome sight!
After the tunnel we headed to the Temple Mount Southern steps! The southern steps were where people would have entered onto Temple Mount, this includes Jesus ! (Mark 11:11) We had another bible study here and then worshipped the Lord sitting on quite possibly the very steps Jesus walked on nearly 2000 years ago. Knowing this mom and I took off our sandals and stood bare foot on the Herodian stones and took a picture to remember the moment.