Today began with an early morning border crossing from Israel back into Jordan. The process is complicated and involves multiple security checks, unsmiling immigration officers and soldiers ever watchful with powerful guns. It's sobering to think that Jordan is perhaps Israel's most friendly Arab neighbor!
We traveled two hours south west to Jordan's capital of Amman. Yet another ancient city, Amman was the capital city of the biblical Ammonites and was later renamed Philadelphia by the Roman conquerors. It hosted one of the seven churches named in Revelation. The ruins are perched high on a hill overlooking a bustling, compact city of 2 million. Near the ruins is a museum that houses, amongst other treasures, the oldest human form statues ever discovered. Ancient coins, pottery, dead sea scroll fragments and other items are housed in a ramshackle building that would barely rate as a shed in Australia. I took some wonderful photos.
Lunch was taken at Madgala where we later viewed a 6th century mosaic that maps the holy land. A short 15 minute drive later and we were on the summit of Mount Nemo. Here Moses saw the promised land for the first time. Stretching out before him (and us) were the Jordan valley, the Judean hills, Dead Sea and in the northern distance, the Sea of Galilee. It's not hard to see why it all seemed to be a land flowing with milk and honey after the brutal realities of the Sinai wilderness.
Seeing the view, it is incredibly sobering to think that Moses did not get the chance to enter the land because of his earlier disobedience. It seems so harsh. As one person on our trip wisely said, the greater a leader's responsbilities, the greater are God's expectations. Of course God also empowers, but we have the choice to lean into His strength, or rely on ours.
Back on the bus, we then began our longest land journey of the whole trip as we headed south to Petra, an ancient city carved out of the rock (think Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) that is now one of the new seven wonders of the world. Tomorrow we spend half a day exploring it. I'm typing this update on my Iphone in the lobby of our hotel overlooking the Petra valley. Did I say I was blessed?!
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