Rising smoke

Smoke provides a direct link between the earth and the heavens.  With modern technology, it may not be the fastest way between the two, but it’s the simplest and the oldest.  When a column of smoke arises from earth toward heaven it sends a signal to everyone who can see or smell it, whether mortal or god. 

Sometimes the smoke calls warriors to victory. (Joshua 8:20-21, Judges 20:38)

Sometimes it weeps its defeat. (Nahum 2:13)

Sometimes it holds the stench of death. (Isaiah 34:9-10)

Sometimes it carries pleasant aromas, promising life and love.  (Ezekiel 8:11, 2 Corinthians 2:15)

At times the column of smoke symbolizes the Lord’s presence with his people. (Exodus 13:21, Isaiah 4:5)

Perhaps most significantly, it carries man’s attempts to communicate with the gods.  The smoke of sacrifice, the smoke of incense - it would rise to heaven, bearing the prayers of the people with it. 

Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice! (Psalm 141:2)

As smoke rises from earth today, whether its source is an explosion, a forest fire, or a small candle flame, may it carry our prayers to you, oh Lord.  Grant us Shalom.

Negev Day 3: Dead Sea Day

Andrew Sharp
Impression Report
October 14, 2013

[Sorry this is so belated!  I fell way behind and am finally getting around to posting the rest of Andrew's thoughts from the semester.  More to come! ~Alana]

It was a strangely misty morning in Arad and on our first drive.

            First we went to Masada. While there we observed the long climb up and sent two of our more physically fit members to try and break the school record by making the climb in about two and a half minutes. (spoiler: they didn't make a new record or come super close either) While we were walking up the long route to get to the top we had to physically face the facts of Masada. Masada is a desert fortress mostly built by Herod the Great (or at least one can say that what remains are there are chiefly his) upon a large rock outcrop, shaped almost like a cylinder. Sheer cliffs surround the mountain that has a rather flat-ish top. An immensely fortifiable position, it would take hundreds of feet of ladder to scale it straight up on the side that is most easily accessed, and over a thousand on the opposite side. Thankfully for us hikers, but not so much for the Jewish rebels that held it against the Romans, there was an easier ascent via a huge siege ramp built for taking the fortress. In brief, the Romans, being as utterly organized, patient, and persistent as they were, took months and months to pile dirt up against the cliff face until they could get to the top. This is what makes the site accessible today.

            While at the top we looked at the remains of Herod's palaces and went into one of the giant cisterns. In order to live at this mountain top without fear that the enemy could just lay siege to it and wait for you to run out of food and water, there were huge cisterns dug. Large stone caves designed to store water. All of the cisterns combined inside the top of Masada, when full to capacity, could hold about 40,000 cubic meters of water. That's a lot of water. Not only this but vast stores of foods that weren't easily perishable, dried fruits and veggies, fish, oil, grain, and the like were kept as well. On top of that there was a barracks up top as well. Herod could have likely lived up top with a formidable fighting force, waiting out a siege for many years. A fascinating place.





            In the way of interesting old technology there was something that stood out. A bath house. Not a surprise in itself, but in the heated room, I found what was used to make the hot bath hot. Ingeniously, the whole floor of the room was raised on many tiny pillars, (not visible from inside) making something almost identical to a crawl space under our modern day houses in America. Only made of stone. And at the entrance of this crawl space was a short tunnel, in which a fire was placed and stoked, so that the heat, and smoke would travel into the crawl space, then up and out clay pipes placed opposite the fire, and along the walls of the room. This heated the floor, and the bath house. Ingenious.

            Next in the way of neat things was the remains of a columbarium. A pigeon coop! Or more properly called a Dovecote or Pigeoncote, it was a place to store/raise/house doves and pigeons. They were raised for food, eggs, and in hard times even their poop sold for a price as food in times of famine (See 2 Kings 6:25). An interesting alternative to a chicken coop indeed!

            After Masada we took the Gondola down and went to Ein Gedi. A freshwater spring where David likely spent a lot of his time when running from Saul. It was pretty, scenic, and nice to get a dip of cool water on a hot day.

            After we left Ein Gedi, we got covered in salt all over again by going down to the dead sea. The lowest water
source on planet earth I think. If you can call it a water source. The water has accumulated so much salt over the years that it's crystallizing under the surface of the water. It also made taking pictures with our water proof camera blurry. The water was warm, and we had to be sure to keep it from getting into our eyes. It also was super buoyant because of the salt. One would be hard pressed to drown in it, but because the physics of swimming is so far off due to the level of buoyancy it wouldn't be hard to panic and flail, get super salty water in your eyes, and sputter around a lot making yourself very uncomfortable, especially if you cut yourself on any of the salt formations under the water.

            Lastly we went to see the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. The end.

Ice

The ice on my window collects itself, opaque and thick near the bottom, thinner and more translucent as it grows up the window, coldly reminding the sun trying to shine through that it’s winter here, thank you very much, and Snow and Cold are the only gods here. 

Resisting both the heat from inside and the slight warmth provided by the sun’s rays, the ice clings fast to the window, refusing to let any hope or warmth through.  This window is mine, it says, and I will hold it in my brittle, cold, beautiful embrace forever. 

It doesn't know that it has already lost.  It feels its strength increasing as the sun creeps closer to the horizon, its more and more oblique rays offering ever less resistance to the growing power of the ice.  The greedy ice climbs further up the window, grasping it hungrily, taking all it can.  Surely I have defeated that weak yellow ball of fire, it thinks, as the light fades to a pale gold, and now nothing can stop my glory from spreading to cover the window.  ALL the windows.

It doesn’t know that the sun will rise again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, and the next.  It doesn’t know that even now the earth is spinning, orbiting, turning, to tilt once again towards the sun and that winter will then be succeeded by spring and summer.  It has only existed since yesterday.  How could it know the forces that march inexorable forward to ensure its defeat? 

It may win today, and it may win tomorrow.  It may think it has won forever.  It doesn't matter.  Dawn will follow dawn until Spring comes to dethrone the gods of Snow and Cold.  The window will be released from its icy shackles at last and will again be free to bask in the warmth of the sun.