Jerusalem March 1st Part One

Today we left our hotel for the old city and started in a graveyard on the Mount of Olives cross from the Temple Mount looking over toward the Eastern Gate. It is the famous picture that includes the Islamic site of the Dome of the Rock (not included). The picture is of the wall on the eastern side, where Jesus is going to come when He returns in the sky with His bride and the angels. His white robe will be bloody with the wrath He has poured out on those that have persecuted and martyred the Jews and Christians who belonged to Him. He will stop His horse on the Mount of Olives and when He dismounts the mountain will split in have from north to south creating a new valley and a new river. In the picture you may notice all of these white things on the ground by the gate. Those are the graves of Moslems that were put there to make the site unfit for a holy man like Jesus to come through. How foolish to think that if Jesus is truly the Messiah that this will be able to stop them. Notice that they have also blocked the eastern gate shut. That was foolish as well since Saladin the Magnificent who had the city walls restored in the 16^th century did not put the gate back where the original gate was placed. If you look to the left there is a small structure with two Islamic arches. It is believed that the original gate is right about there and from 11 to 18 feet underground. You might be looking on from your horse as the Mount of Olives splits apart and a river gushes across washing away the cemetery and removing the dirt down to the original eastern gate- just a thought.

On the Mount of Olives is the Garden of Gethsemane. You will notice that these old trees have new branches on them. The trees were dead as far as anyone knew, since they had been dated back to the time of Christ. The new growth started in 1948 when Israel became a nation again. It sounds kind of unlikely, but good miracles always sound unlikely; don’t they. We had a special time as a group in the garden with singing and scripture readings. We divided up to pray by the olive trees in a private garden area that our tour had the honor of using. It was very moving for everyone to think that we were praying where Jesus had prayed on the night before His crucifixion. Even the clover that grows in the garden area is special. If you take a close look when you pick it, it has little random red specks on it like it had been splashed with the blood that Jesus sweat as He prayed about the cup He was about to bear for you and me.