Discoveries in the Holy Land

 A week after our first visit to the Old City, we were headed back on a bus again to study the sites found in the Old Testament. On the ride there, our guide John spoke of his love for the city and enjoyment in seeing the hills and valleys over and over again. “I can’t believe it,” he said, “It’s like living in a dream that doesn’t stop.” Jerusalem is an ancient city. But the oldest part of the city is not actually within the walls of the modern-day “Old City”. Rather, the original Jerusalem is in a place called the City of David, just south of the relatively modern Turkish walls. This is where our group spent the day, exploring some of the oldest, and most impressive archaeological sites of Jerusalem. Before we descended to the South side of the Eastern Hill, the location of the city of David, our guide took us to the top of a hill called Bible Hill. This mound rose over Jerusalem on the Watershed Ridge. To our east, we could see the Western Hill and the Mount of Olives beyond...

Why Holy Land?    When the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, in the days of king Darius, he saw a vision of a man with a measuring line who said he was going to measure the dimensions of Jerusalem. Then an angel speaks the word of God. The Lord will be a wall of fire around Jerusalem and the glory in her midst, he says (2:5). Those who plundered God’s people, the Babylonians, will be plundered themselves. Then he gives the people a culminating reason to rejoice. “And many nations shall join themselves to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people and I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. And the LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land and will again choose Jerusalem” (2:11-12 ESV).      When I read passages like this, it’s hard to imagine what Zechariah’s audience would be thinking. What was their mental picture of the man measuring Jerusalem? How did they view God as a wall around it and ho...