jericho

Field trip day! Yay! We didn’t leave too early which was good. We went to Jericho. Like as in, Joshua fit the battle of Jericho and the walls came tumbling down! So cool! It was pretty warm as usual, but I guess we should be used to it? On the way there we go down like 3500 feet. Jerusalem is 2550 ABOVE seal level and Jericho is actually 1200 ft BELOW sea level so naturally we had to sing Under the Sea. Jericho is an oasis and apparently looks kind of like Egypt. Lots of fresh fruits grow here and there’s palm trees and such. 

This is the Zacchaeus tree! Remember this story from Luke 10??

 and this is the fun stuff we get to look at! Rocks and walls! Can you just picture the city??

 After the tel we went to Elisha’s spring across the street. In 2 Kings 2 Elijah cures the waters of the spring. The people that live in Jericho still get their water from here. We even got to taste it! 

 Then we went to King Herod’s Winter Palace. He was living here when he died and that was when Mary and Joseph were able to bring Jesus back from Egypt. We talked about the important of keeping God’s laws and how that is the only thing that protects us. Herod was subject to a lot of nasty bodily decay because he did not live in such a way that he could receive blessings from God in regards to his health. 

 This is his giant bath!

 My favorite part of the day was going to the ancient road to Jericho. Ya know the one that is written about in the Good Samaritan? From where we were standing you could see all the way to Jericho in one direction and all the way to the Augusta Victoria Tower in Jerusalem. Let’s just say, I wouldn’t want to walk that. Because right in the middle of it is the Judaean Wilderness. Just brown hills the whole way. We then took a minute and talked about the mount of temptation which could have been really any of those hills around us. Christ had been out fasting for 40 days and Dr. Chadwick compared this to his MTC experience. He was preparing for his ministry.  He picked up one of the stones and said how he has had one of these on his desk ever since the first time he came here. Because it looks like a piece of pita bread. And after you’ve been fasting for 40 days, it would probably be so nice to have those stones turn to bread. But it’s when we say, “get thee hence” to Satan that we are endowed with spiritual power. Kind of like our temple experience. We can then have angels minister to us. And this has been a pattern ever since Adam. Christ really did experience everything that we have to experience. He was just perfect at it haha! Dr. Chadwick also talked about the importance of LOOKING. That’s what we came here to do. And that we will understand the scriptures in ways that other people never will because we’ve been here and seen exactly where it happened and the geographical and cultural context that adds so much depth to the words in that holy book. And so it’s our responsibility to go home and share what we have learned with others. To help open their eyes. We then sang Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd and there was a herd of sheep across the hill from us. He said, I hope whenever you sing this song in sacrament meeting from now on that you will never forget the day you were in Jericho. 

The next two pictures were taken at the exact same spot. The one on top shows that right around the corner you can see the Dead Sea. In the next one you can see a tower which is in Jurusalem! I'm still amazed at all these views!