My wife asked me recently why I never mention Israel when we talk about places to go on vacation. I have friends who have been to Israel twenty times or more. It has always been my number one destination.....I just never mentioned it....because the thought of walking along Galilee....or the ancient sites of Jerusalem....or standing before what is probably Calvary....or touring those same mountain ranges mentioned so often in God's Word....is not only breathtakingly exciting....it is fearful in its reverence. So I don't have the experience or the perspective that so many have....but that doesn't mean that I don't try.
The Eastern Gate of the old city....or the Golden Gate as it is also called....or quite a few other names that it is known by....I would want to stand in that cemetery just outside of it....and look at the lower level of stones....the ones that may go back even to Solomon....and just ponder my life. That cemetery was purposely put there by conquerers because they thought that the Messiah would never walk through an unclean cemetery to enter the Temple Mount. I would turn around and look up at the Mount of Olives....and would probably have to sit down on one of those grave ossuaries....out of sheer awe....on how Jesus would have traveled back and forth so many times. For the time being it is just too much.....and the pictures and videos are enough for me.
They are still researching and theorizing on that gate today. The actual blocked up gate that exists now was built after the New Testament times....this we know....but was the original gate at the exact same level....or was it just below that gate that exists today? This gate is important because Jesus will return on that same Mount of Olives.....and it will split from a violent earthquake....half in the direction of the northern end of the wall that is there....and the other half in the direction of the southern end of the wall.
Probably the whole world will witness this through the lens of some camera. So much will have happened by then. At times I think of Elon Musk and Bill Gates and all these other men whose fortunes are almost beyond belief....and I wonder what they will think.....for they will indeed be here....if they are still alive. What will the nations look like. We'll find out....more sooner than later.
I would never want to be the type that spent the day somewhere in Israel....maybe looking over the Jordan River valley from Mount Nebo....or traveling through the desert that David escaped to so many times....and then turned my attention to souvenirs....or photos....as is normal in say trips to London or Paris.
We cannot set dates.....we know that fact more than we know our own name. We know it so much that it has paralyzed us as to even looking at the signs of the times. The Ninth of Av....or Tisha B' Av....is coming up on the Jewish calendar....this year August 6th. This is that date of calamity when so many disasters happened....including the destruction of the temples by both the Babylonians and the Romans. The Jewish feasts will continue to be times of a heightened awareness.
I have lived both lifestyles....in the one acknowledging the possible nearness of the Second Coming....and where I am now.....knowing that....whatever the actual dates.....we are that generation.....and the second is so much more fulfilling.....for our Lord's return is no longer theory....or even assent....but a real and present hope.
