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For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples (Isaiah 56:7b, ESV).
Jesus said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers” (Matthew 21:13).
Solomon’s original temple, built on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. (allowed by God for the Jews forsaking the Law).
A second temple began to be built by Herod in 20 B.C. This temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. (allowed by God for the Jews rejecting Jesus). A part of a large retaining wall on the western side of this temple still exists today and is known as. . .
The Wailing Wall!
The name originates from the traditional Jewish practice of lamenting the destruction of the Temple and the dispersion of Jews around the world. Some say the history of prayer at the Wailing Wall began soon after the destruction in 70 A.D., and there’s a documented history of its use for prayer dating from the 10th century.
Yes, many years of people praying at the Wailing Wall.
Today, the Wailing Wall (488 meters long) is divided into both men’s and women’s sections for prayer. If you visit the Wall, you’ll notice small pieces of paper folded and stuck between the cracks of the large stones making up the wall.
These bits of paper contain prayers from people on pilgrimages from around the world. The Wall never closes; it’s open every day 24/7/365. As the Prophet Isaiah predicted and Jesus taught, God’s temple will be called a House of Prayer. To this day, people are praying at the Temple.
Often, there are hundreds of people praying …
In March 2020, I led a tour from our area in Ohio to Israel. While there, the COVID-19 worldwide shutdown began. Instead of crowds upon crowds, with cancelled tours and people leaving the country quickly, there were fewer and fewer people in Israel.
The team would visit sacred sites and find very few tourists.
Close to the end of the tour, we visited the Wailing Wall. Not only were the crowds light due to COVID-19, but it was also raining. That didn’t deter me from standing at the Wailing Wall praying. My eyes were closed, and when I opened them, no one else was at the Wall — just me. . . and God!
HHHHMMMHHM, people praying at the Wall year after year for hundreds of years — and now just me.
I thought, “I’ve got this God. I’m here until someone else comes.” Afterwards, I thought, “Who will believe me if I tell them that I had the honor of being the only one praying at the Wailing Wall?”
With no evidence, they would say, “Yeah, right.”
When I got back to the bus, my wife said, “I lifted my camera over a barrier in front of the Wailing Wall, and I took this photograph without being able to look through the viewfinder. And look! It’s just one person praying at the wall. I wonder if that has ever happened before?”
Then she paused and said, “Hey, it’s you!”
I can’t think of a better conclusion to this Interruption than to share the photo of Pastor Grant alone praying at the Wailing Wall.