Skip to main content

From Hebron, Israel-Hope and Incredulity


Reading Jesus' Sermon on the Mount
as we prepared to take Communion with our
Israeli and Palestinian brothers in the Holy Land.

It has been quite an incredible week here in Israel.  We have met with so many amazing leaders, both Christian and non Christian as we try to understand the complexity of their leadership context.  We also visited so many historical sites of great significance for the three faiths Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  

There is so much to reflect on that I hardly know where to begin.  I have a couple articles to write for the Chanhassen Villager and the Chaska Herald Newspapers due this coming Friday.  I am hoping that as I travel back home, I will get some thoughts together around key issues of faith that I have encountered throughout my travels here in the Holy Land. 


Abraham's Tomb inside the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron.

For now, I feel a sense of brokenness and sadness. Echstasy of walking on the holy historical stones is tempered by a sense of sadness as I reflect on the pain of the living stones in the land.  Nothing captures this sense more than my visit to the city of Hebron earlier today where the tombs of both the Israeli and Arab Patriachs, Abraham and Sarah, and Isaac and Rebecca are located. 


The holy site is divided into two sections with one side serving as a mosque and the other as a synagogue.  The two communities are forbiden from crossing into the other's section. The soldiers are everywhere with guns at the ready in this divided city.  All over the roof tops you can see Israeli soldiers scattered.  

Isaac and Rebecca's Tombs stand side by side
inside the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. Jews are
not allowed this side of the building. They can
only view Abraham and Sarah's tombs that lie in the
middle from the Synagogue side 
Here, pain is visible in faces on both sides of the divide. "My business is dead.  I cannot get customers to visit my shop as it is on the other side of the security fence. I have no way of doing my work to earn a living under this occupation," laments one Palestinian young man as we walk down the street toward the Ibrahimi mosque that houses the tombs. 

"I envy you that you can visit the tombs of our Patriachs Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Rebeccah.  I live here, yet I have never seen them.  Don't I have the right to see them too?  They are my ancestors.  Don't I have the right to visit the place where my Great, Great, Great Parents are burried?" laments a Jewish teenager with visible pain and longing in his eyes as we chat away near the entrance to the Synagogue, where we are watched by a band of seven soldiers in a jeep about ten feet away.  


There is Hope in the Land. Rabbis for Human rights
is an organization of Rabbis working to ensure justice
prevails for both peoples, Jews and Palestinians.

Madness is tangible in the very bricks that form the habitation of the residents.  At the bottom of the houses are Palestinians.  And then on the top floors of residential building the Israelis have build their homes.  Yet the two never meet.  Some of those living on the top floors throw their trash below and don't care where it lands.  An unbelievable place to walk. 



Why such hatred and seperation between brothers?  Why so much incredulity?  Why the contradiction in Abrahams' seed?   Why so much darkness in a place with so great light?  Even the eternal Light, Jesus Christ? 

Charles Dickens, had he walked these streets and observed these contraditions would probably have written:  "It was the best of places, it was the worst of places, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us we had nothing before us we were all going directly to Heaven we were all going the other way." 

But now faith, hope, love abide these three; but the greatest of these is love! 

Thank God Christ is not in a Tomb to fight over. 
He is Risen! Pic at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem
 
I just got done with all the research related meetings. So I am glad to begin packing and preparing to get on the flight Monday morning. I wish it was a little earlier so I can watch the Green Bay Packers win the Superbowl (Go Packers, Go!!).

For now I will have to be content with being here in this amazing place.  I am joining with believers here in Bethlehem tomorrow morning at Emmanuel Evangelical Church. They have about 200 believers. Pray that as opportunity avails, I will be truly encouraging to them. They are living out for Jesus in an extremely difficult environment.

Good day and Good Night from Hebron, Israel!

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 07, 2013

    It's hard to find experienced people about this subject, however, you seem like you know what you're talking about!
    Thanks

    Feel free to visit my web page ... Burt Grigaliunas

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 12, 2013

    Quickly groupie shoved, anything will likely then heat anyway
    to lover made it easier to barbecuing style. You'll want to try the whole solutions of those ranges you might prior to you making a trade. Convection ovens include a supporter a exercises heat in and round the foodstuffs resulting them in order to smoke increased and many more regularly. to Never show results clean kitchenaid microwave-ovens because it can in some cases problem those magnetron canister.

    my web blog 24 inch oven microwave combo

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJune 14, 2013

    These your oven is cheaper as compared to the versions presented
    basically by supplementary famous brands, as well as , heats
    super food speedier and superior than just nearly all of them.
    Then placed the pizza onto china to deal with by incorporating geared up
    eat slice up green vegetables and ranch looking nicely put together
    during dimming. One could farrenheit a fabulous french fries, broil a meaningful fowl,
    as well as heat your company's being meals the rest! Microwave ovens are already quite worry receptors what kind of decrease the cooking time noticeably. Women who are pregnant, folks by having younger children or any other people apprehensive made by the mechanisms for clearing an oven utilizing center owned treatments perhaps bad for their own individual alternatively an individuals kids fitness.

    Also visit my page ... toastmaster toaster oven broiler manual

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

No Room in the Inn...21st Century Version

It is the Christmas season 2009.  Like Joseph and Mary 2000 years ago, a young couple are on the virge of the birth of their first baby boy.  Although they are doing everything to prepare for the big day, it still catches them by surprise.  Instead of the regular 40 weeks, the baby is arriving six weeks early. Because they are not expecting it this early, their bags are not packed nor is the nursery fully furnished.  Safe for an early morning warning in a dream to the father to prepare to be in a delivery room and with assurance (from the Lord) that it would be o.k, the day started off as any other day. At 6:00 AM, the couple prays together for about 40 minutes in their home in Victoria.  They take showers.  At about 7:30 AM, the husband goes to work briefly from his home office while the wife prepares something for their breakfast together. Within a couple hours they will have a routine prenatal doctor's appointment.  Later in the evening the wife's sister and her two beau

A Medical Doctor With a Passion for God, a Love for People, and an Enduring Faith

Our Mission in Kenya Continued well. He is humble, he is joyful, and he works hard to make a difference among a Kenyan rural town's community.  That is Dr. Nathan Matasi, a gynecologist serving in Kitale town, Western Kenya.  There are hardly any hospitals in this part of the world.  The one government operated hospital in Kitale town serves a population of over one million people from the town and the surrounding rural farm communities.  Sammy and Gary share a moment with Dr. Matasi next to a corn field in Kitale on Tuesday morning before heading out for the prayer service in Nairobi, some 400 miles away.  Here you will find patients sleeping on the floor in overcrowded hallways, pregnant mothers sharing beds, and daily lines forming at the out-patient unit.  There are hardly modern equipment available for the few qualified doctors and nurses to use for diagnostics or treatment.  Majority of the patients can hardly afford to pay for quality medical attention. Yet it is

The Other Frontline in the Battle for Souls- By Suzanne Wanyonyi

I've learned quite a bit while Sammy's been away in India. Other wives have told me over the years, that when their husbands are gone for ministry for extended periods of time, the enemy tries to attack during the husband's absence by causing the garage door to break, or the toilets to break or the hot water heater to go out. So, from the very beginning of our marriage I anticipated those things and shared my concern about them with Sammy. He understood. We've always had a plan in case something breaks around the house while he's away. Well, none of those things have ever happened. Other things have happened.  During this latest mission, while nearly 80,000 people were being won to Christ, the attack came in a way I wasn't expecting: The kids. There were more than a few nights where I had about 2 hours of sleep because the kids kept waking up. With Malaika it's not so uncommon, but Junior has slept from 8-8 for as long as I can remember. He'