I cannot, of course, presume to
speak for others who have gone to The Holy Land. However, speaking for myself,
I must say that my first trip to The Holy Land has been a profoundly impacting
experience. This has been so on many levels. Before I go let me explain that I
am using the phrase The Holy Land to refer to this geographical area where at
least most of the events of the Gospels took place to avoid some of the religious
and political divisiveness that might occur if I refer to it only as Israel or only as Palestine, let alone begin to use both terms. That is because what is
now known as Israel only covers a part of that territory. Likewise, what is
known as Palestine does not constitute the whole area referred to. Of course,
there are many who would not even refer to Palestine as a state, but that
begins to lead to the discussions that I want to avoid, as they are not germane
to what I am writing about here.
The most basic level that I would
describe, would simply be the sense that one has now been on the earth in the
same places where so many characters one has learned about since childhood
spent their lives. So many stories that one was told took place here. Most
important, of course, is that this was a spot of geography to which God chose
for his son Jesus, the Christ, to come to live, die and be resurrected. Reading
and studying the scriptures will never be the same. There is ever that sense in
one's mind that one can identify with where what one is reading about took
place. There is in some indescribable way a new depth to what one reads in the
Bible.
At the same time, it did not
really take long for the sense to grow that this is a place I want to return
to. Some of that is because the first trip only opened up many more areas of
unanswered questions related to the recent history and experience of those who
live in this land between The Mediterranean Sea and of the Jordan River,
questions that can best be answered by going to more places and meeting more
people than we did on our first eight-day trip.
However, it goes deeper than
that. I am not sure what those of our tour members who have been there multiple
times would say about why they have returned, but besides what I said above, I
think it has something to do with the basic sense that this is where much if
not all of God's history has its focus. I don't know about all of those
prophecies that are being interpreted by some to suggest that events such as
the establishment of the State of Israel mean the end of this era and Christ's
Second Coming are more imminent than ever. Jesus himself told us not to worry
about these sorts of things but to carry on with our lives, watching and
waiting. When he was on this earth, he said he himself did not know, only The
Father. He specifically warned about many who would make predictions about his
return that would prove false.
But I think my feelings and thoughts
about going to The Holy Land are echoed in prophetic passages from the Old Testament
scriptures like Zechariah 8:23: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: in those days ten
men from nations of every language shall take hold of a Jew, grasping his
garment and saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with
you.’" Or, Isaiah 2:3: "Many peoples shall come and say, ‘Come, let
us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he
may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall
go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." Finally: Isaiah
55:5 “See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not
know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, the holy one of
Israel, for he has glorified you."
The only missing part(s) here yet
are that with all that is going on between the Israelis and Palestinians, one
does not yet see that God can be with the Israelis with the way they ignore
repeated passages from their own scriptures and lessons they were to learn from
their own history in how they treat the Palestinians, so I am not sure we can learn
much from the Jews there yet. We are certainly not, for the most part, at the point where we can 'grasp the cloak of a Jew, ' at least not most of them, and expect to go there and get lessons in how to live as God's people. However, it will come. In God’s time. To be sure,
He is also working with and through those Jews who want justice done and human
rights respected, but they are still only a prophetic minority in their own
state. Now, if anything, we see God at work with the Christians there who are
mostly Palestinians, and that is where we need to be. We must ever be working
where God is at work.
