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Show The Holy Land 233 fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah. (1 Kings 18) In the Jordan River Valley, north of Jerusalem and south of Nazareth, was where Mary, the mother of Jesus, turned to her kinswoman, Elizabeth. Elizabeth had long been barren but was now to have a child, John the Baptist, who would baptize Jesus. Elizabeth told Mary she would have a child and he would be Immanuel-Jesus, the Redeemer. v Back on the road to Jerusalem, Madelyn and Harold went to Bethany, on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, two miles east of Jerusalem. There Jesus visited Mary and Martha; there he was anointed in the home of Simon the Leper; there he began his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Madelyn saw the tomb of Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha who was raised from the dead by Jesus. Not far from there on the west side of the Jordan, was Bethabara, where, as tradition says, Jesus was bap tized by John the Baptist. Madelyn thought outside the city and on the road to Jerusalem was the Siloam Pool, which, in fact, was within the walls in the southeast part of Old Jerusalem. Their next visit was to Bethlehem, also in Jordan, about five miles south and west of Jerusalem. Bethlehem was an ancient town that was the early home of David, and regarded by most Christians as the site of the birth of Jesus. The road to Bethlehem was an old Roman road, and on the way was the tomb of Rachel. Rachel was the second but favored wife of Jacob and the mother of Joseph. She died bearing Benjamin and was buried in the tribal territory of Benjamin. A matriarch in Israel, she was sometimes used by the prophets as a poetic per sonification of the land and nation of the Hebrews (Jeremiah 31:15). They passed shepherds, the field of Boaz and Ruth, the Herodium Mountain, and the traditional burial place of Herod the Great. This was also the reported Mount of Franks that was the last stand of the Crusaders. They saw the spire of the Church of the Nativity. Madelyn noted that Bethlehem meant house of meat or bread. The streets were narrow, children play ing, potters were turning their wheels. |
