Who will tell them?
Amidst a packed plaza of families and new Israeli recruits to the army, our class followed Jan and Jack towards the Western Wall Museum. We were shuffled in, one at a time, through a gate, and into the air conditioned lobby to wait for our tour guide. I had no idea what we were about to see or do, but I knew it had something to do with the Western Wall, and my curiosity brought me here, even though my back hurt and my leg muscles were randomly cramping up due to our hikes from the past few days.
After our animated tour guide made us laugh, as well as realize the sorrow that came when their Temple Mount was taken over by others, he led us underneath the tunnels of the original bridge that held the steps to the original western entrance to the Temple Mount. After he reacquainted us with our bearings, he told us women, that we could enter into the room next door. Without having a clue where we were headed, we obeyed his directions, and found ourselves, quite taken aback, as we walked directly into the Women’s Worship Area near the unexposed Western Wall. We watched, as they mumbled their Scripture and prayers, and looked at us as though we had rudely interrupted- which we had. I immediately felt remorse for even entering, but also saddened at their complete sorrow and the wailing that we heard coming from the men behind the glass, who stood touching the walls, crying out their prayers. I could not bear to take a photo of the men below, nor even of the women who sat quietly praying, for my heart was breaking for them. After a moment of prayer myself, I joined the rest of the group that was heading through a door to the next area.
Our guide took us past a beautiful underground synagogue, and into another corridor. He pointed to a massive stone behind him, which weighed over 600 tons, and was over 40 feet long. My initial reaction was that we still do not understand the intelligence nor the stubbornness of the people of that time to create and build enormous structures, where we are still asking, “How did they do that?”
The guide then took us down the entire length of the Western Wall, stopping to point out the entrance to the Temple Mount, as well as the closest area to the Holy of Holies. Here, I stopped and caught myself thinking about when the Spirit of God lifted up from the Temple in Ezekiel 10, heading towards the wilderness, and thought to myself, “They missed it when He returned. Who will tell them?”
