Gezer and Jericho

June 19th

Today we went to Gezer and Jericho. Gezer is important because it has a Solomonic gate, which would have been like the one in Ruth where the city officials did business. There was also an archaeological dig taking place there, which looked really hot, dirty, and painstaking. I’m really glad I am getting to travel around Israel and not sifting through dirt on a small plot of land!! But I guess someone has to do it. After that we stopped at a Mosk to see the view of different regions (including Gibeon). This Mosk is shared by Jews and Muslims. My professor explained it as the Jews have the bottom floor, the Muslims have the second floor, and the Christians go to the roof (to look at the view and take pictures!). It is so interesting how Jews and Muslims have to share different religious spaces in Israel even though there is so much tension between them.

From there we headed towards Jericho. In order to get to Jericho we had to drive through the wilderness. The wilderness is basically rolling hills of desert, all the same light colored sand. Throughout the wilderness are pockets of camps of people, who live like Abraham would have. I can’t imagine living in the wilderness. It is SO hot, barren, bleak, and dry. It made me nervous just thinking about getting stuck out there. Driving into Jericho everything is immediately green with banana leaves. It is like an oasis in the desert. We saw the bottom of the Jericho wall and I got to clean off my dusty, dirty feet in the fountain.

On our way back from Jericho we stopped and looked at a cistern. Cisterns hold water that is supplied from natural springs. Originally, the Israelites just relied on God to give them enough water from the springs, but they started to worry that they wouldn’t always have enough so they invented cisterns to have a reserve. Later that night some of us were doing a Bible study and we started unpacking this concept. In Jeremiah 2:13 God says, “My people have committed two sins: they have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” God goes on to ask why his people would turn to foreign gods and says, “Have I been a desert to Israel or a land of great darkness?” Then we looked at John 4 where Jesus meets the Samaritan woman and offers her living water. After driving through the wilderness it makes sense that people would feel worried about not having enough water. But in creating cisterns people began to move their faith away from God onto their own reliance. Cisterns are not nearly as good as a natural spring, because they hold stagnant water and they run out, while natural springs are fresh and cool. This really encouraged me to keep going to God as my direct source of living water, rather than trying to collect water on my own to sustain me that clearly will run dry. It is especially tempting when going through a desert, or wilderness, period of life to try to collect my own reserves because running out of water, or life giving sources, is so scary. But in going directly to the source of life I don’t need to be afraid of running dry. In addition, it reminded me that while I can go through desert periods, God is never the desert. God is the one offering me living water, bringing me out of the desert to a natural, abundant spring like in green Jericho.