Herzl Museum
Herzl Museum – Theodor Herzl is credited with starting zionism and beginning the movement for a Jewish homeland. In the late 1800s he was appalled at the anti-Semitic atmosphere he witnessed in Paris following the trial of Alfred Dreyfus, an assimilated Jewish office in the French army who was unjustly accused of treason.
Herzl convened the 1st Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1897, in which he predicted there would be a Jewish state within 50 years. He traveled throughout Europe and even to Turkey at his own expense to appeal to various leaders to give the scattered Jewish people a safe place to live. The depiction of his life and ideas was creative with both a human guide and audio-visual productions in various rooms we traveled through.
It was interesting to us that there was no mention of God in the entire presentation. We talked afterward about the way our God uses secular events and people to accomplish his purposes.
Herzl's most famous quote is "If you will it, it is no dream." In addition to Herzl, also buried at this site are Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, former prime ministers.
After the Herzl Museum we again traveled through the Judean countryside to the B’nai B’rith Martyrs Forest to see the Scroll of Fire monument. As we came to the road to enter the forest, we found the road closed to traffic. David, our guide, suggested we walk to the monument, as it “wasn’t far”. We were willing as it was a beautiful sunny day.
After walking about ¾ of a mile we stopped and David said it was further than he thought. Ron, one of the tour organizers, used his phone and determined we were about half way to the monument. We voted to continue and were glad we did.
The monument is 26 foot high twin scrolls depicting the history of the Jewish people from the Holocaust to the independence of the State of Israel. The bottom of the scrolls show events with people with the top showing heavenly beings.
On the inside is inscribed Ezekiel 37:12-14: Therefore prophesy, and tell them, 'This is what the sovereign LORD says: Look, I am about to open your graves and will raise you from your graves, my people. I will bring you to the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people. I will place my breath in you and you will live; I will give you rest in your own land. Then you will know that I am the LORD - I have spoken and I will act, declares the LORD.'"It was very moving to see, well worth the 3 mile round trip walk to see it.
On the way back to the bus, we were able to stop and look out toward the southwest and see a power plant in the Gaza strip where reportedly shells were launched into Israel a couple of years ago. It was chilling reminder that we were in a land that has been in turmoil for centuries, and that continues to today. Abu Ghosh
From the B’nai B’rith Martyrs Forest we headed into Abu Ghosh, an Arab town, for lunch. David andKamal, our driver, recommended a small independently owned Shawarma shop. Shawarma is an Arabic meat preparation where lamb, chicken, turkey, beef or mixed meats are placed on a spit and grilled for as long as a day. Shaving are cut off the block of meat for serving and the remainder of the block is kept heated on the rotating spit. The meat on the spit resembles gyros. It is served in a pita with a variety of vegetables, hummus and sauce. We had eaten a shawarma in Jerusalem yesterday that was good, but the one today was outstanding. It was loaded with meat and very flavorful.
David explained a little of Abu Ghosh’s history. Village people are descendants of the Gibeonites. They are located on the main route from the coast to Jerusalem. The Ark of the Covenant was placed here for about 20 years before taking it's place in the Temple in Jerusalem. It was known as Kiryat Ye'arim at that time. When Israel was fighting for independence, the surrounding Arab countries promised Arab villages their villages and the Jewish villages if they would leave their villages and fight with the Arab countries against Israel. The local Muslim leaders decided not to fight the Israelis, along with a few other area villages. Because of that, the Israeli government has left these villages alone. There is an interesting tie to the promise of peace Joshua made with the Gibeonites in Joshua 9 as well as the avenging of the Gibeonites when Saul tried to annihilate them causing 3 years of famine talked about in 2 Samuel 21.
Moshav
When the Jewish state was established, 8 Finnish Christian
families migrated to Israel and asked the Israel government for land
for a community. The request was refused so the families lived in
abandoned buildings until the request was finally approved. The name
of the village means: In memory of the eight. The community has grown
and has a Christian school, a biblical garden, vineyard, olive grove and probably other things I don’t remember.
We had a time of teaching and worship in an area that has the look of an ancient synagogue. At the
entrance to the garden was a reconstruction of a watchtower, fashioned after what the ancient Israelites would have built to guard their fields and vineyards.
Biblical Garden – In the biblical
garden we discussed biblical imagery in nature. Here are some ideas
for thought:
- Grafting in to an olive tree is not something that can happen in nature, though Paul speaks of grafting Gentiles into God’s people. Isn’t that adoption? That shows the hesed of God.
We also discussed the pruning of
grape vines to produce fruit and well as the burning of dead vines
to produce needed heat – when not used for primary purpose, can
still be used.
- John 15:2 – In our translations Jesus says he will cut off branches that don’t produce fruit. David says a better translation of the Hebrew is to “lift up”.
- Wheat & grape harvests are used as imagery for the end times.
- An olive tree cut of burned will look dead, but in time, often a long time will come back to life with a new shoot.
- There were 5 harvests: barley, wheat, grapes, olives, wood.
We returned to the hotel a little
earlier this evening, so we had our evening teaching before dinner.
Michael taught about hesed.
God uses hesed as a defining
characteristic when He defines himself.- The Lord is slow to anger and rich in hesed. Numbers 14:18
- The Lord is good and His hesed endures forever. 1 Chronicles 16:34, 2 Chronicles 6:13, Ezra 3:11, 2 Chronicles 20:21. The above phrase in repeated in Psalms 34 times.
- All that are in hell, choose it. Isaiah 54:10
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