Day 3 - June 11

Saturday, June 11

This morning we drove to a wheat field where we all got out and watching a shepherd standing with his flock of sheep and goats. After watching him for a while it reminded me of my day with McKenna. He has noone to talk to, he has out here alone all day long...no time for anything else. I just mentioned that to Beka and realized that that is another difference in Eastern/Western mindsets. What do I see as being worth my time? What would I be doing if I were NOT wasting my day? We learned so much about shepherding today! It's such a central theme in Scripture because that's what so many ppl were or at least understood back then and we have no idea! I'll say all the things I can remember learning about the real shepherds and I'm sure they've been paralled in the Bible already between God and his "sheep." The sheep really do know the voice of their own shepherd. They follow, sometimes it takes rocks being thrown or the shepherd running after one sheep to bring him back so the rest don't follow. They must trust their shepherd to lead them where they will be able to eat and yet have enough left in places for all year round. They must trust the shepherd to find them water. They must follow closer to the shepherd when it is getting darker out. It seems so obvious that God would call Himself the shepherd and us the sheep. Who knows, He probably invented shepherding just for that! Psalm 23 The LORD is my Shepherd (leads, protects) I shall not be in want (He provides), He makes me lie down in green pastures (small, sparce, sprouts of grass. Green maybe 1-3 months of the year but then turn brown. Not too much, but just enough), He leads me beside quiet waters (finds water in the desert), He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness (switchbacks that the shepherd leads the sheep on to go down steep hills where if they would do it their way, they would go straight down and slide/fall so their death - on almost all hillsides in the mountains.) For His name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me (the real shepherd will stay with the sheep to protect them) your rod and your staff, they comfort me (used to lead, guide and protect)... We next stopped and saw an Eshel tree or a Tamarisk tree. The kind that Abraham planted in Gen 21:33. The neat thing about it was that it served him absolutely no purpose. Why did he plant it then? For future generations! He was thinking of God's covenant with him. How often do we do things for the benefit of us and our future generations? kent brought up the topic of songs we sing in churches. If they are songs about feelings & stuff, that passes and fades. If they are true words of the Bible it will never fade. Also, different things we do in churches & ways we think. Went up to a cannonite city in the desert called Arad. Rains only 12-16 inches a year so they work with that. We went into one of the houses/rooms in that city that was like Lot's house. I'm not sure why he compared it to that but oh well. We talked abotu Lot and Sodom & Gomorah. Ezekial 16 tells us why God destroyed Sodom. The Bible says the reason was because they didn't take care of the poor and needy. That was crazy. We like to ignore Bible texts sometimes. The ones that either we don't find so convenient or the ones we read and see noone else obeying that one or not finding it to be so important so we ust skip over it too! Why?? Next we walked over an Israelite temple. Only known one left standing in Israel. It was realy cool, all the rooms were there just as described in the Bible. The alter was the exact dimensions as commanded in the text. We walked into the Holy of Holies and the Holy Room. Their real word is house, not temple, so we talked about how it was God's house... God was close to the people. Something I just thought of, random. Somewhere we read that the Israelites married God in the desert. It sais He became her husband. God has so much to say about that. Before we left God's house, we all touched the alter and sang the doxology. Next thing we walked probably a mile to a bedowin tribe. They are the desert people. One the way 3 young, precious, girls & one boy ran out to meet us. They pointed to our stuff for us to give them food (american treats) adn they just hung all over us. They wanted to know everything about us and our stuff so they kept pointing & stuff. The house we went to was a big cement home (square) and we all sat under their front canopy. They are a super hospitable tribe. According to tradition, they must entertain, feed and shelter any stranger for free for at least 3 nights. They gave us hot tea when we arrived and then made us bread over the fire. They had a ton of camels! After lunch we drove to the Judah mountains and climbed down into a large wadi. A wadi is an empty riverbed in which when it rains heavily in the mountains all the water drains into these. Rushes into them causing flash floods of up to 70 ft high! Those, by the way, are the #1 killer in the desert! We say another sheep herd here. We went off and read by ourselves. Psalm 23, 46, 131 & Deut 6-8. I can't blame the Israelites for complaining in the desert. It can be nasty. No water!