Monday, January 16, 2012

Jericho



This trip is completely shattering my conception of Biblical history. Today we spent the morning in Jericho. There is a lot of debate about the defensive status of Jericho during the time Joshua arrived. Basically, VeggiTales is wrong- it was not a giant steel box in the middle of a flat desert. At the very best, it would have been a smallish town defended by walls that has been attacked ages before and never really rebuilt. So much for the French peas throwing slurpees. In the past, students walked from Jerusalem to Jericho- a reenactent of the good Samaritan. I guess it took them about 6 hours, and the country is perpetual hills and nothing to look at except rock and sand. They can't do it any more due to security risks, but we went up to a monestary in the middle of the wilderness where Christ spent 40 days fasting.
Elisha's Spring in Jericho
A Monastery in the Judean Wilderness
               
     
                                                                      
By Elisha's Spring

My insight for the day stems from this close up investigation of the Judean wilderness. Driving through, it is so desolate. But standing out in the middle of it on the top of a hill, there is a harsh sort of beauty. We spent a few minutes walking along a ridge, and the thought that came to me, "I think these rocks sound the same now as they did when Christ walked here." As strange as it sounds, it was nice to make that connection. And as we were reading the account in Matthew 4, Bro Huntsman got to verse 3 "If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bbread" and picked up a stone from the ground. Talk about powerful imagery. Being out there completely changed my mental image of Lehi's vision too. As my teacher pointed out, this is the wilderness that Lehi knew and walked through to leave Jerusalem, so it makes sense that it may be what he saw in his dream.

There are so few places here that are the same as they would have been in Christ's time.  I guess I took things like the Sacred Grove and the Kirtland temple for granted because I grew up where leaders wanted to preserve sites as they were. The christian rulers response to finding any site that may be related to Christ was to build a chapel. I had never known this type of worship before. Here they build a monestary, a chapel, or a sanctuary. There is no less respect for it, but it was a way to protect holy sites from destruction during invasion and a way to  preserve it for pilgrims.

Someone asked a while ago about scarves here. I have paid attention the past few outings, and here is what I noticed. Headscarves are usually either one solid color or a flower print pattern. The colors are fairly conservitive- each one stays in the same color scheme I haven't seen any rainbow patterns, or anything on opposite sides of the color wheel, for that matter.  There is no noticable indicator of who wears patterns and who wears solids. On a related note, I have gone into the city several times and seen schoolage girls wearing what is clearly a uniform, including a headscarf, and then they all have different styles of jeans on. My best guess is that they put on the jeans as soon as school is out, but don't bother changing all the way. I thought is was an interesting depiction of westernization in a country that maintains it's classic formality.

1 comment:

  1. I expect to see you in the future wearing one of those scarves. Ok? Love you. Oh by the way I got transferred out of Hinckley Hall to a boys building. I too am having great adventures!!
    Hugs!!

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