Our ten-day tour came to a conclusion at the Mount of Olives. Located about 1/2 a mile east of the Old City walls of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, it is separated from the Old City by the Kidron Valley.
This mount is first mentioned by name in 2 Sam 15:30. King David was climbing this mountain, weeping in the wake of his son Absolom’s grasp for the throne.
Zech 14:4 says that Jesus will return and stand on this mount, splitting it in two. Fresh living water will erupt from it and flow all the way down to the Dead Sea, so much so that animals will live in the Dead sea (Ez 47:8). Pretty impressive.
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Unfortunately, the day was pretty hazy, so the photos don’t do it justice.From near the top of the Mount of Olives, you look across the Kidron Valley into Jerusalem. |
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There’s the dome of the Rock, sitting on top of the Temple Mount. The Temple Mount pretty much takes up this full picture. |
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(For more on this, be sure to see the movie clip section) |
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There are lots of graves on this mountain. They bury their dead so they’ll have a view of Jerusalem. |
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Jews leave stones on top of their graves. |
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Nikon D50 |
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This road leads to the bottom of the Kidron Valley. |
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The walls on the road next to some chapel are built to keep people from climbing over the wall. |
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From here, you get an excellent view of the Golden Gate on the eastern wall of the Old City of Jerusalem.The man then brought me back toward the sanctuary’s outer gate that faced east, and it was closed.
The LORD said to me: “This gate will remain closed. It will not be opened, and no one will enter through it, because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered through it. Therefore it will remain closed. (Eze 44:1-2 HCSB) The Muslims shut this gate in order to keep the Messiah out. However, if they would have read the scriptures a little better, they would have seen that the prophet said that the gate would be closed up after the Messiah walked through it and that he would return through it. Since this particular gate was built by the Muslims long after Jesus ascended, this can’t possibly be the gate that Jesus will return to. There is, however, another set of gates buried below this gate. Hmmmmmm. |
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The Kidron Valley lies at the bottom of the Mount of Olives. And now we know why it’s called the Mount of Olives. Lots of olive trees. |
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The Golden Gate. |
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Apparently Christians liked to be buried here too. |
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This church wasn’t opened. It faces westward, toward the Temple Mount, and is just south of the Garden of Gethsemane. I bet it’s called “Church of the Mount of the Olives” or maybe “Church of the Garden of Gethsemane”. |
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The Garden of Gethsemane. It was closed when we were there. Drats.(For more on this, be sure to see the movie clip section) |