“It’s like the Wailing Wall,” he told us, “Historically meaningful but not much to see.”
That, coupled with the hefty $18 per person price tag for a boat ride out to Fort Sumter, had me thinking it was an attraction to be skipped. Daniel thought otherwise, so we decided to go anyway.
Our friend from home turned out to be right in at least one respect. There wasn’t much to see at Fort Sumter.
I told Daniel once we got back that this didn’t mean I was willing to skip the Wailing Wall if/when we find our way to Jerusalem.
The Wailing Wall is different, I explained. Sure Fort Sumter is an important part of our nation’s history, but the Wailing Wall is all that remains of the place GOD chose for His Name to dwell.
Today, as I read the plans for the Tabernacle in Exodus and consider the Passion, I recall Christ’s words to the unbelieving mobs of Jerusalem:
“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
~John 2:19 (ESV)
The unhearing hearers protested the impossibility of rebuilding Herod’s temple in three days.
And they were right. Herod’s temple, which took 46 years to build, now lies in waste for 1,943 years. The Wailing Wall is all that remains of that majestic temple.
But that temple, majestic and meaningful though it may have been, was nothing compared to the temple Jesus spoke of.
“For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”
~ Colossians 2:9 (ESV)
The ultimate temple is Christ Himself. God in bodily form. God become man.
This temple was destroyed a little less than 2000 years ago. This temple was rebuilt by His own strength only three days later.
As much as I long to gaze upon the remnants of Herod’s temple in Jerusalem at the Wailing Wall, I long much more to gaze upon the Resurrected Temple, my LORD in the New Jerusalem.
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”
~I Corinthians 13:12 (ESV)
“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”
~I John 3:2 (ESV)
I agree you should definitely take the time to see the Wailing Wall if you find yourself in Jerusalem! For me, it was a powerful reminder of God’s powerful works in the lives of the Jewish people.