Sinai Peninsula Pictures

Having had the opportunity recently to travel to the mid-east and follow the route of the Israelites as they escaped from slavery in Egypt and progressed to the Promised Land, I want to occasionally share some of the pictures that I took along the way. Seeing these things has heightened my understanding of the Bible and I hope that it will give the reader some insight as well.

As the Israelites left Egypt, under God's direction of course, they first crossed the Red Sea. I have included some pictures of the Red Sea here; notice that the color of the sea is similar to what we have here in the Gulf of Mexico. In a later blog, I hope to show pictures of the Dead Sea and other waters, like the river Jordan; these are totally different in color.

Just from the pictures you can see that the sea is quite large. God had no problem parting the waters, but it was a lot of water to part.

The rest of the pictures herein show examples of the wilderness in which the Israelites wandered for 40 years due to their distrust of God. It is mountainous in many places with some flat areas scattered throughout. But it is always rocky and desolate.

In many places of the Sinai Peninsula there are caves and dwelling places cut into the rocks where Bedouin Tribes have lived. There are still small tribes occupying this area, though they are scattered and sparse. It is the most difficult environment I have ever seen, don't know how anyone could eke out a living of any sort.

I have some good pictures of what is thought to be the true Mount Sinai where Moses received the 10 commandments from the Lord. I hope to include these in an upcoming entry. So stay with me. There will be interesting things coming, I feel. Have a great week!

Question: Some who think they will be saved won't?

The question has been raised: Why do I say that some who think they will be saved will not actually be saved? I have said this before because this is what Jesus said. Note Matthew chapter 7. It tells us a lot about how we are to live. In verse 21, we have the specific answer to the question asked herein. "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' "

Earlier in the chapter Jesus says, "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."

It is a sad thought that it is a narrow way to heaven and a broad way to destruction, or that there is a necessity for any destruction at all. We would prefer that everyone be saved. But God knows what is best and He has told us this plainly. Thus, many who think they will be saved will be sadly mistaken at that final day. We must all follow the teachings and the example of our Lord, and follow Him into heaven. It is available to us all regardless of our background or history. And the whole pattern and teaching is written clearly in the Bible, God's Word. Let's follow Him..............and do it His way! More in next week's entry.

Egypt

This will be the first blog posting to include pictures. Having had the recent opportunity to travel to Egypt, Sinai, Jordan and Israel, I saw some things there that made the Bible more meaningful. I hope to pass along a few things that will be useful to the reader. In this blog, let's talk a little about Egypt. We've all seen pictures of the pyramids, and we know that they were burial places of the Egyptian rulers. And while it was interesting to see them, they looked about like what you would expect. One picture shows that the Sphinx is aligned with a major pyramid. I never realized that there is an alignment or that the Sphinx was sitting right by the pyramids, but they are very close. And there are lots of sphinxes in Egypt, most much smaller. They kept guard over their surroundings. But there is so much more going on in the area of the pyramids. One thing that most people don't know is that behind the pyramids for miles in two directions, there is continual underground construction done by the ancient Egyptians. While much of it has not been excavated, there is a large expanse, miles of it, that is in storage pits. You can see an example in the photos shown. This apparently relates to the 7 years of plenty, followed by the 7 years of famine in Joseph's time (Genesis 41:47-49). "Now in the seven plentiful years the ground brought forth abundantly. So he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities; he laid up in every city the food of the fields which surrounded them. Joseph gathered very much grain, as the sand of the sea, until he stopped counting, for it was immeasurable." They had to have places to store enough food for 7 future years, so they apparently dug these pits for that purpose. A typical pit would be something like 150' long and 50' wide by 40' deep. These are my estimates, but are close enough for you to get the idea. In one photo you can see the steps going down into the pit.

One final thought has to do with the proximity of all this. I was amazed to see that all of this is just on the southern outskirts of Cairo. I stayed in the Mena House Hotel, a converted palace of old on the southern edge of Cairo. Cairo and this hotel are in the fertile crescent with lush, tropical environs with palm trees, Nile river, gardens, crops, all quite green and fertile. Just 300 yards behind the hotel were the pyramids and all that we have been discussing. It is the beginning of the desert. There is no transition; none. And once you hit the desert, there is nothing but pyramids and desert for as far as you can see and beyond.

This is close to where the Israelites dwelt for about 400 years, until Moses, under God's direction, led them out of Egypt and headed for the Promised Land by way of the Sinai Peninsula. Lord willing, we'll talk about the Sinai in the next blog. Thanks for reading!

Worship

I recently saw a person's Facebook page where under "religion", she had written, "I will pray to God on my own time and in my own home." Now, that strikes me as an attitude problem. Perhaps we should seek what God wants, to look in His Word, the Bible, to determine His will. In John 4:23,24 Jesus says, "..the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." In the Old Testament, we see that God prescribed to His people how He wanted to be worshiped. In the New Testament in the book of Acts, all that changed, and we read where "..on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread..." We see Christians coming together to take of the Lord's Supper and to worship on Sunday. In Revelation chapters 4 & 5 we are given a vision into heaven where there is continual worship occurring around the throne, chapter 4 emphasizing the Father and 5 emphasizing Jesus.
We often put emphasis on trying to live for Him, to do right, to be what we should be. And, of course, that is of critical importance to us, to our being saved. But God wants more; He wants us to worship Him. It isn't all about Us; it is about Him. And He is the Lord, the Almighty, the Creator. He holds the key to our eternal future. Let's Worship Him!