Tuesday, June 12

Day 9: Tuesday, June 12, 2007
By Richard Boyer
We spent much of today in the new city of Jerusalem, mainly to the west of the old city. We first visited the Israel Museum and the Shrine of the Book, a building for displaying the Qumran scrolls. It was fascinating! The scrolls told of the battle between the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness and describe many of the features of the battle which will occur in the last days. The mistake that the people of Qumran made was that they confused the signs in the scriptures, especially in Isaiah, between the first and second coming of the Messiah. They were close to correct as to the timing of the first coming of the Messiah, living less than a century before the time of Christ, and so they moved to Qumran to live in seclusion while they waited for the end of the world. However, they were expecting the Messiah to be a conquering king, as He will be in His second coming. They, like the Jews, missed His first coming as the Suffering Servant rather than a conqueror. Anyhow, it was most interesting. I remember Brother Ludlow, when we were here before, indicating to us that the most accurate version of Isaiah is the chapters in the Book of Mormon. The Isaiah chapters from the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls are intermediate in accuracy between those of Nephi and other Book of Mormon writers and those of the King James version, thus establishing the correctness of the Book of Mormon and the authenticity of the Qumran scrolls.
We then went outside the museum and saw the remarkable model of the city of Jerusalem. When we were here 28 years ago, this model was found at a hotel on a hill west of Jerusalem. Since that time, they have moved the model here to the Israeli Museum, which is a much better location for it. I think that tourists coming to Jerusalem for the first time should see this model on the first day they come because it is very helpful in putting together the geography and layout of this city. I think it was very helpful to our family and other members of our group to see the model. Our guides, the Paces, became a little impatient with our Israeli guide, Eli, because he took so long at this model. (We have joked among ourselves that Eli is one of those persons that when asked what time it is tells you how to build a watch! In his case, I believe that Eli tells you how to build Big Ben! At one point on the bus, one of the girls turned around to me and said, "Big Ben is getting taller!" But he is very knowledgeable.) I thought it was interesting and learned a lot from Eli.
We then went to the Holocaust Museum. This was a painful, but necessary part of our visit here to Jerusalem. When Lori and I visited here on our first trip to the Holy Land, the museum was small and took less than an hour to go through reading all of the exhibits. The museum is now on a large estate with several buildings surrounded by lovely trees, gardens and walkways. The main building is built in the shape of a triangle with a pathway coursing gently upward and with rooms off to each side which contained many displays, photos, video interviews, artifacts, etc. from the Holocaust. At first, it wasn't too difficult reading about Hitler and the rise of the Third Reich, but it only got worse. I believe I was most touched by the account of one lady who was a teenager in Holland when the German police came to the door and took her mother and father away. Her mother had hid her and her sister in a coat closet. She asked the police if she could return for her coat and was allowed to do so. When opening the closet, she told her daughters goodbye and was never seen by them again. About two thirds of the way through the museum, Jennie found me and was sobbing in tears almost uncontrollably. It was very difficult for her. We walked quickly together through the remainder of the museum and went outside to get some sunlight and for her to gain her composure. I stayed with her the remainder of the time on the grounds. We visited the children's museum which was interesting, all dark inside but illuminated by candles which were reflected around the outside in mirrors. It's not exactly what I would have designed to honor children, but it was impressive. We must've taken a wrong turn as we came out of the children's museum, because we found ourselves on a perimeter road around the entire property where there apparently was a VIP cavalcade with flag draped limousines, police and military guards. Eventually, we found our way back inside and met with our group. Jennie was very glad to see her mother, who felt bad that she had lost her inside the museum. As I said, it was a painful, but instructive and necessary part of our visit here.
After some lunch, we visited the City of David ruins and walked through Hezekiah's tunnel some 1700 meters through solid rock. It is a rather remarkable engineering feat which was constructed well before the time of Christ. They have changed the entrance to the tunnel with a much more elaborate set of stairs and rooms and displays before going into the water. I believe they must also be controlling the level of the water, as my recollection is that we walked through water up to our chest in height. The highest that the water got as we walked through was just above our knees. I hiked up my cargo shorts and didn't even get them wet. The water was pretty cold; I would estimate less than 60°. It was actually fairly enjoyable going through, as the temperature was pleasant. But I was glad for our flashlights!
Outside of the opening of Hezekiah's tunnel, we visited the Pool of Siloam which has been recently excavated. It is a large cistern catching the water coming from the tunnel which was used as a freshwater source for the City of David. This is also the pool to which Jesus sent the man born blind whom he encountered in the Temple to wash off the spittle-mud which the Savior had placed upon his eyes, thus restoring his site.
We then drove across the city back to where we began the day to the giant menorah which is just across the street from the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. We took a group photo in front of the seven arms of the large menora.
After dinner, we had an experience which was, for me, one of the highlights of our trip. We walked around the outer walls of the city of Jerusalem at night! It was remarkable! We thought it would take us only a couple of hours, but it took us over three hours to make the trip. We stopped at a number of places for Brother Pace to instruct us about the different gates and other features of the wall. After seeing the model of the city this morning and walking the walls this evening, I really felt quite comfortable with a general understanding of the layout of this remarkable city. Part of the time, the pavement was uneven, so I walked with Brother Pace holding his arm along with his daughter, Michelle. I know that on at least one occasion, he would have fallen if we hadn't been there. At the end of the walk, it was just Michelle and me bringing up the rear. She told me how her family met a year ago and talked about coming to Israel together. Her parents, people of modest means, told their children that, if they were willing to give up some of their inheritance, as parents they would use that money to help pay for each of their children and spouses and a few grandchildren to come to the holy land as a wonderful family reunion, because they have lived here twice before as a family. So they have scrimped and saved as a family to make this trip possible. I feel humbly grateful that we were able to be a part of this sentimental journey for their great family.