Israel day 9

Our group at the stairs leading to the original entrance to the Temple on the south side. We are reading the Psalms of Ascent where Jewish pilgrims coming to worship on three festival days throughout the year would read Psalms 120-134 one at a time as they were on each step. These 15 steps of ascent would prepare the worshiper to enter God's presence and keep the person from rushing into God's presence unprepared.

Tracy, Barrett and I scouting out a shooting location on the wall built by the conquorer Sulemain to protect the city in the 1500's. We were trying to get a good spot to shoot the Hinnom valley that Jesus used as an illustration of hell in Matthew 10:28 as it had the city dump in it which was full of non-stop burning fires and worms that continually lived and bred in it.

Chris, Barrett and Tracy down in Hezekiah's Tunnel which he carved out of solid rock for over 1700 feet to bring water into the city from the Gihon spring as described in 2 Kings 2:20. It is one of the marvels of ancient engineering. In parts it is only 5 feet tall and about 2 feet wide so claustrophobics do not apply! The water on the day we went was about 12-18 inches deep.

Barrett, Tracy, me and Chris at the end of the tunnel near the pool of Siloam which is where Jesus told the blind man to wash his eyes in John 9.

This is a picture of the southeast corner of the Temple mount where Jesus was tempted to jump by satan during His 40 days of temptation from Matthew 4. This was a temptation because thousands of people would have been walking up the stairs just to the left of this picture so Jesus could have landed without injury or death in front of everyone proving that He was the Messiah. Jesus does not give in to prematurely presenting Himself as the Messiah nor being challenged to pridefully use His divine powers to 'show off'. The drop is over 100 feet.