| Author | Message | ||
| Jrt Registered user Username: Jrt Post Number: 20 Registered: 10-2008 |
Praying for continued safety, recovery from jet lag (refreshing sleep), and your guides that are hearing the gospel once again. Also, praying for continued stamina for both you and Richard and for Richard's back. Thank you again for staying up to share your journey with us - it is a treasured gift. JRT | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 5962 Registered: 3-2004  |
Colleen, In my mind I am with you as you travel. You picture everything so nicely it is not hard to see the picture in my mind. Thank you so much. I almost cried when you wrote of Michael singing Amazing Grace in the theatre with perfect acoustics. I hope some one recorded it. Again I thank you. I continue to pray for you and Richard and his back. Diana L | ||
| Martinc Registered user Username: Martinc Post Number: 65 Registered: 9-2006 |
Colleen and Richard, Sharon and I just read through all of your posts, and enjoyed every morsel as we ate our dinner. We're very thankful that you both got to go and that Richard is doing well. Ron and Anne send their love, and are also enjoying reading all the posts, as do we. Matthew says he wishes "to see you soon, and that you had a good time, and also got some rest." Martin and Sharon | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 8962 Registered: 12-2003  |
Good morning—or good evening, friends! It’s 5:11 AM on November 4, (election day for us Americans), here. I’m sorry I didn’t get this written last night, We went on a candlelight walk into the ancient carved city of Petra last night, and we got back a bit after 10:30. With my still-unsettled sleep patterns, I couldn’t stay awake—literally—to put two sentences together. So here I am! Yesterday as we drove out of Amman we followed the route the children of Israel followed during their wilderness wanderings. As we drove toward the high point of our day, a visit to Mt. Nebo where Moses died, our guide gave us some interesting facts. Amman, which gets its name from “Ammon” (remember the Amonites?) was, in Greek times, called “Philadelphia”. It was not the Philadelphia in Turkey which was one of the seven churches in Revelation 1-2, but it was a Philadelphia. Now here’s the really interesting bit if information; this city was also called the “city of seven mountains” because of the geography of the area. Remember in Revelation 12 the beast that comes out of the sea has seven heads, and the seven heads are seven hills on which the harlot sits? Some people (including Adventists) have long speculated that the city on seven hills is Rome, because it is literally built on seven hills. But I don’t think we can be certain of that identity—and to be sure, scholars are not agreed about it. I find it fascinating that this large capital city in Jordan also has been called the city of seven mountains. I suspect we won’t know for sure what that description in Revelation 12 means until the events actually unfold. Fifty percent of the population of Jordan is Palestinian; the rest is comprised of Cassion, Sessions, Armenians, and Jews—but mostly Bedouins. Bedouins today, he told us, are no longer nomads. They are often tent-dwellers, but they have become permanent residents of their areas, and many are going to school adopting professions. The nomads in Jordan today, he said, are mostly Gypsies who come in from neighboring countries to make money during olive harvest. He stressed, however, that all the permanent residents are first and foremost Jordanian! Also, about 7% of the Jordanian population is Christian, and that percentage is comprised of Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran, and other denominations. He also explained that they consider themselves, as Muslims, to be the continuation of the same religion of the prophets descended from Abraham. They believe Moses and Jesus were important prophets, and they must “believe” in them (as prophets) to be Muslim. Their prayers always end with a request for God to bless the people of Mohammed as He blesses the people of Abraham. Thus, he stressed, they do not consider themselves anti-Semites because they also are Semites and the cousins of the Jews. Our guide also told us that Muslims pray five times a day: sunrise, noon, afternoon, sunset, and nighttime. Moreover, they use the lunar calendar for their church calendar. Thus their prayer times and festivals vary. For example, the lunar calendar determines that for the next ten years, Ramadan will be more difficult for them because it will fall in the summer instead of winter. Thus, their month of daytime fasting will be many hours longer because sunset will be nearer 8:00 PM than the winter-rime 4:30. St George’s and Mt. Nebo Our first stop was at St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church in Madaba where an ancient Byzantine mosaic is preserved. This mosaic, which had been part of an ancient church floor, dates from sometime between the fourth century and the seventh century. It was discovered during the preparation for building a later church, and part of it was destroyed. But the remaining section (which is the largest section) is an amazing, detailed map of the holy land depicted pictorially. Our guide explained that this mosaic was a pilgrim’s map, showing the Christian travelers where the significant Biblical events happened in the holy land. We finally reached the focal point of our journey yesterday: Mt. Nebo. You remember the story: the Israelites clamored for water, and in his anger, Moses struck the rock twice and said, “Shall bwe bring water for you…?” Gary pointed out that Moses failed, at that point, to honor God’s sovereign power by including himself as part of the solution for bringing the water. Further, he didn’t act in trust by simply asking God to bring the water. He struck the rock—twice—inserting himself into the equation instead of do what God told him to do the way God told him to do it. Because of this disregard for God who is sovereign, God told him that because he had not uphold God as holy, he would see but not enter the Promised Land. Nevertheless, for 39 years Moses had served God by leading the children of Israel, and God’s discipline of Moses was not a rejection of him. When Moses reached the age of 120 years, he reiterated the covenant with them. You can read his final words to Israel in Deuteronomy 32 and 33. He recited the history of God’s leading the nation out of bondage and he reminded them that by the word of God they would live long in the land they would possess. That very day God told Moses, “Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession. There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land IU an giving to the people of Israel (Deut. 32:49-52). Israel mourned Moses for 30 days, and at the end of the mourning period, Joshua took up the leadership of Israel and led them into the land of Canaan. Moses doubtless told the Israelites that he would be going up the mountain to die, and they likely watched him disappear from their sight as he climbed the mountain to view the land and then to die. As we stood on top of Mt. Nebo, is was moving and surprising. We really could see the entire land of Canaan, from the Dead Sea on the south, up the Jordan River valley with the distinct strip of green that marks its path, to the verdant area of Dan on the north. We could see the back side of the Mt. of Olives which hid Jerusalem from our view. We could see Jericho across the Jordan—the city God would deliver into their hands under Joshua’s leadership. We could see the hills of Gilead, and right below us, between Nebo and the Jordan, were the plains of Moab where Israel had camped. Gary commented that as Americans, we love the idea of intimacy with God, but we don’t do well with the ideas of reverence and awe of Him. Petra We stayed the night at Petra, the ancient city carved into the sides of towering limestone cliffs and mountains. Today we will officially tour Petra, and I’ll write more tonight. I can just say that last night, walking into the hidden city through a long (a mile or so?) corridor of soaring limestone cliffs engineered with water conduits and ancient cobblestones tby the light of 1500 luminarias placed along the road was a breath-taking experience. We stopped in front of the Petra treasury, the columns and lintels and doorways carved right into the rock, and the rooms are hidden inside the mountains. I am struck by the juxtaposition of the legacy of God’s revelation of Himself in this land with the persistent presence of man-made religion and human glory. This has been the story of humanity. My prayer is that I will be humble and submitted to the Lord God and that He will glorify Himself through His body even as the politics and economic circumstances of the world careen around us. We serve the only sovereign God—the God who is triune and eternal and sovereign over all our pretensions. We can stand firmly, confident that the God who showed Moses the entire land of Canaan before taking him is also in the affairs of mankind today. He is already in the election outcome; He is already accomplishing His own purposes, and He has graciously given each of us a role in His story! With love and prayers for you all, Colleen and Richard | ||
| Jorgfe Registered user Username: Jorgfe Post Number: 1298 Registered: 11-2005 |
Colleen, what a fascinating story. I hope that you put this gripping narative into an upcoming issue of Proclamation. Your unique vantage point as a former Adventist makes it especially relevant. Thank you for sharing it with us! Gilbert | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 8963 Registered: 12-2003 |
What a day! I’m sitting in the Movenpick hotel in Petra attempting to recount our day, simultaneously keeping an eye on the election coverage on TV while waiting for dinner. We spent the day seeing Petra. Petra has recently been named one of the seven wonders of the world. It was unknown to the Western world for centuries, but it is an ancient civilization originally built by the Nabateans in the fourth century BC. It was added to and built upon subsequently by the Greeks and also by the Romans. Petra is nearly inaccessible, hidden away in the hills with a narrow entry of about a mile that is flanked by unbelievably tall cliffs. The entry passageway into Petra is paved in many places by the Roman paving stones that have been there for more than a thousand. These Roman pavers, our guide told us, were laid over a lower layer of the original Nabatean paving. Much of the road is paved with a more modern concrete—laid, it turns out, for the filming of Raiders of the Lost Ark. This hidden city is remarkable for its amazing structures carved literally into the sides of the hills with rooms chiseled out of the limestone. There are hundreds of cliff carvings, some merely holes leading into caves, others structural wonders complete with classical pilasters (pillars that are not free-standing but are carved in high relief out of the side of the rock), friezes, lintels, and carvings of classical mythological figures and designs from four different civilizations: Nabatean, Greek, Roman, and Egyptian—all done by the Nabateans and all dating within 350 years of each other, from the late 4th century BC to the early 3rd century BC. The surprise for me was that the surviving structures are all tombs! The places where the Nabateans lived was destroyed in a great earthquake (many serious earthquakes have struck Petra over the centuries). In addition to the breath-taking hillside structures (which, incidentally, people are free to explore and walk into—with the exception of the largest and most elaborate of them called The Treasury because of the faulty assumption on the part of the 19th century occupying British to be the hiding place of great treasure) there is the marketplace of ancient Petra. The marketplace has a central street paved with original Roman pavers and several buildings which are constructed, not carved out of the mountain. In every case, however, these buildings are in the process of being excavated and restored. A huge temple to Zeus was discovered by an archaeologist from Brown University in 1992, and its columns are being re-assembled, its stairways uncovered, and surprisingly, there is a small theater at the west end of the temple. There are other buildings also being excavated and restored. One is a temple to yet another deity, and another is a 6th century Byzantine Christian church. This church was also discovered in the 1990’s, and a remarkable set of mosaics still is mostly intact down the outside aisles of the church. An ancient, extremely well-preserved baptismal font is being excavated in this church as well. There is an outdoor theater in Petra that sat 5,000 people. Basing figures on the size of the amphitheater, experts estimate that Petra used to house 25,000 to 30,000 citizens. Petra, Gary told us, has little biblical significance. What little reference we may have to this city is in the book of Obadiah. First, Obadiah spoke against the people of Edom—and Petra is in the ancient land of Edom. Obadiah prophecies God’s destruction of Edom. In Obadiah :2-3 (there is only one chapter in Obadiah) it says, “See, I will make you small among the nations; you will be utterly despised. The pride of you heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, “Who can bring me down to the ground?” Gary said that obviously we can’t know for sure, but since Petra is in the ancient land of Edom and they clearly lived in the rocks, Obadiah’s prophesy may have been against the inhabitants of Petra. Some people hypothesize that Petra is the place where Jews will flee to find protection during the tribulation in fulfillment of Revelation 12:16 where it says the earth helps the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon spews out to drown the woman. Gary said that the Bible makes no indication that Petra is the place the Jews will run to for refuge; that notion, he said, is merely the product of the imagination of some prophecy teachers! It was a tiring and astonishing day seeing the massive and intricate construction done millennia ago, but I find myself in awe of the eternal, sovereign power of God who knew in advance that a sophisticated civilization would live in those massive and beautiful limestone mountains. He also knew in advance that they would disappear—and all of this is for His glory. There’s no second-guessing God. He hears each of us and calls and cares for each of us—and “He determined the times set for [every nation of men] and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:26-27). And on that note, I’m going to sign off and go eat dinner. Richard and I are joining you all in praying about the election—but nothing surprises God. I find great comfort in that knowledge. Love and prayers, Colleen (and Richard) | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 5974 Registered: 3-2004 |
Ohhhh, your words described Petra so well. I have wanted to visit Israel and Petra for as long as I can remember. I thank our awesome God for you and Richard and your daily reports. Thanks so much. I continue to pray for you and Richard. Diana L | ||
| Dennis Registered user Username: Dennis Post Number: 1520 Registered: 4-2000  |
Colleen, Thank you for your apt description of Petra. Interestingly, when Sylvia slept in a cave in Petra in the late 1950s, there were no hotels nor any tourist facilities nearby. This commercialization of Petra is a new occurrence. Oh yes, Sylvia entered the narrow approach to Petra on horseback. Dennis Fischer | ||
| 8thday Registered user Username: 8thday Post Number: 547 Registered: 11-2007  |
I never heard of Petra till we were in the HRM and we heard all those interesting theories. =) But when I started looking into it and seeing the pictures, it is an amazing place!! I'm so glad you got to see it in person. Enjoying these descriptions and the impact on your own thoughts your experience is having. Thanks SO much for taking the time to share them with us - when you could be doing something much more exciting than typing!! ha. Sondra | ||
| Mommamayi Registered user Username: Mommamayi Post Number: 660 Registered: 12-2007  |
Wow. I loved the part about seeing the ruins in the pink light, hiking down the mountain listening to the prayer chants, and the candle lit walk through Petra. What an amazing experience you two are having! | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 8964 Registered: 12-2003 |
Greetings from the Daniel hotel on the Dead Sea! Today we spent a great deal of time crossing the border from Jordan back into Israel. My experience with border crossing between the USA and Canada or Mexico have not hinted at the complications of border crossings in other parts of the world. It was interesting getting out of our bus at the border and being met by a boy who looked younger than our two sons holding a BIG gun. We survived, however! As we drove toward the border Elizabeth told us some details about the significance of the area we visited. As I mentioned before, the area around Petra was the area of the Edomites who had descended from Esau. (Interestingly, the ground is very red there—reminiscent of Esau’s hair!) Herod Anitpas, one of the sons of Herod the Great, was in charge of the area of Edom. He is the one who took his brother Herod Philippi’s wife Herodius for his own wife, and he’s the one who, later, beheaded John the Baptist when Heridius’ daughter danced for him and asked for John’s head. Concurrent with Herod Antipas, King Aretus reigned over the Nabateans. The Nabateans were an early conglomeration of Arabs in the region. Aretus had a daughter whom Herod Antipas decided he wanted for a wife, but Herod Antipas refused to divorce Herodius to marry her. Antipas took the daughter and married her anyway, but her dad Aretus was mad. He declared war on Antipas, and in the process of that war, Herod Antipas was killed. Jewish historian Josephus writes that Herod Antipas’ death in this war was God’s judgment on him for beheading John the Baptist. Also, there is some thought that during the ten years’ after Paul’s Damascus Road experience, this wilderness area in Jordan is part of the desert area to which Paul went, bearing witness of his encounter with the Lord Jesus, before going to Jerusalem and being received by the apostles there and beginning his mission to the Gentiles “officially”. This afternoon we drove to Qumran, the place where the Dead Sea scrolls were found. It was in 1947 when a Bedouin boy idly tossed a stone into a cave, expecting to hear a faint “plop” as the stone hit water deep inside. Instead, the boy heard the sound of something breaking. Immediately he thought he had hit treasure, and imagine his deep disappointment when he found that he had “merely” discovered some clay pots containing some old scrolls. But the rest is history… At Qumran we visited the ruins of the ancient enclave where the Essenes used to live. The Essenes were a group of Israelites from the priestly line who rejected the temple. They were concerned about living in ritual purity and in preserving the biblical documents in the case of destruction or war in Jerusalem. They believed a day was coming when the temple would be attacked and/or destroyed, and they took very seriously their job of copying the ancient documents as well as in writing the dictates of their own sect. They also moved out of Jerusalem and established their own ascetic community that resembled a monastic life. There is mystery surrounding the hiding of the Dead Sea scrolls; who did it, how did he/they do it etc, are questions not completely able to be answered. We do know, however, that the scrolls inside those clay pots that Bedouin found were not only copies of the Bible. Some of the scrolls were copies of the Essenes’ internal “rule book” describing their own community’s requirements and practices. But among those documents is an ancient copy of the nearly entire book of Isaiah as well as fragments of other OT books and commentaries on still others. Before we toured the ruins of Qumran where the community —probably the Essenes—lived and where the caves containing the pots were found, Gary talked to us about the two main contributions of the Dead Sea scrolls. 1. They have given us insight into Jewish life that has confirmed details of the gospels. 2. They have given us insight into the authenticity of the biblical literature. For example, some thought that the book of John had been influenced by Greek thought. The books of the Essenes found among the scrolls have revealed that John was actually speaking to a Jewish world. Idioms and references some scholars thought were Greek rather than Jewish have proven to be Jewish indeed. Hence, the extra-biblical insight from the Essene’s own internal literature has confirmed the validity and authenticity of the NT writers. Second, prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls, the oldest manuscript copy of the Hebrew Old Testament was dated about 1,000 AD. The tradition of the scribes and later the monks who hand-copied the Scriptures was meticulous; they would destroy whole pages if they discovered they made any mistake in their copying. Nevertheless, we know that the occasional scribal error would creep into the text. The fact that the oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew portions were as recent as 1,000 AD caused many scholars to suggest that the Bible was not reliable. It had been copied too many times, and we couldn’t be sure it was accurate. Finding the Dead Sea scrolls suddenly gave the world a set of manuscripts including the book of Isaiah dating a full 1,000 years earlier than had ever been available before. When scholars began verse by verse comparisons of the old and the new, they found that almost no changes of any significance had occurred. The text remained intact. To be sure, there were small scribal differences, but they were largely inconsequential. Gary told us of one in Isaiah 53, however, where it said about the coming Messiah that “He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied.” In the Dead Sea scrolls, however, that passage actually reads, “He shall see the travail of his soul and shall see the light of day and be satisfied.” Gary commented that many Christina scholars look at that and wonder if in that phrase “see the light of day” there might actually have been a prophetic reference to the resurrection. As we wandered among the remaining ruins of the Essene community and saw one of the caves (number 4, to be exact) where some of the scrolls were found, I thought about the significance of Jesus being led into the Judean desert to be tempted. This area around the Dead Sea is part of the Judean desert, and it is the most bleak, desolate of deserts. It is completely dry; nothing grows on the hills. The annual rainfall here is 2 inches per year. Those 40 days would have been deadly. It’s clear that God kept Jesus alive—for the purpose of going through His temptation. Last night, by the time we got to our hotel, it was dark, but most of us on the bus decided that we hadn’t come this far to swim in a hotel pool full of piped-in Dead Sea water. We wanted the REAL sea. Our guide arranged for the hotel dining room to remain open longer than usual to accommodate us crazy Americans (my term, not hers!), and many of us traipsed the couple of blocks to the shore of the sea and floated in the slippery water under a clear crescent moon. It was an unforgettable experience! The Dead Sea is approximately 30% salt; a regular ocean is between 3 and 4%. It is saltier even than the Great Salt Lake in Utah. One cannot stay in long because the high concentration of minerals begins to irritate the skin, but the buoyancy is amazing. One cannot swim in the sea because one must not get the water into the eyes or even one drop in the mouth. The Dead Sea has become, however, a recognized area for therapeutic treatments, and some insurances even cover a stay at a Dead Sea clinic or spa as a recognized, tested form of therapy for certain conditions. Also, as our guide said, the Dead Sea contains enough potash for the entire word’s fertilizer supply for thousands of years! It is Thursday morning as I finish writing this; today we go to Masada and Bethlehem! Love and prayers, Colleen and Richard | ||
| Randyg Registered user Username: Randyg Post Number: 1100 Registered: 12-2004  |
Thanks again Colleen....amazing and wonderful! | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 5980 Registered: 3-2004 |
God has kept His Word intact down through the years. Thanks Colleen for your time to tell us of your travels. Diana L | ||
| Blessed Registered user Username: Blessed Post Number: 228 Registered: 1-2007 |
Absolutely wonderful Colleen. I so look forward to each one of your posts. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 8965 Registered: 12-2003 |
What a day! I am writing this early on the morning of Friday, November 7, instead of at the end of Thursday because the day was SO full and tiring there was no hope I could stay awake to finish this! Thursday, November 6, began with a short bus ride from our hotel at the Dead Sea to Masada. Masada was an ancient fortress built originally by Herod the Great (yes, his projects have left a defining signature over this area) as his winter palace. Masada is a distinct mountain which was leveled on top in order to build, and Herod’s palace itself was clearly visible on the north east edge of the mountain. He had three terraces leveled like giant stair steps down the north-eastern side of the mountain, and on those terraces he had built out various portions of his palace. The view from these terraces is breathtaking; the Dead Sea extends north and south as far as one can see, and between Masada and the Sea is the totally barren, rolling terrain of the Judean desert. Herod built his palace in exactly that spot because a dry, cool breeze blows nearly continuously across that face of the mountain. Geographically, Masada is interesting. I had heard of it, but I’d never understood exactly where it was or how it “fit” with everything else I had heard about Judea. It is, as I mentioned, a significant feature of the Judean desert and it overlooks the Dead Sea. In order to reach the top, one either must take the aerial tram or climb up the “snake trail” which traverses back and forth across the south-eastern face of the mountain. The elevation gain is about 1,000 or 1,100 feet, and it rises from the level of the Dead Sea, and at the top it is roughly sea level. That detail gives you some idea how low the area of the Dead Sea is, and you can also imagine how much atmospheric pressure there is at the Dead Sea. (It has the the highest concentration of oxygen on the air on the planet at the Dead Sea, and bottles compress and put contents under pressure as one descends to it.) The story behind Masada is tragic. Herod the Great died in 4 BC, so its use as an official palace ended. Because of its location and structure, however, it was an ideal fortress—nearly unassailable. n 66 AD the Jews revolted against the Romans. Ultimately it was a hopeless battle, and in 70 TD Titus sacked the temple, Jerusalem fell, and the Jews were scattered. It was all over—except for Masada. A number of Jews who refused to give up and who had a strong zealot-mindset had taken refuge there with their families. They were not going to surrender, and they resisted the Romans. The Romans, meanwhile, did not consider their conquest finished until they captured the Jews garrisoned at Masada. To make a long story short, in 73 AD the Romans and the Jews as Masada had a final show-down. The Romans had eight camps of soldiers on the plain below Masada, and they built a siege ramp up which they brought a battering ram to tear down the fortress. The Jews built a wooden double wall between which they put sand bags, so when the Romans battered, they couldn’t really destroy the wall. The Romans responded by shooting burning arrows into the wall to burn it, but as they did so, the wind changed and blew all the smoke directly into the Roman army. Ultimately, the Romans inflicted enough damage that they knew that with one more assault they could take Masada. Meanwhile, the Jews held a meeting. They decided that they would rather die than be taken as slaves, and they selected ten men to oversee their group suicide pact. Using a technicality in Jewish law to justify their decision, they agreed that the men would kill their own wives and children. The ten would then, according to an order selected by drawing lots, kill one another, and the final man would fall on his own sword. Interestingly, the pottery shards with men’s names on them have been found at Masada, and archeologists believe these are the lots used to determine the final order of death. When the Romans returned the next day to finish their job, they found only one woman and two children alive—and a pile of armor where the men had thrown their shields before they died. Masada has become a symbol of Jewish pride and bravery. Ein Gedi From Masad we drove to Ein Geadi, which means “spring of the goats”. Ein Geadi is an oasis that rises out of the dry Judean desert, still within view of the Dead Sea, and it is the site of mamy of David’s activities early in his life. The caves in the hills around the stream which flows through the desert from the water which begins high in the mountains and forms at least three lovely waterfalls as it descends were the places where David hid from Saul when Saul was trying to kill him. He wrote Psalm 57 when he fled from Saul and hid in Ein Geadi. Psalm 57 begins, “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.” Another story I’ve always found fascinating happened at Ein Geadi—and now I have a context for it. 2 Chronicles tells the story of when Jehoshephat was king. He heard that a group of Edomites (descendents of Esau from the region of Jordan) and Moabites (also from the plains across the Dead Sea—the area where Israel was camped when Moses went up Mt. Nebo to die) had come to Ein Geadi to stage a surprise attack on Israel. This geographical approach was not a normal way to attack, and Jehoshephat’s defenses were down. He prayed and rallied the troops—and he put the choir in front of the army and sent then to meet the enemy. When the soldiers and the choir reached the camp of the Midianites and Edomites, and they discovered that God had caused confusion to come among them, and they had already begun to turn on and to kill each other. After hiking to the top waterfall at Ein Geadi, dipping hands or feet into the very stream where we know David was 3,000 years ago, marveling at the view of the very blue Dead Sea in the distance, the lush green of the foliage along the stream as it wound down the otherwise bone-dry hills, we again boarded our bus and began our ascent to Jerusalem. Jerusalem and Bethlehem As we began to leave the Judean desert behind, Gary told us that the Israelites had a set of Psalms called the “Songs of Ascent” which they would sing as they went up to Jerusalem each year for the feasts. Their ascent was both geographical and spiritual, and the psalms reflected their deep commitment to God and to their own identity with Him. Here is the second song of ascent: Psalm 121: I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber; Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber not sleep. The Lord watches over you—the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” Jerusalem is truly a city on a hill—several hills, in fact. It is no longer desert but the rocky hills are dotted with olive trees and pine trees. It is beautiful—much more beautiful than I had ever imagine it. Our last stop was at Bethlehem which today seems to be part of Jerusalem—but it is separated from Jerusalem by the wall that separates Palestine from Israel. At the wall we had to leave behind our Jewish guides who were not allowed inside the Palestinian borders. Once inside, we received a Palestinian Christian guide who showed us the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The church was originally built in the fifth century, and it has actually preserved what is probably the actual site of Jesus’ birth—one of the few spots in the Holy Land that we are quite sure is accurate. Today, however, the church is shared by three groups: Catholic, Orthodox, and Armenian. Each has a chapel, and pilgrims from all over the world come to pay homage. The church was crowded with visitors, and the actual places of Jesus’ birth and of the manger have been made into holy shrines. The place of Jesus’ birth has been marked by a silver star in the floor which covers the spot, and the manger site is also enshrined. Candles and religious symbols are everywhere, and the visiting pilgrims come and prostrate themselves on the floor to kiss the silver star where Jesus was born. After we saw the shrines, we gathered in the beautiful nave of the Catholic chapel—and Gary recited John 1:1-18: “In the beginning was the word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…”It put everything into perspective, and the incredible fact that God became man and brought grace and truth to fulfill the law Moses had brought (see John 1:17) so we can become children of God (John 1:12) moved me. Michael Hicks led us in singing, “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing”, and then he sang “Oh, Lord Most Holy” a cappella, and the notes echoed and mingled in that beautiful Romanesque chapel with its vaulted ceiling. As we left the chapel, the amplified sounds of the Muslim prayers were filling the sunset evening. It jarred me with the reality of what Bethlehem now is: a Palestinian city from which the Christians are leaving. Today Bethlehem is 75% Muslim and only 25% Christian—and the Christians are, apparently, mostly Catholic and Orthodox. The city where Jesus was born has nearly lost the spark of Christianity, and its people are in darkness. I was overwhelmed by the sadness of it, and I prayed as we left Bethlehem for its citizens to come to the knowledge of the One in whose birthplace they live. Today we will begin seeing Jerusalem. We appreciate your continued prayers; Richard’s back is much improved, and we praise God for this opportunity. With love and prayers for you all, Colleen and Richard | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 5984 Registered: 3-2004 |
Again, I thank you for your word picture of what you have seen and done. I am glad Richard's back is getting better. Thank our awesome God for Jesus. Diana L | ||
| Helovesme2 Registered user Username: Helovesme2 Post Number: 1706 Registered: 8-2004  |
Thanks so much for the updates! You are missed. Blessings, Mary | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 8966 Registered: 12-2003 |
Ohmygoodness!! Today was over the top—at least it ended over the top! I’ll try to share it with you—it’s actually been really fun for me to journal these days; it helps me process what I’ve experienced and integrate my thoughts and feelings. Sometimes it seems as if it’s not quite “real”—there are so many “impossible” experiences and reactions, and I sometimes feel like a spectator, or like I’m on a grand field trip! We started the day at 8:00 as usual—and our first appointment was seeing the excavated steps of the temple on the South Wall. The walls we now see surrounding the Temple Mount were built in the 16th century; they are not original. The south gate stairs, however, were unearthed un excavation only within the last 15 years. It’s interesting to realize that the temple mount is on Mt Moriah. Mt. Moriah was the place where Abraham offered Isaac and was provided with the substitutionary ram. Fast forward to David. David wanted to build a permanent place of worship; consequently, he bought a threshing floor from a farmer; that piece of land was Mt Moriah on which Solomon built the first temple. Herod the Great had built the temple that was in use when Jesus was here. When he said to destroy this temple, and in three days he would rebuild it—He was talking about His own body. Jesus is the new temple. He is where sin has been dealt with; within His own body one sacrifice has bee made for all time. We sat on the recently excavated steps of the South Wall of the temple, and we realized that Jesus had without doubt walked up and down those very steps. I was quite overcome as I realized that as Jesus walked up those steps toward the temple about 2,000 years ago, HE KNEW that all the sacrifices and rituals going on around Him actually represented HIM. He knew He was here to make that beautiful temple obsolete. Moreover, He knew that from the foundation of the world, all of us who know Him were “in Him” even then. He knew that today we would be on those temple steps, and He knew all of us who love Him were alive in Him eternally. What an amazing experience to sit and stand on those ancient steps and to know that we were where Jesus had certainly been—and to know that even then He knew us! Mount of Olives Next we went to the Mt of Olives. The view of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives is unbelievable and breathtaking. Jerusalem is very hilly, and the Mt of Olives is directly east of the temple. Directly below the Mount of Olives is the largest Jewish cemetery in the world; the hill continues down from the cemetery into the Kidron Valley; then it begins to go up, and it culminates on the temple Mount. I had never understood how beautiful Jerusalem is. Even when I saw pictures, I thought of Jerusalem as being essentially in a desert; on the contrary, the climate is Mediterranean, and while it is not overly wet, still there are many olive trees, pine trees, and other vegetation to make the city lovely with trees. The Mount of Olives is where Jesus taught his disciples to pray; this is where His triumphal entry into Jerusalem began; this is where he sat and wept over Jerusalem. Gary talked to us about Jesus’ prophecies in Matthew 24 regarding the end of the age which He declared from the Mount of Olives. Moreover, he read from Zechariah 14 where the prophet foresees a time when the Lord will come and fight for His people. When he appears, the Mount of Olives will be split into two sections: east and west. The Lord will reign over His people, and living waters will flow from the throne to water the eastern (Dead) sea and the western (Mediterranean) sea. The Lord will be king of all the earth. We walked down from the Mount of Olives to the bottom of the hill, following the path Jesus followed on His triumphal entry. On the way down the hill we stopped at a tiny Greek Orthodox church, a beautiful gem with a view of Jerusalem from it’s west apse. We all stood under the vaulted domed ceiling and sand “Amazing Grace”. It was beautiful; many sang parts, and the reverberation in that church was several seconds. The sound was ethereal. Gethsemane After lunch we went to the Garden of Gethsemane. Rather unexpectedly, this stop was a highlight for many of us. First of all, the garden itself is beautiful. Whether or not it is the exact spot where Jesus agonized, it is very near it. Beautifully tended, the garden is full of olive trees of all ages. The oldest ones are probably about 2,000 years old. While we waited outside the Byzantine-era Church of the Agony or Church of the Nations, Gary spoke to us about Jesus in Gethsemane. Jesus did not die the way many of His followers died. They died in triumph, knowing they would soon see their Lord. Jesus, however, died in fear. For the first time in eternity, He would be looked on by His Father as the object of His wrath and anger. All the horrors of hell would be on Him. He knew what was ahead. Further, Gethsemane was the only time I His life that He asked for others to come and help him—He asked Peter, James, and John especially to watch and pray with Him. His agony as He became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21) was only duplicated when he cried from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” But the Father restored Him. He took our place and paid the price of our sin, and if we accept Him we will never have to pay that price of sin. And not only has He paid our price; we have new promises. Romans 8 declares there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Gethsemane more than anything else show us what Jesus endured. He took the cup and drank it to the bottom. Hebrews 5 tells us that in the days of His flesh, Jesus offered prayers with tears to Him who was able to save Him from death. He was heard because of His reverence. Yet we know Jesus did die. God did hear his prayer—but, as Gary said, sometimes God’s “no” only requires a resurrection to make it a “yes”. Gary went on to point out that the one moment when everything in Jesus said “No,” He didn’t say it. As a Son, He learned obedience, and being made perfect by His obedience, He became the source of eternal salvation. The word “perfect” connotes being fully qualified. If He hadn’t come to the point of saying “Yes” in spite of suffering, He wouldn’t have qualified to undo what Adam did. As we sat in the gem-like, tiny cathedral, the Church of the Agony, our group sang “I Come To the Garden Alone” and one verse of “How Great Thou Art”. Everyone was already deeply moved by the overwhelming sense of Jesus being crushed by sin and experiencing His Father’s wrath so we could be free. The singing was perhaps the best we had ever done; the harmony was beautiful, and everyone’s emotion made the music rich with feeling; the dome reverberated with the offering of all our hearts. Our final stop was at the traditional site commemorating Peter’s denial of Jesus. The church is built upon what might have Caiaphas’ house. Whether or not it is, the Roman-era stone stairway nearby, called “La Scala Sacra”, or The Sacred Stairs, is certainly the stairway up which Jesus was led following His arrest as He was taken before Caiaphas for his illegal, nighttime hearing. The stairway is steep and uneven, and the thought of Jesus being brutally treated as He began His relentless move to the cross became vivid as I actually saw the setting and the stairway up which He had been made to climb to His humiliation and death. I’ll put up a second post describing the end of our day. We love you all, and we’re praying for you. Thankful beyond words for Jesus and the Father’s love, Colleen and Richard | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 8967 Registered: 12-2003 |
Shabbat Shalom! After our days’ touring ended, Gary and Elizabeth offered to lead anyone who wanted to go on a 25-minute walk to the Western Wall to observe the Shabbat celebration and worship at the Western Wall, formerly called the Wailing Wall. As we drove back to the hotel following the tour, we saw orthodox Jews hurrying toward the Old City. They were dressed according to the particular sect to which belonged. Each sect’s clothing, our guide told us, depended upon which rabbi they followed. The Jews from various geographical locations have varying customs, and their dress reflects their ethnic and rabbinic traditions. Some we saw wore black fur hats to the Wall; some wore black, wide-brimmed top-hats. Some wore white stockings below short pants; others wore long black coats. A few even wore gold coats, their special Shabbat dress. Most of the women wore clothes based on black, and most of them had some sort of hair-covering. Some covered all their hair; others simply had a scarf that covered it in part. I could not have imagined the experience we had walking to the Wall. To reach it, we had to walk through the Muslim quarters. Today, of course, being Friday, had been the Muslim’s holy day. In fact, traffic was in a dreadful snarl, and we had to wait a half hour on the side of a street for our bus to reach us after our walk down from the Mount of Olives because of the crush of cars following the noon Muslim prayers on their holy day. By sundown, however, their holy day was over, and the open-air shops were opening for business as we walked to the Old City. At first we passed pungent-smelling stores with open displays of fruits and vegetables punctuated by noisy children, and diesel exhaust. After maneuvering our way through the foot traffic and cars that crowded the streets, we entered the old city. In total amazement I tried to take in what I was experiencing. The Inrigs had told us to stick together and hurry. That was no easy task, because as we entered Old Jerusalem, we were no longer in the open air. We were walking on ancient, worn-shiny paving stones inside huge vaulted passageways lined with shop after dirty shop. At first the shops were selling vegetables and fruits and fresh herbs which we could smell as we hurried past. The deeper we went into the passageways, however, the more the stores changed. We began to see all kinds of shops: baked-goods, dry goods, pharmacies—there were all kinds of shops. Each one was a small cubicle which opened onto the street. As we hugged the right side of the street (which was a foot street, not a vehicle street—no vehicles could have fit, and these were the ancient streets of the city), Jews of all ages—mostly men but there were some women—hurried past us going the opposite direction after they finished praying. The juxtaposition of the dirty shops, the Muslim men and a few women and the children sitting or shouting around their shops, the ultra-Orthodox Jews in their severe black suits and hats with white shirts and their earlocks rushing past, obviously in tune with each other but studiously ignoring the Muslim confusion around them—the whole thing left me stunned. In addition, there were the armed guards and policemen we passed periodically. Richard and I hurried to keep up, trying desperately to see everything. I kept seeing the Ottoman-period vaulted ceilings and stone street, realizing I was seeing and walking on centuries and centuries of history—and in many ways, the life living itself out along these streets was the same as has always been here. When we arrived at the wall, we saw hundred of orthodox men praying, chanting, or sitting under the instruction of a rabbi in the area set up behind fences in the “presence” of the wall. There is also a women’s section, and we were allowed to walk into our gender-respective areas and observe. I walked up to the wall and realized that the women also pray from the Jewish book of prayer, singing or chanting their prayers as do the men. A couple of groups of young women or girls were dancing and singing. I stood on a chair with many other women and looked over the fence at the men. There were far more of them, and they tended to group themselves according to their particular sect. Richard learned from one Jewish man who talked to him and some other men from our group that the swaying they do as they pray is because of the passage in the Bible which literally translates “praise God with all your bones.” Thus, they move their bodies as they pray. Perhaps the two most overwhelming impressions I had were these: First, the Jews CELEBRATE Sabbath. They are not there in dread or bored duty. To them, Sabbath is a true delight, a gift, a mark of their relationship with God. They dance, talk, sing—the atmosphere could not be more different from the Sabbaths we knew in Adventism. The whole “event” at the wall has a huge social component. This is a religious hoiday! Second, I felt deep sadness. These people do not know Jesus. When I walked up to the wall among the praying women, I prayed that the Lord Jesus would unharden these deeply religious people and reveal Himself to them. I prayed that they would come to know Him. Tomorrow at 6:10 the Inrigs are walking again with those who wish to go to the Western Wall, but this time early in the morning when everything is quiet and the Muslim shops have not yet opened for business. We will be able to walk on the Via Dolorosa before it gets “noisy”. The morning walk is only about seven hours away—so I must post this and get some sleep. Shabbat Shalom to you all…and praise God for Jesus who has fulfilled the law and IS our Sabbath rest! Colleen and Richard | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 5987 Registered: 3-2004 |
Tears came to my eyes as you wrote of what Jesus Christ did for us. Thank you so much for your word pictures. Diana L |
