June 23 Travel and thoughts

We spent last evening and again this evening in a Youth Hostel in the city of Ashdod, another ancient Philistine city of the ancient world. Ashdod is a small but yet develop city of Israel. In most of the places that we have been in and through are quite modern as well as diverse in ethnicity. Ashkelon and Ashdod have large Russian Jewish populations. I have found the found in Israel to be very palatable. The fruit of the land of Israel is extremely favorable compared to the same US food.
Our journey today took us to both Eastern and Western Negev with Beersheba being at the cross roads between the two regions. Again this area of southern Israel is very dry and arid. We were blessed today with a strong westerly wind. It is in this area that we find both the Wilderness of Zin and the Wilderness Paran. Time did not permit for us to go to the Wilderness of Paran but we did spend a good amount of time in the Wilderness of Zin. One of the best stops of the day was at the Wadi Zin, a deep canyon that in the rainy season becomes a vibrant river and depending on the amount of rain can be a raging river. Now, it is important to remember that this area of Israel receives less than 4 inches a year. My thoughts on this deep canyon were not formed solely by the small amount of rain but initially started by the receding waters of the flood.
Beersheba was an interesting stop. Ancient Beersheba was the location in which Abraham settled (Genesis 21) and we find Jacob leaves this area after he deceived Esau leaves Beersheba for Haran.. This is one of the cross roads from the south to the north in ancient Israel. The most amazing item from the ancient ruins was the water systems that were used to collect the few inches of water that does allow life to exist from deep wells lined with rocks to wells dug in the valleys for the flocks to use. One well found in Beersheba is over 130 feet deep down to the water table.
Our last stop was the ancient ruins of the Nebataean settlement Avdat. This was built by the same group of people that are responsible for Petra. This people group converted to Christ and tore down their temples and built Christian Churches. Outside of the city walls is a second or third century Romans ruins of what used to be an established entity.

Overall, the day was much better than yesterday June 22. In my mind there were numerous biblical connections that I will carry into my study and teaching of Scriptures.

Picture 1 - city ruins
Picture 2 - Beersheba of OT times
Picture 3 - Me at one of the ruins
Picture 4 - Ibex in theWwiderness of Zin right at Wadi Zin