Israel 2009 Reflections

My Walk With Jesus by Emeline Cook

Jesus, take my hand, and lead me through Israel.
Transport me into the past.
Open my eyes that I may see You in Your land.
Let me feel Your presence as I walk where You walked.
To experience what You may have experienced.
As You walked these paths, did people see God in Your face?
As people confront me, do they see Jesus in me?

Masada by Chris Conger

Masada – the word is filled with intrigue and wonder.  A place of passion and pain; a place of history and heroes.  Waiting to ascend one cannot help but wonder what manner of man was this Herod – what fear, what motive, what pride, what initiative, what ambition and personality must have driven this man.  Herod, this master builder and chief architect of the Holy Land.  As the tram carried us up the mountain, the expanse of the Dead Sea below to the west and the hills of Jordan rising in the distance, a person could not help but relish the beauty and give thought to the eyes of those who went before and beheld this view.  How many had climbed Masada?  Who fell to their death from its cliffs?  What was their story?  Did they ever watch the sun set with wide-eyed wonder, dream dreams, make plans, hope for peace, pray for victory?  As the tram came to a stop on Masada, I’m jarred back to reality and my 2009 Village School experience of Israel.

Some nineteen hundred and thirty years ago the most famous event of Masada was taking place here at Herod’s summer palace.  That event was the occupation by a band of Jews who fled from Jerusalem hoping to escape Roman persecution and their tragic yet moving end.  During that Jewish revolt, around 70 AD, about 900 Jews found Herod’s Masada a welcome place of safety.  As I listened to our Israeli guide, Amnon, explain the unfolding events from his perspective, I could almost hear the Roman legions below preparing for the extended siege.  After surrounding Masada and setting up camps, they begin the long laboring process of building a ramp.  Made from dirt and rocks, carried on back, heads and arms of soldiers and slaves, the nine month job begins. 

Now I’m wondering what kind of hate must move the heart of man to spend this type of effort and energy to destroy, to enslave, to kill?  No one knows the exact intent of the Romans on finally entering Masada, but they weren’t attempting to bring the Jews food and water.  They had demonstrated time and again their attitude and actions towards the Jews.  Considering their options, murder, slavery, rape, and other forms of Roman torture, the Jews of Masada choose a different end.  They choose ten men to take the lives of all the others and then the lives of themselves.  It appeared to be done in an orderly and reasonable manner.  When the Romans broke through the wall their long anticipated slaughter had escaped them and they were stunned. 

How does one respond?  Is this senseless fanaticism, fear, or possibly something acceptably near worship?  As a husband, as a father, as a Christian, as a human I was powerfully moved by the implications, the ramifications, the questions.  What horror must I be attempting to avoid in choosing such a death?  What courage would it have taken to be the first, to be the last?  What thoughts must have wrenched the hearts and minds of those who formed the plan?  Where was God?  What did He think?  Could this have been avoided? 

Then I realized the staggering truth as Scripture flooded my mind.  Through faith in Christ we are heirs according to the promise.  Through faith in Christ we are Abraham’s offspring.  Through faith in Christ these people were my brothers and sisters.  I was undone, shaken to the core of my individualistic American concept of continuity.  We have been grafted in.  This is my heritage; these are my roots.  Jesus was a Jew.  These people are my people.  I am theirs.  We do not support the root but the root supports us!  The Scriptures foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith.  Those with faith are children of Abraham.  This was my family.  The full implications and clear understanding of all this are still finding unplowed soil in the recesses of my heart and mind.  What would I have done in Europe in 1940 with my Jewish neighbor?  Could I even do as the Good Samaritan?  Would I have gone through Samaria?  Would I have shared her cup?  Who is my neighbor?  Have I loved him?  I do not expect to get over Israel any time soon, and I pray I never will.

Musings on Some Profound Things in Israel
Pastor Dan Swanson – First Baptist Church, Cokato, MN

The incredible view from “the place of burning” on Mt. Carmel.  I had no idea that, in a very real sense, all Israel could see who the true God was.  The fire would have been seen from almost everywhere in the northern land and the people would have been asking what all this meant.  Perhaps nothing is of greater import than for a people to recognize that Yahweh answers with fire.  He is God!

Walking the Pebbles in Bethsaida and coming to the original rocks from “Main Street.”  To hear Jesus walked on those rocks caused me to take a deep breath.  It is not necessary for me to do that to strengthen my walk.  I am, after all, basing my faith on the scriptural testimony to the truth of Jesus as God’s Son and my Lord.  But it was breath-taking for me to stand where Jesus stood.  Then to think that in spite of His presence there the city rejected Him.

A visit to the Garden Tomb was quite special also.  It certainly fit the gospel description better than did the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Old Jerusalem.  To see Gordon’s Calvary (the “Place of the Skull”) and then experience the tomb cut out of the rock was a very powerful acknowledgement of what the gospels describe.  The guide from the Garden said they cannot be sure at all that this tomb was the one Jesus was laid in, but it certainly fits the situation better.  Then to experience the Lord’s Supper in the Garden was precious.  It reminded me that, indeed, He died and was buried for me.  That fact in itself is not all.  He is also coming for me and I should remember His death until then.

Pastor Dan closes with these words: Let me encourage you to consider going to Israel.  I do not thank you will regret that decision.  I also want to give thanks to someone who donated money to pay my cost of travel.  I am so deeply grateful for that generosity.  May God bless you for your unspeakable gift that I could go to that Holy Land!

 

Mount Carmel by Pastor Bob Ross

Many years ago, a Pastor friend of mine, David Barnhart, asked me if I would lead a group with him to Israel.  He had been there several times and would train me in the guidance procedure.  I agreed and we made a number of contacts in preparation to leave in the spring of that year.  Unfortunately my wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer in February so I had to cancel.

This trip to Israel was a long awaited answer to a dream.  There were many highlights of the trip, one of which was our visit to Mt. Carmel.  Mt. Carmel is 1,791 feet above sea level, so it is hardly a mountain but rather a high hill.  The view from the top was spectacular; some of the most beautiful scenery of the Kishon and Jezreel valley on the one side and the Mediterranean Sea on the other side.

This place represented one of the famous stories that has intrigued me since I was a youth.  It is the location of Elijah’s contest with the false prophets of Baal which is recorded in I Kings 18:19-39.  Calling upon the people to return from evil and follow the one true God, Elijah challenged the 450 priests to have Baal himself ignite their altar.  They failed, and Elijah built an altar of 12 stones, had twelve barrels of water poured over it, and then called on God to ignite it.  God did so!   Elijah then interceded to bring rain ending the three and one half year drought.  After the rains had descended, Elijah ran from Mt. Carmel to the city of Jezreel, a distance of some 18 to 20 miles.

Traveling to Israel is a life altering experience and I shall cherish it for many years to come.  Many thanks to Max and Marlys for their leadership, Adi for his phenomenal driving, Amnon for his guidance and teaching, and a host of wonderful new friends, all who made the journey exciting and memorable.

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