Day 8 began at the Temple Mount. Or more accurately waiting in line to go to security to get to the Temple Mount. This is the most hotly contested piece of real estate in the world.

Temple Mount

Psalm 122
A song of ascents. Of David.
1 I rejoiced with those who said to me,
"Let us go to the house of the Lord."
2 Our feet are standing
in your gates, Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem is built like a city
that is closely compacted together.
4 That is where the tribes go up—
the tribes of the Lord—
to praise the name of the Lord
according to the statute given to Israel.
5 There stand the thrones for judgment,
the thrones of the house of David.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
"May those who love you be secure.
7 May there be peace within your walls
and security within your citadels."


We spent a lot of time here, which was neat considering it may be the most important historic and geopolitical spot on the planet earth. Many tours don’t spend much time up here.

We looked at seven different teachings, covering the history of the temple.
  1. Genesis 22 ~2000 BC
  2. David (~1000 BC) reconquers land lost by Saul and lands never conquered by Joshua He took Ark of the convenant and put it on the place of the covenant. This area was neutral to reunite the tribes.
  3. Solomon (~930 BC) brought prosperity and built first temple. But he didn’t finish strong. Idolatry, which persisted through 586 BC. when they exiled to Babylon.
  4. Zerubabbel ~500 BC returned and rebuilt.
  5. Herod. 37 -4 BC. - 1/2 million people can fit here on the reconstructed Temple Mount
  6. Post destruction Roman town now. Temple was ruined. In 325 Constantinople built holy sepulcher
  7. Omar 637 conquered jerusalem for Islam who later built the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa mosque.
Devotional on loving your "enemies":


Western wall and Rabinnic Tunnels


People originally thought the Western Wall was the wall of the temple, but it’s the Western retaining wall it’s the closest one can get to where the temple stood today, its tradition to write your prayers and spread them before the Lord like Hezekiah did by leaving them in cracks in the wall

City of David

Here is where we think David’s palace was. Down the very steep hill were houses, possibly even the house of his friend, Uriah. Here, it is easy to see how he could have looked down and seen everything. We read 2 Samuel 11 and talked about how leaders can fail.

Hezekiah’s Water Tunnel and Pool of Siloam


This was a fun experience where we put our water shoes on and trekked 1000 yards through knee deep water along Hezekiah’s tunnel referenced in 2 Kings 20
It was a little low in spots but I made it! The cool 60 degree water was refreshing too.
We ended at the pool of Siloam, which was an important source of ritual water for the temple and the setting for John 9, another great chapter in Johns great gospel. A "macro narrative" in John is that the leadership could physically see, but are spiritually blind. While others who are or were literally blind, spiritually see.

From an archaeological perspective, the site was exciting, because they have recently begun to excavate the remainder of the pool, after only having a sliver of it, exposed for over a decade. That work has just started two weeks before we got there.

Yad VaShem

The most powerful museum in the world. This is the Israeli Holocaust museum. Yad vashem means "remember the name." Ronin our guide introduced by saying what the museum means to him personally and why we bring Christian groups here.

The museum centers on life for Jews in Warsaw, from relative freedom, to life in the Warsaw ghetto, to the camps.

"December 7, 1943
Dear Lucia, it is now two days that I am my family and more than 200 other people are locked and the cattle car traveling towards a concentration camp. We have the prospect of eight terrible days traveling to Kraków in public. I add a little low as a formal testament, and I beg you to kindly implement it. Say goodbye once more to all the people and friends in Chiavasso, and tell everyone we have gone to her death. Farewell Lucia Farewell."



Me and our tour guide, Ronin

Just before we were about to leave, I grabbed our tour guide for a quick video:

I can’t believe we are already at the end of this trip. Our last day of touring is tomorrow where we will explore Jesus’ Jerusalem.