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Route 60- The Holy City (Part 2) - The Biblical Highway
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00:11It can be said that for everything we wish to learn or want to become, there is a road to
00:17follow.
00:21From the beginning, the road to believing in only one true God, the maker of heaven and earth,
00:26has carved its roots through the ancient land of Israel.
00:32It is a road that Abraham, the father of nations, walked as the first believer in monotheism.
00:40It was along this road that God made his covenant with Abraham,
00:44promising that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky.
00:52It is a road walk by Jesus, the central figure of Christianity.
01:00This road is deeply symbolic in the story of God shared by Jews and Christians.
01:06And it is a literal highway that bisects modern Israel, where it is now known simply as Route 60.
01:19Route 60 follows the ancient path from Nazareth to Beersheba.
01:24It connects many holy sites and biblical events in what could be called the original Bible Belt.
01:32It has mile markers, human and divine, to memorialize the acts of celebration, suffering and salvation
01:40that are woven into Israel's history.
01:45I'm David Friedman, and I invite you to join me and my co-host and fellow traveler, Mike Pompeo,
01:53as we explore the ancient mysteries of Route 60, the biblical highway.
02:21We finally made it.
02:22We made it to Jerusalem.
02:31It's always pretty special to be walking here.
02:33It is, it is.
02:34In the old town, Jerusalem.
02:44You go straight, you get to the Western Wall, you make a left, you get to the Church of
02:49the Holy Sepulchre, you go upstairs, you get to the Temple Mount and to the Mosque.
02:59How big do you think the entire old city of Jerusalem is?
03:02People get shocked when I tell them that.
03:04It's small.
03:07One square kilometer.
03:08Yeah, that's it.
03:13A lot of history in that, in that little space.
03:16Per square foot has got the most history anywhere, anywhere in the world.
03:20Yeah.
03:21It's been the subject of so many battles and so many fights and, yeah.
03:31Living in a special time, you know, since 1967, it's really the only time in a couple of thousand
03:42years where you've had three religions worshipping side by side.
03:50It doesn't mean that, you know, people don't get chippy every now and then, but it, I would
03:57say, 90% of the time, everything works here just fine.
04:01Good morning.
04:02Good morning.
04:02Good morning.
04:03How are you?
04:03Good morning.
04:22In the world of high-tech, the world of transport, the world of telecommunications, there's this notion of the last
04:27mile, right?
04:28You know, you can move things all around the world, but you need that last mile to get it to
04:32the consumer.
04:33So this is the last mile with regard to Route 60, right?
04:36Because Route 60, they're coming north to Jerusalem, they're coming from the south to Jerusalem.
04:41You know, they're filthy, they feel unpure, they jump into the Pool of Siloam.
04:45The Pool of Siloam starts down here about half a kilometer.
04:49This was the main street, if you will.
04:53You know, people understood that when you have hundreds of thousands of people walking, it's not a bad place to
04:57sell some religious articles,
04:59it's not a bad place to sell some refreshments, sell some jewelry.
05:02Gift shops have been around for a millennia.
05:06The gift shop may have started here, too.
05:13I was privileged to witness the opening.
05:16There was a piece of plasterboard fed up to create a ceremonial opening.
05:21They gave me a sledgehammer to knock it down, and, you know, I got a title for my book.
05:26Yeah, and an appropriate nickname for someone who fought fearlessly for the truth,
05:32for the basic fundamental ideas that the Jewish faith and the Christian faith all value, right?
05:37These ideas of truth and human dignity.
05:38That's what you were really using the hammer to break away at.
05:44We are immersed.
05:46We're standing in the road, on the road, where 2,000 years ago our forefathers walked.
05:57I think of the images of tens of thousands of people making their way in this pilgrimage,
06:01people who came from different places, they didn't know each other.
06:04This was a place that Jesus came and taught.
06:12And right here is considered to be really a speaker's platform.
06:16So if somebody has something to say, this was the place to say it,
06:20because you got the entire, you know, nation of Israel coming from south to north,
06:25and, you know, you were once a politician, you know, I mean, you want to be prime time.
06:31This is prime time in the year 30.
06:39There's the famous story from Acts, where there was a lame man sitting here,
06:43and Peter and John were asked for money by him, and they said,
06:46silver and gold have I none.
06:48But they had faith, and they prayed with him and for him.
06:51The very place we stand today, and another marker in the history of this place.
06:57We see the topography here.
07:00It's a rise up to the temple.
07:02You know, King David coined the famous 15 songs of ascent that the Levites would sing as they ascended.
07:10I think it's not just the geography that caused the Pool of Siloam to be downhill and the temple to
07:16be up.
07:17I mean, this is a full package of spiritual uplifting, not just in the heart,
07:23but, you know, you're actually going up.
07:25You start there, and you start to ascend and ascend.
07:28And you can sing the songs of ascent, the spiritual power of that experience.
07:34And it was shared by tens and hundreds of thousands of people.
07:43When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream.
07:49Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with singing.
07:54Then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them.
07:58The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad.
08:06Psalm 126, verse 1 through 3, a psalm of ascent.
08:15You know, King Solomon invited Gentiles, so, this was just a pathway of believers.
08:21It was not necessarily a pathway of just Jews, but a pathway of believers from all over Israel,
08:25and I suspect all over the world, Jews and non-Jews coming up this road to the house of God.
08:33Amazing.
08:39We're now on, in a moment, on the pilgrimage road.
08:42If you look down here, southern end of the city of David, there's a road.
08:45Beneath the road, there's a sewage pipe.
08:47And in 2004, the sewage pipe bursts.
08:50The municipality has to send in construction crews to repair the sewage pipe.
08:53As they're repairing the sewage pipe, they uncover a set of ancient steps, 2,000 years old.
08:59It turns out they've discovered the steps leading down to the Pool of Siloam.
09:06Now, us, the archaeologists, always want to date whatever we find.
09:12We were sure that this street was built by King Herod.
09:19We lifted the pavement of the street.
09:23And under the pavement of the street, we find coins from the time of Pontius Pilate,
09:31the one who crucified Jesus.
09:33Wait a minute.
09:35Pontius Pilate lived in 31 AD.
09:40Herod died in 4 BC.
09:44We continue and lifted pavement all along the street.
09:47Wherever we lifted it, wherever we lifted it, we find coins from the times of the great Procator, Pontius Pilatus.
09:55Building the second temple took a long time.
10:00I remind you that King Herod died in 4 BC.
10:05So, all the surrounding projects surrounding the temple were finished later on, probably by Pontius Pilate.
10:162,000 years ago, this paved street was open to the air.
10:20If you read the Gospel of John, Jesus met the blind man, probably in the gates of the temple, up
10:31there.
10:31Now, he did a very strange thing.
10:34He spit on the ground, mixed it with the soil, and put the soil on the blind man's eyes.
10:42It's pretty astonishing.
10:43We have a brilliant archaeologist.
10:46His name is Nachshon Zanton, who read carefully the verses in the Gospel and hid it.
10:52He said to him, to the blind man, Jesus, go, go down to Silwan Pool.
10:59And the blind man entered to the pool and started to see.
11:04And come back on this actual street to visit the temple again, entering as a conqueror, as a victorious, to
11:12the temple.
11:25We approached the Western Wall with reverence.
11:28We were prepared to stop filming at any moment, if anyone objected to the cameras.
11:34And it never escapes me that it's an incredible blessing to be able to be here in this city of
11:39peace.
11:45Where the Jewish people allow me as a Christian to come practice my faith at this important place.
11:50You're welcome.
11:51Muslims are welcome.
11:53People of no faith are welcome.
11:55You know, people who just want to be here because it's historically important are welcome.
11:59You've been to the tunnels.
12:01These stones go down another, probably another 30, 40 feet because of all the settling over 2,000 years.
12:09Most of the work here was done by King Herod.
12:17Some of the archaeology goes back to the first temple.
12:23But a lot of the stuff that's been preserved is from 2,000 years ago.
12:26Yeah.
12:27From King Herod.
12:30And what's amazing, though, is that so much of what Herod built here was destroyed.
12:35When we go to Hebron, Herod built another beautiful structure there to memorialize Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah.
12:45And that's fully intact.
12:47You know, David, it's a place of worship here.
12:50But as a student of engineering, someone who studied as a young cadet engineering, mechanical engineering, I see these stones
12:57now a couple thousand years, and it is remarkable.
13:07Tucked inside this incredible engineering are these prayers, right?
13:12Faith and science, right, juxtaposed with each other.
13:23Faith and science live side by side right here.
13:26We believe that faith and science can live side by side.
13:30Together, yes.
13:30The state of Israel is the poster child for faith and science, right?
13:34The oldest, you know, religious sites in the world, the strongest high-tech innovations, you know, maybe anywhere in the
13:41world.
13:48In the middle of the cracks between the stones, people come to this wall and they put prayers.
13:52We have no idea what people have put there, but God knows.
13:56God knows each of those prayers.
13:58Some of these prayers will be answered.
14:00We pray for the health of our family members.
14:02We pray for the well-being of the Jewish state.
14:05There are so many different things that might be in these little crevices, but the Lord knows each of them,
14:11and He hears our words.
14:13And there's times we don't understand.
14:15We can't see.
14:16We have a loved one pass away or something bad happens in our life.
14:20We can't understand how God would permit this to happen.
14:22The prayer, the process of prayer, is valuable in and of itself.
14:27I think that's really part of what you're saying.
14:29We can pray for 10 different things.
14:31Maybe we'll get 10 of them.
14:32Maybe we'll get none of them.
14:33But the act of praying, the act of praying, the act of connecting to God, the act of making that
14:38request, the act of establishing a relationship with God, whether He answers your prayers or not, that act has a
14:45salutary effect on it.
14:46It makes us better people when we pray.
14:48We also don't always ask for things that are in our best interest.
14:52We think they're good for us.
14:54So sometimes God doesn't answer our prayers, and He's doing us a great favor.
14:58So it's complicated.
15:00But we believe prayer is important independent of the request and independent of whether the request is granted.
15:09We were amazed that we could keep filming, and then we discovered why.
15:15Unbeknownst to us, someone very special had been watching over us the whole time.
15:22Rabbi, we are making a film called, in Hebrew, it's called Kvishishim Derech.
15:27What is it, Kvishishim?
15:28Kvishishim?
15:29Yes, the Derech Hatanach.
15:48Derech Hatanach.
15:49And we're going to show how this entire road is the Biblical heartland of the Bible and the Jewish people.
15:58Our Jerusalem is the first.
16:01Jerusalem is the heart.
16:03Yes.
16:03It's the heart.
16:04The book, I love Yerushalayim.
16:06This is the heart.
16:07Everybody who is traveling is either going north to Yerushalayim or south to Yerushalayim, but they're all coming here.
16:13This is where the whole world is coming.
16:15People in Jewish, in every Jewish place, they pray to Jerusalem.
16:22Right.
16:22Yes.
16:23We face Jerusalem wherever we pray.
16:24Anywhere in the world, we face Jerusalem.
16:29Ask him.
16:32I don't know.
16:33He wants to know what do you pray for when you're here?
16:36Pray for peace here in this special place.
16:38I know you do that all the time.
16:40And pray for our two nations, that the leaders of our nations will continue to understand
16:44how important faith is in their lives and in the lives of the relationship between our two countries.
16:54It's a prayer book.
16:56Yeah.
16:57Every day.
16:59I mentioned this earlier.
17:01Every day, people pray three times in a day of peace.
17:07Sim shalom.
17:07Yep.
17:08This is peace.
17:10And wait, wait.
17:11Hold on.
17:12And what else do they pray?
17:14Here?
17:15Yes.
17:15In Jerusalem.
17:16Yes.
17:16In Jerusalem.
17:17Yes.
17:18We say here, to Jerusalem, your city, with mercy, please return.
17:23Yes.
17:25And live there as you have promised us.
17:27Amen.
17:28And bring us, and build us again, a place of worship.
17:31This is what the...
17:32God is the builder of Jerusalem.
17:37Not man.
17:37God is the builder of Jerusalem.
17:39Yes.
17:39Jerusalem is a place for everyone, for Jews and for non-Jews.
17:43Jerusalem is a place for everyone, for Jews and for non-Jews.
17:55When Solomon, the King Solomon, built the temple, he asked God that at this place, God would
18:00answer the prayers of Jews and non-Jews.
18:07Moreover, concerning a foreigner who is not of your people, Israel, but has come from
18:12a far country for your name's sake, for they will hear of your great name, and your strong
18:18hand, and your outstretched arm, when he comes and prays toward this temple, here in
18:26heaven, your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you,
18:34that all peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel.
18:43And that they may know that this temple, which I have built, is called by your name.
18:521 Kings 8, verses 41 through 43.
19:04He recognized that Jews alone do not have a relationship with God, that the entire world
19:10has a relationship with God.
19:15And therefore, that a place of God has to be a place of prayer for all.
19:23Therefore, anyone, anywhere in the world, anyone who wants to connect to God, needs to come here
19:33to Jerusalem.
19:34It's a place of peace and a place that speaks to everyone.
19:41And we pray, we all pray that God will listen to the prayers of everyone, Jews and non-Jews alike.
19:49Do they know that Mr. Pompeo is a good friend of Israel?
19:53Do they know that?
19:53Oh, yeah.
19:54Yes.
19:55No question.
19:56Translate that before.
19:56Do people know that Mike Pompeo is a good friend of Israel?
19:58I said, yes.
20:05This rabbi has accompanied every world leader that's visited the wall.
20:09Everyone.
20:10He knows them all.
20:10I, the best goal with David, is Mr. Pompeo.
20:13Yeah.
20:14No, that's true.
20:15That is true.
20:42How, how, how special David, how, how beautiful.
20:47I come here on the major festivals where the priests bless the nation.
20:51And it's a custom because I'm from the priestly lineage.
20:54They put me on top over there.
20:56And you put a tallit over your head and you bless the people.
20:59And this place is full, full, full.
21:00I mean, going all the way back there and all the way on top as well.
21:04It also brings back the memory of my bar mitzvah, which happened right there
21:0851 years ago this summer, right past that fence.
21:12Oh, my goodness.
21:13My mom and my sister stood behind there and they threw candy.
21:17And I read from the Torah.
21:19I still remember it.
21:20It was very memorable.
21:21They weren't doing that that often in those days.
21:23Yeah.
21:26When King David moved the kingdom of Israel from Hebron, he came to that mountain,
21:32right, which is Mount Moriah, where, again, Abraham bound his son Isaac.
21:37It was a threshing floor run by a Jebusite, a place where they just used to thresh grain.
21:42And the Jebusite sees the king coming with all his troops.
21:46And he said, you know, this guy's petrified.
21:48He's got a king.
21:49He says, you don't have to pay me.
21:52Take it.
21:52Here, you want this?
21:53Take it.
21:53It's yours.
21:54And King David said, I will not build a house unto the Lord through conquest.
22:00I'm going to pay you for it.
22:02And he purchased this land.
22:04It's the same thing throughout the Bible.
22:06The city of Shem was purchased by Jacob.
22:09The city of Hebron, the burial cave of Abraham and his progeny was purchased.
22:17You've told me this story before.
22:18It's a retaining wall.
22:20This wall that we pray at, as you say, it was built for one reason.
22:24It was built to keep that mountain from coming down.
22:26That's the reason why it exists.
22:28Good engineering.
22:29Great engineering.
22:30I mean, Herod was a genius.
22:31It was great.
22:32This was the Western wall.
22:33It goes all the way down that way.
22:34And then there was a northern and a southern.
22:36But this is the remnant of the temple.
22:39And it's an outer retaining wall.
22:42The Western wall is mistakenly referred to as the holiest place in Judaism.
22:47The holiest place is over there on the mountain on top.
22:50It's where the temple stood.
22:51The first temple was built by Solomon.
22:52It lasted about 400 years, destroyed around 500 BC.
22:59And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which was the 19th year of King Nebuchadnezzar,
23:05king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon,
23:11came to Jerusalem.
23:13He burned the house of the Lord and the king's house.
23:17All the houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great, he burned with fire.
23:33Then Jews were banished to Babylonia.
23:36Cyrus conquered Babylonia, Cyrus of Persia.
23:39He let Ezra and Nehemiah bring the Jews back.
23:42Around the year four or five, it was rebuilt by King Herod.
23:44And it lasted until the year 70, when it was destroyed by the Romans.
23:52The glory of Jerusalem is in the history books.
23:55If you look at the arch of Titus, you know, in Rome,
23:58Titus destroyed the temple.
24:00He came back to Rome.
24:01And you can see in that arch, the menorah, other articles of worship in the temple.
24:07To me, this is a bittersweet place.
24:10It's kind of the best of times and the worst of times, the best of times.
24:15Here, after 2,000 years, the Jewish people have been restored to their biblical homeland.
24:20They have control and sovereignty over Jerusalem.
24:24The state of Israel, I think correctly, has permitted both of these two Muslim holy shrines,
24:31to be under the administration of the Kingdom of Jordan.
24:35There's no interest in a religious battle between Jews and Muslims.
24:38The access given to the Muslim faith to pray on that Temple Mount, which is so holy to Jews,
24:46is extraordinary.
24:48You know, this is a place, too, that Jesus visited many times.
24:52He loved coming here.
24:53He didn't just come here that final time.
24:55He would come and he would venerate and he would worship as a Jew.
25:01On the ninth day of Av, these are the soldiers who are expressing their joy in being here.
25:08On the ninth day of Av is the day that we commemorate for the destruction of the Temple.
25:12And people say, why are you still celebrating?
25:13Why are you still observing that?
25:14You have Jerusalem back.
25:16Why are you doing that?
25:17And the truth is, we have Jerusalem back.
25:19But it's incomplete.
25:20You know, we no longer have any of the religious articles from the Temple.
25:23We obviously no longer have the Ark of the Covenant.
25:26That was gone from the days of the first Temple.
25:28We don't worship God on the Temple Mount.
25:32So we have an incomplete redemption.
25:35But that's why we keep going and we keep praying.
25:39And that's why you keep praying for the same redemption.
25:43Amen.
25:46You know, until the Messiah comes and we pray that he comes, we'll be praying out here by the outer
25:54wall.
25:57Today's Friday.
25:59Today is the day that Muslims go to worship and go to pray.
26:03It's quiet.
26:04It's beautiful.
26:05It's open.
26:06And I say that not just as a point of pride, but it's an important message because
26:13we lost 20 Jews in terrorist attacks over the last five, six weeks.
26:20And it was based upon a false accusation that somehow the state of Israel was attacking the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
26:28Now, the state of Israel has never attacked the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
26:31The Jewish people have never attacked the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
26:34But going back to 1929, you know, there was a massacre in Hebron.
26:38Why?
26:39Because someone started a rumor that Al-Aqsa was under attack.
26:41When I was the ambassador, we had violence here.
26:44Why?
26:44Because there was a rumor that Al-Aqsa was under attack.
26:47It comes from the worst extremists within the Palestinian world.
26:51Some in the PA.
26:52Some in Hamas.
26:54And it's a lie.
26:55But, you know, what will happen is Hamas will, their Muslims are entitled to be there,
27:01entitled to worship there.
27:02But they'll go up there.
27:03They'll throw some rocks.
27:04They'll throw a couple of smoke bombs or something.
27:06Start to create the look of a military operation.
27:09Bring in the cameras.
27:10And, of course, at that point, the Israeli security forces have to be there to protect innocent Muslims.
27:16Right?
27:17Who are there to pray.
27:18But you get a 30-second or a 15-second, you know, soundbite camera shot.
27:23It gets streamed all around the world.
27:25And all of a sudden, you're halfway to a religious war between Jews and Muslims on a false narrative.
27:31That's what makes the news.
27:32And we're here to show what it's like to be, you know, the 80-90% people in the middle,
27:37who just want to appreciate the glory of the majesty of Jerusalem, of the road that takes you up and
27:44down
27:44from Jerusalem, of the holy sites along the way, of the biblical history.
27:47That's what most people want to see and talk about.
28:05To the Jewish people, Jerusalem is not just the religious center, but it's also the capital of the country.
28:13It's the political center of the country.
28:15To
28:16to
28:16to
28:27to
28:28to
28:43to
29:04We were talking about this before.
29:08I don't believe that there's a notion of being in exile in the Christian faith.
29:12In Judaism, when we were in exile for 2,000 years, we were completely incomplete as a
29:18people.
29:18You could not be a complete Jew without the state of Israel.
29:29I don't believe that in Christianity, you're tied geographically, you could be a superb
29:33Christian anywhere in the world.
29:35Anywhere in the world.
29:36You can't be a complete Jew outside of Israel.
29:39For 2,000 years, we were in exile.
29:41When we were in exile, all we did was pray to return to this place.
29:46It's the only religion that is also tied to a nationality, to a peoplehood.
29:50And we are not complete without our land.
29:58I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,
30:06says the Lord.
30:09And I will bring you to the place from which I caused you to be carried away captive.
30:23Here at the Western Wall, you have it all together.
30:25You have the people praying up at the front.
30:29You have the army getting ready at the back.
30:31You have people getting ready to get ready for the army over here.
30:34They're learning the importance of Jewish history.
30:37It's all of the complexities and the ingredients of the Jewish nation all wrapped up into one.
30:44And within simple walking distance of that, the place that Jesus Christ came, where he was crucified, dead, buried, and
30:54then not far from here, we'll go see it, where he rose from the dead.
30:58All within this same space.
31:00And it never gets boring.
31:01Never.
31:02Never.
31:02It's always special to come here.
31:06You know, this brings back memories of an incredible day in May of 2017, when President
31:12Trump gives a very dramatic speech to 50-plus Muslim nations in Riyadh.
31:17Then he flies over Saudi Arabia, and he lands directly in Israel.
31:22In those days, the Saudis didn't want people leaving their airspace going straight to Israel.
31:26They told him he had to land in Jordan.
31:27He said, no way.
31:28I'm not landing in Jordan.
31:29I'm going straight to Israel.
31:30So it was the first flight from Saudi Arabia to Israel.
31:33Then he comes here, and he's the first sitting president in history to visit the Western Wall.
31:39And that was just extraordinary.
31:41We walk with him to the wall, he prays at the wall, he puts a note in the wall.
31:46But there was one thing missing.
31:49He was accompanied to the wall by a rabbi, not by the prime minister of Israel.
31:55Because the State Department, before you got there, had a rule that no American official
32:01could come to the Western Wall with an Israeli official.
32:04Because that might create the implication that somehow the United States recognizes that the
32:09Western Wall, the Western Wall is under the sovereignty of the Israeli government.
32:20Now, fast forward after the president made his dramatic declaration that Jerusalem is the
32:25capital of Israel.
32:26You came here.
32:27I was with you.
32:27You came here.
32:28You went right up to the wall with the prime minister of Israel.
32:36We came into office on the heels of a U.N. resolution that, in its substance, held that
32:44this area over here, with the soldiers and the kids and all the people praying.
32:48This was illegally occupied by the State of Israel.
32:53I don't think Americans understood, and I don't think we were particularly good, you
32:58know, as advocates for the Jewish people at explaining it over the last hundred years,
33:03the pain that Jews feel when they're told that this area doesn't belong to them.
33:08The temple was destroyed 2,000 years ago, and Jews were dispersed.
33:11You know, every prayer book since then has a section where we say, we pray to God that
33:19you will restore us to Jerusalem.
33:21With your mercy, please bring us back to Jerusalem every day.
33:25And when the world says, this isn't yours, many of us try to be stoic and we try to be
33:32tough.
33:33It's deeply painful.
33:35We saw that pain yesterday.
33:36We were with a grieving widow yesterday whose husband was an amazing Israeli warrior, protecting
33:43this place.
33:44Here you have a soldier, right?
33:45Guy was tough as nails, right?
33:46He fought for this country in the most elite, most challenging unit, went into battle, house-to-house
33:52combat with Islamic Jihad, ruthless terrorists, and he lost his life.
33:57And we're sitting there with these poor six kids and the wife and the grandmother.
34:00And what is the one thing they want us to take away from all of this?
34:03Yeah.
34:04You know, then he asked us for money, then he asked us to start a fund.
34:07He said, please, help fight for Jerusalem.
34:10Because the world doesn't understand.
34:11It's what her husband and the children's father was fighting for.
34:14It's what he was working for.
34:15Yeah, exactly.
34:19The Jews permitted a space in the outer area here for Gentiles to come pray as well.
34:25You know, the prophets speak of all the nations in the world coming to Jerusalem.
34:30You know, we all know the passage in Isaiah that, you know, nations will beat their swords into plowshares and
34:38they'll no longer study war.
34:40And that's, that's such a famous statement of peace that it's on the United Nations, right?
34:44It's in the dog commercial plaza in New York.
34:48He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people.
34:53They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
34:59Nations shall not lift up sword against nation.
35:02Neither shall they learn war anymore.
35:07Isaiah 2, verses 3 and 4.
35:16But what people don't read is what creates the condition.
35:19The nation will not lift up sword against nation.
35:22Well, you go a verse earlier and it says all the nations of the world will come to Jerusalem and
35:28God will resolve their problems.
35:29And then nation will not lift up sword against nation.
35:35Many people shall come and say,
35:38Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.
35:41To the house of the God of Jacob.
35:44And he will teach us his ways.
35:48And we shall walk in his paths.
35:51For out of Zion shall go forth the law.
35:55And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
36:00Isaiah 2, verse 3.
36:09You know, one of the things that I'm hoping for is through the Abraham Accords.
36:13More and more of our friends in the Gulf will come to Jerusalem.
36:17To me it's the most optimistic vision I can come up with for a peaceful world.
36:24That the nations of the world will come to Jerusalem, recognize Jerusalem for what it is.
36:29And God will help them make peace with each other.
36:32It is remarkable what was achieved through the Abraham Accords.
36:35For us in the United States sometimes it's very difficult to see.
36:39Like, no, you could not fly from Tel Aviv to Dubai.
36:42You couldn't fly from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv.
36:49To know now that these people from the Jewish tradition, from the Muslim tradition can freely trade, exchange,
36:55come see the religious sites that are of importance to them inside their other countries.
37:00It is a game changer in the world.
37:02Not just as a matter of faith, but for those of us who are involved in statesmanship,
37:06of trying to secure peace from the conflicts of our present time.
37:17A lot of enthusiastic future soldiers here.
37:20On a beautiful day at the temple.
37:21Yeah, it's amazing.
37:26These are all soldiers, and soon to be soldiers, and they're brought here really to understand why they might be
37:33called to fight.
37:34We're seeing today, you know, every day in real time, thank God not here, but in other places in the
37:40world,
37:41we're seeing the difference between soldiers who are fighting for something, fighting for their homeland,
37:46fighting for their beliefs, fighting for their families, and mercenaries, right?
37:50And you're seeing the importance of knowing what you're fighting for.
37:53You ask a kid to go risk his life.
37:55You ask parents to send their kids to war to risk their life.
37:58There better be a good reason.
37:59Well, here's the reason.
38:02Continuing the Jewish people, the Jewish faith, and maintaining a 4,000-year-old history.
38:25King David, he's king over the tribe of Judah, and what happens?
38:29All the other tribes, they basically come after Saul passes, and they say to David,
38:34we want you to be the king over all of us.
38:36And David realizes if he's going to be the king over everyone,
38:38he can't keep his capital in Hebron, which is in Judah, so he comes to Jerusalem.
38:43Now, why Jerusalem?
38:45Jerusalem was neutral territory.
38:46It didn't belong to any of the tribes.
38:48It was right in between Judah and Benjamin.
38:49So David's like, I'm the king of everyone.
38:51I have a neutral capital, right?
38:53Similar to Washington, D.C.
38:55Now, David also understands that it's right next to Judah who's going to keep him in power.
38:59So he's covering all his bases.
39:11David was a great warrior.
39:13He was a great poet.
39:14He was the political leader of the Jewish people.
39:17And he is the one, when we pray for the Messiah, we think of the Messiah coming from David's progeny.
39:24And yet, look, we're also here on a high vantage point, something David may have had, of course, we know.
39:30What David did from a high vantage point, looking down on a roof, and we can see all the roofs
39:33below us.
39:35And that, of course, led to his great sin, right? His adulterous relationship with Bathsheba.
39:42Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house.
39:49And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.
39:56So David sent and inquired about the woman.
40:01And someone said, is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?
40:102 Samuel 11, verses 2 and 3.
40:18But then we think of how he dealt with it.
40:23You know, he was punished by God.
40:24He lost the child.
40:26He had rebellion within his own family.
40:29Two of his sons rebelled against him.
40:34He took ownership of his actions.
40:37He repented.
40:38He taught us the importance of repentance.
40:41And he taught us the mercy of God, God's ability to forgive.
40:48David's lineage comes from an elicit relationship between Judah and Tamar in the book of Genesis.
40:57It comes from a relationship between Boaz and Ruth.
41:01Ruth was a Moabite.
41:04Not an illustrious relationship.
41:06I mean, these are not, you know, kings of England with Roman numerals after their name.
41:11These are imperfect people from imperfect backgrounds.
41:14And God pulls them out and chooses them for greatness.
41:17Some of them disappoint them, and some of them achieve greatness.
41:19And David achieved greatness.
41:23For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
41:29Against you, you only have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight.
41:36That you may be found just when you speak, and blameless when you judge.
41:43Psalm 51, verses 3 and 4.
41:53God pulls people out.
41:56You know, not necessarily obvious choices.
41:59Many times far from obvious choices.
42:02Pulls them out, gives them a task to do, and then holds them accountable to accomplish that task.
42:08You talk about non-obvious choices.
42:10I was running a machine shop in Wichita, Kansas, and became the CIA director and the Secretary of State.
42:16We served our country in leadership roles.
42:18We met with leaders of all stripes.
42:20I met with Chairman Kim.
42:21I met with Vladimir Putin.
42:22I met with the Taliban.
42:24We never knew what was in their heart.
42:26Only the Lord could possibly know what was in these leaders' hearts.
42:34We didn't get it right every day.
42:35We knew we were deeply imperfect as well.
42:41When we pray, when we bring that all, God's grace is with us.
42:46But we do have to own it.
42:48And we have to not more than own it to accept responsibility.
42:50We also have this responsibility to try and do our best to fix it, to the extent possible, to atone,
42:57to make it right, to the maximum extent one can do here on earth.
43:04And when you stand here in the city of David, it reminds you of that responsibility to both your people
43:10as a leader, as David was the king, but also to your savior.
43:18There's too, uh, there's too little of that, uh, right now.
43:21There's too little accountability.
43:22I mean, if we've veered a little bit off course as a nation, it's our, uh, incredible skill in making
43:28excuses for bad behavior.
43:30We, we excuse a lot of things that would not have been excused in the past.
43:34And that's the lesson of, of King David, the lesson of accountability.
43:37Look, King David wanted to build this temple.
43:39You know, that temple behind me, he wanted to build it.
43:41He prayed to God to build the temple.
43:43God wouldn't let him build the temple, uh, because of that theme that's recurring throughout, uh, our trip.
43:47Because God did not want the temple built by a warrior.
43:50He wanted it built by someone who didn't have blood on his hands, who didn't experience the horror of taking
43:56another life.
44:01Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
44:08Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.
44:16Psalm 51, verses 10 and 11.
44:19Psalm 51, verses 10 and 11.
44:24Bathsheba gave birth to a second child.
44:27His name was Solomon.
44:29He built the magnificent first temple.
44:34And Solomon became perhaps the, the most successful accomplished king ever in Israel.
44:41He led Israel through 40 years of peace and prosperity.
44:44He made Jerusalem the center of the world.
44:50Uh, your story of redemption, too, rings true to Christians throughout the world.
44:54Uh, our, our nation, the United States, is a Judeo-Christian nation.
45:00And this city of David ties that all together in a way that is so deeply connected to our two
45:05Abrahamic faiths.
45:09It's our belief in the, uh, inherent value of every human being.
45:17What's so great about America?
45:20You know, they didn't believe that you get to rule just because of who your father was or who your
45:24mother was.
45:27Uh, they believed in, in, in merit, in meritocracy.
45:32They believed that if you work hard and you have the right values and you have the right views and
45:36the right skills, you have the right to try to lead.
45:41That's what David taught us.
45:48In the Jewish faith, we sing a song, uh, David, the king of Israel lives forever.
45:55Okay, we don't say that about anybody else.
45:57We don't say it about Moses, about Samuel, uh, about Aaron, you know, Joshua.
46:01We say it about David.
46:04Because in David, with all his imperfections, uh, we see, uh, the future leadership.
46:10We see, uh, the Messiah coming from David.
46:12Because that combination of strength, courage, uh, and humility and accountability is, is what we see as the necessary ingredients
46:21for leadership.
46:28You know, God gave us the ability to reason.
46:30And that ability to reason can accomplish great things.
46:33It can achieve, you know, medical advances and, you know, scientific advances make the world a much better place.
46:39And you can also, you know, use your power of reason for very bad things.
46:42You can rationalize all kinds of malevolent behavior.
46:45And so when God gave us the ability to reason, he also gave us, you know, his word, you know,
46:50through the Bible.
46:51Certain things that you can't rationalize, certain things that you can't argue away.
46:55The further we, we go from those values, the more untethered we become from those values and from the text
47:02and from the word of God, the weaker we become as a nation.
47:12We have our Declaration of Independence.
47:14It was a revolutionary document.
47:16Our founding fathers determined for the first time that human rights come from God.
47:20But they don't come from the sovereign, they come from God.
47:22Every human being is endowed with certain unalienable rights by their creator, right?
47:28And that changed the world.
47:29I'm convinced that's the bedrock of what made America a great country.
47:33Well, how did our forefathers know, you know, what human rights were unalienable?
47:38How did they know about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?
47:40Could have been other rights.
47:41What were those rights?
47:42Well, those rights all find their source in the Old Testament.
47:45And where did the word of God in the Old Testament, where was that given to mankind?
47:51Right here.
47:53Out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
47:56So what I've said, the city of David is an American heritage site.
48:01You know, emphasis on the word American.
48:03America has many places that recall the start of our nation.
48:07Valley Forge, Plymouth Rock, Gettysburg.
48:11I mean, we know where we came from.
48:13It wasn't that long ago.
48:14But the spiritual bedrock of America comes from Jerusalem.
48:19It's right here.
48:19And that's what this fact was.
48:21In the city of David.
48:21In the city of David.
48:22This is where the prophets preached and the kings ruled, right in this area.
48:27They prayed where we just were at the temple and at the Western Wall in later years.
48:33But they ruled here in the city of David.
48:53Judas first betrays Jesus.
48:56Peter then denies Jesus.
48:59The hill behind this wall is the Golgotha.
49:02The hill of the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth.
49:05And the stone where the body was prepared for burial is right here.
49:11Jeremiah refers to Rachel always crying for her children.
49:16People come here when they're in need, when they're suffering, and prey on Rachel's grave.
49:20And especially women who have trouble conceiving a child.
49:25There's so many peopleั eigentlich in the city of weaver met.
49:27And they did notoisified nothing as usual.
49:28And are so much for them.
49:29You hear them finallyๆ็ฝ your family.
49:29Do not know your portrayals.
49:29That we both saw the้ nies to humility.
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