Afternoon with Herod

We had taken our passports along but

there were no people at the check point

We could see where we were going

to a man-made mountain

called Herodion

We got out at the foot of Herodium

walked around this pit

 That gave a good impression of how big it is

 Marble columns on the edge Island in the middle

Nice view

going in:

What it it?

By now we confidently guessed "a swimming pool"

It is huge about a soccer field in size

It reflected the Herodium upper palace

The bus dropped us near the top

we looked back down on the swimming pool

part of the lower 40 acre palace complex

Looking inside towards the big tower that used to stand 12 stories high

It was so high herod could see inside the temple complex in Jerusalem

 Came past some Roman leftovers

Ballista, catapult stones, could be flung 3/4 km

 

We entered in the side of the mountain, tunnels had been dig in here

for water cisterns and escape routes for when the Zealots were here

took the stairs

and came up inside the crater of Herodium

there was a Mikvah from the Zealot time

and where Zealots lived there should also be 

a synagogue, we sat down (in the chief seats)

to listen to a long lesson on Herod the Great

There is so much to tell

Start with the Maccabees 167BC defeated the Greeks

first time in 400 years Jewish control

around 63BC squabbles because the Maccabees were now Hellenistic

This is the time that Herod was born

Father Idumean mother Nabatean

 about 40BC Herod becomes governor of Galilee

because of his father Antipater, 

a brilliant fighter, tax collector and Roman citizen 

In the south there is a struggle between

Hyrcanus and Antigonus

Hyrcanus offers his beautiful granddaughter Mariamne 

to Herod as wife for Herods help against Antigonus

Antigonus still almost wins, Herod escapes 

comes back with Roman army

smokes rebels out of the caves at mount Arbel

(when they come up for air, he "hooks" them and make them fall)

brutal siege of Jerusalem

Herod takes the throne in 37BC

the Jews hated this half Jew Herod the Great

These where intense times

Herod was a contemporary with Cleopatra and Mark Anthony

and Jesus

Herod loved Herodium 

This is where he spent his time

There were hot baths and a garden

 looking to the east

is the Judean wilderness

with little settlements the size of Bethlehem in his days 

 The darker blue on the right where air and land meet 

is the dead sea

On the other side is where Bethlehem is

Earlier in our trip we visited a cave

it's bigger then it looks

It was where shepherds would keep their sheep at night

 manure on the floor

blackened ceilings from years of fires

a humble place for a baby to be born

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.  He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.  While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,  and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

 wise man who came to see Herod

and asked this paranoid man 

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem  and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

Herod had been looking over his shoulder all his life

he was threatened by: Rome, the Jews, Temple Authorities, Herodians, Cleopatra, Nabateans, Partians, Pagans, his own family, his health

but there was something else,

this was my memory verse:

Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.

 The Lord said to her,

“Two nations are in your womb,
    and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
    and the older will serve the younger.”

Herod was from Esau, Jesus from Jacob

Herod did everything for himself

Jesus did everything for others

We went through the checkpoint

This time it was occupied by soldiers

but we had no problems

 We went next to Yad Vashem

fits right into a Herod day

this happens when Herod like people are in power

you end up with death and destruction for the Jews

we need to remember the Holocaust

but also live out the lessons we learn from it

Rien and I grew up in the Netherlands

family lived through the brutality of the war

we read a lot about it and still

it's amazing how this ever could happen

so much evil done

yes there were people that helped the Jews

but there were far to few righteous gentiles