We parked not far from the checkpoint and walked a ways in the hot sun along roads until we got to Manger Square. The Church of the Nativity is right there - supposedly the oldest church on the planet, built by Constantine. At the entrance is a really small door that you have to stoop down to enter. Legend has it that this forces everyone who enters the church to humble themselves, but Pastor Aaron said that it's more likely that it was for defensive reasons. The inside was pretty nice looking and had some nice mosaics and paintings on the floor and columns. The worst part was waiting in this line that was not very well organized. We were going under the church to this little cave where Jesus was thought to have been born which was closed when we got there for a monk service. We were standing in front of this one tour group from what sounded like Eastern Europe somewhere and they were very pushy and kept trying to push us forward even though nobody had any room. Finally one of the guys in our group made a joke about eating beans and having personal space to which a few of us laughed out loud. This actually caused a huge commotion because the Palestinian authority dude standing near the line yelled at us and told us not to laugh because it was a holy place. I found this pretty interesting. It's a holy place and yet everyone around there seemed to not be treating other people with respect. I talked to Aaron about it and he said that Eastern European religious culture focuses on objects and places in their worship a lot, which is very different from the way we do things. To me the little cave under the church is a cool historical place to see but ultimately it's just a cave. But it seemed as though it was a lot more to the other tour group - something to help them become closer to God. I don't know if that is sinful or which way is the "right" way, but I do know that people should treat each other with respect and understanding. Of course, maybe in their country being pushy and having no personal space is completely normal. So I guess I'll extend some grace to them, too. We all got to see the cave in the end.
After that we went to a place called the Herodian, which was a palace and fortress for King Herod the Great, who is known for his egomania and massive building projects. The name probably sounds familiar because he was the Roman governor in Israel when Jesus was born. It was cool to see this palace fortress and the great views of the whole region. We could see from this vantage point the different ridge routes and that you could farm in the valleys on the western side of the Dead Sea but the hills were only good for shepherding.
After that we left the West Bank and drove through some wilderness (more like desert) parts of Israel and came to a neat place called the Wadi Qelt. This is a small valley where all the water flows when it rains so it's literally a strip of oasis with trees and stuff amidst the desert. We hiked down a ways and looked at it from the desert and then read Psalm 23. Powerful stuff, especially in the desert wilderness.
That evening we went again to the Western Wall but this time we were going to see the tunnels they had excavated underneath the wall, down to where the original walkway was. Apparently the Temple Mount was built high up in the mountain top but then when Jerusalem was destroyed and rebuilt they built top of the old stuff with arches so the wall looks a lot less tall now than it originally did. Our tour guide was really cool and funny. And there was the best moving model of the Temple Mount that he used to explain where we were and where that would have been historically. A couple of highlights: getting my picture with these first century paving stones that when they excavated they found them sitting there near the end of the pavement as if a war had started and they were just left there and the pavement was left unfinished. Also when the guide was explaining how they found one of the original entrances that the priests used to walk up to the Temple Mount and someone asked why they didn't reopen it (since it was filled with stone now), he said "we could break it down but the Arabs would come". Funny stuff.
Haha, something tells me that those people didn't even realize they were being "pushy"... reminds me of Korea. It's normal to bump into people and push your way through large crowds. If you say "sorry" or "excuse me," people look at you funny.
ReplyDeleteWow, the Wadi Qelt sounds amazing. Must have been really awesome to read Psalm 23 there!