Friday -- Benjamin Field Study

Today was an eleven hour day (and a hot one at that). The bus picked us up at 7:00 a.m and we returned just after 6:00 p.m. No wonder I was tired by the end. Our stops and hikes included the Sorek Canyon System, Beth-Samish (where we envisioned the story of Samson), Gezer, Nabi Samuel, Mizpeh-Danny, Jericho (where the walls came tumbling down) and finally a spectacular wilderness view (where Jesus probably spent his 40 days of temptation) on the way back to Jerusalem (so we also saw the setting of Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan).

The final wilderness view made the greatest impact on me. It is early in the summer here in Israel and every place we have been has been already hot and dry. I am filling up my water bottle whenever I can an am emptying it just about as quickly. Our first stops were at some of the "greener" areas of central Israel. Wheat has just been harvested, olives are just coming out and will need the summer to ripen and the grape vines are growing well too. But without rain, on these hillsides only the most hearty of plants are growing. (First picture: ancient covenant markers in Gezer.) (Although I must admit that the brown hills of our Gezer hike showed me a myriad of colorful weeds/flowers hidden beneath the brown of the dry grass.)

Then we headed east to Jericho and while we traveled what was dry turned even dryer and what was hot turned even hotter. Jericho was a city of contrasts. On one side of the city are the bone-dry Central Mountains radiating the heat of the sun. Turn around 180 degrees and there is an oasis of green in the Rift Valley fed by springs. (Pictures 2 & 3) (Tucked into one of the valleys here king Herod built himself a palace.) It was still really hot, but there was water so there was life in what is called the earliest city.

Finally, as we traveled from Jericho to Jerusalem what was "even dryer" turned even dryer and what was "even hotter" turned even hotter. It was the hills of the wilderness. (Picture 4) And it was probably the place where Jesus spent 40 days before being tempted by Satan (John 4). Besides the Bedouin taking a break from watching their sheep and goats (which is probably why we almost hit a goat standing fearlessly in the middle of the highway) to sell us their scarves and jewelry at our lookout point, there was little life to be seen. Only the tiny clump of trees at the bottom of the dessert valley revealing the location of a small spring gave any hope for life. Perhaps it was a little spring like that one that provided Jesus the shade and the water he needed to survive that 40 day fast. The reality of that harsh wilderness has embedded itself into my memory.

And it is on the journey through this wilderness between Jerusalem and Jerico that Jesus located his story of true worship. It is on this parched pathway that a man is ambushed, beaten and left for dead. The priest and the Levite pass by because they need to get to Jerusalem in time for church. But the loathed Samaritan helps this abandoned victim get life back again. That is the kind of community we must be for each other. When we find each other in our wildernesses (and we dare to share what those wildernesses are), we help each other find life again. We carry each other out of the wilderness to where there is life and hope. And that is the kind of community we must be for this world around us that has more wilderness places than springs and oasis places.

The wilderness is no place to live. Jesus went there, but after 40 days he left. I went there, but I certainly didn't stay there. (My end destination was a refreshing shower and an air conditioned room.) We all, at times, end up there in the wilderness, but we don't have to stay there. To another Samaritan Jesus said, "I am the living water." To each of us in our wilderness places he offers himself. And he often does that through us, the family of God.