A more relevant thought

...or a more random thought. I want to take a moment to explain what is happening every day in this place, what I have referred to as the fifth gospel. I want to give a few more details about the sermons that are being preached through all five senses every day, about the Biblical commentary that is being learned with every step on the field and mental snapshot of the scenery. This place brings up issues to ponder every day.

Seeming contradictions in Scripture like Deuteronomy 11 must be dealt with. Is this truly a land flowing with milk and honey? There isn't a honeybee around and why would that entice anyway? I have always taken this passage as if God was setting before the Hebrews a wonderful inheritance, a paradise on Earth. But this land truly is no Garden of Eden. The rugged hills, the lack potential irrigation make life very difficult, in fact much more difficult than the life of Egypt. Then one begins to see Scripture in a different light. God's point was not the bounty of the land, but the bounty of Himself, a God who cares for the land and showers a rainfall of blessing on His people.

The people of the land force one to reconsider misconceptions. How is one to think of the Arab people if they descended from Ishmael. Maybe the Northern Kingdom of Israel really did become the Samaritans. You cannot brush aside the fact that God promised to Abraham to make of Ishmael a great nation. Do we really have the arrogance to look down upon the Jewish people who rejected their Messiah? Would we have been less ignorant in their position? Is it not grace alone that has put us in this place during this time with the beauty of Yeshua in view?

I have come to the conclusion that one cannot be afraid of asking very tough questions or be afraid of history. Many questions have been raised in the classroom, which challenge my faith more than immediately strengthening it. Every day I see sights that tear apart my simple Western faith in a Jesus who loves me. I am in fact beginning a list of the mounting questions and problems which I don't have time to consider or figure out and still pass my tests :) However, I am not one bit afraid of these questions. I am not afraid to ask why God seemed to appease the polygamous O.T. culture. I am not afraid to consider how culture, oral tradition, and man's fallenness have influenced the Scripture and tradition of my faith. I am not afraid to see the development of faith and accept the fact that my tradition looks very different from that of the O.T. Jew and the N.T. Paul. None of these questions are too big for God. It almost sounds silly to put that into words, yet I am well aware that many theologians brush these questions under the rug and many bewildered students have turned from God in light of apparent shortcomings in Scripture.

There are issues on which the Eastern Orthodox church have a better perspective. There are ways that Roman Catholic believers are following Jesus more closely than I. There is a charisma of the Spirit that I am far from understanding or with which being completely comfortable. There are Jewish and Arab believers that understand YHWH much better than I.

Ask hard questions. Challenge Scripture. Wrestle with God. Learn to be better prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. In all of this, have a childlike faith that does not understand the ways of the Father, but has absolutely no reason to doubt His faithfulness.

(pictured is a potential site of the Tabernacle at Shiloh)

The tribal inheritance of Ephraim and Manasseh is central to the vitality of Israel. These two brothers dwelled in a land that was first inhabited and continued to be capital of the land at different times. This area is just as popular if not more popular than Jerusalem in the first five books of Moses. It was the richest land and was therefore given to the favored son of Jacob: Joseph. Shiloh of Ephraim and Shechem of Manasseh are two places that show the crucial aspects of this land.

Ephraim is just north of the tribe of Judah and South of the inheritance of Manasseh. The Cenomanian-Turonian limestone creates a ruggedness of the land that is similar to that of the Jerusalem area. The land was given to the younger but favored son of Joseph, and was thought to be the better of the two inheritances. Ephraim is drained to the West by the Shiloh Wadi and has rich soil for bountiful agriculture.

Shiloh is the principal city of the tribal inheritance of Ephraim. It is off the main highways and guarded by the rugged Cenomanian valleys and mountains. Its placement created a quiet life for its people and safety, which would be expected to provide a long lasting capital for Israel. According to Eusebius, this city is the site of the tabernacle. Unfortunately however, the Ark of the Covenant was stolen and archeology shows the destruction of the Israelite layer by the Philistines about 1050 B.C.E.

Manasseh is also a blessed tribal inheritance. The land is more open with lower hills and less steep terrain. Such turf creates a connection to the World in all directions. Samaria opens up to Caesaria in the West. Dothan opens to the Jezreel Valley in the Northwest. Beth-Shean is easily accessed to the Northeast and Adam, Penuel are accessible through Tirzah. Shechem in the South completes the spoke-like connectedness of the land, making way to the tribal inheritance of Ephraim. Such an international and intertribal scene can be helpful in times of peace, but in times of war the area is easily taken and over-run.

Though overall very open, the landscape of Manasseh is very diverse. In the East the territory is a bit more rugged with the Wadi Farah providing rich agricultural land and plenty of water. In Central Manasseh one finds the towering mountains of Ebal and Gerazim. Such land is central to the story of the Samaritans, and they continue to claim Gerazim as the true Temple Mount to this very day. In sight from Mt. Gerazim is the New Testament site of Jacob’s Well, where Jesus spoke with the Samaritan Woman about where true worship will soon take place.

The prominent city of Manasseh is Shechem, where Jeroboam set up the capital of the Northern Kingdom. It is interesting to note Abraham’s interactions with the king of Shechem. One could hypothesize that Abraham had covenanted relations with him, for only then would Abraham be allowed to build an altar to God as he does. This may explain the later move into the land by Abraham’s grandson without obvious battle conquest. The abundance of water and fertile soil led to a quickly populated city. This land is the open of the open and the networked of the networked, which ultimately led to its defeat.

Friends

This morning I enjoyed a game of Rook via skype with Wheaton friends! What a beautiful thing it is to make new friends, but what a greater joy to reunite. What is it about a friendship that yearns for communion and is saddened by separation. Please give someone a hug today. It will mean alot, I promise.

Benjamin Field Study

The hills in the Land of Benjamin go up steeply and drop sharply making any plateau a special place. The Cenomanian cliffs and scarps of this area meet the Senonian hills and valleys. The tribe of Benjamin was given a land including an oasis called Jericho, a wilderness, a hill country, and one of the most important places in the middle east: the Central Benjamin Plateau.

Jericho is a textbook example of an oasis. Surrounded by a barren wilderness, Jericho has multiple springs, which bring life to the scenery. The barren wasteland of the rift valley sprouts trees at Jericho and life has clearly thrived around its water sources and habitable land. This area shows a structure that some believe to be the oldest on the globe. It is also one of the most puzzling places for scholars who seek to mesh Biblical accounts with archaeological evidence. For some, the city cannot be Biblical Jericho because of the discrepancy between the timing of habitation and the timing of Joshua’s conquest. For others, archaeology is misunderstood or some other variable has cause a lack of human understanding. Whatever the case, this place has clearly supported thriving civilizations for many years.

The wilderness surrounding Jericho is truly a wasteland. Sprigs of grass show up where nomadic shepherding is still the only viable lifestyle. Rough terrain makes travel difficult from here through the hill country. However in this land another obstacle exists: the lack of water. The small amount of rainfall that does shower the land runs off or through the Senonian and Eocene chalk.

The hill country of Benjamin holds a number of settlements and civilizations. It has enough rainfall and Cenomanian ground for bits of agriculture, and water to support habitation. Smaller ridges drop into the wadis, which run east to the Dead Sea and West to the Mediterranean. The attention of Christians is drawn to a specific city in this area: Jerusalem.

Through ancient times the strength of Jerusalem has been very dependent on another key region in Benjamin and the middle east. The Central Benjamin Plateau is the setting for the majority of the Biblical narratives. Here the hills flatten out a bit into a Plateau that is not only agriculturally productive, but also key to travel through the land. Travelers from the East almost indefinitely travel between the Makkuk and Qilt Valleys through the plain and the traffic from the West meets here following the Beth-horon and Kiriath-jearim ridge routes. The Central Benjamin Plateau is key to Jerusalem because of its location within the surrounding topography. The hill country surrounds Jerusalem with rugged valleys to the East, South, and North. The easy access from Jerusalem is along the watershed ridge to the Central Benjamin Plateau. Anyone who controls the plateau essentially controls Jerusalem’s access to the world. Such a control over important trade routes makes the Central Benjamin Plateau the gem of Israel.

Along the center of present day Israel is four different types of land. Oasis, wilderness, and hill country all converge on a Plateau that is the center of the center of the world: The Central Benjamin Plateau.

Anson Rainey

Dr. Anson Rainey, professor of historical archaeology at JUC and distinguished archaeologist died yesterday. I never had the privilege to meet the man, though I have heard many great things already. He received multiple degrees in Old Testament and Biblical Theology and is respected for extensive work on the Amarna Tablets.

An excerpt from "The Fathers"

The following is excerpts from Jewish Thought and Practice course materials. Both stories are a beautiful vision of a passion for Torah, God's teaching:

"It was reported about Hillel the Elder that every day he used to work and earn one days wage, half which he would give to the guard at the House of Learning, the other half being spent for his food and for that of his family. One day he found nothing to earn and the guard at the House of Learning would not permit him to enter. He climbed up and sat upon the window, to hear the words of the living GOd from the mouth of Shemayah and Abtalion. They say, that day was the eve of Sabbath in the winter solstice and snow fell down upon him from heaven. When the dawn rose, Shemayah said to Abtalion: Brother Abtalion, on every day this house is light and today it is dark, is it perhaps a cloudy day. They looked up and saw the figure of a man in the window. THey went up and found him covered by three cubits of snow...

"[Another ancient Rabbi Akiba] was told: 'It is the water which falls upon it every day, continually.' It was said to him: '"Akiba, hast thou not heard, The waters wear away the stones"?' (Job 14:19) Thereupon Rabbi Akiba drew the inference with regard to himself: If what is soft wears down the hard, all the more shall the words of the Torah, which are as hard as iron, hollow out my heart, which is flesh and blood! Forthwith he turned to the study of Torah.

A Psalm

I will tell of God’s great city,

I will proclaim the glory of His people.

Generations shall hear of his mighty hand,

And retell the grace of His favor.

The LORD encompasses his people in such a way,

Nations and tribes are put to shame.

With his breath he destroys mighty men,

And His presence guards from high.

Tears flow where the dew and rain

Water helpless plants of the earth.

He forgets not the downtrodden

But receives on Himself their hurt.

The mighty build and fortify,

Elevating their palaces and redoubts.

Like a looming tower

Foreigners rule from the mount.

God destroys the wicked from inside.

He tears them down from their high

Places with a might arm.

The righteous are not harmed.

Kings make kingdoms

From their futile imaginations.

With aqueducts and pools

Monarchs administer nations.

YHWH blesses his people

With a different kind of water.

The eyes of the cities

Look to the skies of the Father.

Springs gush forth in the earth.

The shepherds find calm rivers.

The Kidron and Og flow

As the people follow the LORD.

PAIDIA

Located in Bethlehem, Paidia is an organization that focuses on the youth of Palestine. Paedeia was the ancient Greek idea of educating children through natural life (homeschool?). The Arab way of education is usually from the top down with a great discouragement of questioning. A student is to accept what the teacher says and if the next teacher says otherwise, it is not to be questioned. The website isn't necessarily all that interesting but there are some flattering pictures here:

http://www.pidev.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=80&Itemid=85

The place is in terrible condition. The main grounds have been attained for one year. It is a site that was completely burned and destroyed and then occupied by soldiers. Now, one year later, there is a garden (to employ Palestinian Arab Christians), a high ropes course, a shell of a building, and grounds to host the children as well as the college students from Bethlehem Bible College. Everything needs to be painted. There is mud everywhere. Palestine is crazy. During the summer, Israel shuts off their water for weeks (usually 3) at a time (because of the drought). Those who have any spare cash have storage tanks on their roof so that they may have water to drink. It shows the gunfire and bombings everywhere. The Palestinian side of the wall has hate graffiti in English for miles. "Where is America." "Why has our land been turned into a prison." and less clean statements are paired with simultaneously humorous and sad messages on this 20 foot concrete wall like "I want my ball back." From anywhere on the streets you are almost guaranteed to have a soldier in site, armed with an automatic weapon. I am frightened and saddened to see something like this. How skewed the US news is. How uninformed my support of the state of Israel was.

Anyway, They have been given a grant to contract out for the building to be turned into a coffee shop and more useful structure. Interestingly the grant has a stipulation that the project must be completed in two months, which means we may see its completion.

So where do I come in? Who knows. Our first project will be to finish a begun project of an outhouse on the grounds. It is a sad structure that was started by an ambitious, but less than trained short term missions group. We may have times with the children and/or the BBC students.

I will be working with my fellow JUC student Andrew, who grew up on a farm with in a family of carpenters. He has one of my favorite life stories. He grew up in a mennonite family who all live in the same town and his relatives gather for dinner at his grandparents house every sunday. Their gatherings are filled with good food, good relationships, and 4 part harmony hymnody. Andrew has great insight and is seeking the way with all he's got. His energy and righteousness is catalyzing for those around him. I look forward to working with him.

Another Field Study

With ten hours on the land one’s feet begin to feel the terrain: the rocks, the soil, the incline and decline. On one hand this land is like any other. The trees shade during the middle of the day; the hilly landscape is different from every angle; the infrastructure hides the raw lay of the land. On the other hand this place is truly special. It is not only the place that God set apart for his people, Israel, but also the place where most of the Biblical stories take place. Stones, steps, walls, trees, gardens, pools, and every other aspect of the terrain become a living commentary to God’s word. The commentary is so revealing and instructive that some have called it “the fifth gospel.” The commentary on the stories of Psalm 121, Matthew 23, and John 25 bring especially beautiful images to the narrative.

Psalm 121 is rooted in the city of David. On that ridge one can understand the authors feeling of safety and danger at the same time. Nestled down between the Western Hill and the Mount of Olives one can hear the cry, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills; from whence shall my help come? A cozy feeling is matched with the danger of being surrounded by enemies coming from above. However, the Temple Mount blocks the most vulnerable part of the land. From there God truly guards the city.

The narrative of Matthew 23 could very likely have taken place on the southern entrance to the temple mount, of which part of the original stairs still exist. Reading the story on site, one can see how Jesus taught using the scenery and people around him. One can almost feel the presence of Moses’ Seat on the temple mount and see the people passing by with heavy burdens of local trade on their back. One can imagine the Scribes and Pharisees passing by while Jesus is speaking of the gold on the temple. The whitewashed tombs are visible across the Kidron valley giving a visual to Christ’s message. One can imagine the monuments of the righteous standing around and the smoke rising from the fires of Gehenna just down the valley hill. Without an understanding of these objects and scenes, one cannot assume to sympathize with the gravity or sting of Christ’s message.

The narrative of John 5 is also brought to life by a visit to the Pool of Bethesda. One can picture Christ there, approaching a lame man and opening with a question in a Rabbinical manner. This poor man has been sick for thirty-eight years and is constantly being budged in the line for these healing waters. Of course, the story would be extravagant enough if it ended with the healing of the man. Instead one reads later in the chapter that Christ found him afterward just a couple hundred yards away in the Temple – something which that man had been unable to do for thirty-eight years because of his condition.

Each day one spends in this special land is a sermon. The text is the narrative of scripture; the homily is the terrain. This sermon is not merely entering lives by way of the ears, but is entering also by the eyes, the nose, the mouth, and mostly the feet.

B. B. Taylor, Matt Traylor, and I read the nativity story at the traditional place of Jesus' birth.

The Jerusalem University College Campus was built as a boys school, but has the feeling of a Catholic monastery or nunnery. A small path wide enough for a line of parked cars and one lane to drive leads to the small gate. Inside is a small path between the main building and the newer classroom building, leading to a grass and garden with a view to the south from Mount Zion. The main stairs are mumbo jumbo with 4 to 6 stairs interspersed with landings and doorways. The first main landing leads to offices and the bookstore. THe second has a door to an inner courtyard. Off of the courtyard is a small student lounge, showers, hallways, and the cafeteria dining room. Continuing up the stairs leads up to dorm rooms ending with a door to the roof. The open section of the roof looks south across Gehenna and the Hinnom Valley as well as West to the new city and the King David Hotel. We consider our room very special for it is like an additional room on the top of the roof. It has three bunks, desks, and double lockers, with stone floor and vaulted ceilings adding to the monastery feel.

Sounds are all around. Police sirens are ever blaring. The minarets sound five times a day. Our room windows seem to easily let in the sounds of the roadways at night and the chirp of the birds in the morning. The library is tiny and the space designated for studying has constant humming of activity and chatter of students. The classroom is a bit chilly, though they warm up with body heat and a small radiator which does well as the class periods go on. It is modest with tables and chairs and the echo of the professors sounds off the bare concrete walls. One small window on the front side displays the weather and sometimes an eavesdropping bird.

There are bullet holes in various places from when the Israeli troops occupied the building as an outpost. It would be a very wonderful place for paintball with its courtyard and seemingly random layout of passages, windows, and doorways.

Meals are delicious. I may have been a bit nervous coming from one of the best college food services in the nation, but I am not one bit disappointed. Breakfasts include wonderful eggs, meat, yogurt, granola, and local fruit such as kiwi, oranges, and plums. Lunches and dinners are both American and local enough to meet both demands. Local fish caught from Galilee, lots of rice, tuna from the mediterranean mix with the smells of curry and olive oil. A bowl of olives is almost always present. Would I ask for more?

The The people are wonderful. Dr. Wright is his own academic, yet loving fatherly personality. Mrs. Wright stands beside him beautifully, offering a motherly tenderness to the extent that one knows the door to help or advice would always be open. There are beautiful people here from Guam, Africa, and schools in the States such as Messiah, Gordon, and Westmont. Fellow Minnesota natives abound as the majority rule.

Class tonight was especially engaging, and I presume it will contain my favorite classroom periods. It is Jewish Thought and Practice taught by Rabbi Moshe. He is an energetic wise man in his 50's. He has a clear passion, but a very academic approach to our classroom discussion of God, Torah, and Jewish practice. His education is clearly vast and his knowledge of Torah is very impressive. I expect to be forced through some tough issues and discussion.