I know I have not written on my blog on a very long time so let me explain my absence. Last week at school was midterm week here so I had 24 pages of papers to write in about 3 days. I only had about 3 days because we had a 3 day fields study the previous weekend. So needless to say I was very very busy this last week.
Last weekend we had a 3 day field study that went from Saturday to Monday. On Saturday we left Jerusalem at 7 in the morning as usual. From there we drove west towards the Shephalah. The Shephalah is the small foothills between the hills of Judah and the coast. One of the places that we visited was Lacish. Lacish is the city in the middle of the Shephalah that basically the whole region. It is one of the cites that king Hezekiah fortified to prepare the nation for the invasion of Sennacherib. Needless to say Sennacherib came through the Shephalah and destroyed Lacish. One unique thing about Lacish is that there was a chariot garrison that was stationed there. While we were there I was reminded of the verse in Psalms that says "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God." King Hezekiah was never able to fully trust God for his defense so when Sennacherib attacked he wiped out all the defenses he had.
After that day we drove to Beer-Sheba in the Negev and stayed the night there. The next morning we woke up and drove to the Biblical sight of Beer-Sheba. Here was a sight that was out in the middle of the desert and had no civilization on the sight until the time of the united monarchy in Israel. There was no way that there could of been a city there before there was an outside government to keep it well supplied. It was built to direct the trade from Arabia to Jerusalem instead of the coast. We then went to Arad where there is a holy of hollies with 2 incense burners and two standing stones. This made it pretty clear that Israel was not only worshiping one God and is evidence of what the prophets say is the state of Israel. After that we visited the largest erosion crater on earth. The size of it is breathtaking. It was massive and was so awesome to sit on the side of the cliff and look out into the crater as Ibex jumped around on nearby rocks.
The next day was my birthday and probably my favorite day in Israel so far. We started the day at Herod's desert fortress of Masada. Masada is on a high plateau near the shore of the Dead Sea. Our group spent all morning here. It was a spectacular sight and must have been even more spectacular in the time of Herod. From there we went to the Dead Sea and were able to swim around in it. It was very strange. You did not need to try and swim, you couldn't help but float. Later we went to Qumran where the majority of the Dead Sea scrolls were found. That was a very cool location. The legend is that a passing Bedouin threw a rock into the cave that held the scrolls and heard a pot break. So naturally all the guys in the group tried to throw a rock in the exact cave. Let me tell you, that Bedouin had a good arm.
After that we went home and I began one of the many papers I had this week. I am finally done with midterm week and will be home before I know it, the time is just flying by. Thank you all for reading
Jason
