For the next two days of the journey in the Promised Land, the activities of our pilgrims were not scheduled. This provided the opportunity for us to see a variety of places. Since it wasn’t possible to see everything in and around Jerusalem, we had to choose what seemed more important to each of us.
A number of us wanted to see the Pool of Siloam and to take the walk from Bethany to Jerusalem. The Pool of Siloam is at the southeast corner of the old city’ of Jerusalem and was discussed in the last article. The distance from Bethany to Jerusalem is about a mile and a half and is fairly steep in places. It is a walk that Jesus and the Apostles took quite often during their ministry and one which Jesus took both morning and evening during the last days of his life ( Mark 11 :11-12 ) .
About twenty of us climbed into several taxi cabs and headed for our two destinations. A simple little trip, right?
Wrong. Almost all of the taxi drivers in Jerusalem are Arabs. These particular Arabs spoke little or no English and they had no idea where the Pool of Siloam or the city of Bethany is located. We headed them in the general direction and after much difficulty we found the pool. It hadn’t moved after all. Returning to the taxis, the drivers got together and held a spirited conference as to the location of the city of Bethany. It was obvious that none of them knew. After getting some thoughts on the matter from several boys nearby, we headed toward Bethany, we thought. We ended up at Bethphage. Here we picked up a young man who said he could take us to Bethany, which he did. We bid adieu to our taxi drivers who now had acquired the knowledge of how to get to two new places: the Pool of Siloam and the city of Bethany.
In Bethany we took a tour of what is reported to be the tomb of Lazarus. Whether or not it really is doesn’t matter. It was a good example of a deep-cave tomb as used at the time of Christ. We descended ten to fifteen feet into the ground and finally crawled into the bottom chamber. I believe we all came to the conclusion about the same time that this would be a good place to leave immediately as it gave us a feeling of claustrophobia.
From the tomb of Lazarus, which was close to where Mary, Martha and Lazarus had lived, we began our walk to Jerusalem. The trail led out of Bethany to the northwest and steadily climbed the foothills of the Mount of Olives. As we looked back, there were a number of good views of Bethany. It was a warm sunny day and a shepherd was tending his sheep giving us a scene that would have changed little since Jesus walked this very path. In places the trail was bare rock with walls on both sides. The ground level was at the top of the walls which would lead one to believe that the trail really is the same one that Jesus and the Apostles took.
At the top of the hill we came to Bethphage, a little village on the south side of the Mount of Olives. It is the one where Jesus paused on his entry into Jerusalem and apparently where the young ass was obtained for his continued journey into the city of peace (Matt. 21:1-2). We continued on to the top of the Mount of Olives and there before us was Jerusalem. It is a beautiful sight from the top of the mount and fills one with thoughts of God’s promise of the day when this city and Mount Zion will be a joy unto the whole earth (Psalms 48:1-2).
From the mount, one descends quickly into the Garden of Gethsemane and the Kidron Valley. Climbing once again we see before us the Lyons Gate and the city of Jerusalem. To be sure, different things impress each of us in different ways. However, to me the walk from Bethany to Jerusalem was one of the highlights of our trip to Israel.
Reaching the old city, we walked along the northern wall toward the Damascus Gate. Quite by accident we came upon King Solomon’s Quarry. This is a huge cavern running under the city of Jerusalem and is where King Solomon obtained much of the stone to build the temple. We walked deep into the caverns and could see the tool marks where the marble had been quarried. ( I Kings 5:17-18, 6:7).
After lunch, we went to Mea-Shearim a section of Jerusalem where very orthodox Jews live. We watched as they prepared for the beginning of Sabbath.
From Mea-She’arim we took a bus to the old city again and walked through the narrow streets to the area where Jesus was scourged and sentenced. We stopped at the Pool of Bethesda mentioned in John, chapter five. This is where the crippled man waited to get into the troubled waters to be healed but someone always stepped in ahead of him. Jesus healed the man with the words, Rise, take up thy bed and walk” (John 5:2-8).
That evening, after dinner, we all went to the Shalom Hotel to meet with the members of the Australian tour who had arrived in Jerusalem the day before. The combined group of over eighty Christadelphians from around the world listened to an inspiring talk given by Brother H. P. Mansfield.
Early Saturday morning, a number of us again braved the Jerusalem taxi cabs in order to get to the airport where we boarded a small chartered plane for Mount Sinai. Before heading south, the pilot circled Jerusalem giving us an excellent view of both the new and the old city. As we left Jerusalem, we flew down the Kidron Valley and passed the city of Bethlehem, then over the Negev where we could see part of Israel’s water system and how that much of the land in the canyons is being used for terraced farming. The farther south we travelled, the more desolate it became. We passed over copper mines that had been used in the days of Solomon; now rediscovered, they have been put into operation once again. Flying over the city of Eilat we could see just how close the Jordanian city of Aquaba is to Eilat: only about five miles. The water of the Gulf of Eilat (or Gulf of Aqaba) depending on which nation you are in) was as blue as any body of water you’ll ever see. After flying over the water for some time, we headed southwest over the Sinai Peninsula toward Mount Sinai (or Mount Musa as it is now called). Jebel Musa, the mountain of Moses, is in the Sinai range and stands in front of, and apart from, the rest of the mountains of the range It is approximately 7,500 feet high. The pilot circled the mountain three times, twice to the right and once to the left, so that we could all get a good look at it from every side. We understand that Mount Sinai is often covered with clouds. However, on this day it was quite clear and we could see every detail, including the trail to the top and the stone house at the summit.
Returning north over the Sinai Peninsula once more we could see how barren it is and realize that without the help of God, there was no way that the children of Israel could have lived in that wilderness. Their wanderings were to teach them, and us, that we must put our trust in the Lord as the only source of strength.
We landed at Eilat and spent the rest of the afternoon there.
Eilat is a unique city in many ways. It is at the juncture of three countries: Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia and before the 6 day war it was four as Egypt Possessed the Sinai Peninsula. The temperature in the summer time exceeds 120 degrees and the total water supply for the city is desalinated water. It is one of the largest, if not the largest, communities in the world depending on desalinated water. After a tour of the city we relaxed on the beach for an hour or so. This was particularly refreshing as the temperature was over 100 degrees.
Returning to Jerusalem that evening, we thought about the things we had seen and realized that again it had been a full day. We thanked our Heavenly Father for the privilege of seeing so much of His land.
The next day, our pilgrimage to Israel was appropriately concluded with a memorial service. While gathered together in a quiet room in Jerusalem, Brother Gil Riley of Westerly, Rhode Island, gave us the Word of exhortation and prepared our minds with thoughts of our Lord and of his redemptive work.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One