JERUSALEM JOURNAL: DAY 10 – TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 2010
JIM COVINGTONS: TRAVEL LOG:
1. Biblical Negev (3 topographical basins)
2. Central basin: Beersheba (with planes, trains, and camels, oh my!)
3. Eastern basin: Arad (with military installations, the flash of a rocket, an unusual smoke plume, and sound blast in the distance)
4. Lunch at Avedat (grocery store sandwich; ibex eating grass)
5. En Avdat: Nahal Zin hike
6. Makhtesh Ramon in Mitzpe Ramon
7. Twenty minutes silence on the bus driving in Wilderness Paran. Twenty minutes silence and meditation off the bus, somewhere in Wilderness Paran. Forty minutes compared to Israelʼs forty years.
8. Adi Hotel in Eilat (with all of the Birthright tours)
According to Todd, there is more history in the Negev and in this area than there is in the Highlands or in the wilderness. Gerar and Ziglag are in the Western Basin of the Negev, and Isaac was born near Gerar. David spent ten years at Ziglag, which was given to him by the Philistines, because they thought that they could profit from his dispute with Saul. In fact, while they thought that David was raiding Judean settlements and outposts, he was really raiding the “ites” of the area and sending the plunder to Judah in anticipation of being eventually crowned as Judah’s King, once Saul was taken care of. During one of his campaigns, Ziglag was raided by the Amalekites, and David went down, attacked them, and brought back all his belongings, family, and plunder taken from his attack. David split the plunder with all his men, even the ones who stayed back to guard their supplies and horses.
At Beersheba, they found a hewn stone altar, with horns, probably used in Canaanite worship. The one at the site is a replica, because the original is in a museum. It was actually found in a dismantled state when the walls of the site were excavated, probably having been dismantled under either Josiah or Hezekiah of Judah, who got rid of all the high places. According to God’s command, altars dedicated to Him could not be made of hewn stone, even the horns at the corners. The prophet Amos (8:14), who may have been attracted here because of the patriarchs, talks about idolatry, referring to the false gods of Beersheba. The horns, according to PS 118:27, might have been used to tie animals to the altar, but it is well known that they provided asylum to those who committed manslaughter (1 Kings 2:28, Psalm 18:2) and other offenses, against which the victim’s family or friends might try to take revenge.
Because Beersheba is in the Negev, there is much less rainfall, and the chances of famine years can be high. For that reason, Jacob sent his family from Beersheba to Egypt. Abram traveled from Heran to Beersheba. In Genesis 13:1, Abram was in Egypt and went into the Negev, probably going from place to place, because he was a sheep herder and lived a migrant life. Canaanites were farmers. That is why you find the patriarchs in the Negev, while the Canaanites were not.
In Genesis Chapter 20, it said that Abraham lived in Gerar, where he passed off his wife as his sister to the King of Gerar, and in Chapter 21, Sara gave birth to Isaac in the Negev. She then sent Hagar and Ishmael off into the wilderness of Peran, and at Beersheba, Abraham makes a treaty with King Abimelech, setting aside seven ewes to witness the fact that the disputed owner of a well at Beersheba was Abraham, the person who dug that well. While they found a well at the present site of Tel Shiva, outside the city walls, they are unable to date that well to Abraham. The earliest remains date to the 1200s, not the 1400s B.C. It is more likely that Abraham’s well may be at another site. The Bible actually mentions two sites in the area, Sheva and Beersheba.
Isaac had the same problem concerning water rights. When he moved from Gerar to the area of Beersheba, he reopened some of his father’s old wells. God allowed Isaac to multiply for the sake of his father, and the implication here is that God rewards generations and that the hope of the resurrection accrued to Abraham and his generations, as well. Isaac built an altar at Beersheba and dug a well, also.
The current tel may have been an administrative center because of the public storehouses. Stratum 2 is from the time of Hezekiah, and the present site has been restored to the time of the late part of the Judean kingdom. The houses found here have casement walls in which there are inner and outer walls. These were popular in the early kingdom, and the walls could either be filled to fortify against siege, or, in time of peace, create an extra room. The rooms are separated by pillars, and some houses may have had more than one story or a stairway to the roof. Gerar and Gaza lie to the west of Beersheba, and Arad is to the east. To the South are modern day military training grounds, and to the North is the beginning of the Hill Country. The first city, Hebron, is where Abraham buys the first piece of land so that he could build a tomb for his wife, Sara. Genesis 23 shows that Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, and Leah are all buried there, also.
On their way to Jericho, from the wilderness, the Israelites were attacked along the Way of Atharim by the King of Arad (Numbers 21). Because they appealed to God for victory, the Israelites won. Unfortunately, at the present site of Arad, they have found artifacts from 3000 to 2400 and from 1200 to 600 BC, but not from 1400 to 1200, which is the time that attack would have taken place. Egyptian Pharoah Shishak records at Karnak a list of cities that he attacked. He lists two different places named Arad.
We don’t know whether there was a king of a city named Arad or something else. But Moses was attacked by somebody from another Arad, a tribe, or a region. There were fifty forts from Solomon’s rule in the Negev that were discovered. The current site of Arad covers thirty acres. It is along the road to Hebron, and this is one of the watchtowers built to protect routes and borders from nomadic elements, raiders, Edomites, and others who might want to do harm to the Hebrews. The Arad Ostraca describes the conditions, and Obadiah condemns the Edomites from helping others when their brother Israel was being attacked. The site contains a temple where the Israelites worshiped. One can see the two standing stones and two incense stones, as well as the sacrificial altar. They probably worshiped two gods. It is also quite possible that one was Yahweh and the other was an Ashura (consort) that may have been the result of syncretism by the Israelites taking on a Canaanite deity to pair with Yahweh. The bottom line is that these were supposed to be Judeans, the faithful. The stones and altar are replicas, the originals being hauled away to a museum.
Numbers 34 mentions this place. The steep walls are created by the Eocene limestone being eaten away. Most of our students made the steep climb out of the canyon, on steel ladders, up the face of the wall. The animals are Ibex’s.
This canyon was created by erosion and is located outside of the promised land. It goes to the other side of the Aravah. Looking to the East, one can see the Transjordan. Kadish-Barnea is twenty miles to the west and is where the Israelites first came and sent out spies before crossing over. Only two of the spies were willing to trust in God providing a victory. The other ten failed to think about the strength and power of God, but instead advised Moses not to attack and stirred up rebellion against him. For this, the Hebrews were forced to wander for forty years in the wilderness. All those who were twenty years old or more, except for Joshua and Caleb (from the tribes of Judah and Ephriam) who were with God and reported that the land could be taken, died in the wilderness at the rate of about 100 per day. God had judged that generation, and it was not until a new generation, trained and disciplined by God, was ready that God allowed them to cross over to the promised land.
E. The wilderness areas take their name from the Nahal Zin and Nahal Paran. Both wilderness areas come together at Kadesh-Barnia. We traveled through the Wilderness of Paran on our way to Eilat. Along the way, we quietly spent time in contemplative meditation. At the end of twenty minutes of silence, the bus stopped, and each of us walked out into the wilderness to our own little space to contemplate and meditate. During that time, sitting with my back against a rock, I wrote the following prayer:
Holy Father,
I feel alone and separated. There is nothing here for me; only God can free me from the wilderness of sin, loneliness, pain, and despair. You are my strength and my refuge. It is only through You that my wounds are healed and I return to your shelter for strength and comfort. Your Son, Jesus Christ has redeemed me from my sin and made me holy in the eyes of the Father. May I not wander, stray, or take the path away from God. Let me find you in all my travels and doings; let me worship you with all my being; and let me love you with all my heart, soul, and mind. Let me do your calling, and do it well, not by my effort, but through your grace. I ask all this in Your Son’s name, Jesus Christ: my Lord, my Savior, and my God.
Amen
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