Most of this week we have been at the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem (ICEJ) Conference. The main point of the "Feast" is to support Israel's right to exist as a nation in the middle east. There is a Christian caucus in the Israeli parliament and a group of MPs from many countries who met to discuss these issues. One highlight was the Jerusalem March. This involved 80 countries and 5000 people marching through the streets of Jerusalem. It was very well received by Israelis because  many countries and the UN are often blaming Israel for the problems there.
Look carefully in the video and you can see dad in the third row holding a Canadian flag.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4SjqFWUSEU&feature=g-upl

One morning we skipped the conference and went to the Western Wall where over 10,000 people were gathered  for the Priestly Blessing. The blessing is said for all the festivals which required Jews to go to the Temple in Jerusalem (Passover, Pentecost or Shavuot, and Tabernacles or Sukkot)
This is the blessing we chose for Aarons verse when he was born and where his name came from.

Num 6:24-26
"The LORD bless you and keep you
the LORD make his face (presence) shine upon you and be gracious to you
the LORD turn his face (presence) toward you and give you peace"

In the video you can hear the singer say the blessing and all the priests (cohens) repeat it over all the people gathered there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_pLMrMXfNo&feature=g-upl

Below you can see the crowds who began walking there from before dawn.
 It was very moving to see and hear.

 

Also at Sukkot there is a tradition of waving 4 different species of plants that represent four kinds of people and their inward and outward responses to the call to live in a way that honours God.

 

 

The same day we went to Efrat (near Bethlehem) to a Jewish Yeshiva (Orthodox study center)
 It is the only one in the world that invites Christians to study Bible together with them. Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is the leader and Chief Rabbi of Efrat. With a group from the ICEJ Conference, we studied the Bible's view of what the Messianic age will look like from a Jewish and Christian perspective.
 David Nekrutman (2nd pic), who had taken us to an Arab Christian Congregation, is the director of the Jewsih Christian program.

 

 

 

 

The last day of the conference there was a talk by an African former Muslim who had acid thrown into his face and half burned off by someone who objected to his decision. he is still receiving plastic surgury from the Sheba Hospital in Israel. His name is pastor Umar Mulinde, if you want to google more about his story.
It was fitting that the closing lecture given by Malcolm Hedding (former head of ICEJ) spoke about  faithfulness in suffering.

 

 

Yesterday we went on a tour of the City of David, outside the Old City walls.  Remember walking through Hezekiah's Tunnel and arriving at  the Pool of Siloam? It is now thought that the pool was much bigger and the edge of it has been found but the rest can't be seen as it is underneath a garden owned by a church. Beside the pool some steps have been excavated that climb all the way to Temple Mount. It was here that the priests carried water and poured it out on the altar to remember the water of life flowing from Jerusalem.
This was predicted by the prophet Ezekiel 600 BCE-Ezek 47:1-12, and reiterated by John in Revelation 22:1,2
"I saw water coming out from under--the Temple--where the river flows everything will live.-- Fruit trees--will grow on both banks of the river--their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing (of the nations)"

It was during this festival on Sukkot that Jesus said in John 7:37,38
"If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink---whoever trusts in me streams of living water will flow from within him--"

 On one side of these steps is a Roman drainage ditch which are now open tunnels so we walked in them up to the Western Wall. This ditch runs in the central valley called the Tyropean Valley. It has now been excvted and you can walk inside it to the Western Wall for 3/4 km-something like Hezekiah's Tunnel but without water.

 

You can get an idea of how this used to be from the model of Jerusalem where you can see the pool, the steps and the drainage channel to the left of them.

 

 

 

Other interesting new things there-- a hugh palace located next to the pool site which may have belonged to Herod-Antipass, grandson of Harod the Great, and some burial caves that might be where king David was buried

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following two pics show a huge stone block that used to be part of the wall around the Temple, that crashed through the pavement and lodged in the drainage tunnel below. (triangle rock) This occurred during the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 CE.  Outside near Robinson's Arch remains you can see where it went through the pavement of the Roman road below the wall.

 





 

 

 

In the evening, Friday night, we went to a Shabbat dinner on Ruth Fazal's roof-top  in a Sukkah with about 30 people reflecting on the feast of Sukkot and the meaning of the sabbath.
We are inceasingly convinced that a Jewish connection needs to be at the heart of how we understand the Bible.