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COVER FEATURE
I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked
Written by Marvin J. Rosenthal

Our world appears to be infinite. The more scientists measure the universe, the more they realize it is immeasurable. The more they seek to describe it within boundaries, the more they realize it is boundless. The more they try to comprehend it, the more they realize it is incomprehensible. In years past, a rocket was launched into space. Part of its payload was a telescope. From outside of earth’s atmosphere, it allowed scientists to peer deeper into the universe than men have ever looked before. And the more they saw, the less they knew. Paradoxical perhaps, but the new knowledge raised more questions than it answered. Knowledge has a way of doing that.
But, if “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7), men won’t fi nd it on a distant star, the Milky Way, an unknown galaxy or another planet.
The truly important locale among the myriad bodies that move unerringly through time and space is the planet Earth. It is here on Earth that God created the animal world – it is here on Earth that God fashioned man from the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life, and man became a living soul – it is here on Earth that God gave man dominion and authority to rule as king – it is here on Earth that God chose to place His great name, display His nature, and manifest His glory. The angels of Heaven fix their gaze on this terrestrial ball because it is here on Earth, among fallen men, that God chose to work out His plan of redemption.
If Earth is the important planet in our universe – and it is – then Israel is the important place on this planet. It was to this planet and this place only that the Son of God chose to come. We may have chosen another land, another people, another way – God didn’t. And if you want to walk where He walked, you must walk the land of Israel.
I walked today where Jesus walked in Bethlehem. Bethlehem was the village where King David was born. And since Jesus was of the royal lineage of David, He would also be born there. God would use Caesar Augustus, Emperor of Rome, to see to it. Augustus passed a decree requiring everyone in the Roman world to return to the city of their ancestry for a census. Since Mary and Joseph were both of the lineage of David, they were required to make the difficult, hilly, 70-mile trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem. And there she would give birth, and God would visit this planet. . .