In the last episode, we walked through Via Dolorosa in the Old City of Jerusalem which led us to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus spent his last hours before he was taken to the cross. Wow this is incredible! The Jerusalem mini-series continues as we descend into one of the spiritually darkest places on earth The Valley of the Shadow of Death Jerusalem rests on the edge of two valleys The Hinnom and the Kidron Both of these Valleys do not have a pleasant history The Hinnom valley is where some of the kings of Judah sacrificed their children by fire to Molech who is believed, by some scholars, to be Satan The Kidron Valley, is where King Jehoshaphat overthrown the enemies of Israel and where the Levites would throw away the unclean and defiled items The Kidron Valley is located on the east side of Jerusalem If we exit Via Dolorosa Street through the Lion’s Gate and walk a few minutes east we’ll find ourselves in the valley of Kidron. Today, the valley is a mix of ancient and modern graveyard Since many Jews believe that they will be resurrected when Messiah will come through the East Gate, they are willing to pay big money to be buried as close to the gate as possible So they could be the first to enter the new kingdom. -Look at the name, "Bezalel" -Yeah -Bezalel -And next to him, Yeshua -Yeshua and David. "The daughter of Salvation", in the feminine form, "and David" -Yeah. We are in the famous Jewish Cemetery of Jerusalem You can't really see the end of... the cemetery. It is really expensive to be buried here. some graves, right by the east gate, of the old city of Jerusalem can cost up to a million dollars So if you want to be buried here, you better start saving. -I hope you saved up enough Oh no, I'm gentile, I can't be here. As we descended lower into the Valley of the Shadow of Death we find the monument, which Absalom built for himself Throughout generations, the Jews had an interesting custom to bring their children here and have them throw rocks at the monument as a reminder to what happens when you disobey God -So, you've read about Absalom, the son of David, this is a monument he built for himself, right here! He built this, amazing! According to the Bible, Absalom was not buried inside of his this monument Instead, he was buried in a shame way. Joab threw him into a pit and piled a heap of rocks on top of him. -There's no door Today the monument is sealed, but in the early 20th century, they were able to get inside and find an inscription from the 4th century “This is the tomb of Zachariah, the martyr, the holy priest, the father of John”. Could this really be the tomb of John the
Baptist? Right next to Absalom’s monument is what believed to the Tomb of prophet Zachariah However, the archeologists could not yet find the actual tomb, as they have evidence to believe that this is a monolith. Completely carved out of the solid rock and does not contain a burial chamber. -So these are burial caves and monuments from the time of the second temple. That's how far back it goes. And there are stairs up there and there's a terrace, where we can see and look over. And I want to go up there, do you wanna? These people must be special buried right here Wow! Oh, we can go up! Oh, wow! Look... you see the niche? That's where the bones would be laid. the niches Wow! This is amazing. Unbelievable These are the burial caves from the second temple times, amazing. -So, this is the Kidron Valley. And right at the bottom there, on that hill, it is still uninhabited. The only place in the entire Jerusalem that there's still nothing there. Right there. And that's the place where they would sacrifice the children to Baal and Molech. And that's where all of the abominations would be, right there. And there's this picture, in the Bible, saying that, it's like, going to be burning, and the children of Israel are going to look at it and say "this is the hell". And what's interesting is the word Hell in Hebrew, that's "Gehenom". And Gehenom comes from "Gehena" and that's this valley, it's the name of this valley, that's where it comes from, the word "Hell". So when David speaks about the valley of death, that's what he is thinking about, right here. During the rebellion of Absalom, king David fled Jerusalem through this valley "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil... For you are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." Because this valley is located on the east side of Jerusalem, it is covered in shadow most of the day. The overlooking monument of the wicked king Absalom, reminds the fate of those who rebel against God. The burial caves scream death and the adjacent valley of Hinnom points to the eternal lake of fire. So it makes sense for David to write these words as he fled from Absalom but it even makes more sense to apply it to Jesus When Jesus was captured in Gethsemane, he had to actually walk through this valley, and into Jerusalem. -Now there's a difference, between being buried in a cave and simply buried under the ground. The people who were buried in a cave were known to be wealthy, of high status that's why those are called the King's Burial Caves because those are people who are known, who are wealthy and of high status. So they are buried in caves like that. Also, Joseph of Arimathea. Like the prophecy about Jesus, He was crucified with the wicked but buried with the rich, because Joseph was a rich man. He had a cave, a stone cave, that is carved in the rock. -So uhm.. which... uhm... grave did you buy here? In these episodes we have our dear friends join us from America -Little shiny one down there -It's pretty nice one
-Next to the red -It's a good spot!
-Yeah. I like the view of the sunrise -Ben and Erin
-Hey -I'm Ben, this is Erin -This is Rhoda and I'm Wakif Abu Al-Wahid Al-Habibi Al-Salam -How much, like $300,000? -Ah no no, I got it 50%off -That's a good deal! Must have been like on Rosh Ha Shana, or something
-Hahaha -He is not with us, we just came -We hired him as our tourist guide Join us next time as we take a closer look at the place which archeologists believe to be the burial place of Jesus Christ Okay let's join the line?
