JERUSALEM DAY I  – Sunday November 17

We woke up early this morning. We had a quick breakfast and left the hotel at 5:45 a.m. The reason we left early was that we wanted to be in Jerusalem before 8:45 a.m., as we hoped to attend the outdoor church service in the garden tomb. In the New Testament, this tomb is called the Garden of Joseph of Arimathea. We also hoped to be outside Haifa before the traffic got busy. However, traffic was busier than expected. Sunday morning is the busiest morning in Israel since it is the beginning of the work week.

We were not too happy with this long trip on Sunday morning. In Israel, it is difficult to move on weekends. Many things are closed on Fridays and almost everything is closed on Saturday. That had made the change of hotels difficult.

Winding down slowly from Mount Carmel, we turned south. First, we passed the Plain of Sharon, while on our left, lay the hills of Samaria. We passed the plain of Ono until we came to the Plain of Philistia. We passed the place where the town of Lydda had been, where Peter had healed Aeneas. Then we went further east through the valley of Aijalon, past Lower Beth Horon and Upper Beth Horon to Gibeon. It was here that Joshua fought with the five kings of the Amorites. Many of those Amorites were killed through the hailstones. It was also here that Joshua asked the sun and the moon to stand still.

As we came closer to Jerusalem, the road climbed steeply. Jerusalem lies 2600 ft above sea level. The road climbs so fast that you feel the tingling in your ears. (We also felt this while climbing on Mount Carmel and Mount Hermon.)

During the trip, we had a meditation and sang a lot of hymns, several from Psalm 122. We sang one of them in Dutch. “Ik ben verblijd wanneer men mij God-vruchtig opwekt.”

We entered Jerusalem through the Jaffa road. While passing the market, we saw many men sitting and standing there waiting till somebody came to hire them for the day. It is still the same as in Bible times.

Through the Jaffa gate, we entered the old city and arrived just in time for the outdoor service: at least a few hundred people were present. We met a group that came from England.

After singing several hymns and having an earnest prayer, the minister preached from Matthew 16 vs.13-21, and made the following points:

1. Who do men say that the Son of Man is?
2. From that time forth, began Jesus to show to his disciples…
3. But who do you say that I am?

In the closing prayer he especially brought the need of Jews and Muslims before the Lord.

After this service, we split into 3 small groups. The first group went straight to the hotel where Rev. Beeke held a sermon. Trudy went with this group. Two Presbyterian families wanted to go to the Presbyterian Church in Jerusalem, which was nearby, but the service had started already.

The largest group wanted to go to the Mount of Olives to have another meditation there. When we arrived on the Mount of Olives, which is just on the other side of the Kidron valley, we found that there was a small riot, so we were advised to turn back.

We then drove north of Jerusalem, to Ramah, where the grave of the prophet Samuel lies. We had a meditation at his grave. His grave lies on the highest mountain around Jerusalem named Nebi Samuel,. (Mountains of the prophet Samuel), 895 meters high. So it is even a couple of hundred feet higher than Jerusalem. From here, you look down at Jerusalem. It is also called Mons Gandi (Mountain of Joy). Here, the travelers going up to Jerusalem, received their first look of the city. One can overlook the entire city, even the Mount of Olives at the other side. We had a nice trip driving north of Jerusalem. From the mountains, you often have a beautiful view.

Israel is a land of contrast and variety. We passed Hisma, a former village of priests. We saw Mixmas and the ruins of ancient Gibeah. Here King Saul ruled. We saw the place where Jonathan and his armour bearer defeated the Philistines, and the place where Solomon offered the thousands of sacrifices before the temple was built, as we read in I Kings 3. Slightly to the left, we saw Bethel, so well known from the Bible.

Ramah lies very high. I Sam 28:3, “Now Samuel was dead and all Israel had lamented him and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city.” There is a monastery on top of Samuel’s grave with a tower. From there you can see all around Jerusalem. This was the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. After the short service, we drove back to Jerusalem. We saw many trailer homes used for Ethiopian and Russian emigrants for temporary quarters. The construction builders can not keep up with the demand.

In the evening, we had three meditations: the first by Rev. Beeke, who was one of our own group. After him, Rev. Baruch Maoz spoke. He was a Christian Jew and minister of the Grace and Truth Christian Assembly. He was an older man who used crutches to walk. He was born in America and his wife was Romanian. They were both Jews who were converted to Christianity. His subject was the difficulty in evangelizing in Israel.

There are too many different churches in Israel, who use very different approaches and are very different in doctrines.

In the church there are the following problems:

1. The members come from very different backgrounds.
2. Most new members have very little Bible knowledge and knowledge of doctrines.
3. Generally, most have little experience of Christian living.
4. Very few have any leadership experience.

There is still a slow growth of the church.

He was followed by his assistant pastor. His name escaped me. I believe he also was a converted Jew, but he looked more like an Arab. He was a much younger man, recently married. His wife looked European, (blond). This minister was born in Iraq, but he grew up in Iran. Since 1982, he had been working in this church. He told us how the local church was doing, including progress and problems. Both ministers aren’t financially supported by the church but had another occupation beside the ministry to sustain themselves.

JERUSALEM DAY II – Monday, November 18

Another beautiful day. As we had a late evening the night before, it was decided to start an hour later this morning. We left about 9:00 am. On this day, we went to see the Old City. We saw so many churches and important buildings that I could not remember it all. Of some of the buildings, I’m not sure which day we visited them, but this is not too important.

For most of the places we visited, I have mentioned where and why they were in the Bible. Jerusalem, however, is mentioned more than 600 times, and it is a city spoken about almost throughout the entire Bible, so I will leave this background out here. I also have a couple of books about Jerusalem and for that reason I will be quite brief in the description.

We started our tour at the Jaffa gate. This was quite close to our hotel. We were staying at the King David Hotel this week. This hotel is located on King George Avenue, right across from the large YMCA building. The hotel was about a 10 minute walk from the old city wall.

The city walls are situated almost on the same place as the old walls of the city in New Testament times. There are some differences. When you see maps of old Jerusalem you notice several differences between the maps during David’s time, Solomon’s time, Hezekiah’s, Nehemiah’s, and Jerusalem at Jesus’ time. Those, however, vary in size, but all of them had Jebus, or the city of David, the first small beginning, included. This part is now not inside the walls. Also, the seven gates are almost in the same places. We know that the walls have been destroyed often. The present walls were built in 1537 by the Turks and are about 450 years old.

The wall is two and a half miles long. At its lowest place, it is thirty feet high, and at its highest, sixty feet. As Jerusalem is built on mountains, many roads are built on a slant and so are the walls. The walled city is less than a quarter of the surface of the entire Jerusalem.

Originally, the city had seven gates. In 1889, a new gate was added, about halfway between the Jaffa and Damascus Gate. Although it is more than 100 years old, it is still called the New gate. This gate was added so that the Christians could enter directly into the Christian quarter without going through the Muslim quarter first. This was done with the permission of the Turkish government. We saw all the gates and went through at least four of them.

First the Jaffa gate on the west side, probably the most important and the most busy. On one side of the Jaffa gate lies the Citadel: it is also called David’s Tower. In the time of the New Testament Herod’s palace was located here. On the other side of the Jaffa Gate is a large opening. In 1898, a part of the wall was broken down, because when the German Kaiser Wilhelm II visited the city, he wanted to enter Jerusalem on horseback.

We also went through the New Gate and through the Damascus Gate which is at the North side of the city. When entering through this gate, you enter the Arab Quarter, a narrow street, extremely busy and colourful. There is a market on both sides of the narrow street. We also entered through the Zion Gate. Here you still see many bullet marks in the walls and the Gate, from the 1949 and 1967 wars.

The other gates are: The Lion’s Gate – this Gate is often called St. Stephen’s Gate, as they believe that Stephen was stoned outside of this gate; Herod’s Gate or the Flower Gate; the Dung Gate which is by the Kidron valley. It was through this gate that the garbage was thrown out of the city; the Golden Gate – this is a double gate but it is closed.

Around the year 1900, the city of Jerusalem had about 45,000 inhabitants of which 28,000 were Jews. In 1987, it had about 402,000 inhabitants of which 290,000 were Jews. In 85 years, the population has multiplied ten times. Most of these people came after 1948 and especially after 1967.

One of the things we were interested in were the archeological sites. This is very important In Israel. At every dig, whether it be for a new road or a road widening, or any new

building, an archeologist has to be present. As soon as they dig something up that looks like buildings have been there before, the digging has to stop at once and the archeologist goes ahead to find if there is any importance at the site. Archaeologists have the right to stop a dig permanently or change the site. In such a fast growing city, with its shortness of housing, due to the heavy immigration, this can be a real problem.

We passed the Western Wall, often called the Wailing Wall. This wall is a piece of the wall left from Herod’s temple. We all have often read of this wall, but I was always reluctant to believe that it was really that old. The Lord Jesus had said that two stones of the temple would not stay on top of one another. Here I learned that in Jesus’ time, this wall was below the ground. When Herod wanted to enlarge the temple, the ground was sloping too strongly for this purpose. So he built this wall and then filled in the area with gravel and stone to get an even surface to build on. So it was built as a restraining wall. Most of the old buildings, such as this wall, have remained in fairly good condition, mainly because they were covered by dust and sand most of the time, and were thus out of the influence of wind, sun, rain and drastic temperature changes.

We saw part of the water ducts built by King Hezekiah. walked through large tunnels and Wilson’s Arch and we saw the Temple Mount where the Dome of the Rock now is. It is now a mosque of the Muslims. We walked the Via Dolorosa where Jesus walked from Caiaphas to the Cross. We saw the Church of the Holy Seplechur, a tremendously large and wealthy building and many more buildings.

One Protestant church in the Arab quarter needs special attention, In 1929, there was a riot and the church members fled. The caretaker was an Arab. He took care of the church, kept it safe from vandalism, kept it clean etc. In 1967, when the members returned after the war, he handed the key back to them and they found everything in good order. It had seemed impossible that they would be able to come back. For 38 years, without pay, he stayed on the job. This is real faithfulness.

Another very interesting thing we saw was a model of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus.

In the evening, we had another speaker: Mr. Bishara Awad, an Arab minister from the Bethlehem Bible College. He told us about the problems of Christian Arabs. They are often in-between two groups. He was somewhat bitter. He felt that they were not treated properly by the Jews, nor by the other Christians. He told us that his father’s family had been Christians for over 500 years. This was not easy in an Muslim Arab Land. His mother came from a Muslim family and was converted as a child. This had happened due to her contact with a woman missionary. Her life had been even more difficult as she grew up in a Muslim family. She had remained faithful and had married his father, also a Christian, when she grew up. He told us the following story.

A couple of years ago, he and his wife went for a visit to the United States, to Los Angeles. While they were site-seeing there and talking together, suddenly an old lady came to them and said. “I hear you speak Arabic. I understand it. Where do you come from?”

When they told her that they came from Bethlehem, she said to them,” I worked there for two years as a missionary and it was very disappointing because no one was converted during those two years except one small girl. I have always prayed for her and I have always wondered what became of her.” Then she mentioned the name of the girl. The minister, Mr Awad, told the old missionary, “That little girl was my mother. She kept her faith and later married a Christian Arab, had children and lived and died in the faith.” He also told her that one of her children was now the minister of the Arab Christian church. After fifty years, the Lord allowed this missionary to know that her work had not been in vain.

BETHLEHEM AND MOUNT MEMORIAL – Tuesday Nov. 19

Another beautiful day, sunny and a pleasant temperature. However, we heard from local people that they were really looking for rain. Here in the south, they haven’t received as much of the early rains as in the north where we had been the first week. In the last few days, the north had some showers again, while it remained sunny in the South.

First, we visited the Mount of Olives and some other parts of Jerusalem. Later we turned south towards Bethlehem. It surprised us to see how close Bethlehem was to Jerusalem.

You have to realize that when you are driving in a bus, it takes much less time to get there than in the earlier days when it was all walking. In this mountainous dry area you can see so much farther than what we are used to in our more humid areas. So distances seem much shorter than they really are. Also the distances have shortened with our modern machinery. The roads are not only widened, but many bends are removed, cliffs are leveled off and low places filled in. So the walking distance was longer than now.

People could walk much better in earlier days because they were used to it. We read, for instance in the Bible, that Joshua with his army walked from Gilgal to Gibeon in one night, and as we saw this distance, they really must have walked.

So we drove down from Jerusalem and then up again towards Bethlehem, the city so well known from the Bible. We read first that Jacob buried his beloved wife Rachel here. She died when Benjamin was born, just outside of Bethlehem. Jacob was returning from Padann Aram to Hebron and we read, “And Jacob set up a pillar upon the grave. It is the pillar of Rachel’s tomb which is there to this day.” This tomb is restored again and we slowly passed it, just before Bethlehem.

The next story about Bethlehem in the Bible, is about Elimelech, Naomi, Mahlon and Chilion. Then we read about the return of Naomi as a widow, with Ruth, the widow of Mahlon. We remembered the beautiful story of Ruth and Boaz. The soil here is still very fertile. Ephratah means fertile while Bethlehem itself means House of Bread. The flat fields are still used for grain and the rougher areas for sheep. Then we read about David who was a shepherd boy in Bethlehem. Here, we still saw the shepherds and their flocks.

Most important however, Bethlehem is the place where Jesus was born. It was on the fields of Bethlehem that the shepherds were visited by the angels who brought them good tidings. Here also the wise man, led by the star, came with their gifts. This was also the place where King Herod killed all the children under two years of age as Jeremiah had prophesied before in Jeremiah, chapter 31: “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.”

In the Bible we read that Bethlehem was a small city and it is still quite small. In the beginning of the Christian era, many churches were built here. When the Persians invaded in 614 A.D., everything that reminded them of Christianity was destroyed. Only one church remained. It was the Basilica of the Nativity which was miraculously spared. The reason for this was likely the large picture, in front of the church, of the three wise men. They were dressed in eastern, which looked like Persian-styled, clothing. The invading Persians must have taken them for Persian magicians.

The building is very large, but the entrance is very narrow and just over four feet high. You always have to bow to enter the church. It is sometimes called the Gate of Humility. It is clearly visible that the gate was originally much larger. The reason that they made it so small was to keep the Persian soldiers from entering the church on horseback.

We saw the place under the church where they believe that Jesus was born in the cave. We had a short meditation there and sang some Christmas songs.

After this, we visited the St. Catharine Latin Parish Church, where the Statue of St. Jerome stands, who lived from 340-420 A.D. Jerome was a Biblical scholar who gave the Western world the Vulgate, the official Latin translation of the Bible. Jerome’s statue reminds me somewhat of the Statue of Erasmus in Rotterdam.

According to our guide, a translation always loses some of its riches. The Latin translation was not as rich and clear as the original Hebrew. He was very thankful that more and more original Hebrew has been found since the Dead Sea Scrolls were located. He told us what Luther had once said:

1. Reading the Word in Hebrew is drinking from the spring.
2. Reading the Word in Greek, is drinking from the stream.
3. Reading the Word in Latin, is drinking from the pond.

He meant to say that it is the same water but less and less pure. Still, Luther was a strong supporter to bring the Bible in other languages so that all the common people could read it. He himself worked hard to get it translated into German.

After seeing several buildings, we went to a large souvenir store. Most of the souvenirs were hand carvings and most of them were made out of olive wood. Most of us bought souvenirs. There were also several large and beautiful Biblical carvings cut from olive wood such as Ruth and Boaz, David and Goliath, and Solomon’s first judgement and so on. They were just magnificent. They were way too large and too expensive for us but for their size and quality they were reasonably priced. For the well-to-do they could be shipped over fully guaranteed.

The store belonged to Christian Arabs. Bethlehem is an Arab city. Of its population, 30% is Christian and 70% Muslim. The mayor is a Christian There were two villages in this area that had a majority Christian population. From this part of Bethlehem, we had to go to the other side of the valley where we would have lunch. To reach this place, we had to drive back almost to Jerusalem to get to the other side.

After leaving Bethlehem after lunch, we drove to Jerusalem to the Mount Memorial. This is built in memory of the many Jews who have been killed, especially the six million, during the Holocaust. It was hard to see all those pictures of how those Jews were mistreated, undernourished, martyred and killed. Even the old and the little children were treated worse than animals. It is not easy to forget. There are several large halls and one is especially made in memory of children.

Around the buildings is the Avenue of the Righteous Gentiles. Trees are planted here in memory of non-Jews who were killed or who put their lives in danger while saving Jews from the camps during the last war. Each tree had a name plate on them; most of them had the name of a certain person, but some also had the name of a whole family, or a group, or a village. Many of them were Dutch but there were also Polish, German, Italian and other foreign names.

We looked for the tree in honour of Trudy’s grandmother, Geertruida Reyersen Van Buren but we couldn’t find it, and we didn’t have enough time to go through the whole garden. We heard later that it was on the other side of the building. We saw the tree of Corrie Ten Boom.

Also, we saw a tree of Jan Brouwer, but as we had never heard that any of our other relatives had a tree there, we didn’t pay much attention to it then. When we were back home, we learned that that tree was planted in honour of Trudy’s Uncle Jan, her father’s brother who had hidden several Jews during the war.

THE DEAD SEA, JERICHO, QUMRAN AND MASADA – Wednesday, November 20

A bright clear day again. We left our hotel around 7:30 a.m. as we had a heavy schedule for this day. When we passed the market, at this early time, we saw many people waiting, quite a few of them with trucks. They were waiting to be hired for the day, just as in the parable we read about in the Bible.

At first we drove straight north. This was the Way of the Patriarch’s to Shechem. When we came close to where Bethel had been, we turned east to the Jordan decline. We passed Anathoth, Jeremiah’s home town. It is now called Anata. This area is in the land of the tribe of Benjamin, but it is still part of the Judean desert.

The landscape was getting bare and rougher. This area slopes down quickly, going down 4000 ft in a stretch of 15 km, going from 2600 feet above sea level at Jerusalem, until 1300 ft below sea level at the Jordan river. This area is much dryer and warmer. We passed Mount Segar and the Mount of Olives from the other side. Then we went past Bethany, the place where Jesus raised Lazarus, and where he often visited and stayed overnight.

Then we passed the place where the fig tree had been, which Jesus cursed and it withered. We also passed a large building which is called the Inn of the Good Samaritan. There is a well here which makes it a good place to have an inn, so that travelers can rest in this hot, dry and barren wilderness. We know that it was a parable that Jesus spoke of the Good Samaritan, but most of the parables had some historical background so they would really speak to the people. So it is possible that this parable also had some historical background. In this barren wilderness, it is easy to imagine the traveller falling into the hands of robbers.

I always love to study Bible atlases and books and so far, I was quite proud of how close to reality my expectations were, as to height and distances between mountains and the location of places and valleys. Only Mount Carmel was much higher and larger than I had expected, but overall most things came quite close to my expectations. Here, on the road of Jerusalem to Jericho, I was way out. I had never imagined such rough terrain. We had been in mountainous terrain before on the island of Java, in Bali and through the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, but I was never as scared, as here, when we passed so close beside those deep ravines.

We passed by Jericho until we came close to the Jordan river; there we turned south. There is a bridge over the Jordan: the Allenby Bridge. It is located slightly north of the place where the Israelites likely crossed the Jordan River. The bridge is closed and nobody is allowed close to the river, as the other side is Jordanian territory.

After turning south, we soon reached the Dead Sea. We rode close to the west shore of the sea for about 30 miles until we came to Masada. The sea is 47 miles long and from 6 to 10 miles wide. It covers 360 miles. The sea is also quite deep. The lowest place is 1310 ft deep. The shores of the sea are 1292 feet below sea level, 200 meters or 650 feet lower than the Sea of Tiberias. The Jordan, in the 105 km between the seas, drops that much.

The shores of the Dead Sea are the lowest places on earth, not covered by water. Later while we stopped at Qumran, two military planes flew over quite low and we realized that these planes were flying below sea level. This is a strange concept.

They have calculated that about 6 million tonnes of water flow daily into the Dead Sea and nothing flows out of it. The water all evaporates, leaving its sediments behind. This makes the Sea more and more salty. Recently, due to a couple of dry years, and the greater use of water for irrigation and human consumption, the amount of water entering the Sea has been greatly reduced, which has lowered the surface of the Sea and made it even more salty. The water contains 23-25 percent of minerals salts, 10% of this is the common kitchen salt or Natrium Chloride. It gives the water a strong salty taste. Another salt, Magnesium Chloride, gives the water a bitter taste and another, Calcium Chloride, gives the water a very oily feeling. The water looks very deep blue and from the red purplish mountains on the other side, you see a variety of deep colours. On the other side of the Sea you can clearly see the mountains of Moab. The northern part was once part of the land of the tribe of Rueben. I forgot to ask if Mount Nebo could be seen from here. That was the Mount from whose top Moses overlooked the whole country. We know that the Lord gave him special power to see all this from one place, especially at his age, 120 years old, just before he died. However, we were amazed how far we could see in this dry air.

From the mountains of Moab, we could see several mountain tops, narrow valleys and ravines, and later the River Arnon entering the Sea between two straight high cliffs. The highway we drove beside the sea was flat. On the left side of the road, we saw mostly low land, sloping off to the sea. Most of it is barren, sometimes with some plants and shrubbery, but then suddenly, you pass vineyards, date palms and banana orchards. Wherever there are some wells for irrigation, it seems to grow well. On the right of us, there were very high cliffs, often straight up, right beside the highway. We passed Qumram and En Gedi until we came to the Tongue peninsula where the Jordanian side goes far into the Sea. The water level at present is so low that this peninsula reaches all the way to the Israeli side. In reality there are two seas now. A man-made canal connects the two seas.

Masada is a short distance from the Dead Sea. It is not mentioned in the Bible. We know of its importance from the writings of Josephus Flavius, the Jewish historian. It is a loose standing Mount, going straight up 1432 feet above the Dead Sea, separated from the other mountains by deep gorges. The sides are very straight, almost inaccessible. The top is almost flat. It is about 1900 ft. long, and 650 ft. wide, giving it an area of almost 22 acres.

King Herod the Great fortified this mountain as a stronghold in 36 B.C. He built walls all around the top of the Mount with towers. He made huge water systems that collected as much water as possible when it rained, and stored this underground. He built a palace, large storerooms and filled them with all kinds of necessities such as food, weapons, etc. Herod needed a stronghold, where he could escape to, in case his life would be in danger. He was a very cruel man and also a very suspicious person, who trusted no one. He knew that the Jews despised him and would love to dispose of him. He was in good standing with Caesar after a bad start. The Egyptian Queen Cleopatra hated him and she had a tremendous influence on Caesar. So there was always a chance that she would blackmail him by Caesar.

After Herod’s death, the stronghold was occupied by a small Roman Garrison. In 66 A.D., a group of zealots captured it by surprise. It was due to carelessness on the part of the Romans that the Jews managed to enter it. They were so sure that it couldn’t be taken over, that their keeping watch was very slack.

When Jerusalem was destroyed, it became the last Jewish stronghold. In total, men, women and children, there were 967 persons on top of the mountain. Down below, a large, well-trained Roman army surrounded the entire mountain. There were between 10 000 to 15 000 soldiers led by some of the most experienced officers. The Jews managed to hold them at bay for about two and a half years. The Romans had made any possible escape impassible. They had built a long ramp towards the mountain and burned the gates. They knew the next day would be their victory.

The Jews also knew that tomorrow would be the end. They knew that no mercy could be expected; only death, cruel torture, rape and slavery could be expected. To escape torture, they decided to kill themselves before the Romans arrived. However, a Jew would not commit suicide. They did it the following way: first every man had to kill his wife and children, then by lot, 10 men were chosen to kill the others. After this, one man was chosen to kill the other 9. Then he had to check if everybody was dead and put the buildings on fire and then kill himself. And so it was done. It was decided beforehand that the storage buildings and water systems should be left intact so that the Romans could see that it was not because of a lack of water or food that they had forced them to give up.

When the Romans entered the next day, prepared for a fierce battle, they only found emptiness and a roaring fire. After calling, some Jews appeared as not everybody was dead. One old woman and one man with 5 children had hidden themselves and had escaped the gruesome murder. They told the Romans what had happened and they were so impressed that they left them alive.

Josephus Flavius has written this in great detail. He was not present at the time, but he had been there before and knew Masada. He had been a Jewish leader himself before going over to the Romans. He was well acquainted with the Roman Officer that led the siege and likely the last details he got from the seven survivors.

Masada was forgotten for a long time. It was only known from Flavius’ writings. No one knew anymore where it really happened until the 19th century when it was discovered. Gradually more attention was brought to this project and several discoveries were made. One of the first pieces of a scroll they found was from the prophet Ezekiel and it held the following words, “Son of Man can these bones live.”

Then after much publication, everything was excavated by thousands of volunteers coming from 28 different countries in two years’ time, They were there from Oct. 1963 until April 1964, and from Dec. 1964 until March 1965. It is not only excavated but quite a bit of it was reconstructed. The discoveries are very valuable. It gives us knowledge of almost all aspects of the material and spiritual life of the Jews at the time of the New Testament. They found much architecture, pieces of art, about 4000 coins, many of them silver shekels from the time of the revolt which had never been found before. They also found pottery and everyday utensils, and also Biblical and other scrolls. We know from them that Hebrew was still used at that time.

The rock is now open for tourism. It can be reached by foot via a steep winding path, called the Snake Way. This walk is not easy and only for the experienced walker. It is not without danger. The usual way is the cable rail. There are two of them. When the one goes up the other goes down. Each of them can hold 40 passengers at a time. The cable rail doesn’t go all the way to the top. There are still quite a few steps and you must still climb and walk a bit before reaching the top.

We spent about an hour on the rock, touring the walls, the palace and other buildings, the large water cisterns and the storage rooms, etc. I feel that I have to shorten this part. If I would write down everything we saw here, it would get too long.

After leaving Masada, we drove back to the Dead Sea and then a little more south past Zohar. We were close to Mount Sodom at the end of the Dead Sea. At Sodom, there is now much industry. Salt, fertilizers and many other minerals are extracted from the sea water and the surrounding rocks.

We had dinner at Herod’s Restaurant at the edge of the Sea. The buildings were close to the water, closer than at the other seas. I imagine that there are never large waves to damage the beach. The water must be too thick and oily to make large waves, even in a storm. The food was good but the drinks were expensive.

The area where we had lunch was a health resort. Most tourists who visit here come for health reasons, especially for skin diseases and arthritis. By swimming in the Dead Sea and washing with a kind of mudsoap, made from some of the minerals found here, many people are given relief or healing from their illnesses. It was really impressive to be in this area so well known from the Bible: the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

After lunch, we drove back north again over the same road beside the Dead Sea. The original plans were to stop at En Gedi to see this important rock and its waterfall, but for lack of time we bypassed it. En Gedi is also well-known from the Bible. David hid here from Saul. It is a good place for hiding and it also has a good spring. In the Song of Solomon it was mentioned already, that there were vineyards there. He mentioned the fragrant camphor found in those vineyards and this plant is still found here. Ezekiel prophesies that the time shall come that the water will be sweet again here, and that many people will fish here and catch many fish of different kinds.

We drove further North until we came almost to the end of the Dead Sea, at the ruins of the old city Qumram. We do not read of it in the Bible, but from Josephus Flavius’ writings, we know that it was occupied in the time that the Lord Jesus was on earth. A Jewish sect, the Essenes, lived here. They were a very strict group who lived a communal life. The Romans destroyed it in 70 A.D. and killed all the occupants.

The Essenes knew that the Romans were coming and had sealed and hidden their scrolls. In 1947, a Bedouin Shepherd boy found the first cave with several scrolls. Years later, many more were found. Scrolls from several Bible books have been completely found and parts have been found from the other books. The only Old Testament book from which no parts were found is the book of Esther. Beside Bible books, they found many scrolls of business and the rules of the Essenes. From these, we now know how they lived and what they believed. These scrolls are now known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. This discovery had tremendous value for the Church. We know that the Scriptures had not changed by rewriting but now we have the proof of it. Almost all the scrolls were written in Hebrew and they are exactly the same as we know them.

The buildings where the Essenes lived have been excavated. After seeing them and some of the caves, we travelled further north again. Qumram was the only place that the heat bothered us in our two week visit. There were also many insects which were very bothersome.

It was quite late in the afternoon when we reached Jericho. We stopped there only briefly and didn’t see much of the city, just some excavations and irrigation. This city we also know so well from the Bible. It is mentioned twelve times already in the books of Moses, then many times in Joshua. It is the first city that fell into the hands of the Israelites. Joshua cursed the people who would rebuild the city. About 550 years later, in the time of wicked King Ahab, Hiel of Bethel, rebuilt the city and received the curse, as his oldest son died at the start of the building and his youngest son when he finished it.

We also know the story about Elijah and Elisha near Jericho. Elisha healed the water of the well by throwing a bowl of salt in it. We read that before the water was nought and the ground barren. And Elisha said. “There shall not be from thence anymore death or barren land.” It is now almost 2850 years after Elisha spoke these words, and we still find here this same large well of Elisha and healthy waters streaming out of it.

Much of it is used for irrigation and we saw many nice citrus orchards and palms around it in the middle of this desert. How can people see this and still not believe in an Almighty God? Elisha healed these waters, it must have been only a few years after the city was rebuilt.

At Jericho, they found pieces of the walls that had come tumbling down. There were also walls that were built much later but also walls that must have been much older.

On our way back to Jerusalem, we stopped once more and saw St. George’s Monastery at Wadi Kelt. In the Bible, it was called the brook Kerek. Elijah hid at this brook from King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. Here he was fed by the ravens. The Monastery is built halfway down a very steep cliff in a very rough dry barren area. It was not clear to me why the monastery was built here. Was it because it was here that the prophet Elijah was fed by the ravens? Or was it because it is close to the Mount of Temptation where they believe that Jesus was tempted by Satan? It was getting dark already when we were by the gorge, where down below lay the monastery. The rest of the trip was driven in the dark and we didn’t see much. Still it was very impressive to know that on the road we drove, the Lord Jesus had walked with his disciples.

It had been a long day. It was tiring but very much worth it.

BE’ERSHEVA AND ARAD – Thursday November 21

It was another beautiful day. This would be our last bus trip and also about the longest day trip. We decided to start early again as most of us wanted to stop at the Bedouin market at Be’ersheva. At about 7:40 a.m., we left the hotel. We drove west in the direction of Emmaus, another road we know that the Lord Jesus walked upon. Emmaus was about threescore furlongs from Jerusalem, so about 60 times 180 meters. This is close to 11 km. This road is the gate of the valley of the Old Caravan road.

After passing the place believed to be the Biblical Emmaus, we turned south in the direction of Ashkelon, one of the former Philistine cities. After the Jews returned from Babylon, this area belonged to Iidumea where the Edomites lived. Ashkelon was the birthplace of wicked King Herod the Great. We passed by the city from a short distance. The land where the Philistines lived is quite flat and almost all farmland. At present the fields are all plowed. Very little field work had been done at the present. It seemed that they were waiting for further rains before seeding.

We drove close to where the city of Ziklag had been. David lived here while being in the land of the Philistines. We passed Aphek where the crucial battle was fought in the time of Eli when the Ark of the Covenant was taken. Aphek was also the place where the Kings of the Philistines gathered together to fight Saul, when the Philistine lords sent David back to Ziklag.

We drove south to Gag Mordecai. This place is named after Mordecai Annileritz, the leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. From here on, we drove a little further Eastward. Israel avoids using the Gaza strip for tourism. This area is still not very safe. While driving further south, the landscape started to get dryer and more desolate. Many shepherds were seen with their flocks of sheep and goats. It gives you a very poor impression. The tents look very poor. They seem to be temporarily repaired so many times, that it is hard to see what they were originally made of. The flocks were quite small with poor looking animals. You wonder how these people can survive from this kind of living.

There are four kinds of Bedouins. The first kind usually lives in the most barren areas and have very little household stuff. What little they have, they pack up in the morning and follow their herds and in the evening they set their tents up again. They are the constant wanderers.

The second kind have their tents at a certain place; they leave with their flocks in the morning, taking a slightly different route every day, and return in the evening. Only once in a while, when they run out of feed completely, they break up camp and move to newer grazing grounds. This is the way that Abraham and Isaac lived.

The third group have their tents at a certain location, but their flocks do not return home every night, but sleep away, sometimes for weeks or even months. This is the way that Jacob lived. We read that he lived in Hebron, but his sons went with the flock all the way to Shechem and Dothan, about 140 km away. A good walker would need about 5 days to walk this distance without a flock.

The fourth group has switched from shepherding to farming, but they still live and farm in a communal way. From simple shepherds, they have become modern farmers with very large fields and modern tractors and machinery. Most of them have moved from tents to houses. It is easy to see that they have progressed financially. The ground here in the south is very fertile, but the amount of rain is very low. The ground is not clay but looes, a kind of clay you also find in Belgium and Limburg. It is very fine. When it rains, the top becomes a crust and the water runs off. However when you plow the field in such a way that the water can not run off, it has time to slowly sink in. This ground retains its moisture very long.

We passed Olakim. This is around the place where the King of Gerar lived, of whom we read in the histories of Abraham and Isaac. Driving further south, we really came into the desert. We stopped at Be’ersheva where the weekly Bedouin market was just in progress. It was a large market, very crowded and very colourful. Most of the people were dressed in the Bedouin garments, the women wearing veils. You could buy everything you could think of there: clothes, foods and vegetables, flowers, utensils, arts and crafts. There was new and used, old fashioned and super modern, the clothes from Bedouin garments to modern printed T shirts. Most of the merchants had their wares on stalls, but others just on the ground. There was some very nice stuff for sale. Their hand carvings, curtains and rugs, etc. were very impressive.

Be’ersheva is a large city now. While driving through the city, we saw an Alliance Missionary church and a Bible Book Store.

In the Bible we often read the phrase, “from Dan to Be’ersheva.” These were the most northerly and southerly places then. We had been in Dan, which is still at Israel’s northern border and now we were in Be’ersheva, old Israel’s most southerly border. Modern Israel goes however, much further south. It goes down to Elath on the Red Sea. This far south, Israel only reached during the reign of King Solomon.

Here we also saw Abraham’s well and several Tamarack trees. In Genesis 21 we read that Abraham planted a grove by the well. In some translations it says he planted Tamarack trees. Why is this recorded? Was it because trees were very important in this wilderness or was it because planting trees is a real sign of settlement?

After spending about an hour in Be’ersheva, we boarded the bus again and drove to Arad. This place lies east of Be’ersheva, not far from the Dead Sea and Masada, and not far from Sodom. This is a real desert, barren wilderness, with rugged hills and sharp declines. In the Bible we find the word wilderness about 300 times. In Deut. 1 vs. 19 we read, “We went through all that great and terrible wilderness.” When you haven’t seen this, you don’t really realize what this means. Arad is mentioned five times in the Bible. Just after Aaron’s death, the King of Arad attacked the Israelites.

We went to a Bedouin’s settlement for a camel ride. When we arrived, the camels were not home. So we had to go a couple of miles over the mountains to find them. We drove in the direction of Masada. We were on one of the highest points and from there we had a good view over the Dead Sea and the mountains of Moab.

We used the word Camel, but in Israel, we only saw dromedaries. In earlier days, the camel was used in Israel. Slowly the dromedary took over. It is hardier and can travel three times the speed of a camel. In size and body shape, there is little difference between a male and female dromedary. It doesn’t really look like any other animal. It is a real odd-looking creature. It has long rough and bony legs, a funny-looking body, a long neck that is attached very low on the body that has almost an S shape like a swan, a small head, very short ears completely filled with hair, and rough oversized lips.

When dromedaries lie down, they lie almost completely on top of their legs. Their body itself hardly touches the ground. All the places that touch the ground are heavily callused so that the burning hot sand does not bother them. There was very little to eat for them, but with their hard leathery lips they can eat almost everything: cacti, branches etc. They can survive a week without water in this terribly hot and dry climate. They do not sweat and thus they do not lose water this way. Their body temperature can change dramatically. They can stand a 46 F difference in body temperature. They chew their cud. The legs end in two toes which are covered with leathery skin and are connected with skin. When they walk, the toes go sideways which gives them a larger surface and keeps them from sinking down in the loose sand.

At the age of three years, they are sexually mature and pregnancy takes 13 months. They can have a single young about every second year. The top age they can reach is about 40. They have a very small udder, almost like a horse, but they have 4 teats like a cow. Some dromedaries are cream-coloured but most of them are brown in different shades from light to dark. The hair of the dromedary is much lighter and much shorter than that of the real camel. To find out how old the animal is, they look at their bottom teeth just as they do to a horse. When you ride them, you go on them while they lie down. They first get their hind legs up and you sit for a minute in an awkward position. If you were not prepared, you would roll off, over their head. Then the long front legs go up. We could drive them for a mile but there were only 11 camels and 9 donkeys and we were with 50 of us. So they stopped every 10 minutes to change riders. You sit much higher than on a horse. It was a real experience.

After the ride, the Bedouins made very strong tea for us. We drove back to the Bedouin tent for lunch. It was a large tent which was partly covered by material resembling burlap, and partly covered with palm branches. There were some smaller tents close by and all around this was a wall, made partly from rocks and stone and partly of palm branches. The main reason for this enclosure was to get some protection from the sandstorms. We didn’t see any women or children. They must have been in the other tents. We sat down on mats and got the food in bowls and ate from it together, 4 to 6 sharing a bowl. We saw the coffee being prepared, the beans were roasted and ground and we received real strong coffee in very tiny cups. The meal was prepared with much ritual and explanations. It was delicious and there was plenty of meat. It was very tasty. Most likely it was turkey meat. There was some salad and the main meal was something similar in flavour and consistency between lasagna and Mexican tacos, so it gave us some impression of where and how the Patriarch’s lived.

After the meal, we drove back home. We didn’t go over Hebron as it was not quiet there. We drove to Kirgat Gath, another Philistine city that is often mentioned in the Bible. It was the place that Goliath came from. Then we went to Beth Shemesh, the place where the ark arrived after returning from the Philistines and where so many died after looking inside the ark.

Then we entered the Valley of Elath by Arckuh, the place where David slew Goliath. We stopped where the Israeli army had been, then looked at the hills where the Philistines were gathered, with the valley and the brook in-between. We were shown the place where Goliath likely fell. Goliath was from Gath and did not have too far to go and David as a shepherd probably knew the area too. When his father Jesse sent him to the battlefield to see how his brothers were doing, he must have walked only a couple of hours.

Almost nothing has changed here, with the exception that there is now a large Elvis Presley restaurant on top of the hills with a large statue of the singer and large billboards and pictures all over. We were thirsty but decided not to stop there.

We also passed Timnah, so well-known in the stories of Samson. We drove past Samson’s birthplace and other places where he had been. Then we drove back to Jerusalem. It was dark already when we left Arakah, so we didn’t see much for the rest of the trip.

It was late when we arrived at the hotel after another very interesting day.

THE LAST DAY – Friday November 22

This was our last full day in Israel. No tour was planned. We could all spend it the way we wanted.  We left the hotel later than most other days, because several of us had to go to the bank first to cash travellers cheques or exchange Canadian dollars for American dollars or Israeli shegals. We had been on the road everyday so far and hadn’t any opportunity to go to a bank. We had experienced that Canadian money and even American travellers cheques could not be exchanged in the stores that we had visited. A couple of minutes before bank opening we left the hotel. We were in for some disappointment. The service was slow and cumbersome. Quite a few forms had to be filled out. The exchange rate for Canadian money was very low and the service charge, for exchanging travellers cheques to real money was very high.

After leaving the bank, we walked in the direction of the Old City to the Jaffa Gate. We paid a small fee to be allowed to walk over the walls. We were reminded again that when you pay and need money back, you need to be careful and count it at once. The cashier here made mistakes at least four times in a row and always in his favour.

We walked on the wall, first going north to the New gate, then east to the Damascus Gate where we left the walls. Jerusalem is built on mountains, so most streets go up and down, sometimes dramatically. Some streets look almost like stairways. When we were on top of the walls, we realized that the wall does the same.

The walls were wide enough so that two people could easily walk side by side. On the outside there was another wall about 6 feet higher than the first, made for the protection of the army who defended the city walls. There were openings through this, where the soldiers could stop and observe. Some of the windows were about a square foot in size and others were just narrow slits. On the inside there was likely nothing before, but now there was a steel railing for the protection of the tourist. It looked quite new. In several places we had nice views.

We left the wall at the Damascus Gate to enter the city at the Arab quarter. This was a mistake. It was Friday and it was their market day. It was unbelievably busy. It was almost impossible to stay together. Sometimes the pressure was so great that you were almost carried. From the Arab quarter, we went to the Jewish quarter and then we took a short walk through the Armenian quarter. We did some sight-seeing and some shopping and returned at noon to the King David Hotel.

In the afternoon we generally went our separate ways. Trudy and our other relatives went to visit a second cousin who lived in Israel. They enjoyed their visit and learned more about what real life is like in Israel. This cousin had come to the country from Holland as a volunteer nurse and married another Dutch volunteer here. They had remained as nurses and had lived here now for 14 years. They had two children who spoke Hebrew, English and Dutch. They also had a 4 year old foster child that was a Down Syndrome child. He had been abandoned and close to death when they had taken him in 4 years ago. He was now improving but could do very little by himself, not even being able to eat without help.

Later in the afternoon, most of the group returned to the hotel. The Jews celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday, but it starts on Friday at sundown. Most businesses close very early on Friday afternoon, to give staff enough time to go home and prepare for the Sabbath. Most Jews are not religious but the Sabbath is kept by almost everyone.

At 7:00 p.m. we had a farewell meeting. Impressions were exchanged etc. Then we had supper. It was almost 9 p.m. when supper was finished. We packed our suitcases and at about 9:30 we went to bed. It was a short night as we were awakened at 2:00 a.m. We had a simple breakfast and left the Hotel David at 2:45a.m. We reached the airport about an hour later. We didn’t have any problems with security and customs staff.

The plane left at 6:45 a.m., so it had been daylight for a while. We were not as fortunate as on the first trip as our seats were in the center of the plane. So we were not able to see very much. After two weeks of extensive sight-seeing and a very short night we were not really too interested in it anyway.

In Paris we had to wait a couple of hours again. From there we flew to New York and from there, after a two hour wait, to Buffalo. From Buffalo we drove by car. At the border between the States and Canada we had to wait in a very long line up which took an extra two hours. This was the only thing that went wrong on our tour.

Close to 9:00p.m. we arrived home. We were tired as it had been 26 hours since we left the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. We were very satisfied for this tremendous trip and thankful to the Lord that he gave us this opportunity to see the Land of the Bible, the land where the Lord Jesus walked.