Hezekiah's Tunnel - Sun., 4/13/08

Some time after the twelve tribes of Israel had split into Israel in the north and Judah in the south, Hezekiah became king of Judah, which included Jerusalem. He was a good king and served God. Only 4 years into his reign, Assyria attacked and conquered Israel to the north. Knowing that his kingdom was next, Hezekiah began making preparations to protect his people and his city. At that time they had to go outside the city walls to get fresh water. It would have been very easy for Sennacherib, king of Assyria, to cut off their water supply and conquer the people without ever drawing a sword. So King Hezekiah commissioned the digging of a tunnel that diverted the water into a pool inside the city walls. Although you must ultimately give God the glory for saving the people of Jerusalem, Hezekiah's tunnel played an instrumental role in keeping the people safe from the Assyrians. You can read all about it at 2 Kings 18-20, but take note of 2 Kings 20:20-21...

As for the other events of Hezekiah's reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? 21 Hezekiah rested with his fathers. And Manasseh his son succeeded him as king.

That tunnel is fed by the Gihon Spring and is still there today with the spring actively running. You can hike through it although at its lowest point the water comes up to your ankles and at its highest it comes to your upper thighs. Being spring water, it's cold. Unless you're within a few feet of the beginning or the end of the tunnel, there is absolutely no light. Depending on your height, you have to duck to get through about half of the tunnel. Not exactly a lot of fun? That's not what Jimmy and I thought so after seeing we would have to wait for over an hour to get on the Temple Mount, we headed to the City of David just a block away and went down into the tunnel. You really should watch the 9 minutes of video of us descending into the earth to get a feel for where we are, but here we are entering the tunnel...


Jimmy is fearlessly leading in front with the video camera set on night vision. I was behind with a small flashlight he had thought to bring on the trip.


The tunnelers carved an inscription in the tunnel telling that the tunnel was built by two teams who started at each end and met in the middle. As you go through the tunnel you can tell where the two teams met, primarily because the lines made by the carving switch directions. The lines arc to the middle. )))) / ((((


After 35 minutes we could see the light at the end of the tunnel...

The Dead Sea - Sun., 4/12/08

I guess the time has come to explain why 2 grown-ups decided to go play in the mud as seen in one of my earlier posts.

After leaving Masada on Sunday we drove to the Dead Sea for a picnic and swimming, or, should I say, floating. The weather has been wonderful on the trip but I wouldn't really call it swimming weather. Although it was in the high 80's the day we were at the Dead Sea, the water itself was freezing! Nevertheless, no trip to Israel would be complete without a float in the Dead Sea.


The beach of the Dead Sea is the lowest dry land on earth at about 1200' below sea level. The water is about 33% salt which is over 8x saltier than the ocean. It's main tributary is the Jordan River to the north which flows fresh water. The water becomes salty after entering the Dead Sea as it has no river outlet. The water evaporates back into the atmosphere but the salt and minerals remain in the water. Over thousands of years, that has caused the salinity level to get higher and higher.

The high concentration of salt and minerals causes you to float on top of the water just like an inflatable raft. That may seem like not such a big deal, after all, we float on top of lakes and swimming pools all the time. The difference is that you can't help but float. If you try to push your feet down into the water it feels just like trying to push a life vest underwater. It requires conscious effort to hold them down or your feet just pop back up again in front of you. This picture may look like I'm treading water but I'm actually in a sitting position, just sitting on water instead of a folding chair. The funny expression is due to the even colder water a few feet below the surface that I had just stuck my feet down into.


Now, about the mud... The mud under and around the Dead Sea is famous for its skin treating properties. The high concentration of salt and minerals helps exfoliate and soften your skin. In fact, many people use it to treat psoriasis, eczema, and the like. The healthcare system in Germany even pays for people in Germany to come here for two weeks a year to treat their psoriasis. You have to be careful not to get in into your eyes, ears, nose or mouth as it can be quite painful but other than that...jump into the mud pit and get a little dirty!


In Hebrew, the lake is known as the Salt Sea or Sea of Salt. Our tour guide said, "You can't call it the Dead Sea because it provides life to the area." First, as I mentioned earlier, tourism is a huge deal in the Dead Sea area. Although you might expect to see many hotels and resorts there, the area is hardly built up at all due to the desert conditions surrounding it. There are hotels at Jericho and Ein Gedi, the only two water springs and oases in the desert. Nevertheless, people come from around the world to float in the salty water, cover themselves in mud, and dry out on the rocky beaches. Since it's so far below sea level, the air is also high in oxygen which many people like as well.

The high mineral content of the water has also created two huge industries in this area. First, Ahava Skin Laboratories are known around the world for their packaged skin care products made from the mud of the sea. Their laboratory, factory, and shop provide employment to many people. The other huge industry in the area is the harvesting of minerals from the sea. Dead Sea Works is a large company that harvests potassium chloride, sodium chloride, bromine, and other minerals out of the water to then export around the world.

The Dead Sea is shrinking. Due to increased irrigation out of the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee in the north, the water level continues to drop each year. A hundred years ago the highway we were riding on in this picture would have been below the water. Most of the shrinkage, however, has happened within the last 40 to 50 years.


That's not all bad though because the increased irrigation in the north has caused Israel to be one of the leading fruit and vegetable exporters in the world. The Israeli diet revolves around fruits and vegetables. That's understandable when you taste the fruit they produce. We had grapefruit that was sweeter than oranges in this country. Apples, bananas, cucumbers, tomatoes, dates, pears, oranges...you name it...they were all so much better in Israel.

Masada - Sun., 4/12/08

We got a few minutes on free wi-fi while we wait at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. So, I'll take a few minutes to tell about our experience at Masada.

Masada is a fortress built high on top of a mountain in the Judean Desert. It was built by Herod the Great around 30 BC as a place to escape to if the need should arise. Later, around 65 AD it was occupied for a few years by a group of Jews escaping the Romans in Jerusalem. Other than that, this site has never been occupied.

We took the cable car up but it would have been more fun (I think) to take the 40 minute hike up the side of the mountain. You can see it snaking up the side of the mountain to the right.


The fortress consistes of not one, but two, palaces for Herod, one of which had a swimming pool and hot and cold showers. How do you get enough water to even drink, let alone fill an entire swimming pool in the desert. In the desert it doesn't rain often but when it does it rains hard for a short time causing flash floods. Herod designed and had built an elaborate system that collected the flood waters from as far as two mountains away towards the west and fed it all into one of three different cisterns. It also had living quarters, a synagogue, and ten or more food storage rooms, each of which was probably 10' x 100'.


Although the entire fortress was built out of the local rock, Herod was never one to skimp on beauty. His palaces were elaborately painted and tiled, the remains of which can still be seen today. Here is a picture of some of the painting on one of the walls. It remains to this day because it hasn't been exposed to the elements and is in such a dry environment.




The mountain was surrounded by a 30 foot wall and eight different soldiers camps outside the walls. These structures can still be seen clearly except they have just crumbled to the ground. They lay in piles right where they once stood. The soldier camps are the square structures and the wall is the 45 degree line running through the middle of the picture.


The Romans weren't able to cut off their water supply or wait it out until they starved to death so they built a ramp, attacked and conquered the city. Due to the writings of Josephus it is most commonly believed that the men killed their wives and children before killing themselves rather than be taken into slavery. There is a little bit of controversy around this theory (as there is with everything in Israel) and it is also possible that they fought but were completely annihilated by the Romans. Either way they met with a tragic end.

Just a Note

We just got home from a busy day and I have lots to write about but I'll be losing internet service at the hotel in a few minutes. Hopefully we can get back on at JFK Int'l during our layover when we get home. Until then, we just wanted to say "Hi!" and we'll see y'all soon!




We appreciate all the time you've taken keeping up with our trip and the comments you've left. Check back in a couple days for all of the wrap up posts!

Yad Vashem - Fri., 4/11/08

Several years ago I had the opportunity to go to Dachau death camp in Germany. That was a life altering experience. The images, the feelings, the thoughts are permanently etched into my memory. Nearly 50 years after the end of the war, I still felt the demonic oppression over the place. The place was overwhelming to the point that waves of nausea almost made me sick to my stomach. That visit took some time to process through and come to terms with on my part. The good thing that came out of it was that I had already processed through all of those emotions and was more psychologically prepared when Jimmy and I visited the Holocaust Museum in
Washington DC a few years ago. I figured visiting Yad Vashem today would be the same way. Granted, I did handle it much better than I would have without those past experiences but there was one display that I don't think anything could have prepared me for. The Memorial to the Children overwhelmed me with tears. We entered the dark building and walked through a hallway while 1,500,000 candles (well, fewer candles but with the aid of mirrors) burned - one for each child lost in the holocaust. A recording of their names, ages, and hometowns is played continuously as a lasting memorial. All I kept thinking, over and over, was the words God told Abraham in regards to his descendants, "as numerous as the stars in the sky, as numerous as the stars in the sky." Here's a picture but this is another one that you really have to see the video when we get home...


I've seen many memorable quotes carved into stone at Dachau and the Holocaust Museum but what I kept noticing here were verses from the Old Testament.

On the archways walking up to the entrance...
I will put my breath into you and you shall live again, and I will set you upon your own soil.
Ezekiel 37:14

Scrolling across a large building (only half of it can be seen here)...
I will give them...a memorial and a name...
I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.
Isaiah 56:5

And on a column as we were leaving...

Has the like of this happened in your days or in the days of your fathers? Tell your children about it, and let your children tell theirs, and their children the next generation!

Joel 1:2-3

The middle picture, containing the verse from Isaiah, is where they get the name Yad Vashem from. The phrase in the the middle of the verse, "a memorial and a name," is yad vashem in Hebrew. A goal of Yad Vashem that I haven't seen anywhere else like Dachau or the Holocaust Museum is to identify, by name rather than number, each of the six million Jews killed in the holocaust. To date, they have identified over 5.5 million. At their website linked above you can submit any information you know about anyone who died in the holocaust. They value any information at all as it helps to build a lasting memorial to that person. As a spectator today I could see the value of their efforts as I could see where pieces of this 6 million piece jigsaw puzzle were put together. Displays contained multiple pieces...letters, trinkets, photographs, clothing...from one person that has been pieced together from different sources. Then, in the last room, a large library, is a memory box for each and every person. For each of these people, a box on a shelf containing papers that people have submitted with pieces of information about their lives is the only gravestone they will ever have.

I had Jimmy take the last picture of the passage from Joel because it verbalized something I had to come to realize as we walked through the museum. Both Jimmy had and I have grandfathers who bravely served our country in WWII. Neither one of them was or is willing to talk about it. They won't share their stories or the lessons they learned from that part of their life. I believe that is a western mindset - if we don't talk about it we can just forget it ever happened and move on to happy times. That's not Scriptural and it's not the Jewish way of life. God commanded the Jews to celebrate Passover as a lasting memorial to when the death angel passed over and spared their lives. To this day they still celebrate Purim to remember what Queen Esther did for their people thousands of years ago. Jews tell their stories to their children and to their grandchildren. That's how we learn and remember and to quote one of the engraved sayings I remember from a wall in Dachau, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (Santayana)

Garden Tomb - Fri., 4/11/08

There is controversy around every issue in the city of Jerusalem. Today we got to see the other possible site of where Christ was crucified and buried - The Garden Tomb. I won't go into all the pros and cons of each site. I do know that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was a place I don't care if I ever go back to again and The Garden Tomb that we visited today was such a peaceful, beautiful place. My ultimate opinion is that it really doesn't matter where Christ was crucified and buried. What matters is that He did willingly and lovingly go to the cross as a perfect, sinless sacrifice to pay the penalty for my sins. Even more so, whether He was buried in the tomb at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or The Garden Tomb, both places were empty because He resurrected again on the third day. Praise God!

The entrance to the garden...


Golgotha as it appeared in the 19th century when this site first started being considered as a site of the crucifixion and burial...


Golgotha or Skull Hill today


Before proceeding down to the tomb our group celebrated communion together (in peace and love despite any theological differences)...


And then went down to the tomb...


The site where someone, perhaps Christ, was temporarily entombed in the 1st century...


After being pretty disappointed with other "holy sites" we have visited the last two weeks I really wasn't expecting much on this stop. I was quite surprised as I entered the tomb and was overcome with emotion. Contrary to the spiritual oppression I felt at Church of the Holy Sepulchre, here I felt a holiness and sense of reverence.

There's much evidence for why this might be the site...including Golgotha is on a major trade route which is where crucifixions were done, it matches all evidence given in Scripture, the presence of the oldest, most well preserved wine press in the country shows this site used to be a vineyard (or a garden), the tomb has evidences of having belonged to a wealthy man, and there is much physical evidence that a church met in this site during the 1st century AD. To me, the fact that its use changed from a vineyard to a church during the 1st century is pretty compelling evidence but I'm not a judge needing to determine a verdict.

To me, as I said earlier, I worship the Man and am grateful for what He did. This is the kind of setting I choose in order to reflect on and honor that event.

Garden of Gethsemane - Fri., 4/11/08

We started out our morning by visiting the Garden of Gethsemane and the Church of the Nations that is built there. This site was a little more moving than some of the other churches we have visited. Traditionally, this is the site where Jesus spent His last night praying in the garden. (Matthew 26:36-56) We walked through the garden of olive trees, some of which are nearly 2,000 years old. Despite their age, none of these trees were around on the night Christ was in such agony that He sweat drops of blood on the ground. (Luke 22:44) In 70 AD, when Titus and his soldiers entered Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple, he also ordered that all of the olive trees on the Mount of Olives be cut down. He only cut them down rather than uproot them so they did grow back again and the ones that grew back from the original root systems are what still stands there today, still growing and still producing olives.






The church sits right next to the garden and is built over the rock where it is believed Jesus spent the night in prayer. I don't know how they could possibly know which stone He prayed on but so the tradition goes. The first church was built by Helena, mother of Constantine in the 4th century AD, as were most of the churches built on holy sites here in Israel. Also, just like the others, this site has gone through its fair share of being destroyed by one group and rebuilt by the next group as battles have been fought through the last two millenia. The church that stands there today was built in the 20th century. The facade of the church, the flooring inside, and all of the murals on the walls are mosaics done with tiles that are probably less than 1 sq. cm. They're beautiful but would have required hundreds if not thousands of hours to complete. The stained glass windows are all alabaster that was cut very thin to let only a minimal amount of light through. The architect, Berlucci, wanted to create a dark atmosphere inside the church so that even on the sunniest day it feels like you are there during the dark night hours when Christ would have been praying.

The facade of the church...


The stone where Christ spent the night praying...


Jimmy turned the night vision on on the camera so that is why everything is green...


This wall mosaic depicts Judas betraying Jesus with a kiss...