Ten Thousand Things

We pull into Beit Shean (Bate Shaan) so early that we get through the gate before the gatekeeper is even up. The cool morning breeze delights us! In this climate, timing is crucial; our Israeli guide Yossi knows, and races crowds and heat. 

"We are Moon people, evening people" he tells us. "There is no human life in the desert without the moon, that's why days in the Bible start with evening: 'evening and the morning were the first day.' (Genesis 1). The Jewish day still starts with evening - sabbath begins at sundown, and so it is every day. This is true of all desert people: when you look at the top of a minaret, what do you see? A half-moon. We live under the moon. Our calendar is a lunar one. Our thoughts are moon thoughts. So today we come to moon cities. What do the names of our cities mean? Beit Shean - house of night rest; Jericho - Evening fragrance; Qumran - moon city. We will visit them all today. The Greeks called their places "Helios" - they were people of the Sun, but for us, it is the Moon."

The whisper of the moon must have inspired magnificently all those centuries ago! Beit Shean amazes!

Main road of the city of Beit Shean

 Walking in to be greeted by straight, towering columns of pillars, a wonderfully restored large theatre, clearly defined shops, houses, arches, bath houses, public toilets, roadways and mosaic-tiled pavements - "It's better than Ephesus!" says Lynda. We leap back in time and mind, mingling with people from a bygone era.

Not so fast! Yossi takes us into the theatre, where, in prime seats, we sit close to the stage. "The shows in this theatre were bloodthirsty; the audience was debauched" he says! "Demosthenes writes of an opera that took place here - a tale of jealous suffering that through excruciating pain led to beautiful music. The people loved the suffering as much or more than the music!" Don't forget, this is also where King Saul and his five sons were decapitated, and their heads posted high on the city walls!

The theatre, beatifully preserved

"Look around: this theatre would seat 7000 people; it was twice as high as we now see it," he tells us. "What does it mean when a theatre seats 7000?" He's taught us this before: 10% of their community would go to the theatre. Amphitheatres were for everyone - huge, with gory gladiator shows ("gladiator" he tells us, includes the idea of the male private parts, which became not so private in the amphitheatre demonstrations!), but theatres were for the elite. So, multiply the seats by 10 and you have the total population of that city. According to this, Beit Shean was a city of 70,000 people - very large!

Dionysius takes front & centre on a capitol

But you wouldn't want to mingle with them too long! Sex and violence were their entertainment. These were orgiastic people, whose god was Dionysius, god of wine. The "Maniads" were their religious leaders, from whom we get the word "maniac" - so we understand their style!

The foundational city of Beit Shean was built here 10,000 years ago; it's the oldest city of the Holy Land, after Jericho, founded 2000 years earlier. What we see today is Roman development, much newer; as cities are always built on top of cities; but the history dates back to Old Testament times, as Beit Shean was a central point on the road connecting Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Yossi gets out his flute. "Pastor Scott taught me one of your songs," he says, and I want to play it for you here in the theatre; please sing - together we will redeem the music of this place." He starts playing, the sound of the flute rising into the stillness. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, worship His holy name ... 10,000 reasons for my soul to sing!" When the song is done, it's quiet.

"Another story happened here," Yossi reminds us. "The story of Jesus, saying to the deaf man, "Ephratha!" - 'be opened!' - and he could hear. In this city of sin, the hearing of the ears and more, of the heart, is the message. See how it played out: 10,000 years after this city was founded, here you all are, followers of Jesus, singing 10,000 reasons to praise God. Through Jesus opening the heart, what endures in the history of Beit Shean is beautiful music, not the tormented kind."

We wander among the remains of this magnificent place, down the "Cardo" - the central road that was the heart of the city. What creates wide paths in our hearts?

The "Cardo" - central city roadway - "cardiac" is associated

A cluster of hoopoo birds dart nearby; I mention to Yossi that I believe these are Israel's national bird. "Yes," he says; "the hoopoo wears Solomon's crown - tradition says these are the birds that taught him all his wisdom!" One greater than Solomon has taught us, and our hearts are open to receive more.

Map of Jerusalem 

Time presses; we're writing our own history in short gaps as we board the bus and transfer to Jericho, entering an enclave of palms. Here we view the replica of an ancient map of Jerusalem and its surrounds; a map so different to ours: it's all pictures rather than dots, words and lines! Churches, rivers, city walls are all here in mosaic vibrancy. Makes you want to visit that place! (Oh, we shall - soon!)

We ascend to a rooftop and view clearly, much higher than ourselves, outside Jericho, the Mountain of Temptation, where the Spirit led Jesus right after His baptism. Blending into the mountain, halfway up, is a monastery, where monks still face into life's temptations, doing battle for the world up there, with a birds-eye view, through prayer. We are graced by the power of their call. Down below we eat an appropriately simple lunch - after all, Jesus fasted in this place. Dates and oranges, or a bowl of soup and pita are all we need.

Thin pale line half way up, with white domes, is the monastery

We lower our gaze to Jericho city, modern setting of Joshua's ancient battle. Archaeologists recently found a stone that proves there was a wall there, dated to the Bible story! This thrills Yossi, our archaeologist guide, who likes to say, "The lack of proof is not proof of the lack." He doesn't like to just take things by faith, but by faith in learning, perseveres in the search for proof.

We learn that this place produced the most important invention in history: not sliced bread, though it eventually led to that! Jericho was the place where nomads first put down roots, planted crops, and invented the world of Agriculture. From that small change came prosperity, free time, planning, leisure ... sliced bread ... and space to seek for God.

Great climbing branches!

Yossi says that the history of Israel in a nutshell is this: "We were shepherds; we settled in towns with agriculture; we became farmers!"

Driving by "The Sycamore Tree" we see how easily little Zacchaeus could have ascended really high to see Jesus! And then it's on to Qumran and Masada.

Replica Qumran containers

Qumran, famous for the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls, is part of a desert mountain range dotted with caves. In several caves, clay jars were found sixty years ago, containing, besides other texts, the entire Old Testament (without the book of Esther, which, with Song of Songs, is the only book that doesn't overtly reference God.) These scrolls are the oldest editions of Biblical texts that we have, written between 200 BC - 70 AD. What a find!

"Dead Sea Scroll"

Nearby is the site of a community settlement from that time. Some scholars debated that the scrolls may have been written here by ascetic Essenes; however hundreds of gold coins and a wealth of date pits were found here, along with bones of both men and women. This doesn't lend itself to the notion of asceticism, so it's unlikely that the writers lived exactly here; and the settlement loses its interest. Treasure, it turns out, is not in gold coins, but in destructible clay pots containing fragile parchments with sacred and other writings on them. A timeless truth.

Masada is next, as the temperature drops to 36 Celsius! We gondola up, high over the vast desert plane that has an extraordinary view in all directions, with the Dead Sea directly before it. An enemy approaching would be spotted long before he arrived, and Herod the Great, who built this spacious fortress palace, had plenty of reason to worry about enemies. (He also worried about internal conflict, and, as a result murdered his beloved wife and two sons.)

Masada is the setting for a heroic story of resistance by Jews against Roman takeover, 70 years after Herod's death. The Jews within the fortress had plenty of food and water (paranoid Herod had used his

Rectangular Roman camp way below

10,000 slaves to build multiple storehouses and enormous cisterns there in his day.) The Romans, camping way below, became desperate in the blistering heat. How could they storm out the besieged Jews? Building an enormous ramp to the top of the walls, they drove a battering ram up, and, fighting fire and wind, bashed the door down. Their dramatic entry turned to dismay as they discovered a pile of newly-dead bodies inside. The Jewish resistance fighters chose a "brave, free death over captivity".

We wonder how they survived at all in that heat which made all of us wilt within two hours! Was there more vegetation at that time? Yossi tells us that it has been 10,000 years since this desert was a tropical oasis, so that option is ruled out. "Brave and free" simply seems to characterize them in life as well as in death. We Canadians acknowledge a greater power, and beat a mild retreat to our air conditioned bus!

Our day is almost over, but our ultimate destination is yet to be revealed. Past Bedouin villages and topography changing from desert to green we drive. Jerusalem, the city whose name means "foundation of peace," awaits us!

Jerusalem!

As I look back over the day I realize that the number 10,000 has been raised several times! Beit Shean was founded 10,000 years ago. We sang, as Yossi played, about 10,000 reasons to praise God. Herod had 10,000 slaves. It has been 10,000 years since the desert was a tropical climate. I think of another association: how many angels did Jesus say he could call, to deliver him from the cross there in Jerusalem? 10,000! But he didn't; choosing instead to die in infinite love for us. We will soon be in that very place!

Yossi puts on the music to "Jerusalem:  lift up your gates and sing - Hosanna in the highest!"  It is a triumphal entry!