Lessons from Israel

I just returned from my fifth trip to Israel, the land in which so much of the events of the Bible took place. Each time that I've made the journey I've learned something and have grown in my faith. It's a joy to be with people who are experiencing Israel for the first time. Their questions and curiousity is encouraging and leads to further understanding.

I was thinking this time while standing at the Western Wall about the Orthodox Jews practice of praying at the wall. They believe that it's the closest they can get to the former location of the Holy of Holies and therefore the closest they can get to God. I can't imagine what it would be like to arrive totally uninformed and see a group of men standing and bobbing up and down (sort of like a mild "head-banging" action) talking to a wall. It's odd, quite frankly.

We began our day in Jerusalem by walking onto the Temple Mount. We walked all over the 35 acre platform and most likely even very closely to the Holy of Holies. While the Orthodox were outside at the wall, we were walking on the Mount, much closer than those outside by the wall. It reminded me of the bondage and restriction of legalism and tradition. Their traditions, their legalism, kept the Orthodox on the outside, unable to draw near, unable to see, unable to be on the Mount. But, we who are in Christ, know the truth and have been set free. We can draw near. We can go where tradition and the law cannot take a man. We can bodly approach the throne of Grace. We're not looking at a wall, we can see.

Please pray for ISRAEL, for the blinders to be lifted, and specifically for the Orthodox who are zealous for the Lord to come to the knowledge of the Truth -- for only the TRUTH will set them free!