A Tale of Two Kings

Today was our first day on the road since we left the Sea of the Galilee. Our excursion took us to the tomb of the Prophet Samuel, Abu Gosh – the city the Crusaders considered to be Emmaus, and to Bet Guvrin-Maresha. While visiting Bet Guvrin-Maresha I must say that I was thoroughly unimpressed. The city was apparently mentioned in the Bible somewhere but no one could tell me where exactly, the best answer was “I think it is somehow associated with Joshua.” The apparent reason for our visit was to see a Columbarium Cave. The massive underground cave had been carved with thousands of niches. The tour guide said that the niches were originally thought to be the places to store the cremated remains of the inhabitants of the city. He went on, however, to say that modern researchers now no longer think that the cave was for burial. In fact they now think that the cave with two-thousand carved niches was built as a pigeon coop.

It was only in passing that the comment was made that this city, the one we traveled to so as to see a massive pigeon cage, is thought to be the birth place of King Herod the Great. The great King who rebuilt the Temple and many of the massive fortresses we have visited, the King who killed his own sons to avoid civil war, the King who was on the throne when Jesus was born and whom we are told in the Bible had many children in the Bethlehem area killed, was born in this city. Yet, this fact is secondary. It apparently pales in comparison to a pigeon coup.

But this speaks volumes when we think that twenty-one days ago we were celebrating Chirstmas in the city of Jesus birth. Tradition has not only helped us remember the city Jesus was born in but we can point to the exact spot that has long been held as THE birth spot. We as pilgrims still come by the bus load just to spend a few precious moments in prayer and to reverence the place where our Lord was born and where he was laid in a manger. Today it seems that Herod, with his massive building projects and powerful armies, is perhaps best remembered for the fact that he was on the throne when our True King was born. His great dreams seem to have ended in nothing. So why should it be a surprise when a pigeon coup gets top billing over the fact that the city may have been the birth place to the once Great King Herod?