The Goodness Of God

Pilgrims and tourists visiting the Holy Land for the first time experience the reality of Scripture references to people going “up to Jerusalem.” It is, literally, a city on a hill. Jerusalem is twenty-five hundred feet above sea level. Picture in your mind’s eye this ancient scenario:

You are living in the Holy Land, and you’ve been planning and you’ve been saving for a long time to go on a religious pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. This is a big event in your life and in the lives of your friends and relatives: to go to the Holy City at Passover time; to go at harvest time; to go at Yom Kippur: the Day of Atonement. And so you save and you prepare for the long journey, and now you’re on your way. You’re coming up to Jerusalem. And as you reach one of the gates of the Holy City, you are joined by more and more people, and the excitement grows because…