Going to Jerusalem from my couch

 Right now my sister, who usually calls me either at 8:15 on her way to work, or 5:15 on her way home, is in Jerusalem, which is not a phone call away on my particular plan.

I wish I were there too.

So what I’ve decided to do is follow her itinerary from the comfort of the sag in my leather couch. I’m using a beautiful book, Reflections of God’s Holy Land, written by Eva Marie Everson and Miriam Feinberg Vamosh to help me absorb the sights and history as my mind fills in the sounds and emotions.

Today was our first day in Jerusalem.  But I didn’t get very far. My tour group left me at the Pinnacle of the Temple of Herod the Great. As I looked at the picture of the massive edifice towering over the Kidron Valley, I was overcome with sadness.  

Maybe it was the history that exuded from the sheer massiveness of the stones, the thought of the millions of pilgrims drawn, over thousands over years, to this place hardly larger than the state of New Jersey.  Maybe it was an awareness of the presence of good and evil, God and devil, both in times past and times to come. Or maybe it was just my own heart longing for clearer perception of God.

One thing is clear. This is no common place. This is God’s Holy Land.

It is so mind boggling to look at a map of the Mideast and see the “David” with its population less than that of Manhattan, surrounded by the “Goliaths.” Can there be any doubt that Israel’s very presence is nothing short of God’s providence?

We are told there is yet to come another time when “Goliath” will threaten and wreak carnage. A time of great sadness and seeming defeat.

But in the end, the conclusion will be as it was, and David’s words will once more ring out across the plain—“You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the [living God] the God of the armies of Israel whom you have taunted.”

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And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. Zech 14:4

  

And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be {the only} one, and His name {the only} one. –Zech 14:9

Hallelujah!

And if that doesn’t happen by tomorrow, maybe I’ll get catch up with her tour.