Holy Land- Day 4

After seeing so many ancient ruins you start
to wonder if it will ever lose its luster.

Never in Israel.

Especially at Bet She'an.

Wowza, this place was spectacular!
It was a major biblical and secular city for thousands of years.
It was long a key city before the Israelites took over.
Egyptians, Philistines and Romans had control at some periods. 

 

Here is where Saul's body was pinned to the wall after he was slain.

1 Samuel 31:1-13.

Your first glimpse after walking in!
After all, it was a big city.

What we saw...

... a big theater.

Sadly I guess lots of immoral things happened here, yikes!

John shared with us the on and off again love story of David and Michal.

1 Samuel 18.

I had never heard this story before!

 Short version:

Right after David killed Goliath, Saul's daughter, Michal fell in love with David.
Saul wanted 100 Philistines foreskins in exchange for his daughters hand in marriage (eww!). 

Love was cut short when Michal had to help save David's life from her own father.

Saul got jealous and wanted to kill David, so she helped him escape out a window and
covered for him until he got away. 

In the meantime they both marry other people.

David becomes king and demanded for Michal to come back to him. 

We assume they had a happy reunion!
What an amazing second chance they got. 

David is victorious in other battles and has the ark of the covenant brought to him.

He is so happy to see it that he dances!

Not everyone approved of his dancing. 

Through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the Lord, 

and she despised him in her heart. ( 2 Samuel 6:14-16).

Michal made the choice to chew him out right when he came home for his "vulgar"

dancing instead of waiting to cool off before confronting him with her worries. 
"How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today

before the eyes of his servants maids!" (2 Samuel 6:20)

He made the choice to fight back. 

 Instead of saying, 
 "I'm sorry honey for disappointing you by dancing with my nakedness."

He took a dig at her father!
"It was before the Lord, which chose me before they father to appoint

me ruler over the people of the Lord." (2 Samuel 6:21)

She did not like that response!

The consequence for David?... he was cut off.

NO BABIES FOR YOU!!

Ha!

How could David and Michal have gone from deep love to irreconcilable separation?

We learned how we can be peacemakers.
Choose to be kind when someone we love does something we disapprove of.
Choose to not let our pride get in the way of relationships. 

Views of marketplaces, shops and buildings. 

The public bathroom was super interesting!

And very open, I would rather pee my pants than squat next to strangers!

You sat in between 2 stones to do your business.

Underneath is a ditch with running water that "flushed"

the waste away.
My mind was going crazy with the aspect

of zero sanitation in this joint. 

Eww, once again!

We all had to try it out, lol!

Up on top of the mountain is a tree that

was used in some Oscar nominated movie that I can't think of.

Cardo (Palladius Street)- center street of the city.

 

Huge bathhouses.

Next stop was the RIVER JORDAN!!!!!

Of course we don't know the exact spot.

But they believe this to be near where Jesus was baptized. 

Luke 3:22

Thou art my beloved son; in thee I am well pleased.

Jesus already knew he was the son of God.

But the voice of heaven declared these words when he was baptized.

In our own baptism, our identity as sons and daughters of God is established.

God declares us to be his children.

John said most of these people are not being baptized for the first time,

but "renewing" their baptisms.

I got a kick out of the oversized white shirts with Jesus' face on it

seeming to be the official baptism attire. 

The gift shop was making out big!

It was interesting watching the MANY people.

Some were in large groups.

Some were chanting their own prayer and dunking themselves, while others

were being assisted by their church leader. 

I was thinking to myself, if only they knew this was basically pointless.

But then I remembered Johns words about Holy Envy.

I instantly stopped and were happy for them.

 That to them they were making their own convictions and covenants

 of baptism and trying to better their lives!

The water is not nearly as big as what is was when Jesus and John were there.

It is used for farming, and much lower.

Which makes it way dirty looking. 

And I was surprised how cold the water was!

This is Jordan on the other side of that rope.

There were many guards with machine guns ready to shoot anyone

who tried to cross the rope border on either side.

John joked that if we tried to swim across we would see them in the next life!
And it was interesting to see a handful of people on the Jordan side

verses the hundreds of us on the Israel side!

I don't have many pictures of Qumran.
Probably because it all looked the same.

Barren and desert-y. 

Who could have lived here?

This is where they discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls.

They were in this hole like cave in the bottom picture.

The Dead Sea!

It was different than I was expecting!

Yes, we drove to the middle of nowhere.

But there was a resort of some type there.
I was picturing pulling up to a beachy area with nothing around

but maybe a shower head or 2 and a curtain to change behind.

Not so!

You walked through some shops and vendors to get to the big

bathrooms with lockers and showers.

We changed then walked down a long path to get the the beach. 

It was beautiful!

Almost felt like we were in Hawaii!

We passed some glamping type of tents.

Way cool to sleep here overnight!

Now we can check off being at the lowest bar in the world off of our list!

It also is the lowest land based elevation on earth,
and the worlds saltiest body of water!

Kind of crazy to think you cant get any lower in the world than where we were!

We were told not to shave the day before.

Glad we listened!

Any cut or sore you sure knew about while in the water!

You really do float and bob around like a buoy.

Such a wild experience!

You could stand completely straight up without touching the bottom!

We were also told to NEVER let your face touch the water or rub your eyes.

Only stay on your back. 

I asked Levi what could happen.

He said if you were to swallow even half a cups worth of water you would have to
  get your stomach pumped immediately.

It happened not that long ago in a group with young adults. 

The salt is so strong it will eat away your stomach!

Spa time!

No joke, the mineral mud made your skin so silky smooth!

We walked back up to the lockers, rinsed off,
and made our way back to the buses. 

Pretty salts to buy, of course;)

This fresh strawberry drink hit the spot!

On our way to the next stop we saw a run away camel!!

Only in Israel.

You can barely see it on the far left side.

Wadi Qelt.

I don't think we realized what beauty we would discover here!

We were greeted by Bedouin villagers at the entrance of the path that leads you 

up to the lookout point. 

John warned us that they would try to sell you things and that if

they had their children with them they would ask for candy!

He was right!

As I was walking to the path a Bedouin put this scarf on my head!

I should have just bought it because I ended up getting one the next day.

Not sure what to expect walking up this hill. 

Then this appeared!

It is a monastery currently in use.

How did they build that?

Even better, we learned that this was the road from Jerusalem to Jericho,

aka Jericho road!

Ugh, what a travel that would have been.

Perfect place to discuss the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Luke 10.

Casey pointed out a shepherd who was herding his sheep up a hill. 
A terrible zoomed in picture, but how neat to watch this shepherd in real life.

Cute donkey

We are suckers and bought a necklace!

We had a good 30 minute ride to our final stop.

In preparation, we discussed how in our religion we overemphasize Gethsemane

and downplay the suffering and atonement that happened on the cross.

John is a perfect person to discuss this with as he wrote his own book,

Considering the Cross.

He deep dives into different religions and the reasonings on how and why they

worship the cross the way that they do. 

His book helps people of our faith to understand that Christ's suffering and death

on the cross was critical and although we don't worship the cross, we

cannot overlook what happened there. 

It was a great message he shared!

I actually started reading his book on the plane and need to finish it.

Stephanie loved it so much when she read it years back that she started wearing

cross jewelry. 

I'll be honest, I still don't resonate with cross jewelry myself, 

but I have been noticing more and more members wearing

the cross on necklaces and rings and it makes me look at it in a whole new

refreshing perspective!

Look out the window... we arrived to Jerusalem!

My first glimpse.

I still get goosebumps looking at this picture.

Traffic got a little hectic for a second.

This is called "crash corner", for good reason!
Why they wont put up stop signs or lights in just that intersection

but have them everywhere, I dunno.

Mount of Olives

Another mount I thought would be...just a mount, lol!

Nope, it had roads, parks and gardens all on and around it.

Call to prayer. 

It was a perfect view of the Kidron Valley and for John to
point out where everything is and where we would be exploring

the next few days.  

Dome of the Rock, Gethsemane, Temple Mount, City of David to name a few. 

We discussed Acts and the ascension and Second Coming that will

happen on the Mount of Olives. 

We had a hiccup when checking into our hotel.

They didn't have us booked!

Leave it to John to get it figured out.

He refused to downgrade hotels... we love you, John!

While we waited for our rooms, we hit the buffet!!

These desserts were pretty, but unfortunately when in Jerusalem you 

get kosher meals, boo. 

Dairy free is for the birds. 
Luckily the food was good!

I think one of  my favorite parts of the trip came next.

Levi said he would meet anyone who wants to explore
Old Jerusalem in the lobby

after dinner. Yes, please!

Dude, Levi means business!

I thought his dad was a fast pace person.

Levi is young and sprightly.

He took off walking and we all struggled to keep up for a bit!

We hauled through the streets as he pointed things out to us.

We would come back and see this all again with the group.

But I was super grateful to have multiple opportunities to see 

everything in Old Town Jerusalem many times. 

Walking through Damascus Gate.

On the other side led to bazaars, or outdoor markets in the Muslim quarter.

I was shocked at how many different turns and alleys there were!

Levi knew them like the back of his hand.
I did NOT want to lose track of Levi,
no way would we ever find our way back!

Excuse my excessive amounts of street market pictures!

The night was creeping in and I was loving the moody night vibe.

After walking through a maze we all of a sudden came to 

this sign. I didn't know this is where we were going!

The church of the Holy Sepulchre is a church in the Christian quarter.

It is considered to be the holiest site for Christians in the world.

This is the stone they believe Christ's body was laid on in 

preparation for burial.

People were putting personal items on the stone and praying over them.

Even store keepers brought their merchandise to pray over

before putting it on shelves to sell.

So interesting to watch!!

Inside the church are 2 sites that are considered holy.
One of them is Jesus' empty tomb, which where he was buried and resurrected. 

The tomb itself is inside this shrine build inside the church.

So many people ALWAYS in line to take a turn to see the inside of

the shrine where the tomb is.

We are talking hours of waiting. 

Up some stairs is where they believe Calvary is.

 Where Jesus was crucified. 

It is really hard to see, but the alter underneath the Jesus statue has

glass boxes around stone boulders, where His cross stood. 

People in line to pray in the alter. 

A better picture of the stone in glass protection boxes. 

Cruising to our next adventure!

The Western Wall, or wailing wall in the Jewish quarter!

The Western Wall plays an important role in Judaism due to its proximity to the Temple Mount.

 The wall is the closest holiest place where Jews are permitted due to entry restrictions. 

The Holy of Holies, the most sacred site in the Jewish faith lies just behind it. 

It is split into 2 sections, men and women. 

They must wash before entering. 

We are sporting our new scarfs we JUST bought while running wild

through the markets. 

That moon and the royal blue sky...
Bats were flying everywhere! and they were squawking loud!

Can you spot Stephanie and I?
Casey and Travis were laughing that we didn't stand out at all, haha!

Either we are super tall, or Jewish people are short. 

My prayer to add to the wall.

Walking back in the dark of the cool night.

Our hotel was indeed GRAND!