On Sunday, we spent the day in the Temple Mount area. It isn't easy to get up on the Temple Mount - heavy security, very limited hours - but it is something I've looked forward to for a long time. And before we knew it, we are standing atop Mount Moriah. Of course, it looks nothing like a mountain now, but it was here Abraham took Isaac to be sacrificed. Here David sacrificed to stop the plague from devastating Jerusalem. Here Solomon's Temple and the 2nd Temple once stood. Jesus taught in these courtyards, and entered through the Golden Gate. Peter healed the lame man and preached to many.
And in the place where multitudes have come to pray over thousands of years, we stood, too.
A short distance from the Temple Mount were beautiful gardens, a church with fine acoustics where we sang praises to God, and the remains of the pool where Jesus healed the man sick for thirty-eight years. We left the old city through the gate Stephen was taken through when he was martyred.m
Later we prayed with others at Western Wall, the last remnants of the Temple Mount support walls from the time of Jesus, and walked on the same market streets and stones that the 1st century shoppers would have walked.
We lunched and shopped in the Jerusalem souks, dodging other shoppers, delivery carts, and overzealous shop owners.
A group of us went down to the old city of David and explored the Siloam pool tunnels. One, possibly the tunnel Joab used to capture Jerusalem for David, the other built by King Hezekiah to ensure a steady water supply should the city be under siege. The waters of Siloam still flow quick and cool, and it felt a bit like Indiana Jones wading through the ankle to knee deep water through the ancient tunnels.
But the highlight was ascending the southern steps of the Temple, steps built by King Herod, and almost certainly used by Jesus and Peter for going to the temple or teaching. Walking up these ancient steps recalls the Psalms of Ascent (120-134), including, "I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”"
It was not hard to visualize Peter preach from these steps. We worshipped here together today, broke bread and shared the Lord's Supper. And I was honored to be able to read Peter's Pentecost sermon for our group. A convicting message that concluded, “So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!” (Acts 2:36)
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