The Exodus of the Israelites, life of the Lord Jesus and faith of forefathers!
Pilgrimage, trace of written words of the Bible.

Most of christian hope to have trip
to Holy Land. Let's follow to pilgrim road along Egypt, Israel, Vatican City, Swiss and France.

Cairo the capital of Egypt, it has meaning of winner.
Cairo is one of the biggest city in Africa, has past and present, and presents fused culture of oriental, western and african cultures.

Firstly, we stepped on Giza, place of Pyramids and Sphinx. Representative pyramid of 94 in Egypt is one in Giza. It is known as King Khufu's pyramid, one of the 7 wonders of world and built with about 2,680,000 pieces of granite stone that each one is 2.5t or 10t.

This mysterious pyramid is famous not only for the size, but also its location. Its 4 ridges indicate exact east, west, south and north and its length of shadow present the time and seasons. It is like an (astronomical) observatory.
3 pyramids in Giza near Cairo are known as tombs of King Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure living from BC 2613 to 2494 but many have doubts.
They could think these pyramids are not tombs of kings because mummies of Kings or remains never found and letters were not on wall or roof.
There is sphinx as famus as pyramid at the exact east side of pyramid. It has body of lion and face of man, know as guardian of King Khafre. It is 70m long, 20m high and made of rock. And there is a stone monument of Thutmose Ⅳ between forelegs of the sphinx. The death of the eldest son in Egypt and important clue about exodus of Israelite were on the stone monument.

Exodus 1:11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.

God heard cry of the Israelites, saw oppression of Egyptians and prepared Moses to bring Israelite out of Egypt. King of Egypt at that time was Amenhotep II and his 2nd son, Thutmose Ⅳ succeed to the throne after him according to egyptian history. This history is same with the book of Exodus in the Bible.



Exodus 13:15
When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed every firstborn in Egypt, both man and animal. This is why I sacrifice to the LORD the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.'

Egyptian Museum has 5000 years history of Egypt. It exhibit some of 120,000 circularly collected from all places of Egypt. Specially all concerns are concentrated upon show rooms of mummies and king Tutankhamen on 2nd floor of museum. History in the Bible could be understood well according to remains of Hatshepsut drawing baby Moses out of river of Nile, Thutmose Ⅲ growing up with Moses in the palace, etc.

Exodus 12:51
And on that very day the LORD brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.

Left Cairo to go Israel, following to the way of exodus of the Israelites.
Miracle performed by Moses in the critical situation blocked by the Red Sea and chased by egyptian soldiers

Exodus 14:21
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided

I passed the Red Sea through the Suez Canal, thinking the Israelites across the Red Sea with joy and happiness because of this miracle.
Sinai, desolate desert without a weed except few acacia trees, life in desert on the way to go to Israel for 40 years I walked on desert thinking about Moses and Israelite.

When I thought the love of God who feeds the Israelites with Manna and quail, by day He leads them with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take, God showed rainbow around the sun.
I shouted to participate on happiness of the Israelites who passed all the desert and came in Canaan, when I stepped on the land of Canaan.
In sodom on the way to Jericho, looking at the wife of Rot who became a pillar of salt because she looked back, I decided once more not to look the world but look the Lord only.

Genesis 19:25~26
Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities--and also the vegetation in the land. But Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

New morning in Jericho
Jericho, one of the oldest city in the world, big and beautiful city of oasis in North east of the Dead Sea is the first city where the Israelites stepped on after their 40 years lives in desert. Army of Rome destroyed it about 68 ~69 AD while the army went to Israel to hit. Since Israel had occupied it since June 1967, Israel had been governing it. Now it is Palestine self-governing district because of peace accord between Israel and Palestine in September 1993. Jericho has many sites in the Bible

Joshua 6:20
When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city.

Jericho, very representative historical place in the Bible
As Joshua told in chapter 6 of the book of Joshua, nothing should be constructed on the land, only wilderness remains.
Elisha who inherited a double portion of Elijah's spirit performed his first miracle under Jericho. It is spring of Elisha



2King 2:21~22
Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, "This is what the LORD says: 'I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.' "
And the water has remained wholesome to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken.

Mountain of the test, the Lord won Satan by the word of God, etc
I was impressed like being in the bible in everywhere in Jericho
After Jericho, moved to the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is 85 km long, 17km wide and 1,015㎢ large. It is 398m lower than the mediterranean Sea and the lowest point on the earth. Salinity of the Dead Sea is 5 times of other ordinary seas and body can easily float.

Qumran at north west of the Dead Sea, was a residential area of 에세느파. Dead Sea Scrolls, about 2000 years old scrolls were found here. 68AD, Army of Rome destroyed Qumran while they suppressed rebellion of Israel. When Rome came into Qumran, people put Old Testament Scrolls and religious documents in pots and hid them in caves. Dead Sea Scrolls found in the 4th cave of 11 caves is the best Old Testament and the Scrolls found in Qumran has all the Old Testament except book of Esther.

I thought how to read the Bible. There is Masada 50km south of Qumran. Masada means fortress in hebrew. King Herod was afraid of rebellion of Jew and constructed it for emergent situation.
on 600m from south to north, 300m from east to west, 1,300m round big plain, Herod built 3 folders palace, water storage and grain warehouse.
After death of Herod, Jew rebelled against Roman governor in 66AD. After Jerusalem had fallen in 79AD, about 960 ultra-nationalists retreated to Masada and kept resisting.

Titus, supreme commander of Rome let Silva with the 10th corps envelope Masada and occupied in 72 AD. The Zealots killed themselves and the tragedy of Masada finished in 3 years.

Visited the other fortress, Megiddo. Yizreel Valley is around Megiddo, seeing on the fort of Megiddo. Megiddo was a point of strategic importance, is backgound of Armageddon of the Bible and historic place in where stable site, water supply facilities and wall constructed in the time of king Solomon.

Nazareth the Lord born and lived
the breath of the Lord came into my heart deeply.
God the Father who listened the prayer and asking of the Israelites and led them to the promised land of Canaan. God of Israel is with us and blesses us who are living today.

Next time, give you impressive life of Jesus in Galilee, Jerusalem, Via Dolorosa etc.