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Published: September 25th 2017
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dome of the rock where the temple once stood we started early today at 630 am steve james and myself went down to the entry to the temple mount to save a spot for 730 opening and it was worth it we were first in line and walked straight up to the top without a problem this is my third visit to jerusalem but the first time i was able to go on the mount, prior to my visit this time I read a book by leen ritmeyer called secrets of jerusalems temple mount and it made the whole experience more worth while, knowing the size and location of the temple and seeing the bottom step on the northwest corner of the muslim platform being different stones and slightly offline sugests these are older stones and part of the temple wall pre-herodian.
also seeing how large the temple mount area was you can imagine the people milling around buying items for worship and possibly even souvenirs like you see today around churches
you can imagine Jesus coming in one day and looking around at what was going on and then coming back the next day and tipping over the money changers and those that sold.
it was
quite a peacfull walk around the mount platform and we were able to go right up to the wall and look out towards the mount of olives.
then we separated from the girls and James, Steve, Pete and myself went along the western wall tunnel walk which follows the wall under the houses. the guide was very passionate as most Israeli guides are and gave a great explanation of how the temple mount and the area around it has changed over the ages going right back to genesis she believed that the first offering was made there. she also had a model of the temple of herod and compared it to the dome of the rock for size which gave us a good idea of how large it would have been, having been on the temple mount this morning. it would have been very dominent especially looking from the mt of olives. interesting to recall from zech 14 that when the earthquake happens at christs return even though the area around jerusalem will be flattened to a plain from Geba to Rimon the mount will remain and be lifted up.
then we met the girls again and went
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some of the massive area on the temple mount about 7 soccer feilds to hezekiahs tunnel it bought back memories of last time we were here being so crowded it was had to appreciate but this time there was noone in front or behind us for a little way so we wernt being pushed along and were able to notice things along the way like where it suddenly steps to the right and where the ceiling doubles in height poor steve had to bend over most of the way but I hardly had to at all and i dont think I saw Esther having to bend down at all. there are some benefits in being small
near the end we saw the copy of the original inscription that describes hezekiah as digging this tunnel and the place where the original had been cut out and is probably in a museum some where in the world. the water was clear and flowing fast and at the deepest wet my shorts and steves knees.
we sat down at the pool of siloam and steve described the incident where jesus healed the blind man sending him to wash here at the pool of siloam
we changed out of our wet things and then
had a look at davids palace ruins here the main thing of interest was the capita from the collumns which have been found the same pattern in tyre and we know from the bible that David had help from Hiram king of tyre.
we walked up into the old city near the davidson centre had a look at the remains of robinsons arch from the road and imagined how they would have entered the temple
then we had shwarma for lunch and went to look at a ruin of a grand house near the temple which has columns and baths and mosaics on the floor and even a courtyard, this is possibly Caiaphas house where Jesus was taken and where peter was in the courtyard warming himself by the fire so we read the chapter and imagined what it would have been like as the witnesses came and said " he said he would destroy this temple " and you can see the temple from here. its quite amazing to be here where it all happened knowing that the time of the end is so near and looking at the mt of olives where His feet will stand
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original ancient stones whats left of the walls Jesus said would be broken down when he soon returns.
from here we went to the Cardo a mall in the Jewish quarter where Esther had seen some painting she like this morning for 38 shekels this sounded good to me so we went and had a look we both agreed on one we liked to put in the entry of our new house and went in to ask the price and changed our mind US$2800 a little over 38 shekels never mind we will find one we like later (the prints were 38 shekels and they didn't have a print of the one we liked)
then up to the roof top for our memorial meeting where it was easy to discuss the final days of Jesus ministry and his crucifiction and resurection and his return while looking at the places they happened and will happen.
we had tea at a place called joy not far from our hotel just outside the wall very nice and then back to the rooftop this is our last night and unknown to me others had bought a cake and presents and wished me happy birthday and to top it off there was a concert happening in
the citadel of David across the road so we had live music and then they did the sound and light which we could see from our roof what a great way to have a birthday!!
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