Jordan Day 3: Mount Nebo and Crossing into Palestine and Israel

Early Departure and Passing Madaba

"The Old Village," our hotel in Wadi Mousa near Petra

Because Wadi Musa, where we were staying near Petra, is in the far southern end of Jordan, we needed to leave quite early in the morning so that we could make a couple of final stops before we crossed into Israel. We stopped briefly in Madaba, originally a Christian town just east of the Dead Sea, to see a shop where mosaics are made. Mosaics, in fact, made this area famous, because when a Greek Orthodox church in the town was rebuilt, a precious, Byzantine-era mosaic floor was discovered.

The so-called Madaba Map contains a mosaic representation of the Holy Land, including what is today Jordan, Palestine, and Israel

Although we were not able to stop at St. George's today, I will mention the Madaba Map briefly to understand its significance and prepare us for a discussion of the topography of Jerusalem in its Christian phase.

X

---

Mount Nebo

After lunch, we drove up to Mount Nebo, or Pisgah, where Moses was able to view the entire Promised Land before the end of his mortal career. While we cannot be certain exactly where that event took place (Nebo has several peaks), traditionally it happened on the highest peak, known in Arabic as Syagha. A Byzantine church long stood there, and it has recently been rebuilt in an interesting way. A new modern church was constructed over the site of the original, which shelters within many of the amazing floor mosaics and contains some of the original columns, the baptistry, and other original features. Long under construction, this was the first time I actually had a chance to enter it, and it was a neat experience. The appeal was not only historical and aesthetic; I felt the spirit strongly there, being reminded not only of a sacred event but of the tens of thousands of people who had worshiped there. We were moved by the sound of other pilgrim groups singing and praying there. 

Coming out of the new church, which was both museum and place of worship, really prepared us for the first real devotional that we have been able to have on our trip. We stood at an overlook that let us look north into Gilead, where the tribes of Gad and half of Manasseh would settle on the east side of the Jordan River (Reuben was to our south) and especially westward, where the modern city of Jericho could almost be seen through the haze. On a clear day one can even see the eastern outskirts of Jerusalem high on the hills above.

After Roberto read from Deuteronomy 32, we talked about how this was a sacred place, where Moses met the Lord. In that, it is a model for other sacred mountains, which are themselves types of temples, places where we reach up to heaven and God reaches down to us.

Another "Spring of Moses"

 

 I prefaced my scripture reading and our singing by explaining that this would be a model for our devotionals in Israel, explaining that I wanted to talk about events, people, and places, explicating the biblical stories and then comparing them to our religious walk today. I talked about the symbolism of wilderness wanderings being a type of our mortal probation and Moses' looking into the Promised Land representing out yearning for our heavenly home. We then sang verses 1-4 and 6 of "Redeemer of Israel," that last one being significant because it speaks of Jesus' glorious return.

We took our picture in front of the tall statue representing Moses' snake on a pull, which Jesus compared in John 3 to his being lifted up upon the cross.  We then too two pictures, the first being a set picture and the second one of us "looking to Christ to live." I then asked for, and got, an "amen," not just from our group, but from some other interested bystanders

---

Arriving in Tel Aviv

 

We then negotiated the long and sometimes stressful boarder crossing between Jordan and the Israeli-controlled West Bank before driving up towards Jerusalem. When we came through the Mount Scopus tunnel, I had "The Holy City" playing, an it was quite emotional as we caught out first glimpses of the BYU Center, the golden Dome of the Rock and the Temple Mout, and the rest of the city. We then drove around the city's northern outskirts, negotiating rush hour traffic, and then driving on to Tel Aviv. Paul and I had time to walk briskly from our hotel to Old Jaffa, where we met some others of our group before heading back the hotel for our welcome meeting. Diane Larsen, the owner of Cruise Lady, Tyler Griffin, the other "headliner," were there along with some 30+ new friends who flew in to start the Israeli-phase of our trip. It is a bit sad because half of my Jordan group will now be on the other bus, but conversely I will have another 20 some people in mine.

Jordan Day 2: Petra, Wadi Rum, and a Beduin Feast

Petra

Today we started with what is, no doubt, the premier site in Jordan, the fabulous ruins of the Nabatean city of Petra.  The Nabateans were an early Arab people who moved into much of the territory of the Old Testament kingdom of Edom (the Edomites, in the Persian period, moved into the southern part of OT Judah and became the Idumeans of the New Testament).  They expanded their territory east, south, and into the Sinai and became incredibly wealthy in the first centuries before and after Christ because of their acumen as merchants and in particular because of their control of the spice trade.

They built their capital in a sunken valley surrounded by high mountains that had only one way in and out, the narrow cleft valley known as the Siq.  Approaching the siq and in the valley itself are hundreds of tombs cut right into the rock face, many of them incredibly ornamented.  

Some free-standing tombs were known by later Beduin as Djinn Blocks because they thought desert spirits dwelt in them

The Nabateans were quite eclectic, borrowing motifs from many surrounding cultures. This tomb, for instance, incorporates and Mesopotamian motif of double stairways to heaven, allowing souls to ascend to their rewards.

A Nabatean inscription

This tomb includes obelisks influenced by Egypt

The siq is kind of a winding slot canyon, often quite narrow. Along the way there are water channels and small shrines that provided for both the physical and spiritual needs of visitors to the city. Then as the siq suddenly turns, a narrow view of the most famous of the rock cut tombs, the so-called Treasury, appears. It is probably best known from its appearance in the Indiana Jones movie The Last Crusade.

The entrance to the siq

Water channel

Shrine niche Dushara

Here it comes!

 

The many tombs, monuments, and temples of ancient Petra

Because we only had about 5 hours (not that much time for such a huge, interesting site that requires a lot of walking and climbing), after we did the usual introductory approach to the Treasury, we kind of hurried through the city area, looking briefly at the theater cut into the hill, the Great Temple, and the interesting Egyptian-influenced building now called Qasr-al-Bint ("Palace of the Daughter," ostensibly built for a daughter of a Pharaoh, though that is necessarily an anachronistic and incorrect identification).

Qasr al-Bint

---

Wadi Rum

This desert valley was known as "The Valley of the Romans" (Arabic, وادي رم) perhaps because many ascetic Byzantine monks (remember Byzantines = Greek-speaking, Christian Romans) withdrew to isolated spots like this to get away from the world and be with God. Because it is in so many ways a quintessential Arabian desert, movies such as "Lawrence of Arabia" and recently "The Martian" were filmed here.

We all piled into 4x4 pickup trucks and went on a mad drive through the sand. We stopped to look at interesting, really an ancient carvings of the mysterious Thamudic culture (kind of like the American Anastazi). We also stopped at a magnificent canyon lookout that gave us a view of the vast Plains of Midian, which gave us a chance to talk about the wanderings of the Children of Israel in the wilderness.

---

A Beduin Feast

Then we went to a Beduin camp for a feast and to watch some dancing. It was quite a day!