1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 He is saying of L-RD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. 4 He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. 5 You will not fear the terror of the night, the arrow that flies by day, 6 The pestilence that stalks in darkness, the destruction that wastes at noonday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 8 You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refugeb— 10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. 12 On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
14 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. 15 When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” (Says our Father, our King)
The L-RD bless you and protect you! The L-RD deal kindly and graciously with you! The L-RD bestow His favor upon you and grant you peace! (Numbers 6:24-26)
Once and a while I check Fox. Mostly it’s about the coup-by-impeachment attempt in Washington. Yesterday an easy-to-miss article with comments by a Fox medical consultant talked about San Francisco’s crisis of Homelessness. “Isn’t it ironic that a city of germaphobes, of exercise-conscious, environmentally conscious [people] … are now in a city that’s awash in human waste, which is spreading hepatitis A outbreaks every year,” Siegel said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Tuesday. “Big outbreaks of hepatitis A, rats in the streets feeding off of the garbage in sewage, typhus, typhoid fever, rotten bacterial infections and even the plague may be coming,” the consultant said.
In Medford, OR, there are more and more homeless. My daughter, who lives there, said that many are arriving by bus from Portland, OR. The remedy for homelessness in Portland is for the city to buy a bus ticket for homeless people who are picked up by police. Apparently it all started with Seattle, according to my daughter, where the homeless were sent from Washington State across the state line into Portland, OR. The situation, it seems to me, is without a viable solution, but shipping folks out isn’t even a good attempt at one. Another approach had been practiced in Austin, TX. It became such a haven that homeless flocked there for the food, which as plentiful. The cardboard shelters became such a menace, and the mayor did nothing but offer more food, that the governor of Texas sent in road crews to remove the squalid mess. Still not a good solution–IMHO. One city is now spending something like $20,000 on each shelter that will allow four homeless to sleep out of the cold. The shelters line the public streets. Another not-so-good solution, not to mention ridiculously expensive. $20,000 for a tent? Only a politician would think that a good solution. And then I read somewhere that there’s the town forcing residents to allow homeless to sleep in their yards. Really? Is that a viable solution.
A few year ago, over in Athens, GA, there was a small community of homeless people. Mostly living in cardboard shacks, they self-policed themselves. They somehow managed to have outdoor latrines, the kind used at constructions sites that must be emptied. And somehow they were emptied, too. They were not a problem until sub-developments encroached upon land on which they were squatting. Like how we expand and expand the urban sprawl and drive out the wildlife, they ended up having to drive out the homeless community.
There are many homeless that live in cars, trucks, or RVs. They park often in public parking spaces, or in office parking, and move regularly. There is an “organization” devoted to informing these types of homeless people on the best places to crash (as in sleep) and other advice. Out in the desert, near the Salten Sea in California, an abandon Air Force base has large cement slabs still remaining near the old run way. RVs set up a fairly large self-policing community. This community, like the one in Athens was, isn’t a threat to anyone. The people don’t hang around looking for handouts on city streets, don’t cause business men and women to cringe in fear as they try to get to their offices.
San Luis Obispo, CA, (fondly referred to as San Luis or just SLO)had been a model for how to respond to situations that came up. When a shopping plaza was allowed to go in outside of town–various companies needed big box buildings, more space, and downtown didn’t offer that at all–the city stepped up to prevent the demise of the downtown, like had happened in so many other towns. San Luis started a Farmer’s Market night, closed the streets, and had a huge party. Businesses didn’t die. SLO eventually grew to have an even nicer downtown and still have that plaza outside of town, and even a few more small ones.
SLO also had a novel approach to homeless people. There was a small Christian commune outside of town. It was built with old military barracks that were disassembled and reassembled on acreage. When sheriff deputies and city police came across mentally disturbed people that didn’t qualify for lock up, or committing, they dropped them off at the Commune. Same with homeless. When the commune dissolved, the city closed a rural campground and bussed the homeless out of town each night, bringing them back during the day.
Some towns do better at finding reasonable solutions, not perfect, but reasonable, accommodating not only the “offender” but those who are tax-paying residents.
I’ve been praying about homelessness for awhile now. It began in praying for homeless veterans, and veterans with PTSD, the wounded, and those having a hard time reentering America’s face-paced culture. Eventually my prayer expanded to homelessness in general.
How might a Believer view homeless people and the entire crisis of homelessness? Perhaps a bit of Bible perspective is one place to begin.
And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:19,20)
Yeshua said that He had “nowhere to lay his head.” Sounds homeless, doesn’t it?
It seems to me homelessness isn’t one specific “thing” that can be “solved” with one approach. The person with diminished mental capacity or mental disorder is very different than a person who is laid off, or works for minimum wages, and simply can’t pay the high rent for even an apartment. There are people with a vehicle or boat that they can sleep in, and others who have nothing more than a few blankets or a sleeping bag. I’ve met people who are willing to work if work is available, and I’ve met people who refuse to work even if it is offered. I imagine that there are folks out there that might work but no longer believe anyone wants them, would take them.
Looking at homelessness from it’s individual trigger might help. What triggered a person to end up on the streets? Loss of a job is an easy one understand. Some might find it difficult to understand how a person could intentionally walk away from home and family and live on the streets. Some people simple no longer can cope with their lives. They are like the haunted. They run. PTSD, with or without a recognizable cause.
Once on the road it becomes difficult to maintain the ties to society that we, I think, take for granted. For instance, when it is time to renew a driver license, what address is used? It seems to me that it doesn’t take long before a person becomes disenfranchised. Once out, how does a person get back in?
Several months ago my daughter that lives with us, and is already twenty-two, looked for an apartment. She found several she could afford on her salary, but not one would even accept an application. All required a salary of three to four times the rent. Not to mention that she at least has a current address. On the streets, no current driver license, no address, a person is really out.
“Hey, get a job!” It’s an easy thing to yell at someone standing on the corner with a cardboard sign saying, “Hungry. Need a dollar.” Or something like that. The disenfranchised aren’t going to wake up one morning, walk into the bathroom, shower, dress in clean clothing, and head out the door to find a job.
If you know more about homelessness, please share it.
Having lived in a 14 foot travel trailer for two years, while working, I do have some, albeit limited, experience with one form of homelessness.
Sunday morning President Trump addressed the nation on the Special Ops raid on the IS leader who was responsible for many murders, including four Americans.
“He just can’t speak right,” said someone who’d listened to the speech also. “He doesn’t sound like a president should sound.”
Having learned the impossibility of actually speaking about anything to do with religion or politics with a liberal, I didn’t say much, and totally ignored that baiting comment. Baiting, as it would lead to a discussion that one can’t win against a liberal. One doesn’t argue facts against emotion. Yet I couldn’t resist saying just one thing.
“Perhaps. But he speaks the way most Americans speak,” I said. He doesn’t use ten dollar words when a dime word will do—I didn’t add that, though.
A neighbor, who is from New York City, once told me that President Trump speaks just like a New Yorker. Does President Trump have the oratory gift of, say, President Reagan? No. Certainly not. So what. As I see it, what President Trump said came across loud and clear. What he said, as I see it, made sense.
I thought about it a bit later, and remembered a recent American president that could captivate an audience. From the first time the man spoke at a party convention, he seemed to enthrall listeners. Later, as president, he could almost entrance me. I remember hearing him speak and realizing he was nearly mesmerizing, yet he didn’t actually say anything, and what he did say didn’t make a bit of sense to me at all.
I remembered, too, something that the Apostle Paul wrote the the Corinthian Believers.
“And my word and my preaching were not with persuasive words of man’s wisdom. . .” (1 Corinthians 2:4)
Please don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying President Trump is like the Apostle Paul; I’m not saying his words are the inspiration of G-D. However, as Apostle Paul wrote to the Believers in Rome:
“. . .there is no authority except that which G-D has established.” (Romans 13:1)
Disagree with President Trump for his policies, his actions, okay. But to discount his actions simply because he isn’t a polished orator seems foolish.
This whole thing makes me sad, too, as I think that people can so easily be fooled by fancy speech, mesmerizing personalities, who whip up an emotional response that, if analyzed, is illogical. I think of 1930s Germany, and the fiery speeches that fueled heinous crimes against humanity.
I think, too, of the warnings about the antichrist that deceives the world. I’m sure that person will have a gift of oratory, and that the world will be mesmerized by empty, vain words.
The world will be deceived. Even Believers can be lead astray until they are awakened by the Spirit of G-D.
Let us watch. As Yeshua said:
“But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into.” (Luke 12:39)
This week I listened to Pastor Martyn Lloyd-Jone’s 100th Friday Night Sermon on Romans, preached in 1959. His verses for that sermon had arrived at chapter six verses 12,13, & 14. He said this marked Apostle Paul’s departure from pure doctrine and his beginning exhortations on the application of the doctrine set down. Pastor MLJ said that many people love to study doctrine, but have no use for application, and many people want only to hear application, and dislike doctrine. Pastor MLJ went on to explain why both views are dangerous, but that study of doctrine without application is the worst of the two. He said that if we know and are settled in the doctrine, application makes more sense to us. The key doctrine expounded upon by Apostle Paul, according to Pastor MLJ is “Justification.” Six chapters written to Christians, the Gentile and Jewish Believers, in Rome, all on one doctrine–Justification. And Pastor MLJ expounded, from the pulpit of Westminster Chapel, those six chapters for one hundred hours. In our 21st Century, our culture of six-second sound bites, it seems amazing. I admit to times during those 100 hours that I thought to myself, “he’s said this before, exactly as he’s saying it again.” Repetition. Pastor MLJ mentioned it too. He does it with intent. Not malicious. He said Apostle Paul, as all good teachers, makes frequent repetition. Repeat. Add a bit to the repetition. Repeat again, add more. Give a general statement. Expound on part of the statement for several verses, then expound on the remaining part of that statement. Repeat in different terms. According to Pastor MLJ, it is like a wonderful musical composition.
Every once and a while I recall my first experience reading Apostle Paul’s letters. I thought him harsh, quick to judge, strict and almost legalistic. Then there was this time when the First Assembly of God in San Luis Obispo, CA, was praying for guidance in selecting a new senior pastor. 1st AG had a room behind the stage (er alter) that was I suppose a room to hold choir robes and gather the choir before its entry. That would have been in the days before things got more casual. Anyway, this room was used as a prayer room, and a 3-day prayer session was called for. I attended. I really had no clue what to do while there except to be on a vigil, sort of, so during my allotted hours, I read through the entire letter to the Romans. Maybe more than once. I recall how in doing so I learned that Paul truly was filled with love, and that what I took as harsh was a loving intensity. And what I took as legalism was a desire to obey, not out of fear of losing salvation, not out of a desire to gain salvation, but out of a sincere and pure desire to love G-D and love G-D’s people.
According to Pastor MLJ, when we fully understand that we were justified in Christ while still sinners, that we died to the reign of sin in our true selves, we are free to live a life of holiness. It is our love of G-D that enables us to move forward, not bogged down by the mortal body that is still subject to sin. It is the Spirit of G-D that gives us that power to love.
Christian service “is motivated by God’s holy-love,” wrote David Wells in his blog.
Mr. Wells explains that this Holy-Love is a composite or fullness of the Attributes of G-D. He uses the analogy of a prism that breaks out light into its various prime colors, so Holy-Love is broken out into the aspects of G-D’s being.
“The God who “is love” (1 John 4:8) is always, everywhere, and at the same time, the God who is a “consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29) and the One who is “light” (1 John 1:5). When we meet God, we meet Him in the wholeness of His character. His judgment, for example, is always preceded by His patience. It is always shadowed by His mercy. His love, in its bond with what is true and right, always accompanies, is always a part of, His holiness.”
It seems clear Mr. Wells is differentiating the prevailing notion that “G-D is Love” from the truth of what G-D’s love actually means. He calls it Holy-Love as to be absolutely clear. How many times have we heard the false logic stated something like: “God is love. God won’t all us to be punished. We are all “saved” by a loving God.”
“Christian service is about how our redemption in Christ comes into flower in this world. It is what puts hands and feet and lips to God’s holy-love. Once we had as our life’s goal only ourselves. Our self-interest defined our worldview. Now this has changed. Now we are living a new kind of existence (2 Cor. 5:17). It is not one that is self-focused but one that is God-centered, not one that is self-pleasing but one that is open to others. And it is God’s holy-love that motivates this new direction even as it is Christ’s death that makes it possible,” wrote Mr. Wells.
“In this sense, everyone who belongs to Christ is an outpost of eternity in this world. God calls His people so to live, so to serve, that they are themselves the evidence that the age to come is already dawning. That evidence is the presence of holy-love,” wrote Mr. Wells.
We are not all alike. We come to know Messiah Yeshua from various backgrounds. Our personalities differ. Our appearance differs. We come to a Fraternity of the Faithful, we become brothers and sisters in Messiah. While we are citizens of Messiah’s Heavenly Reign, we are also Family. We are brought into the Family of G-D. Grafted into Israel, as it has been stated.
In his article, The Cause of Christ, Glenn Davis wrote about the personality differences between Believers.
“Some people are loud and forward, others are quiet and retiring. It makes no difference to your commitment to the cause. Jesus Christ designed YOU for this time of history. He will call you from your comfort zone, but He is not going to require anything from you that He has not already given you. There are all types of assignments leading toward to ultimate goal. Elijah was confrontational with the wicked king Ahab, but Obadiah [1 Kings 18:3-4] was “undercover” and worked within the system. Both were necessary. Both required courage. We should never despise someone working for the victory of the cause of Christ in a different way as long as they are not in violation of the Word of God.”
I believe Mr. Davis makes an important point when he wrote that “we should never despise someone working for the victory of the cause of Christ in a different way as long as they are not in violation of he Word of God.”
Recently, on some blog, I inferred that certain outcries agains various sins by individuals made Christians look bad. The author seemed to be saying that we should all be more moderate in our approach to others, more tolerant. I believe the author even said that this behavior made us all look intolerant. I admit, there are street preachers that are really out there. Signs held high. Megaphones blaring. Yet I can see in them the modern-day John the Baptist crying out against the sins of Israel. If I judge a person’s ministry based on my personality type—much more reserved—then I’m also saying that there was something wrong with Yeshua’s display of zeal when He drove people from the Temple Court. With A Whip.
We face difficult times today, and more to come. We face difficult decisions. If we have not yet, we all will. And there are certainly times in which we are called not to directly engage in confrontation. I believe in our zeal we can be goaded into reacting, and in doing so perhaps we do “make us all appear badly.” Then again there are those times in which we must, Simply Must, stand up and say, “NO! That is Wrong!”
I suppose the best advice on how to handle ourselves is to follow the lead of Yeshua:
I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. John 14:31
In thinking about Pastor Martyn Lloyd-Jone’s teaching on Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Romans, I reread the verses from which he teaches, often in the English Standard Version, ESV. While doing so, I read various commentaries on those particular passages. Sometimes the commentaries offer additional insights, sometimes they differ somewhat in their explanation of the particular verse in question.
Pastor Albert Barnes’s Notes on Romans 6 includes comments on our Baptism into Christ. Pastor MLJ distinguishes this particular Baptism from the water immersion Baptism, which he says is a more public display of faith. This particular Baptism is our entrance into the Kingdom of G-D at the time of our Salvation.
This is to “dedicate or consecrate us to the service of Christ.” wrote Pastor Barnes. “We have been solemnly consecrated by baptism to the service of Christ; and that to sin is therefore a violation of the very nature of our Christian profession.”
Baptized Into Christ. . .“Into – εἰς eis. This is the word which is used in Matthew 28:19, “Teach all nations, baptizing them into εἰς eis the name of the Father,” etc. It means, being baptized unto his service; receiving him as the Saviour and guide, devoting all unto him and his cause,” Pastor Barnes states.
The way the word unto or into is used isn’t what caught my attention; when Pastor MLJ or Pastor Barnes wants to explain a particular word, each looks for similar usages in the Scriptures. What caught my eye was way Pastor Barnes said, “devoting all unto him and his cause.” The Cause of Messiah. The Cause of G-D. Then I spin off to my own looking around for various thoughts on the Cause of Christ.
“So what is the cause that Christ is calling us to? What is His goal? It is simple, but breath-taking: That the entire world in all its aspects would be in voluntary obedience to Jesus Christ BEFORE He returns,” writes Glenn Davis in his article “The Cause of Christ.”
Simple. Okay. But the application seems to me to be a bit more complicated, and certainly not without controversy. Especially these days when the mention of the Name of Yeshua Jesus has become an offensive to many in our Culture of Politically Correctness.
But we don’t make up the strategy; we don’t have to do that at all. We need only live our lives Unto Messiah. To follow the leading of the Spirit. Unto Messiah. To live beneath His Banner, as Citizens of Messiah’s Heavenly Reign.
“Only in total commitment to the cause of Christ can anyone truly live. You may never face physical persecution or martyrdom. That is not the issue. Your commitment to the cause of Christ and willingness to cheerfully follow His commands is the issue. It is also encouraging to know that the success of our cause is ultimately guaranteed. It will happen, the only question is whether you will be a part of it or not,” writes Mr. Davis. [emphasis added]
Each day as I spend more time in Romans with Pastor Martyn Lloyd-Jones and am more and more amazed at the depth he is taking Apostle Paul’s exposition of what Pastor MLJ considers the essential doctrine of Christianity. It’s very interesting. However, it also makes me think, “how deep an understanding does the average Christian need?” What I mean is, to drive a car one need only now certain things about its operation and the various rules of the road. One doesn’t need to be a mechanical or electrical engineer to drive. Does it help if one studies about aerodynamics? Probably only if one is contemplating a roof rack, and will then determine it will interfere with the air flow over the car, thereby reducing gas mileage.
For me, however, the more I know the more I want to know, the more I understand, the more I enjoy. Whether it is amateur radio, sailing, shooting, farming, et cetera. I enjoy the emersion into a subject. Yet studying about something is a far cry from actually doing it, actually experiencing it. Study helps, certainly, and it prepares one for the experience. As it is often said, one learns when the shoe leather hits the pavement, or the rubber meets the asphalt, or whatever phrase seems best to fit.
For Christian, then, studying the Word of G-D is getting to know about G-D. It prepares us and keeps us “up-to-date” in the working of G-D’s Sprit. It augments, but doesn’t substitute, for actually experiencing G-D by walking with Him in our life.
As previously mentioned, Pastor MLJ spent a lot of time explaining the difference between the word ‘unto’ and ‘to,’ as in Living unto the L-RD. It’s got me thinking about it. A lot. Interestingly, when MLJ was preaching he used two Bible translations, though does often reference original Greek versions. ASIDE: I’ve often thought that some letters our fearless theologians tell us were written in Greek, were actually written in either Hebrew or Aramaic. Nevertheless, MLJ used the “Authorized” and the “Revised” versions. We, many years later, have the benefit, or the added confusion, of a lot of other versions (or cynically, opinions and interpretations). The case for more modern versions is clear when it comes to words like “unto.” It’s a word I think we seldom use. One “dictionary”defines “unto” as simply “to.” Another says it’s from the 13th Century and came as a shortened version of “until.” Anyway, according to MLJ, when we died unto sin, for instance, it means we died to the realm and reign of sin. In a similar, parallel, fashion, when we were resurrected with Messiah, we live a life unto Him, meaning we are now under, a part of, beneath the covering of, Messiah.
So the original question. . . at first glance, most Christians might get bored, and fine not real reason to split hairs between words and usage and are zebra’s black with white stripes or white with black stripes. Yet it also seems that Pastor MLJ is correct in saying that if we fully understand Justification, for instance, we become complete in the assurance of our salvation. Without that understanding, for instance, we wallow in doubt of our status if we do sin, and this causes us, according to Pastor MLJ, to feel isolated and doubt even our salvation. Doubting our salvation is to doubt G-D. Downward Spiral. Eventually we come to think need to be saved. Pastor MLJ would say that full assurance means we don’t come back again to be saved all over, that we are saved once and for all time, our eternal lives assured in Christ. Dead Unto Sin. . . the reign of sin, the realm of sin, the condemnation of sin. Once we are new creations, how then can we go back again and become the old?
For the last month or so I’ve enjoyed listening to a series of sermons from Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Romans, delivered in the mid 1950s by Pastor Martyn Lloyd-Jones, M.D., at Westminster Chapel, London.
This past week I got through the Doctrinal portions of the Letter, arriving at the first verse in which the Apostle begins to encourage his readers in their new lives as Citizens of the Kingdom of G-D. [Yes, it has taken that long even though I’ve listened to at least five sermons each week.]
But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:13,14
While Pastor Lloyd-Jones elaborates the scriptures a verse at a time, he often spends the hour on a key portion of the verse, moving on in the following sermon to complete it. The series of sermons I’ve been listening to took place on Friday nights, and must have gone on for several years.
Most of Pastor MLJ’s sermons begin with a recap, often an extensive retelling, of previous sermons. He says all good teachers offer their students repetition to order to enhance learning. On several occasions, Pastor MLJ takes most of his hourly sermon to elaborate on a single word, or two, to ensure that he is clear on the meaning and its usage.
The word “unto,” for instance is used in the statement that we are dead unto sin. It is also used in the alternate, that we are alive unto Christ. Pastor MLJ wants us to understand that this word, which one particular dictionary states is archaic, does not mean “to,” despite that meaning given in another dictionary.
Anyway, Pastor MLJ could seem to belabor a point. And in today’s culture of the six-second sound bite, he would probably have only a few people willing to endure his preaching.
My point for today is that if we are not going to be deceived as we arrive at the very door to the End Times, we are going to need to refocus and delve much deeper into the Word of G-D.
I recommend the following great articles to stir us up:
In 1986 I was invited to be a part of a team ministering in Israel. The team’s mission was to provide a children’s ministry for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ). The ICEJ began some years before when, as the founders put it, they realized how world turned cold hearts against Israel, none acknowledging Jerusalem as the Capitol of Israel.
[Aside: Interestingly, President Trump is the first to begin the process of moving the Ame rican Embassy to Jerusalem. No wonder so much trouble has been stirred up against him. I’m convinced most of the world hates Israel. But those who bless Israel shall be blessed, though perhaps they’re persecuted first.]
The Western Wall, above which once stood The Temple
The annual Festival of Succoth was chosen as a time to gather as many Christians as possible from around the world to join in celebration. Rosh HaShanah begins tonight, Yom Kippur follows in 10 days, and then Succoth. As it was when first I went to Israel, so it is today: A time thousands of Christians gather in Jerusalem to Celebrate The Feast.
I fell in love with Israel, and in particular with Jerusalem. The work with the ICEJ was incredible and in the company of other volunteers, I was able to spend time touring the Biblical sites throughout Israel.
In 1987, I returned to Israel for The Feast, and to again work with the children’s ministry of the ICEJ, I did so planning to stay on in Jerusalem. Many other Christians that worked as volunteers for the Celebration Festivities did also. I became friends with a number of people that continued volunteer work in Jerusalem. One women provided full-time, live-in nursing care to an elderly woman, for instance. One man volunteered as a carpenter/fix-it man at a small village that had been turned into an asylum for the mentally ill, many of whom were Holocaust “survivors.” (I mean no disrespect by using quotes around survivors, for I those in that village sadly didn’t fully survive, though they lived.)
These people I met worked hard, long hours. If anyone needed a break, it was them. Like the disciples of Yeshua mentioned in the Gospel According to Mark:
“. . . [Yeshua] said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.” v. 31
Responding to their need for a break, I was blessed to be able organize and secure financial assistance for a variety excursions. One particular trip to us, a group of about eight, to a monastery located above the town of Jericho. While the monks not always allowed visitors, we were blessed to be able to spend several hours simply relaxing atop that mountain, viewing the valley and town below. We ate in Jericho, then returned by bus late in the afternoon to Jerusalem.
At Giza, outside Cairo
A small group of us whet to Cairo, Egypt, for a few days. No, Cairo doesn’t fit the bill of a quiet and solitary place. But it was an adventure we shared together, and thoroughly enjoyed. We visited a few museums, a huge bazaar, and toured inside a pyramid. While we’d all spent a lot of time traveling in buses in various countries, one of the most interesting experiences was the buses of Cairo. They never stopped. To enter or leave, one would grab a handle on the doorway, and simply jump aboard. Just to ensure people didn’t fall as they entered, there were large scoop-shaped doors that protruded from the side of the bus. I was a pretty incredible thing to do. Returning to Israel we were able to easily get new visas, which was a good thing, as we were at the end of our short-term visas.
One of my favorite places to take groups was through Hezekiah’s Tunnel. A brief mention is made of it in 2 Kings 20:20:
“[Hezekiah] made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city”
1884 sketch of the tunnel, by Charles Warren and Claude Reignier Conder, showing the tunnel as well as Warren’s Shaft, the Pool of Siloam and the Fountain of the Virgin. (Wikipedia)
While I suppose it’s changed today, but in the mid-1980s it was a very low-key adventure, and it was free. Then there were no signs even marking it’s entrance, until just before the stairway going downward. The story I was told is that King Hezekiah had engineers dig a tunnel from the springs located outside the city walls, to bring water within the city. It was especially useful when foreign nations attempted to take Jerusalem. Two teams of engineers were used, one from each end. Somewhere in the middle of the tunnel there is a sharp bend where it is said workers from one team could hear the sounds of the other team, and began their cut in that direction. It was mere feet between them at that point, and they soon met each other. Each of the groups I was privileged to lead carried candles, a tradition we were told, and trod through the icy waters the 583 yards (533 m) the tunnel runs through solid rock from the spring to the Pool of Siloam.
For all of us that felt called to go to Israel, felt called to show compassion upon a people that asked none, but so richly deserved it, we gladly served as able. Our various trials and difficulties in the doing of this service was offset by our travels in a beautiful country, rich in history, and filled with marvelous people. Certainly, those time we retreated to solitary places renewed within us the Spirit of G-D that enables us to continue our work.
It’s been a long time since Israel, and some faces of friends met there have faded, places have, likewise, become foggy in my mind, but other images are crystal clear. I hope they remain that way until the next time I am blessed to once again set foot upon the Promised Land of Milk and Honey.
Jonah’s Song 