A Traveler's Report

 I have visited Israel a few times over the last ten-plus years, and I have come to realize how a brief report of my trips can tell a little bit of Israel’s history.

I first traveled to Israel with a group of people from my church in May of 1996.  Yitzhak Rabin had been assassinated just a few months earlier, and Israelis were reeling from a series of homicide bombers who had blown themselves up on city buses and killed scores of people.  During our visit, we saw campaign banners all over Jerusalem for the election between Yitzhak Perez and Binyamin Netanyahu, and we prayed- as a group- for the outcome of the election.  After we returned home, Netanyahu surprised the political experts and won the election.  Naturally, we wondered if our prayers had something to do with it. 

A couple of years later, my church group returned to Israel.  To our disappointment, Netanyahu cooperated with “The Roadmap for Peace,” which we believed would result in more violence, not peace.  Our group met with officials from the Israeli army, or IDF (Israeli Defense Force), and they told us how they conducted meetings with Palestinians to discuss transferring control of the West Bank to the Palestine Authority.  They told us how the transfers could not take place because the Palestinian military leaders had no plans for maintaining public safety. 

People from my church did not travel to Israel in 2000, mostly because we didn't have any money (we were saving up for another trip).  That was the year that the Palestinians launched a second “Intifada” (or uprising), because Ariel Sharon took a walk on the Haram al-Sharif, or “The Noble Sanctuary,” the location of the Dome of the Rock and Al-aqsa mosque- the same place where many Jews believe is the location of the Temple.  We did, however, plan for a trip in October of 2001.  When terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center on September 11, some people thought we might cancel our trip, but we didn’t.  We went to Israel, and people there told us how much of an encouragement it was to see us.  Many Jews had cancelled trips to Israel, many tours cancelled, but here we were, a group of evangelical Christians.  I only wished that I had more money to buy stuff, to help bolster the Israeli economy. 

People from my church went to Israel again in March 2002.  Their plane landed about an hour after President Bush’s final ultimatum to Saddam Hussein that started the Iraq War.  It was the last plane to land in Israel for a couple of weeks, or so we were told.  They were there when the threat of attacks from Scud missiles was very real, and the Israeli government issued gas masks to them, and gave them instructions on what to do in case of an attack.  Nothing bad happened, and Israelis were once again impressed that Christians would come to Israel in a time of danger.

 So there it is, my brief traveller’s report.  It says a little bit about the story of Israel in the 1990s and the early years of the new millennium.  Now, what if I made up a fictional traveler to provide reports of visits with my fictional family?  Could such reports provide some insight into the fictional family that I have created?  You see, we don’t have historical records for ordinary people who lived in Jerusalem at ancient times.  We can stand on the Mount of Olives today and we can wonder what it might have been like to stand on that spot at different times in history.  But we can’t know for certain.  So I have created a story about a fictional family and how they might have reacted to the actions of the Israelite kings as depicted in the Bible.  The men in this family operate a store on the Mount of Olives, a family business that is passed down from father to son, starting with the man who came to Jerusalem when King David captured the Jebusite city and made it the capital of the kingdom of Israel.  I refer to each of the men in this story by letter rather than by name, to keep each generation straight.  The first man who started this business is known as A, and his son was B.  By the time that D was an old man (the great-grandson of A), King Rehoboam neared the end of his reign. 

A traveler to Jerusalem might have reported something like this:  “We came again to Jerusalem and, after watering our camels, we set up a space to sell our wares… I climbed the Mount of Olives and visited my friends, people we had met on previous visits.  This was a family who operated a little shop, a place where we could sit under a shady tree and eat some snacks while we looked down on a magnificent view of Jerusalem.  We could also purchase a figurine of the gods from our homeland.  I was glad to see that this family was still operating their business, as many of our other friends in Jerusalem have closed up their little shops.  Old man D came and sat with us.  He was a kindly grandfather who had time to sit with customers, because his son performed most of the work in the shop.  He told us stories about how King Solomon built the Temple, and his magnificent palace.  Then he told us stories that he heard from his grandfather, who had come to Jerusalem when he was a little boy.  We asked about how the northern tribes broke away from King Rehoboam and formed their own kingdom, but the old man did not want to talk about that.”

And this, from another report:  “We came to Jerusalem and I was curious to see how the place had changed from my previous visit several years ago…. “  “…After concluding with that business, we climbed the Mount of Olives.  I wanted to show my friend the magnificent view of the city from up there, and I also wanted to visit some friends I had made years ago.  The little shop where we could enjoy some snacks while looking at the view was still there.  The kindly grandfather was not.  He had died in the same year that King Rehoboam had died.  His son kept the family business going, and he talked with us for a while.  I noticed that he no longer sold little figurines of the gods, and E explained that he took a hammer and destroyed all the figurines that his father had placed on sale.  This was a little distressing to me, but E further explained that that King Asa had destroyed such things in his kingdom.  The king even destroyed his own mother’s idols (my friend later clarified that it was the king’s grandmother).  E told us how they watched the destruction of her idols, because it took place near the Kidron Brook, at the bottom of the Mount of Olives.”  “…the people in Jerusalem feel a sense of optimism.  I saw it especially with E, on the Mount of Olives.  He talked about how he felt that King Asa’s kingdom was growing stronger.  When E was a young man, he watched the Egyptian army ransack the city- they took the golden shields that King Solomon had collected.  In these days, E believes that King Asa would never allow such a thing to happen again.  In some strange way, he believes that the destruction of the idols has something to do with his country’s greatness.”

around the 10^th year of King Asa’s reign, Judah went to war against the Ethiopians, who, as the Bible says, controlled an army of “a thousand thousand” (2 Chronicles 14:9) or a million men.  Judah’s army consisted of three hundred thousand (which is an impressive number, except when going up against a million), but they still won a great victory even though they were hopelessly outnumbered.

From a different traveler, about ten years after the previous report: “And on the Mount of Olives, there is a little place where you can get some snacks and look down on the city.  We spent some time in this store, and discovered that this place served as a community center for that neighborhood.  Local people come here to hang out and discuss politics and whatnot.  The proprietor of this shop told us about the big celebration when the army of Judah defeated the Ethiopians.  ‘It didn’t look good for us,’ he said, ‘but we believed that the Lord was with us, and he gave us a great victory.’  This man is also one of those who believe with King Asa’s anti-idol policy.”

The army of Judah spent the next five years fighting the territory of Gerar (which I think includes the present-day area of the Gaza Strip).  When they finished conquering Gerar, King Asa announced a covenant with the Lord, so that anyone who worshiped idols would be put to death (2 Chronicles 15:13).

Another traveler reported: “I sat down to dinner with my friend E, and we watched the sun set over the city of Jerusalem while we ate.  He kept changing the topic when I asked if King Asa had actually put anyone to death for violating the covenant he had made years earlier.  But E feels that the king is doing the right thing.  ‘I watched Egyptian soldiers come into our city,’ he said.  ‘They stole the treasures that great King Solomon had collected.  This was in the days when King Rehoboam led us into worshiping the gods of other peoples.  In these days, King Asa is leading his people into the worship of the Lord, the one who led our people out of slavery in Egypt, the one who planted us in this land, the one who strengthened the hand of the great King David, the one who has given us victory over all our enemies.  So I tell you this- when we worshiped idols, we knew defeat.  When we got rid of our idols, we are knowing victory.  Now you tell me this- which is better for us?’”