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!

David and Jesus

There was a question about the lineage of David to Jesus. This is the skeleton on which the whole Bible is written, i.e., the genealogy leading up to Jesus. The family of Jesus actually begins with Adam, then Seth, on down to Noah, on down to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, then generation after generation through David down to Jesus. The Old Testament records all of this, and it is summarized in Matthew 1. It is interesting to me that the New Testament begins with this summary showing the importance of this family background to the understanding of Jesus Himself. Jesus is described in the N.T. as the Son of David. This is an expression meaning "descendant of", not the direct son of David. David was a type of Jesus; that is, David was a great King, Jesus was more so. And there are a lot more comparisons, Jesus always the better.


In the question it was mentioned that David is a comfort to us in that David had many faults but was also said to be a "man after God's own heart," (referenced in 1Samuel 13:14 & Acts 13:22). I totally agree that this gives us all hope in that we all have sinned and fallen short. On the other hand, we don't want to get too comfortable. I disagree with the questioner that David "constantly backslid." While David's sins were great, with adultery and murder among them, every indication is that David went on to become a more dedicated person and, while not a perfect person, he cleaned up his act. I also disagree with the questioner, a kind and pleasant person though he be, regarding the "probable homosexuality of David with Jonathan." There is no indication of any homosexuality in their case; they loved each other, but that doesn't make one a homosexual. In fact, we know for certain that there was no homosexuality there, for had there been, God would not have tolerated it, or at least would have called them down for it as we see in Romans 1:26,27. Yes, I know that people are sometimes attracted to their own sex, but it doesn't have to be acted upon, and God says "No." There are examples in the O.T. and the N.T. where God forbade it, and that should end the matter. But David is a comfort to us, for there is always hope as long as we seek to do God's will. And the past will be forgiven if we truly repent (change) and commit ourselves to Him.


Enough already. Thanks for reading. Have a God blessed week!

The Upper Room

In my recent trip to Egypt, Jordan and Israel, there was one particular point made over and over regarding the "upper room." The leader on our trip was a retired general in the Israeli army and a leader in historical excavation in Israel; he was also a Jew who had converted to Christianity. His point was that ALL references to the upper room in the Bible are well known in Israel to be rooms above a burial place. Historically, the Jews would place a body in an open tomb for decay to begin quickly. The body would soon be reduced to bones and decay. It would then be gathered into a small bundle and placed in a container and left in a lower room for the ages. There would be a room above for relatives to come, at least once a year, visit with one another and remember the dead. This "upper room" was open for lots of uses but was a common meeting place. Over and over again we saw excavations that showed this pattern, both in Israel and Jordan. It was also noted that priests never were allowed to enter the lower room of the dead. They could only go directly into the upper room; this was in accordance with Jewish law.

As I tried to recall examples of the upper room use in the Bible, I could only think of two: Jesus and His apostles took the Lord's Supper in the upper room as they were celebrating Passover just before His death, and in Acts 1, the apostles met in the upper room after Jesus ascended into Heaven. But in further studying the matter, I found many references to the upper room use, two in particular in the New Testament. In Acts 9:36 there is the story of Dorcas who dies and is placed temporarily in an upper room. And in Acts 20:7 it says, "Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together." The story goes on to tell of a young man who falls out of the window, but that goes beyond our point here. They were using the upper room for a meeting place, which was common practice. And there are references to the upper room in the Old Testament as well, but that would be exhaustive, so I will stop here.

So, while this information may not change your life, it might provide a little more understanding to your reading of the Bible. Having seen these things certainly has brought better understanding and meaning to me. I hope to pass some of this on to you. Have a good week!

Question regarding Christians, Jews, and Muslims

A question has been submitted regarding Christians versus Jews versus Islamic faiths. It is true that all are descendants of Abraham. Actually, Jews and Muslims are blood kin of Abraham, Jews through the line of Isaac and Muslims (Arabs) through the line of Ishmael, Isaac's half-brother. The Old Testament (OT) teaches that Isaac was the chosen of God, and thus Jews are the chosen people of God. This does not mean that non-Jews in OT days could not find God; it just means that God chose the Jews to carry out His purpose. What was His purpose? To provide a plan of salvation down through time, a bloodline; note Genesis 12. That would ultimately bring a savior under a new covenant (note the genealogy of Matthew 1). In this age, it doesn't matter about Jew or Muslim, Jew or gentile, slave or free, man or woman (be sure to read Galatians 3:23-4:7). Everybody is an adopted relative of Abraham through Jesus Christ, if he follows Jesus.

And I must conclude EMPHATICALLY, in the emphatic words of Jesus Himself, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6). If one tries to get to God without Jesus, as the Jews do, or though Mohamed, like the Muslims do, the effort, however sincere, will be a LOST CAUSE. The New Testament is clear on this. Jesus is the only way! And there is no special provision for anyone else, Jew, Muslim, or any other who rejects Jesus as the Son of God, and who does not obey Him. This may seem narrow-minded to some, but God so loved us (John 3:16) that He sent His only son to die. That was a big gift and He means for us to appreciate it....... Hey, thanks for reading. And remember that I am happy to do private study on any of these topics. Just let me know. See you next week. m