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To say that I was impacted by this trip He knew all that lay in the centuries
would be a huge understatement. Firstly, ahead, the persecution God’s chosen
to have grown up reading and learning would face (Jesus also being a Jew to
about the Bible from a young age, it’s His people) and He chose to allow God’s
easy to become a little complacent or wrath for all sin - even sins such as
overfamiliar with the text and to these, to be poured out on Him so that
remember it fondly as you would with gentiles such as me could be grafted in
fairytales from your childhood. However, to His family. Never mind the fact that
standing in the places talked about in what I had witnessed at Yad Vashem was
Scripture, gaining a feel for the culture just a six-year window of history in the
and observing the surprisingly varied two millennia since Jesus walked the
landscapes in the relatively small earth; a mere snapshot of time. We sing
country of Israel brought scripture into lyrics like ‘I’ll never know how much it
glorious technicolour for me. Now I cost’ often without any comprehension of
can read my Bible with fresh eyes, what that really means - even now
visualising the places and understanding my understanding of that phrase is
the characters with greater depth - my minuscule but ‘amazing grace’ doesn’t
Bible reading in short has found a new even begin to cover it!
lease of life!
I also was given a fresh revelation of Before heading out to Israel, I had been
sorts after visiting the Yad Vashem left reeling from personal tragedy and if
Holocaust Memorial. After witnessing I’m honest, my faith was hanging on by
and listening to the horrors of that time its fingernails. It felt like I had not only
as recalled by survivors, I was deeply been let down by people, but also by God
saddened by man’s inhumanity, so and I was in two minds as to whether to
contrary to God’s original design and proceed with the trip or stay at home,
the fact that all of this had happened to knowing that the trip had the potential
God’s chosen people (the Jews) hit me to either strengthen my faith or finish
hard. As I thought about Jesus’ it altogether. Our trip around Jerusalem
crucifixion, it struck me that I had came to a close at Golgotha and the
tended to think of Jesus dying for my Garden tomb and I was given the
own personal sin, but that actually He privilege to sing in this place.
died for the sins of the whole world -
even for those that carried out such ‘Behold the man upon a cross,
atrocities against God’s people if they My sin upon his shoulders,
would turn to Him - and for a second I Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
caught a glimpse of how much more it Call out among the scoffers.
cost Jesus to choose to die, than had It was my sin that held him there,
ever dawned on me before. Until it was accomplished,
His dying breath has brought me life,
I know that it is finished!’
To sing these words in the very place
where it all happened was a deeply
humbling experience and reminded me
that God has me and even though I will
face trials, it really is finished and I have
an abundant life to live with a thankful
heart for all He did for me.
The desert
