Jerusalem: Hezekiahs tunnel

Here is another one of the paper i wrote for a class about our trip today. Enjoy. I will get Christina to post her paper on here sometime so you guys can read some good writing. 

Jerusalem: Old Testament

            Today we spent the day in Jerusalem seeing some of the Old Testament that the city offers. We started on the bus by singing songs. This is always a great way to start a day, and it seems like we will do it often. The thing about today that sets it apart is that it was raining. This makes an outdoor field trip rather interesting. We learned that Israel is currently in a drought and that the rain is something that Israel must trust God for. So despite the inconvenience the rain may have brought, we praise God for it alongside the Israelites. Our tour guide and teach Benj said that it was the most rain he had ever seen in Jerusalem. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t rained like that before but that it wasn’t often. From the beginning of the day we got to enjoy and work in the rain that God allowed to fall on the Holy Land.

            The first site we stopped at was The Broad Wall. This was a part of the wall that King Hezekiah built around the Western Hill, thus including it in Jerusalem. This was done around 1000 B.C. The Broad Wall had been found and a portion was excavated. The wall itself was around eight meters thick. The archeologist that found this wall did not believe it to be the Wall Hezekiah built even though she found some pottery dating to that time right next to the wall. In order to explain this away she said that someone had brought the pottery up from a later period and left it there. This is a bit of a stretch and it seems more logical that the pottery and the wall are from the same time.

            After a set back with our appointment time for the museum we went over to the Western Hill. The Byzantines thought that the Western Hill was Mount Zion but we know now that it isn’t. They also thought that they had found King David’s tomb on the Western Hill but there is now way that it could be. The Bible clearly tells us in 1 Kings 2:10 that King David was buried in the City of David, which is on the Eastern Hill. Despite the knowledge that this isn’t King David’s tomb, Jewish men and women still go to what they think is King’s David tomb and pray at it. After this we went to the Traditional spot of the Upper Room where the last supper supposedly took place. There is a possibility that it really was the place of the last supper. If that isn’t the place then it is within about 130 meters of that place. There we sang in Christ Alone. That is one of the most powerful moments I have ever experienced in my life. The song begins by saying that in Christ alone my hope is found and he is my light, my strength, and my song. That is what sets us apart as Christians, especially in a city like Jerusalem. To sing those lines in a room full of people, who may believe in things other than Christ, in either close proximity or the site of the Last Supper was outstanding. We also discussed a servant’s heart in that room. During the Last Supper Jesus showed a servant’s heart to the disciples. He washed their feet. Benj related that to our life and that we should have a heart of a servant to others if Jesus could have a servant’s heart toward the disciples.  

            After that we went to our appointment at the museum in which we saw a model of Jerusalem. I movie we watched talked about the uniqueness of Jerusalem and the history that it carries. Talked about the original city of David on the Eastern Hill and how it expanded up to Mount Moriah with Solomon building the temple. Then the movie covered the expansion of the city walls that Hezekiah put in. It was a good overview of the history of Jerusalem and also a good model to see Jerusalem from an airplane view. Then from there we slugged through the rain, it wasn’t that bad, to where we would eat our first combination of meat and cheese since America. It was a turkey and cheese sandwich, and it was good.

            After that we went to a cemetery that Oskar Schindler was buried. We briefly talked about his impact on saving many Jew’s lives during the Holocaust before we moved to the lookout of the Hinnom Valley. This is the valley which runs along the western side of the city. This valley has many references in the bible and is a major geographical aspect of the Jerusalem area. Then, to continue with the tombs, we went to the south east corner of the city. We saw where Hezekiah build on to the city walls and extended the walls from where Herod the Great had placed them. Just outside the walls were some tombs. These were for the rich and wealthy because they were extravagant tombs. The people who were in them were Absalom and in another was Zachariah. They tombs could possibly have been the tombs that Jesus was thinking about when we called the Pharisees white washed tombs.

            Then we went back into the City of David and went into Hezekiah’s Tunnel. Hezekiah built this tunnel in order to transport water from the Gihon Spring to the Pools of Siloam. This was an effort to camouflage the Gihon spring so that an enemy of Jerusalem would not cut off their water source. On our way to the tunnel we stopped by a step stone structure. This structure was used as a platform for a building so that one could stand on top of the hill. It built up the ground around it to give it enough surface are to hold a structure above. This structure held some big building up that stood on top of the eastern hill. It is possible that it could have been David’s Palace but it was probably not. Then we went into the tunnel area. We first saw Warren Shaft. This used to be the site that it was thought Joab climbed through when he took the city. It is no longer thought that because it is a very steep shaft. It is straight up and also we know that he went up a water shaft. This shaft shows no signs of ever having water in it, so therefore it couldn’t be the entrance of Joab. Then we went into Hezekiah’s tunnel. We walked through it in about 15 minutes. The water was at our ankles and water warmer than the rain water we were used to feeling. The amazing thing about the tunnel is that it was dug from both ends and they met in the middle. There were points in the tunnel that took 90 degree turns. They were trying to find each other and trying to meet up as they got close. It is an amazing feat that they did meet up. There were many times when you could see them veer off to the right of the left thinking that it was a better way. At the end of the tunnel is the Pool of Siloam. In John 9 Jesus puts mud on the blind man’s eyes and tells him to go wash it off in the Pool of Siloam and he would see. The man does and is healed. This is the same pool which this miracle happens. This is where the tunnel brought the spring water too and filled it up.

            After we left the Pool of Siloam we went to another candidate for the tomb of King David. This time it was a tomb, or a tomb like structure. Our fearless leader Benj did not think it likely that this was the place of King David’s tomb because the structures did not look like tombs form that time. He pointed out that during Jesus time they knew where the tomb of King David was because he refers to it in one of the letters.

After this we went and met our bus driver who took us back to the warmth of our Moshav. 

Ben and Christina

Warren's Shaft

Hezekiah's Tunnel

Tunnel

Pools of Siloam

The end of the Mount of Olives. Dangerous territory. Arab community.

Oskar Schindler's tomb