And His Own Received Him Not (Holy Land #9 of 14)

One of the most intriguing sites I visited while in Jerusalem is the area that is famously called “The Wailing Wall.” It is here that Orthodox Jews come daily to pray and read Scripture. Nearly all of them are dressed in their orthodox clothing and are reciting their prayers out loud in Hebrew. It is truly an amazing site.

I put on my paper yamika that all men who visit the wall must wear and that Jews wear to show that they do not think they are greater than God. I then walked down to the Wailing Wall where I stood in utter amazement. There were dozens and dozens of Jewish men dressed in traditional garb standing, sitting, bowing, and weeping as they read and sang their prayers. They would have been praying for the peace of Jerusalem. They would have been praying for the rebuilding of the temple. And they would have been praying for the coming of the Messiah. This location is most holy to them because it is as close as they are allowed to get to the holy of holies where the presence of God dwelt in the temple on the Temple Mount which is now occupied by the Muslim Dome of the Rock.

As I stood and watched, my heart ached within me. Here were these lovely and loyal Jewish men praying for a Messiah to come who already did come and they had missed it. I’m not sure I have ever seen anything so spiritually sad. The verse from the first chapter of John kept running through my mind,

“He came unto His own and His own received Him not.”

It will not be until the time of the tribulation that most of these dear Jewish people will realize the truth that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. I watched as a Jewish father sat teaching his son his religious ways. Generation after generation of Jewish people since Christ was on earth have prayed daily for the Messiah to come. With each passing day and with each passing conflict in their land filled with conflicts, their prayers get more earnest.

So is the case with we who worship Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Daily we pray for our Messiah to come…a second time...to rapture us to glory! I have found that with each passing day of my life and with each conflict in my life that I must face, that prayer gets more and more earnest. As John the Revelator said, I agree with whole-heartedly,

“Come quickly, Lord Jesus!”

On a humorous note, our guide pointed out the uniqueness of seeing one of the men from our group standing down at the Wailing Wall. He was wearing a shirt he had bought while we were in Jordan that had a Jordanian flag on it and said, “I Love Jordan.” By the way, he got many comments that didn’t seem real good from many Jewish men who passed him and saw his shirt throughout the day. But our guide pointed out something he had never seen. Here at the Wailing Wall was an American Christian wearing a Jewish Yamika on his head and a shirt that said, “I Love Jordan!” Now that’s a priceless picture.