I will make rivers flow on barren heights,
Isaiah 41:18
and springs within the valleys
I will turn the desert into pools of water,
and the parched ground into springs.
Sunday was our next field study day, touring from Jericho in the east along the Jordan River to Gezer in the west, which overlooks the coastal plain out to the Mediterranean Sea.
Journeying from Jerusalem down to Jericho requires crossing the Judean Wilderness and descending over 3000 feet. The wilderness is a fascinating place to study. It is a vast wasteland full of bumpy terrain and deep, dark canyons. The desert is a place to pass through. It isn’t a place to stay. Yet there are those who live in the desert whether by choice (monks) or obligation/tradition (Bedouin). They survive there, but it doesn’t seem like they thrive. It is a difficult life. Yet life in the desert is also training to trust in the Lord. The Lord took the Israelites through “through all that vast and dreadful desert” (Deuteronomy 1:19). The desert is a place that forces people to rely completely on God because they can’t do it on their own strength. One can also compare it to spiritual deserts – hard times of life. When life gets tough and you can’t do it on your own, that is when you need to turn to the Lord because it’s the only way to get by. Better yet is to depend on the Lord in the good as well as the bad times.
Jericho is an oasis just past the hills that open up into the plain of the Rift Valley, situated a few miles north of the Dead Sea. Jericho has been called the oldest city in the world. A tower dated to the Neolithic period was found at the ancient site (8000 BC). When the Israelites finished wandering in the desert from Egypt to the land of promise, they crossed the Jordan River by Jericho. Jericho was the first city to fall. Despite its destruction, it has continued to be a city. Besides the modern city, Herod the Great (I hope you’re familiar with that name by now) built a luxurious palace in Jericho. Jericho is the Palm Springs of Israel (in fact it’s called the City of Palms). When it’s cold and snowing in Jerusalem in the winter, a hike of about a dozen miles east to Jericho yields sun and warmth.
The most memorable part of the day was our drive west from Jericho. As we ascended back into the hills to the west, rain began to fall. We experienced our first light rain on Saturday here in Jerusalem. It doesn’t rain in Israel all summer (since roughly April), so for rain to fall means a changing of the seasons. Sunday it was raining in the desert. As the rain fell, it rolled off the dry, chalky soil, cascading into tiny waterfalls and collecting into small streams along the side of the highway. Not seeing rain for this amount of time, the road quickly became slick. Going uphill in a large bus at a steep angle meant we had a difficult time getting enough traction, as the bus slid on the narrow road. To add to the experience, on our right was a 100-200 foot drop into the canyon below with no guard rail. Thankfully we made it up safely to finish our day at Gezer in the west.
