If there's one thing we're learning in the Holy Land, its that 'everything in the Bible happened in the PLACE that it did...for a reason.' New vistas of understanding and connection are opening up for me and my fellow sojourners as we connect PLACE to the events and people of God's self-revelation through the Bible. Here's what our experiential classroom looks like (in a hill fort ruin in the Negev called Arad):
Day 3: Camels in Petra, Snorkeling in the Red Sea
We visited the ancient desert city of Petra (in modern Jordan). This lay along the route that Moses took the Israelites when they moved north from the desert to FINALLY enter the promised land through Jericho. In Bible times, it was called Edom. Petra is one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world, a city carved into stone, hidden in remarkable inaccessible canyons. Here's the end of the mile long narrow entry canyon (the Siq) with a glimpse of the city:
The Nabateans made and inhabited this place 3rd century BC -300 AD (ish). After passing between various rulers, the city was lost to outside history for 500 years, hidden by bedouins from outside eyes, until the 1800's, and was recently popularized by the 3rd Indiana Jones movie. Me, Angie and Karen Murdock toured this former city of 30,000 with a little help (the building is The Treasury, the most beautiful but not the largest in this canyon town):
When I see such marvelous cultural creations of mankind, I think of Psalm 8:5 "You have made humankind a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor."
We left Petra and crossed back into Israel (a harrowing ordeal - those dudes have reason to be serious about security - more than one of our group were strip-searched - this trip is not for weenies), and finished the day snorkeling a coral reef in the Red Sea:
Day 4: Tabernacle in Sinai and Sin in the Desert of Zin:
We are STILL in the desert, rehearsing the formation of the Israelite people and their identity as God's people in the desert for 40 years, before going into the Promised Land. Hiking in and out of some of our sites we've gotten hot, sweaty, a few overcome by heat for a little while, heat related exhaustion at night, etc. We've had to constantly hydrate, and were specifically taught to check the color of our pee to see if we are ok or in a danger zone :)
We are learning that 'desert' and 'wilderness' and 'shade' and 'water' and 'thirst' and 'springs' and 'this way leads to death this way leads to life' and 'follow me and live' are not metaphorical images to make poetic points in the Bible. They are concrete realities in which Israel was placed in order to experientially learn who God is and what it means to depend upon God for life.
We began the day at Timnah Park in the northern Sinai wilderness, sitting on a ridge we'd hiked up, watching morning blossom over the desert, while diving into serious Bible lessons for the first time (we ramped slowly into this, now we are taking notes multiple times daily). One subject - typology in the Bible - certain events, names, places are repeated, come back again and again like waves on the shore throughout the Bible, in order for God to communicate certain themes to us with increasing subtlety and breadth, to prepare us to receive the fullness of truth, Jesus the Messiah.
We then toured a major early source of biblical typology, the Tabernacle. In Sinai, Israel was a pilgrim people with their God now living among them, in a tent like theirs, except on a larger scale (God's tent has a table with bread, etc.). God's presence with them moves from being episodic (Abraham up until the Exodus) to consistent. A life-sized, one-to-one model has been constructed from the detailed architectural plans given by Moses in Exodus chapters 25-30. The guide walked us through the intricate symbolical details of each part - wow. I hope I get to teach this sometime upon our return! Here's the Tabernacle set in the Sinai desert, in a place precisely, or near, where Moses brought the children of Israel during their 40 years of wandering:
We then hiked through the only consistent water source in the just-north-from-Sinai desert of Zin. This is the exact area where Moses disobeyed God, trusted in his own way, and was therefore forbidden by God to enter the Promised Land. Self-sufficiency (I know how to do this my way, God's way doesn't make as much sense) and pride (if I do it my way the people will look to me more firmly as God's mediator, rather than just to God) were two of his motivations that I can identify with, perhaps you can too if you read the account in Numbers 20.
But a geological detail makes all the difference in the world for understanding this passage, otherwise God seems to overreact. Here's the interpretive key if you read it (which we learned in our canyon classroom): every shepherd in that area knew how to draw water from a rock by striking it with their rod (its a long story and has to do with seepage and different layers of rock), to do so was no miracle and did not involve trusting God. I'll give the details in our evening lecture later this fall. Here's LFC elder TJ Haycox climbing the path and ladders out of the wadi (gorge) that holds the springs of Zin where Moses zinned big-time:
We then visited the ruins of Arad in the Negev, which is a third geologically different band of wilderness on the way out of the desert toward Jerusalem. We then drove FINALLY into Jerusalem that evening, and walked our luggage into the old town to stay four nights in Knights Palace, originally a Crusader Castle, then an Orthodox Christian Monastery, recently converted into a hotel with serious character (standing knight suits of armor in the halls, a continuously used chapel downstairs, vaulted stone ceilings, wow).
Day 5: We began by meeting the High Priest of the Samaritans and ended at the Wailing Wall
Our morning drive took us past Shiloh, where David placed the tabernacle after becoming king over all Israel. As we drove we learned about the 12 tribes of Israel and their geographically-derived boundaries, how and why the 12 spies from Joshua misread the data and misled Israel to NOT take the promised land when they first arrived from Egypt, and much more.
Our second stop was Samaria, where we met and learned from today's High Priest of the Samaritans at a museum. There are only 770 of them left in the world (the more familiar you are with the Bible, the more you may know about their origin). We then gathered on the top of Mt Gerizim, where the Samaritans worshipped (John 4) and learned about Joshua bringing Israel here (way before the Samaritans) when they first began to conquer the Promised Land to make their full covenant with God. At the same time we could look down the mount and see the excavation of Shechem, where God made his covenant with Abraham - to bless him and his family, that he be a blessing to the nations. By the time of the Moses/Joshua covenant, we learn (in Deuteronomy) the content of Israel's 'blessing to the nations' is that they attractively model for the gentiles who God is, the one true good God, so they can know God too. So this mountain is the place of covenant.
We also looked down from there and saw Jacob's Well, which he dug two generations after Abraham, and which has remained a definitively attested specific well ever since (the only ancient one in the area). And guess what happened THERE in the New Testament (places, events and people come back around in the Bible like waves)? Jesus met the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well, recounted in John 4. And declared HE is the Messiah, the one who will fulfill the Mosaic and Abrahamic covenants on behalf of God and man, giving man the blessings and taking on, as God, the cursings due us for covenant/relationship unfaithfulness toward God. I wish I could tell you the entire content - it blew our hot, dehydrated, pita-filled minds.
Then we went down to Jacob's Well. Its in a 1,000 year old Crusader chapel, now surrounded by a larger newer Greek Orthodox (beautiful) cathedral. We all reverently touched the ledge around the well and took turns cranking the bucket 180 feet down, and drawing water back up. We were each deeply moved to be in this precise place where our Savior sat. And drank water. And told a woman supposedly outside the covenant, outside of relationship with God, where to find that living water. And as a result (read John 4) a bunch of Samaritans became followers of Jesus. But not yet today's Samaritan High Priest - he told us he is still waiting for the Messiah (the pictures are a sign outside the cathedral, bucket with the water Jesus drank, my hand worshipfully resting on the well):
(ran out of time for other well pics and for TJ Haycox in desert of Zin - next time!)
We then visited another amazing site that I won't take the space to describe, but wow. Then for our first true sight in Jerusalem - back to the old city. We arrived at the Wailing Wall as the sun went down on Friday - this is the beginning of the Jewish sabbath (measured sundown to sundown). This wall is the only physical remainder of the last Jewish temple, visted often by Jesus, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. Today, it is a site for prayer - women on one side, men on the other. Most notable are the Orthodox Jewish men in their traditional black garb and hats, repeatedly reading from their Bible as a prayer in front of the wall. Second most notable is that Jews, Christians and other tourists from around the world come, pray, and write their prayers on slips of paper which they stuff into cracks in the wall.
We spend 45 minutes watching Sabbath arrive, each experiencing it as we wished. I first watched a group of Jews do a joyful/mournful dance while clapping and singing and holding hands in a circle.
Then I sat and prayerfully watched the men praying at the wall. I wrote a prayer of thanksgiving to God, and of petition on behalf of my sons, my wife, and our church. And I prayed with my head against the wall.
Tears came gently for most of that time. In gratitude for the fact that before the Incarnation of God becoming man, that God chose to in a sense incarnate himself among us in Israel through the events, people and places of the Old Testament. I wept for joy over the revelations of the goodness of God in this very place, Jerusalem, over those centuries. As NT Wright has observed, I felt the memory of the stones and the city, and rejoiced with it. I also wept a bit for longing - that all would know this good God who offers redemption for all through Jesus, including all in my sight at that moment. And I shed a tear of determination - to be a willing, humble, obedient servant to fulfill my role in the fulfillment of the purpose of my own election/being chosen by God/graced with faith by God - to see God's blessing extend to all people and all nations, by telling and doing the good news of Jesus Christ, the gospel.
