The Wilderness of Zin and the Waters of Meribah

Wikipedia's Entry on the Wilderness of Zin

This was May 18 in the morning when we went to the Wilderness of Zin, after spending the night in a very nice hotel in Mizpe Ramon. Mickey told us the proper spelling should be "Tzin," but because the "tz" sound in Hebrew is hard for non-Hebrew-speaking people, it has been translated "Zin."

Having read the bible several times, and specifically Numbers chapter 20, coming here gave me the strongest feeling of awe and amazement I think I've ever had about a place up to this time. This is the place where Moses got frustrated with the people who were complaining about there being no water, and instead of being directly obedient to God, in frustration and anger he struck the rock twice. Read it for yourself to get the whole story.

I have a theory. I haven't talked about this to anyone. Maybe I should email Mickey and ask him about it. My theory goes like this:

The events in Numbers 20 happened around 4,000 years ago, right? And at that time, there was no water here, according to the story, otherwise the people would not have been complaining about there being no water. My theory is that this place didn't look like this back then. It's true, it's in the bottom of a canyon, but I think the canyon was not there, or at least not that deep at that time. So Moses and the people would have been on somewhat of a flat area where they could all congregate around him. When God told Moses to speak to the rock, and when Moses instead struck it, God was merciful to allow water to come out of the rock anyway, even though He pronounced judgment on Moses. There would have to have been a lot of water to supply as many as two million people. And the water is still there coming out of the rock today.


Here's my point: the soil erosion of the water in that canyon over 4,000 years would be enough to cause the canyon to look like it is today. It's entirely plausible to me that the canyon we hiked up was not a canyon at the time of Moses, but has become a canyon because of the erosion of all that water over all that time.

Mickey??

Mickey Answers Back

Mickey sent me an email stating his position, which is that he is not an expert on the geology of the place, and that the most important thing is the theology. He recommended a couple of books that might explain the geology of the place, and I went ahead and did a web search and came up with some information that basically shut my mouth. I have come to realize that I'm just idly speculating, and that if I want to really find out, I should do the legwork. Short of that, I wrote this reply (edited for clarity):

Mickey,

Thanks for your reply. I do appreciate the shift from "geology to theology," since that should be, and hopefully is, my focus in all things concerning Israel. God has made it abundantly clear in His word that that land is the land He has chosen for His people, all for His glory. Sitting on the rock next to the water, listening to and reading the passage in Numbers 20, I just couldn't help but wonder, "where exactly was it that Moses struck the rock?" And, "where would the people have been congregating, all 2 million of them?" It was a nice shady place to sit, where we could all fit comfortably next to the waterfall and absorb the importance of of the place in the context of the biblical text. That gave rise to a profound sense of awe and wonder that this was a place where God worked a wonder before the people of Israel.

Then when we walked above that part of the canyon, seeing the water above where we had sat, one thought led to another, and my theory developed.

I guess I just have a tendency, like those people in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre who were kissing the stone where supposedly Jesus had been laid, to worship place rather than the God who is present in the place - and more importantly, in my heart. I am willing to qualify my wonderings as just pure speculation, especially after finding an article on the web and realizing I'm going into territory that is over my head.

Why the Delay?

Above is the view looking northeast from Mt. Carmel

I've been so busy this past week, with meetings at church, Peter's baseball games, working, and most of all preparing a huge dance studio portrait job for delivery, that I have not had the time to post any entries in this blog.

So please be patient. Israel was the trip of a lifetime and I have every intention of documenting it to the best of my ability.

- Larry

Memphis

Not the memphis in Tennessee, nor the one in Egypt. Israel has its own Memphis, also knows as Mamshit.

This was a departure from our itinerary - a very interesting spot where a Nabatean city stood. Wikipedia has an entry about it here.

The Nabateans were an Arab culture who specialized in the spice trade, bringing expensive spices and perfumes by camel caravan from China and the Far East to the Mediterranean port at Gaza, where it could then be shipped to Europe. They were nomadic, but after some time established cities, Mamshit being one of them.

Mamshit was later occupied by the Romans. Byzantine architecture is apparent here, as are two distinct churches.

As I remember it, we came here after Tel Arad, and before arriving at our hotel in Mizpe Ramon. By the way, the food at the hotel in Mizpe Ramon was among the best of our entire trip, in my humble opinion.

Petra

Rather than try to describe Petra in my own words, which would be entirely inadequate, I'll include a link to a Wikipedia article that describes it better than I could by far.

It really defies description anyway. You just have to go there to get the full impact.

Another thing to read is the book of Obadiah in the Bible, which addresses the futility of trusting in man's devices for protection instead of trusting in an all-powerful God as your fortress. If you are familiar with the Bible, specifically the two divergent lines of heritage left by Isaac's two sons Jacob and Esau, keep in mind that Edom is the land of Esau.

I'll leave it at that. The pictures linked to the one above have no captions, for two reasons. One, the articles linked will give you an overview, and two, I am too tired and it's past my bedtime.

Oh, and I just realized I missed some sites we went to the day before!! Dang! I'll have to post those next time, out of order.

Tel Arad

After Beer Sheva, we went to Tel Arad. We had a nice box lunch in a shaded area near the parking lot, then walked up the hill to the ancient fortress of Arad. Mickey gave us a shpiel about the history and archaeology of the site, which figures in portions of the book of Numbers (21:1-3, and 33:40). It is also mentioned in Judges 1:16-17, and Ezekiel 35:1-10, and indirectly in Obadiah 19.

It was fascinating to walk around a site where, as Mickey explained, Moses sent the spies to go "spy out the land" in Exodus. When they returned, of the 12 spies, only Joshua and Caleb gave a good report, and as a result of the bad report of the other 10, and the Israelite's subsequent refusal to go into the land, they were condemned to 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and for that entire generation to perish in the desert before the people would be allowed into the Promised Land. Joshua and Caleb, of course, were the only two of that generation to enter the land.

Click on the picture to see other photos of Arad.

Beer Sheva

After my hopes of Plan A (posting to this blog every day during the trip with that day's pictures) not panning out, I'm now going to go to Plan B, which is doing the same, but only after the fact. I'll attempt to upload a set of photos from each place we visited, with some sort of description and links to photos from that site. No promises on how fast or how regularly I'm going to be able to do this, but that's my plan.

After about 24 hours of traveling from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv via Paris, arriving at our hotel in Beer Sheva around 3 AM, we got up the next morning around 10, had breakfast, and loaded our stuff onto the bus to go to Beer Sheva.

Beer Sheva is an ancient site that figures all the way back to the book of Genesis, and throughout the bible it is referred to as the southern boundary of the nation of Israel. Of course today's Israel extends quite a bit further south, but the ancient Israel of the Bible is often referred to as "the land from Dan to Beer Sheva." (Dan is in the far north.)

Click on the picture to go to the photoset on flickr, where each photo (well most of them) is accompanied by a description that I hope you will find useful.

Ready for Re-Entry

Well, this trip is officially over. I have mixed feelings about it, because it was such a wonderful time of travel, learning about how God has worked in the Middle East throughout recorded history, and how every single archaeological find that pertains to anything regarding biblical history confirms the text of the bible.

But it's great to be back home, to see and hug the kids, to sleep in my own bed and take a shower in my own shower. I'm ready for re-entry back to the world of work, business and managing the details of life. I think I just got closer with all the people on the tour with us, but especially with Mari. This has truly been the trip of a lifetime.

Oh, by the way, on our last full day in Cairo, we had lunch at a restaurant right across the street from the great pyramids. I sat down on the wrong side of the table and didn't realize they were there until I turned around and saw this: