Going to the Super Bowl

We left the hostel early in the morning and were blessed with cloud cover and cool winds for most of the morning.  Our first stop of the day was Tel Beer-Sheva, This was the land that Abraham would have called home. There has been no archeological evidence of Abraham living here, although we would not expect there to be, given the Bedouin lifestyle of Abraham.  On the top of the Tel, hill, were the ruins of a later Israelite town. This was an impressive, planned town, all the way out in the Negev. It was really interesting to think about the economic and military benefits that Israel would gain y controlling a few key cities here in the Negev. It was really interesting to see how our thought and principles corresponds to the accounts we get in first and second Kings. Again the stories from the Old Testament became to come more alive.

            We moved to another settlement in the Negev, Arod. Like Tel Beer-Sheva, Arod was another city controlled by Israel, under the rule of Solomon, in order to secure economic prosperity and military advantages. Here archaeologists found a Yahwistic temple, resembling the temple in Jerusalem. However, in this temple, in the Holies of Holy, there were two stones and two incense altar, indicating the worship of two gods. There are a few theories of two why this is, it represents God and his female partner or the different aspects of God, but the question of why still remains. This archeological evidence shows that one should not reconstruct the ancient way of life from what the Torah says, the ideal way, but rather by what the prophets are saying, which is realistic.

            We went farther into the Negev, and ended up at the bottom of the Zin valley; we were at the bottom of a canyon made of white, chalky rock, and water and trees lining the bottom of the canyon.  Our goal was to hike to the top of the canyon, to the cliffs above us. This canyon was in what in Biblical times would have been considered the wilderness; this was a close as we were going to get to Moses’ wanderings in the wilderness. We walked along the bottom of the valley for a ways, until we reached a waterfall, where a steps were carved into the rock sides of the canyon. From this point, where continued up inclined trails, carved steps and vertical ladders on the edges of cliff until we reached the top of the valley. It was amazing to look down and still see the beauty of God’s creation in this hot, dry, dusty, wilderness of the Negev.

            Avdat was the next stop. Here we saw how the people who had lived here had masterfully used what little resources they had, about four inches of rain, and turned the area into a great, local agricultural location. Avdat actually has the largest wine press Israel. Looking over the land here, it was clear to see that the land of Judah was indeed a promise land. Although the land of Judah is still hard to live in, the Lord provided enough, and He cared for his people.

            Lastly we took the team to the Super Bowl, a massive erosion crater, eight by twenty five miles in length and over a thousand feet deep. Will sitting on the edge of the crater, we reflexed on Psalm 90; about the everlasting God that was “born before the mountains” (verse 2) that rose on the far side of the crater. The Psalm describes the eternity of God and our own fleetingness and short presence here on earth. The Psalmist says, “that our days may come… yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow” (verse 10) compared to God’s eternity. Yet even through our sorrow we are to, “sing for joy and be glad all of our day,” (verse 14) because of God’s unfailing love for us. I really needed to hear this and reflect on this. We will go through hardship and suffering, but none of that compares to the unbelievable joy that we have in the fact the eternal God loves us eternally!