Beersheba is the sight of many of hte important covenants in the OT. This is where Abraham made a covenant with Abililek so that they would not go to war. A well was dug here with the same name too to mark that covenant. Isaac also had experinces around this place that showed he was a peacemaker by letting the herdsmen of the country take well after well that he dug without argument with them. It is no wonder that this place lies along what is called the Patriarchs Way! Beersheba was also the southern boundary of the kingdom that existed in Judges, so it was important as a boundary marker as well.
Anyway, it was just really neat to be able to see this old of a tel that was in pretty good condition. You could see the old houses that people would have lived in and the little streets that they had back then just to walk down. One of the other cool things that was here was this huge cistern that they used to store water for the city during the summer. This this was huge and you could actually go down into it and walk though the huge caverns that were there. I mean, that they were able to build something like that was simply amazing!
We next traveled next to the Wilderness of Zin (isn't that a cool place to say you have been!). This is about the place where the Israelites could have wandered in the wilderness after coming out of the Sinai. We also know that Miriam died around here, who of course is the sister to Moses. But one of the neatest things was the hike that we went though in the area called Ein Avdat. It was an amazing canyon, sheer cliffs on each side and really cool stairs cut right into the mountain for the last part of the hike. This is the first time that a JC group had been brought this way and done this hike, and it really was worth it. There is a natural spring that flows though this canyon, and so we stopped to talk about the time where Moses smote the rock to give the people of Israel water. Even though this is not really the place that it happened, it was neat to see such a good likeness of what it could have been like.
Avdat itself was the next stop that we had, which is a sweet Nabateaen city. The Nabateaen's are the people that built Petra and this city while not quite as sweet was still a sight to behold. This was a major trade city because it lays between 4 major cities of the time, which I can't really remember at this time, but hey, I got a lot still i think! They had this great idea for run-off agriculture that allowed them to have these farms in the middle of the desert. You know, I think that these people were genius's. Actually, if these people had computers, i am convinced that we would totally have Star Trek stuff now... oh well, maybe next time eh? Anyway, it's also interesting because the Byzantines came through later and booted the people out, and of course that means that they changed all the churches to be their own. The marble was still on the altar which was neat, as well as the menorah's on the Greek tombs showing the crossover of religions at the times.
Our last stop was at a place called a kibbutz which is a place that is pretty much a little Zion. really, the people work for one another, and except for things like extreme surgery's and such they are pretty much self sufficient. Each Kibbutz has it's own specialty that makes the money for the place, this one had a date farm and grew algae for antioxidants. They also do agricultural research, trying to get new types of plants to adapt to the arid climate in the region. Other than letting us spend the night there, they also gave us a great experience. They took us out to the middle of nowhere to the best sand in the world. Rather than the rough quartz sand that most places have, this was pure sandstone sand, and it was the softest stuff ever. They let us play in the sand for a while, and then had us go out and just experience the desert on our own. We went to a place where we could not see anyone else and had time just to contemplate our life. They then blew a shofar to let us know to start answering questions they gave us, and then blew it again to gather us back up again. It was amazing to just sit there and to think about life, not a sound, not another person in the world, just me and the desert. I can see why Jesus would have wanted to spend 40 days here preparing for His ministry, it was a very inspiring experience.
That was about all that I did that day. Living at the Kibbutz was cool, I could see myself doing that in the future for fun, but I am really ready to get to Egypt! Oh man, here I come!
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