Jordan day 4 November 12 – the last field study (for this class)

So today was the last field study for the Physical Settings class. It has been good looking at the land in such a way as it relates to the Bible and the stories that happen in and around those times. I am continually amazed at the vast differences that are here in the land. The regions are close and play off of each other in interesting ways.

            We started off today at Karak. This is probably the site of Kir that is mentioned in the Bible. There is a crusader castle that is there now. When the Israelites pushed westwards this was one of the areas into which they pushed. There is a story here of a battle against the king of Moab, Mesha.  (2 Kings 3) It ends when a son is sacrificed on the walls of the castle, and Israel returns home. It is unclear about whose son it is that is sacrificed but it apparently is a game changer. 

After this we headed North towards Dibon, the capital of Moab in the Medeba Plateau. We got have way up the other side of the Yarnon Canyon and our bus decided it was a great place to hang out for a couple hours waiting for mechanic and a new bus J. It was quite the view and it definitely struck me how separating this canyon really can be. While we were here we talked about how the different regions push in different directions to get more land. The Edomites push westward to get a hold of the Negev. The Moabites push north to the Medeba plateau. Each nation is trying to push to be able to get more resources, more land and more access to the trade routes that come through here.

The Medeba map is a mosaic that was found on a floor in a church. It is interesting the perspective that the people back then had of the world and how places related to each other. Apparently Jerusalem was a very important city to them.

Jerusalem

 The last stop for today was at the site for Mount Nebo. This was the mountain for which Moses is said to have viewed the entire land and then died. The interesting thing, from this mountain and others in the region it is impossible to see everything that is recorded to have been ‘seen’ from this mountain. The Bible doesn’t explain how something like this could have happened and it is left to question. Maybe God gave Moses supernatural vision and it was a super-super clear day (like the days that don’t really exist) or maybe it was god calling to mind everything that Moses had seen of the land since his time in Egypt.

 

We ended the course with looking over the land. Throughout the Old Testament the land and the promise of the land play a very important role in the lives and the faith of the people. Yet when it comes to the New Testament the idea with the land tends to shift a little. Acts is started with a verse that tells the disciples that they are to go from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria and the Ends of the Earth. No longer is the gospel and salvation limited to a single group of people in a particular land with set customs.

            I appreciate it being pointed out that the land portion of the promise was never fulfilled in the fullest sense of it. The land was briefly ‘theirs’ while those on the coast didn’t challenge them too much. It is a sense of ‘Now-and-not-yet.’ This term was used plenty by a couple of professors that I had in undergrad and I think that it accurately described much of what we experience. We have some of the promise now, but much of it is still to come. Hebrews 12 talks about his as well. The Patriarchs had time where they did not have the promise to the full, they had time and opportunity to walk away from it all and yet they stuck to it and they have been rewarded for it.

            This faith, this gospel is passed onto us and now we have the opportunity to carry it forward. We are no longer bound by geography, we are to carry the message to the ends of the earth, and we have the example of faith from those who have gone on before us and Paul tells us that they are a great cloud of witnesses that surround us.