Right Up to the Walls of Jericho!

Jericho.  My new camera is doin some sweet things.

So I don’t know if you can guess from the title, but my latest field trip was a doozy.  Thats right folks, I marched right up to the walls of Jericho, and the walls came a tumblin’ down!  Okay well, I kind of took a bus, and the walls actually have been down for quite some time now, but it was still sweet.  When the scriptures say that a certain man went “down to Jericho” they were not kidding, its about 853 feet below sea level, so it was only natural that on our way down we sang “Under the Sea” when we crossed the sea level sign.

Blow them ramhorns Joshua cried!

 This was also my first official time in the West Bank, so we had to cross through a type of border crossing thing, it wasn’t that big of a deal.  It was interesting to see the difference between West Bank Palestine and the Israeli state.  I guess the Russian president is coming in a day or so, so there were Palestinian flags and Russian flags lining the streets, trees that looked like they were just barely planted also were featured along the roads.  It was really cool though, to be immersed in that area of the Holy Land... it pretty much dismantled any preconceived notion I had of the West Bank.  

We started at the ancient tel, or mound of dirt and ancient runes.  This is the old city of Jericho, you know, the famous one that came down.  It was so cool to see archaeology actually help support the stories of the bible.  You can literally see the bricks in piles knocked over at the base of the tel that date back to Joshua’s time.  How freakin cool is that!  Also from this place you have a clear shot of the Mount of Temptation, this is the traditional spot where Christ was tempted by Satan to cast himself down.  We then walked across the street to Elisha’s spring.  After Elijah was taken up in the chariot of fire, Elisha was in Jericho.  This is the account.

9¶And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren.

20And he said, Bring me a new ^acruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. 

21And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the ^asalt in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these ^bwaters; there shall not be from thence any more death or ^cbarren land.

22So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake.

There are very few place in the Holy Land where you can say, this is exactly where a particular biblical event took place.  This is one of them.  There is only one spring in Jericho, there has always only been one spring in Jericho, and it is beautiful.  

Elisha's Spring, where miracles happen.

After that we took a short drive to Herod’s winter palace.  Apparantly Jerusalem winters are too cold for the king, so he built a complex outside Jericho.  This is where he drowned his nephew in order to secure his status as heir to the throne.  He also died here.  Jerusalem is full of legacies, Herod’s legacy is a bad one, but it lasts and lasts.  The lesson we learned here was that we need to do all we can to be remembered in good ways and for good things.

The Judean Wilderness

Me and Britt, St. George's Monastery 

Then we drove to two overlooks of the Judean desert.  From one we could see St. George’s Monastery, its an awesome building carved into the side of a steep cliff along the road from Jericho to Jerusalem.  The same road Jesus walked.  Here is also where the parable of the good samaritan took place, and you can bet that we read that parable here, and then sang A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief.  From the second overlook you could see all the way to Jerusalem and then on the other side, Jericho.  It was surprisingly beautiful for being a barren wilderness.  

When we got home Spencer (not to be confused with Spence), Corey, Kelsey and I went and studied in the Old City at the hospice, it was probably one of the cooler places I have studied.  Definitely beats Level 2 of the HBLL.

A pretty sweet study spot.

On a side note, I’m going to Egypt in five days!  I wonder what my friends in Provo will be doing? ;)   Haha, don’t call me Shirley.