Entries from September 2005 ↓

This is my field study report from our trip south of Jerusalem. I did it from the perspective of Todd’s son, Luke, who went with us.

This morning I hopped out of bed because this is my day to spend with Dad. Mark got to go with him on Shabbat into the Old City, but today is my turn. He says that we are going go see places like Bethlehem and Herodium, I can’t wait! We ate breakfast, kissed Mommy good-bye and then went out to the bus. I got to ride in the back with some really cool students. I love riding in the bus it is so much fun!

While we drove towards Jerusalem, Daddy talked to all of the students on the microphone, but I have already heard all of this before. He tells me a lot of these kind of things all of time; telling me what things are and what the history is behind them. I really like it when he does that because it shows that he is really smart. But he did read us some stories from Frog and Toad. I really liked that. The bus first stopped on the Mount of Olives with an eastern view of Jerusalem. Dad was talking about The Hill of Evil Council, which the United Nations building sits on, the Hill of Offense, and the place where Judas died. He talked on for a while, so I went climbing around on the stairs and the railing. It was really fun because we were high and we could see the whole city. Dad showed me where the Dome of the Rock, Kidron Valley, and Temple Mount were because my daddy is really smart and knows lots of stuff.

We got back in the bus and drove over to Bethphage, from there we walked to a hill that over looked Bethany. The little town is latched on to the eastern side of the Mount of Olives. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived here and it is the city that he went to two days before going into Jerusalem on the donkey. It was funny because there was a big wall between us and Bethany. Dad said it was just put there, so Jesus didn’t have to go around it. We looked at some fig trees, but that was boring, so I jumped on some stones on a pathway near us. Dad was reading from the Gospels on how Jesus cursed the fig tree and it did not yield fruit.

We went inside of a church at Bethphage and it was really neat because it echoed a lot. Dad taught the students about how the church commemorates the place where Jesus got on the donkey and then he rode up to the top of the Mount of Olives. When he got near the top, people waved palm branches and praised Him. We followed that same route that Jesus took, but it is a big hill and my legs were tired. A student picked me up and ran me all the way up to were Dad was, in the front of the line, then I drank some water out of his water hose coming out of his backpack.

At the top we went inside a courtyard of the Church of the Pater Noster, which was built by Constantine’s mother to commemorate the Lord teaching His disciples the Lord’s Prayer. There were a lot of people there and they were all talking in a funny language. Some of them were smoking at it was yucky! After Dad was done was yappin’, he said I could go down into the cave. I ran down into the cave and it was dark and it was really fun and then I went back up and looked around but there was nothing more to see, I wanted to leave. We walked down the Mount of Olives and it was really steep, but we stopped part of the way down and went to Dominus Flavit. This got boring really fast because it was just only another view of that gold thing. I got up on the wall to get a better view and I was going to take a picture with someone’s camera, but everyone freaked out and I had to get down, so much for having fun. This marks the place where Jesus wept for Jerusalem.

Lunch was next, yeah, my favorite! I got each lunch with daddy on the hill over looking Jerusalem from the south. For lunch I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and an apple and…OH! I almost forgot! I had some really good cookies that mommy made tools. I wanted to go play and find Robbie, but Dad made me eat the rest of my lunch.

We got back on the bus and went to Bethlehem. On the way a soldier came on the bus and talked with my dad, but everything was okay. Bethlehem really didn’t look like it does in all of the Christmas story books. There was no stable or manger, but only an old church with a cave where Jesus was allegedly born. I didn’t like it very much, we had to walk slow and be quiet. One of the guys didn’t have pants to cover his shorts, so he had to borrow a skirt from a girl. He looked really silly.

We went to a mountain that a guy named Herod put there. It is called Herodium. I had to go potty, so I went behind the building there. Then we started climbing the mountain, but I got to ride on the shoulders of one of the students. It was really steep. The hill was so big that we couldn’t even ride up it on our bikes! At the top it was a really great view. This is a palace and a fortress of Herod the Great. He built it to commemorate himself when he died. At lower Herodium, there is a really big swimming pool that little boys used to swim in. Then we went into some really cool caves under Herodium and then went back to the bus. In the bus we got COOKIES! Becky made cookies for everyone and I got some. They were really good.

Two things that we got see that were really neat were the Ascent of Ziz and Solomon’s pools. The Ascent of Ziz is out in the Judean wilderness where it is hot and dry and has lots of rocks. This is the route that Jehoshapat took when the Lord went in front of the Judeans and conquered the enemy (). I liked running around with all of the students out there. Solomon’s pools were south of Bethlehem and very big. They were so big you could fit the whole Noah’s Ark inside of it!

After that, we went back home. It was a really fun day, because I got to spend it with daddy. I didn’t have to go to school and I went on the field trip. I really like doing things with my smart dad, I hope I can do it more times.

We live our Christian lives assuming that God is. Each breath assumes God will us another one. Each morning assumes God will carry us through another day. Each prayer assumes that God is listening. Each sin assumes that God will forgive us.

Don’t read this wrong. I’m not saying that God does not do these things, but rather we go through our day assuming that God will continue to sustain us. Our sinful state deserves none of God and yet we have complete access to Him. The mercies that are bestowed upon us each and everyday are not a product of our own good works, but rather the provision from the Father. Through our Savior, Jesus Christ, we have been given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Only through His blood has salvation been granted to us; belief in anything else is not the gospel that saves.

My own heart is more conscious of God around me. Before I left for Israel, my good friend, SKH, gave me some advice that I have not forgotten. He prayed that I would see and live spiritually; that I would not be focused on the physical, but everything through the work of the Spirit in me. I pray that we can all give God the credit that is due His name in everything that we see, hear, and do.

Don’t assume God, thank Him.

Anything that is advertised as involving death, I am quick to sign up for. Well, maybe I’m not that drastic, but when a sign up sheet for an En Gedi Death Hike showed up on the bulletin board I was all over it. The group slowly formulated and gathered excitement for this hike.

We left Saturday evening from Yad HaShmonah for En Gedi, an oasis on the shores of the Dead Sea, but not before taking a group picture. The whole hour and a half bus ride there, we sang. I pulled out some classics from Children’s Church and summer camp. It was so much fun and it made the time pass really fast.

We arrived on the shore of Dead Sea with a full moon reflecting off of the calm water (at the green “S” on the map). The wind was very strong and warm as we walked down to the salty shore. We immediately started taking pictures of this never before seen territory. After the excitement wore down, we set out find our sleeping spot. With the wind blowing at high speeds, we found shelter from the gusts behind a small stone wall and so we all proceeded to get situated for the night. Some of the guys ran off and went floating in the water in complete freedom. Mary and I entertained ourselves by spelling letters in the air with our feet together. It provided not only something that was new and interesting, but a good work-out for our legs the night before an insanely rigorous hike. We all slept on the ground with only a towel separating us from the dirt. I woke up several times in the night, only to find out that I was laying only on dirt. But don’t get me wrong, we were having a blast!

We were rudely awaken at 6am by pesky flies; flies that would haunt us the rest of the day. Breakfast was especially appetizing, since it was food that we packed 24 hours earlier. I ran out from behind the palm trees just in time to see the sun crest over the mountains on the other side of the Dead Sea; several pictures followed. It was incredible to be able to read God’s Word with the rays warming your face in the light of the young sun. Even though we sin so much, God graciously allows us to see gorgeous things, such as sunrises and sunsets, waterfalls, mountains, and clouds. All of the features of earth that we marvel at, shout the power and faithfulness of God. Praise Him for the wonderful works of His hands.

There were 13 of us who were going on the death hike and the others were going on a picnic trip. We left just after 7:30 and walked over to the gate into the En Gedi National Park (the light blue line). From there we filled up our water bottles at the cold water station and set out down the Nahal Arugot for the first destination, the hidden waterfall (the pink line). This part of the hike was relatively flat as we walked in the bottom of the nahal, rather than climbing up the sides, which we were looking forward to later.

We found the waterfall in half the time that the ranger said that we would and quickly jumped in the pool. We had lots of fun going under the waterfall and playing around in the water. Part of our group left early and started up the sharp ascent. I was in the later group and started to climb 15 mins after the first group. As soon as we began the steep uphill, I was strides ahead of the rest of the group and I didn’t stop. I past some people in the group ahead of me and was only minutes behind Robbie and Mary who made it to the top first. The climb was not that long, but it was one of the steepest I have ever done. Some places we climbed straight up, scaling the rock wall. Here are some pics to help you see what it was like. (Notice the two people in the middle of the cliff on the second picture and the group at the very bottom of the third one.)

At the top of the plateau, we walked across to the En Gedi Lookout. That site had one of the most incredible views that I have ever seen. We could see almost all of the Dead Sea and the surrounding shore. It is truly something that pictures cannot do justice to. We ate a little something up there, but didn’t stay long. We hiked down the north side, into the Nahal David. This went very quickly. We stopped at an ancient temple from the Chalcolithic period, which was cool because we had learned about it in archaeology class. After that short stop, we went to the bottom of the nahal and swam in the pools on that side for a half hour or so, a very refreshing break from the hot trek up and down. Nate tried to block up the pool by laying in the only exit for the water, but Mary wanted to see him go down with the water (picture above). My REI equipment came in extremely helpful on this trip; my shorts dried fast after each swimming stop, my boots were very comfortable, my backpack held all of my water and everything else, and my headlamp did its job the night before.

The day was very fun. We even saw some natural ibexes (shown on left). We were all warm and nasty after it was all over, but we had drawn closer through it all. God is so good. How could any of us plan to put all of us strangers together in a group and yet glorify the Lord through it? It has only been by His hand. I thank God for the opportunity to study over. I am learning so much that I now regret, not taking learning serious before. I feel like all through high school and even last year in college, I didn’t really desire to learn, but rather a desire to do everything else knowing that I have to school work in between it all; which is the wrong way to think. Praise God for what He is doing!

Wednesday was a day marked by heat, dirt, views, and following Todd. The focus of the day was the land of the tribe of Benjamin. This includes cities such as Jericho, Ramah, Gibeon, Gibeah, and Gezer. We left Yad HaShmonah at 7:30 in the morning and didn’t return until just before 7pm. It was long, but I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. The day started at the ancient city of Gezer, where an IBEX alumni taught us about the significance of the city. Although hard to describe on paper, I will try and do so. The central part of Israel is the tribe of Benjamin. The western part is composed of the Ajialon Valley which stretches from the Hill Country and opens up in the coastal plain. In the middle of the Ajialon Valley standing between the coastal plain and the rest of the country is the tell of Gezer. A tell is a mound of layers of civilization. Over the thousands of years, different people groups have stayed at the same sites, building on top of the previous civilizations. After all the years, the remains begin to build up and create a hill or a mound; this called a tell. Gezer has been important throughout history and there are many things that are testament to that. One evidence is that Gezer is mentioned in many ancient texts, such as the Amarna Letters. The name Gezer means “to divide.” It was the crossroads for the International highway and the route up to Jerusalem from the coast. It was captured by Egypt and then given to Solomon as a dowry gift for his daughter. Solomon then fortified it. One of the major remains left there today is the gate constructed by him (picture on upper left). The gate had four chambers and the sewer system ran underneath the gate. The city was destroyed again by Egypt after Solomon. Gezer boasts of having the largest defensive tower of the Middle Bronze Era, this was connected to a wall that surrounded the city. The standing stones at Gezer were used for occultic purposes and were something that God forbade in the Old Testament (picture on right). After Gezer, we went to Emmaus. Emmaus is the city that Jesus walked to with the two disciples after His resurrection. There is a debate about where the actual site is because there is a difference in the manuscripts as to the distance away from Jerusalem that Luke describes in chapter 24. Two of the sites that have been suggested for the location are recent traditions and are thus not trusted. The other two sites are a considerable distance apart and so, due to a re-evaluation of the text and the practicality of the situation, the site that is closest to Jerusalem seems the best choice. The Emmaus that we went to is not a practical location of the biblical Emmaus. It used to be an Arab village and now all that is left is fruit trees and a building that commemorates an important Arab man (picture on left). We climbed all around the building and went on top of the dome. It was lots of fun, plus we got a great view of the Ajialon Valley and Gezer to the west of us in the distance. Through Benjamin, there is only two main routes, because it is filled with wadis. The only way to travel through the hill country is to go along the ridges. There only two routes from the Ajialon Valley and the coast to Jerusalem. On our way down to Gezer we traveled along the Kiriath Jearim Ridge Route, the southern of the two routes. From Emmaus up to Nebi Samwil, we went along the other route, the Beth Horon Ridge Route. On this route, Joshua chased the Canaanites and he asked God to have the sun and the moon stand still, which God granted (Joshua 10). I was privileged to read this passage up on the roof of Nebi Samwil and it was so easy to see how the events took place so many years ago because of the geography. Nebi Samwil is the traditional place of the burial site of Samuel the prophet. It is a wrong tradition, but it has been suggested that it is the high place of Gibeon where the Lord appeared to Solomon and he asked for wisdom. From the top of the mosque, we could see all of the Central Benjamin Plateau (picture on right). Going right through the middle of the plateau is the Way of the Patriarchs. This route follows the Watershed Ridge. The use of this road is shown in the story of a Levite and his concubine in Judges 19. They travel from Bethlehem, north. The cities that are mentioned are all of those of the Way of the Patriarchs: Jebus (Jerusalem), Gibeah, Ramah, and Mizpah. Through a series of events while they are in Benjamin, a civil breaks out between Benjamin and the other 11 tribes. There are three battles between the two armies. The Benjamites win the first two, but are nearly annihilated in the third. In 1 Kings 15:16-22, the story is told of how Baasha, the northern king captures Ramah and begins fortifying, blocking traffic in and out of Judah. Asa calls for help from Assyria, Baasha backs out, and Asa then fortifies Mizpah and Geba, securing the other routes into Jerusalem and the rest of Judah. Ramah is the crossroads because it sits on the Way of the Patriarchs, the highway going north and south, and controls traffic east to Jericho and west to the Ajialon Valley. We ate lunch on top of the mosque at Nebi Samwil. It was warm, but there was a breeze keeping us cool. We celebrated Erin’s birthday up there as well. Becky had made chocolate cupcakes for everyone that were very good! After Nebi Samwil, we traveled east toward Jericho. On the way we stopped along the side of the road and climbed up a hill to give us a view of Michmash, Geba, and The Pass that connects the two cities. This was the site of a battle of Jonathan and Saul against the Philistines. Jonathan came from Geba and climbed down into the Wadi Qilt and then surprised the enemy on the other side at Michmash, causing a panic and they all fled. It worked because the Philistines were watching the Pass, a break in the steep sides of the Wadi Qilt for about a mile, the only place where an army could cross. On this hill we saw cisterns that are used to hold water for livestock. I had the privilege of taking a drink from this water. It was amazingly cool and fresh-tasting. The hill was also home to a sheepfold, where a shepherd would keep his sheep for night. Next, we drove through the Judean wilderness and then came into Jericho via the TOE Ridge Route. When we arrived at the tell, we saw the supporting wall (picture on right) that held up the wall that Joshua and the children of Israel knocked down according to the commandment of the Lord. It was also neat to be able to see the archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon’s dig that I had heard so much about in archaeology class. We saw the Neolithic tower that is the oldest structure of that size in the world. A couple of us were able to walk down to it and go in the tower, down the staircase. Jericho is only 10 acres and so this presents a problem with the whole Israelite camp coming against the city. If there were 600,000 Israelite men, why didn’t they just attack the city of 2,000 people? That questions is, as of now, still unanswered. Todd, being the great Land and Bible professor that he is, took us up in cable cars, above the city of Jericho. We walked along the cliffs over looking the city and up to a monastery carved into the rock. Todd went crazy with the picture taking because this was a place that he had never visited before. On the other end of the city, we stopped and saw the Hasmonean and Herodian palaces that sat on either side of the Wadi Qilt. It was the site of Herod’s summer palace and had huge swimming pools and gardens. The last stop of the day was over looking the steep sides of the Wadi Qilt with a monastery carved into one of the sides. It was very windy and warm as we looked out over the wilderness and read about Jesus being tempted in such a desolate place. Only after seeing the wilderness, do I truly understand what it means to fast for forty days and forty nights and then being tempted. It is comforting to know that the same Spirit that led Jesus in the wilderness resides with me as a believer. May I rely on that power and not my own.

Nate and I in front of the Wadi Qilt.

IBEX Fall 2005. Here is everyone in my group. For more pictures throughout the semester go to www.ibexsemester.com