Book of Joshua Field Study

Are you ready to go on a field study with our "Joshua" class?  Here we are, first thing in the morning, standing at a site just east of Jericho, which is the city you see in the background. Nate, on the right, is yawning with anticipation.  Where we are standing is a proposed site for where "Gilgal" may have been - the place where the Israelites camped first after crossing the Jordan with Joshua.  The hills rising just beyond Jericho are where the spies that Joshua sent to Jericho would have hid for 3 days after Rahab helped them escape.

 Walking back to the bus after looking at "Gilgal", we came across this family of sheep and goats.

 Now we are at "Tel es-Sultan" which is the historic Jericho site.  You are looking down into a trench at the oldest known structure built by humans!! It's a tower of some kind, dated at somewhere around 8000 BC.  Jericho is supposedly the oldest inhabited city on earth.  There are many layers of civilation at this Jericho site.

You have to look closely at this picture (enlarge it)..That's professor Stone pointing out what we can see in the trench. Look to the middle of the picture, then slightly to the right and you will see layers of stone and beneath that some mudbricks. This dirt hides all kinds of prior dwellings and structures.

 The red-roofed building here houses the famous spring at Jericho, which produces 1200 gallons of water a minute (in the middle of a desert)!!  You can see the results just beyond it with the lush green fields. Jericho is an amazing oasis in the middle of a harsh and hot desert area.

 These cable cars kept zipping over our heads while were looking at the holes in the ground:)

 So, now we get to ride the cable car!! This thing is in the Guiness book of world records, for being the longest cable car below sea level in the world!! (I'll bet it's the ONLY cable car below sea level:)

 See, I told you....

 On the cable car, just starting to 'take off'...here we go....

 Looking down, I zoomed in on this purple house....I had never seen a purple house in Israel before.

 Passing over a huge banana plantation...wow, that's alot of bananas.

 Approaching the hills, we can see a monastery up to the left, and see the trail where the people are walking up to it (pictures were taken through the murky plexiglass walls of the cable car).

 Now we are up at the top of the hill, and this is the view of Jericho down below us.  It truly is an oasis in the desert.

 This beautiful clump of flowers just needed to have its picture taken.

 On the way back down the mountain, I zoomed even closer into the purple house, and caught its owner taking a stroll.

 The sign says to 'enjoy the view', so we are...see how barren it is where there is no irrigation.

 Now we are at one of the most interesting archaeology sites I have ever seen. This is one of 5 different 'Sandal Sites' in the area of the Jordan Valley and Shechem...a large, football-field-size site with a low stone fence around it in the shape of a foot, or sandal. This one is called "Bedhat es-Sha'ab". And its always the shape of a right foot.

 We climbed a rocky hill above the 'sandal' but it was still hard to get a picture of the entire shape of the shoe. The square structure you see is inside the foot.  There is a scripture verse in Joshua 1:3 that says" Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses".

 Dr. Stone next to some stones (how appropriate) pointing to the foot down below.

 Here, on the right side of the photo, you are looking at the heel end of the foot. This was likely an Israelite site, because is dated to around 1250-1200 BC, the same time period they crossed over the Jordan.  There are no images, or god figures in the site, which also points to Israelites who worshipped the unseen God.

 Up on the rocky hillside, discussing the sandal site.

 Climbing down from the rocky slope to get a closer view of the foot.  You can see how barren it is in this region.

 We are now within the sandal site, sitting on the edge of a circular structure, probably an altar, made of unhewn stones. There were remains of animals near the site, but no pig, donkey or dog, which also indicates an Israelite site.

 We have now traveled west into the hills of Samaria to arrive at Shechem (modern-day Nablus), which is an archaelogical park of the Shechem ruins. You are looking at the sun setting over Mount Gerazim. Dr. Stone is leading our group to the ruins for our final site of the day.

 Ryane is sitting on an ancient standing stone of some type.

 Rhonda is checking out the 'temple' area, with remainders of columns visible.

Shechem sits in a pass between 2 mountains: Mount Gerazim, and also Mount Ebal which you see here above the dwellings. In Joshua chapter 8, Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal...half the people stood on Ebal and half on Gerazim, and he led a renewal of their covenant with the Lord from that place. Later this semester I will be returning to Mount Ebal to see what they believe is the actual altar that Joshua built there, discovered just a few year ago.

 Alana is waving, standing next to a huge stone which has been there since the time of Joshua...we are talking more than 3000 years ago!!

 Believe it or not, these were the gates to the city of Shechem at one time. 

 I turned around while Dr. Stone was talking about the gates, I snapped this pic of the olive tree right behind me.

 Just outside the fence (that you see here) that surrounds the archeological site, is a refugee camp, and here a man and little girl are staring at the Americans who are looking at the piles of rocks.

 At the very end of the day, Nate did a beautiful job of reciting Joshua Chapter 24. It was a very special moment.  You might want to take a look at Chapter 24 to see what he had memorized, and then take a listen below:

 We are standing on a street in Shechem, waiting for the bus driver to come back and unlock the bus. The mountain in the distance is Mount Gerazim, and there is a Samaritan temple up there.

 So where did that bus driver go??

Looking up above the street, I see this Dad and two little kids peering out the window, here they are waving back at me. They are enjoying looking out the window at the Americans waiting by the bus.

The Zechariah Garden

We were invited to come for 'tea' one afternoon at a couple's home, Mirabelle and Michael who are from the UK. This is the view from their outside patio and garden. We are overlooking the Hinnom valley up towards Mount Zion, where I go to school.

 View from the same garden, looking down into the Hinnon Valley as it winds to meet the Kidron Valley. That is the Mount of Olives in the distance, a beautiful view on a beautiful day. Mirabelle wants to show us her "Zechariah Garden" and invites us to sit outside in their "Sukkah".

 Mirabelle and Edith are in the Sukkah, on their patio, a plate of fresh pomegranates on the table.

 Standing in the garden, looking toward the Sukkah, here is a lovely fountain. Mirabelle and Michael created this garden out of the plants and items found in the book of Zechariah. Ch 13:1 speaks of a fountain.

She has myrtle and an apple tree in her garden (which are in Zechariah), but this beautiful rose caught my eye.

Discussing the garden and what's going on in Israel over some tea and cookies.

 The tree you see here is an olive tree, and in the distance is the Mount of Olives.

 Edith, myself and Maureen, standing on the back wall of the garden, which represents a "Wall of Fire" mentioned in Ch.2:5.

When fully in bloom, the 'wall' looks like fire, here is one solitary bloom, which is a 'fire' blossom.

 Maureen can't help but smell every bloom she says, it is so fragrant!

 Another gorgeous rose blooming perfectly, just for us:)

 Michael and Edith in the Zechariah Garden. Right behind Michael is a small 'sukkah' with a bench, that you can sit on and read/relax/meditate here in their garden.

 Mirabelle and Michael, a precious couple who love Israel and are here just to pray for her.

This is a large mosaic on the wall inside their apartment done by an artist they know. It depicts the mount of Olives being split, and you can see the river running through the city of Jerusalem, the one that comes from the throne and brings life, all the way down to the dead sea, it is just beautiful.

The Jewish Market (Shuk)

 I want to show you the Jewish Market, or "Shuk"...on the way in the car I saw this '24/6' sign...seems unusual, but not in Israel, where the Jewish neighborhoods faithfully observe Shabbat (Sabbath)

 A look at Ben Yehuda street, a very busy pedestrian street, lots of shops and activity, especially in the evenings.

This is Jaffa Street...no cars go on this road, but by the rail tracks, you can tell the lite train goes on this road. We had to ride the train to get to the shuk, since there is no parking anywhere around the shuk.

 The train is coming!! We had to use the kiosk you see the guy standing at to each buy a ticket for about 7 shekels each (less than $2).

 Pretty crowded on the train that day.

 Here we are at the bountiful Jewish market (shuk)!

 Olives, Olives, Olives everywhere, all different kinds...

 Grapes Galore!

 Dates and Dates and more different kinds of dates, and also some figs!  Edith, Maureen, and I each sampled a 'date' here:)

 Some smelly fish added to the ambience of the shuk:)

 BREAD, oh it smells so good, fresh and delicious!

 Got a sweet tooth?  Well here's every color candy you can imagine!

 Pomegranates are in season, so pretty and soooo good:)

 Have you ever seen a whole fresh fig??? Well, here they are and now you have!

Edith and I are sitting outside the building where we met in 2008! We met when I was on a tour in Israel with  Eagles Wings, and Edith just happened to be in the same prayer tower (there's a house of prayer up on the 14th floor of the building behind us).  We couldn't believe we were some the same town (Brunswick), yet met in Jerusalem! Yes, Edith and Maureen are back in the states now, and I am just getting this blog out. I miss them, they were great roommates, we did 'great exploits' together:)

Baptism at Jordan, Sunset from Mt. Scopus

 Today Edith, Maureen and I are taking two young men, Philip and Charley (students at JUC) to the Baptismal site on the Jordan River. This is the traditional (and probably pretty accurate) site of where John the Baptist was baptizing people, including Jesus' baptism. Many pilgrims that come to Israel get baptized at Yardenit, which is a site near the Sea of Galilee, but this site is much more likely to be where Jesus was baptized. Also it is the site (or very near) where the Israelites crossed over the Jordan with Joshua.

Philip is reading and declaring the scripture about the "voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord!", etc.  He is an intense young man with a awesome call on his life and a "John the Baptist" anointing.

 Edith is sounding the shofar over the Jordan river prior to the young men being baptized.

 Charley and Philip are ready, having been prayed and prophesied over.

Here's the video of their baptism!!

 Coming up out of the water...the joy of the Lord on their faces.

 Edith has a way of finding soldiers to talk to. These two are here guarding the border (Jordan - country- is right across the river, so they are the border patrol here). Edith actually blew the shofar standing between the two soldiers, prior to taking this picture. She was telling them how much we care about the IDF and pray protection over them, and they were all smiles, very grateful.

 Next we went to the on-site gift store. The young man in the right is an Israeli who works for the park service there. He asked Edith to blow the shofar, and he could not believe his ears. Charlie is laughing in the middle. There aren't very many women who blow shofars in Israel, and most men don't do it as well as she does. You can see the disbelief on his face:)

Late that afternoon, in the early evening we drove up to Mount Scopus to watch the sun set. Mount Scopus is the mountain (or hill) right next to the Mount of Olives. Up here is where the famous Hebrew University is. Here is a picture looking down on the Old City of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount taken at dusk. You can see the Dome of the Rock.

The first rays of the sun setting over the new city of Jerusalem.

 Time to blow the Shofar...it's a call to wake up, to gather, to worship the Lord, to declare His Lordship.

Beautiful rays of light falling on Jerusalem.

 I couldn't have planned this picture, it was really nice of this bird to fly by:)

Do you notice the harp to the right of the setting sun?  That is a huge suspension bridge in the New City of Jerusalem...and they call it David's harp.

 Close-up of David's harp and the setting sun.

 The sun has set, and Edith is getting ready to fly away with that bird:)

Night has fallen, we don't want to leave the mountain, but it's time to go back down to Jerusalem. Another glorious day!!