June 10, Tuesday - We scare a shepherd

Ok, note to self.  Do not eat an espresso magnum bar (especially when it says 'high caffeine') within 12 hours of wanting to go to sleep!  It took forever to fall asleep and then I never did sleep that well.  It did not help that the mattresses were very firm (firmer than the camper mattresses for those who know what I mean).  Luckily today was composed of a lot of smaller hikes and less heat.

Land of Abraham

We began the day by visiting Tel Arad near where we had been staying.  It is a site we visited last time I was here but I did learn more this time around.  This is within sight of where Abraham most likely lived at the time God made the covenant with him that his decedents would be as numerous as the stars.  The well at this location dates back to that time and he would have likely watered his flocks at this well.  It is so unreal to think about the various people who have lived in or crossed through this area for so many years!  We sat and studied the bible passages which talked about the covenant with Abraham but it took on such greater meaning being here where it happened!

Bryan at the Gate to the fortress.

At this location is a fortress and within it one of the only examples of a scaled down version of the Temple in Jerusalem.  Unfortunately it is being stabilized right now so that they can continue to excavate beneath it (everything out here is built on top of something else) so much of it was covered or we could not walk there.  You are welcome to look back to my visit in 2012 to see more about this site.

A stampede of sheep!

As we left the area we came across a shepherd tending a flock of about 50 sheep along the road.  If you have read any of the past 2 days and looked at the pictures you will see that these hills are far from what we would call lush.  Looking at them from the roadside you would think the sheep out here had adapted to eating rocks.  John always likes to find a shepherd and his sheep when discussing Psalm 23 so when we spotted them he asked our driver to pull over so we could go out and maybe talk to him about just what a shepherd does.  Now there are about 30 of us with about a 1/3 being basketball players over 6 feet tall.  Shepherds are normally young children or older women.  So here is this young boy about 8-10 slowly moving his sheep along when a bus load of strangers pulls off to the side of the road, pile out, and start moving en-masse toward him.  Needless to say he started to move his sheep away from us.  As he sped up so did we and then so did he.  We must have been quite a sight: 50 sheep being chased by the young shepherd, chased by 30 weirdly dressed americans calling out to him!  We soon realized this was a losing en devour and stopped.  At that point he stopped and as we took pictures of him we saw him taking pictures of us. :-)  Probably so he could explain to his dad why he brought the sheep back early!  When he turned around he had to run to catch back up to the sheep who had not quit running yet.

Despite the lack of the desired props, we had a wonderful discussion of how even when it looks like we are in a barren place, God will provide for us what we need, when we need it.

Next stop was one of Herod’s palaces just outside Jerusalem and Bethlehem.  It is called Herodium and sits on top of a totally man-made hill.  You can get a feel for the effort required to construct this when looking at it from Bethlehem. 

Construction involved not only building a small mountain, but the palace/fortress at the top, a swimming pool (bigger than Olympic size), a theater, and the future tomb for Herod, but also an aqueduct to bring water to the palace.  Yet despite all Herod’s efforts to build great monuments to himself (this was just 1 of 7 palaces he built), it was the baby born within sight of here who changed the world and continues to inspire people to do good in His name.

Theater at Herodium

Entrance to Herod's Tomb - just discovered in 2007

The final official stop for the day was in a local terraced garden.  It was here, sitting beneath the shade of grape vines that we studied the story of the Garden of Eden and the references to all of us as a community being part of the grape vine.  Part of what I really enjoy about this trip (and the last one) is to get a much better understanding of the meanings of the stories in the bible by studying them in the understanding that they were written by Jewish writers, for mainly Jewish listeners, and that Jesus was Jewish.

Being here, and especially thanks to the studies John has done regarding the Jewishness of Jesus and the time, we are able to learn about the unspoken meanings of the bible stories.  So often a word will be used that is hard to translate, but through our discussions we look into the meaning behind it.  Taken in the context of the time and place of the stories, God is portrayed as a much more loving God than is often taught.  He wants us all to have a joyful life, trusting him to provide what we need and helping others understand this too.  I really enjoy having the opportunity to meet so many people of various backgrounds here because the more people I meet the more I see we are all more alike than different.

Altar above the Birth Site

Once we arrived here in Bethlehem we had the opportunity to visit the Church of the Nativity if we wanted to.  Bryan and I headed up there so we could visit and still make it back in time for dinner.  The last time I visited I commented about how the church was falling into disrepair but because the 3 religions who have a stake in the church (Greek Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, and Catholic) could not agree on how to make the repairs nothing was getting done.  Shortly after that the government declared it a national treasure and ordered them to start fixing it.  So the roof and windows are currently being repaired, but most of the frescoes and the painted columns (painted during the time of the crusades) have been covered to protect them during the reconstruction.  Hopefully they will restore those next, but for now it definitely looks like a place under construction.  It was moving and peaceful to pray there despite the activity going on all around.  I said a special prayer for Mom knowing how she would have loved to have been here.

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Tile floor from the original church in 327 AD

At the Birth Site

By the end of the day, including our longer than expected walk to the Church of the Nativity, we put in another 4.5 miles (13,000+ steps). Total for the trip: 10.75 miles.  Now off to wash off the dust from today and rest up for tomorrow!