Jerusalem Approaches: Mount of Olives, Bethelehem, Herodium

This was to be for yesterday.

Our first stop today was on the Mount of Olives. We were in the vicinity of where Jesus ascended to heaven because it says in Luke 24 that he ascended “out of the vicinity of Bethany”, which was where we were. We read the account of Him ascending acting like we were looking up into the sky and the angels asking what we are looking at. The Mount of Olives is also the place where Jesus will descend to on His second return, and as He comes down the Mount of Olives will split in two (Zech 14:1-5). From where we were, looking east, we could see Bethphage and Bethany. Bethpage was where Jesus told the disciples to get the donkey for His triumphal entry. An interesting note about His triumphal entry was that the people who were praising Him were not the people to be demanding Jesus’ crucifixion.
Just as people had differing views about things today there was a group that loved him and a group that wanted His arrest. That is why they did not arrest Him earlier, because they were afraid of the crowd. That is why they had to do it at night; when everyone was in bed. Bethany was they hometown of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. This was where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. The Mount of Olives was also where Jesus prayed and was betrayed in the area called Gethsemane.
We then went over to the Hinnom Valley, opposite Jerusalem and saw some Iron Age (around 600BC) burial tombs. Death is a prominent thing here; they don’t hide their graves, in fact, it is one way to claim land. Concerning the tombs surrounding Jerusalem, Jesus had said that the Pharisees were like those tombs that were white on the outside, but full of death on the inside. The ridge that the tombs were on, on the Hinnom Valley ridge, was the border between Judah and Benjamin. On the top of the ridge is the Road of the Patriarchs and we were in the area that the Levite decided to continue on to Gibeah, which was where the Benjaminite civil war started. This also could have been the area where Abraham met Melchizedeck to give him gifts. In one of the tombs we were at the oldest piece of scripture was found. It was a piece of silver that was rolled up in a necklace but the area that it was found was covered with dirt so grave robbers had no idea of its existence. It quotes Numbers 6:24-26, and this artifact dates back to 600 BC. We can be reminded of what Jesus says in John 5:21 and 24 where he says that he has the power over death. We are the only religion where Christ has the key to death and Hades.
We then went to Bethlehem, which was on the West Bank so we had to go through a checkpoint (we've been over there before). When we got there there were some murals/graffiti on the walls. Most of what they say are totally wrong. They only reason why there has to be a wall up is because it is to prohibit/defer/discourage suicide bombers. Now areas where suicide bombers are usually from doesn't allow them walk over to a bus and blow it up. Bethlehem was David’s hometown and Jesus was born here. In the wheat fields surrounding Bethlehem was where Boaz had his fields, and where the accounts of the book of Ruth took place. Bill pointed out that everyone has a wrong view of the Christmas story. First of all there was no inn; the word is supposed to be translated ‘upper room’ meaning that it was probably Joseph’s family’s house. There was no late night arrival; they were there for days maybe even weeks before Jesus was born. The account never mentions any animals in the manger. The shepherds didn’t see the star; the magi did, the shepherds would have gone around asking people where the new born was. Also, Jesus could have been born during the day. Bethlehem is the place where God became man.
We then went to the Herodium, which was a fortress built by Herod. It is also the burial place of Herod, which was just found in 2007. The Jews took the fortress over in the two revolts in 70 AD and 135 AD. One of the features were a couple of cisterns that had water brought in by bucket from the aqueducts below, yet the Jews used the tunnels as ways to get to different areas when fighting.
We then went to Nahal Arugot, which was the valley that Jehoshaphat went through, on the Ascent of Ziz, to defeat the Edomites, Ammonites, and Moabites. On this route Jehoshaphat had the singers go out in front and sing ‘Hodu’ (2 Chron 20:1-4, 15-27). From where we were we could see the town Tekoa, which was the hometown of the prophet of Amos. Amos had to prophesy against the Northern kingdom that even though they were well off economically they were far away from God. He says in Amos 5:4, 6 “seek Me/the Lord and live”.
Our last stop was in the Valley of Rephaim. This is the way that David probably went to go to the Israelite camp and defeat Goliath. David took this route to Jebus to conquer the city and set up his palace there. After the kingdom was set up no one ever was able to successfully attack from the south in any routes.