2008 Soap Box Archives

Israel

My family and myself recently joined our pastor and a small group of people from our church for a trip to the land of Israel.

We were only there for seven days but the sights we saw in that short time is truly mind-boggling.

The bedrock around most of the biblical sites is buried below thousands of years of different civilizations building on top of each other on the same location until there are literally man made hills where the land had been level a few thousand years ago.

Israel is a land of contradiction and conundrum, of old enemies living side by side in an uneasy truce that is constantly challenged by the intransience of the three world religions that consider it to be The Holy Land.

The population is made up of religious and secular Jews, Christians of every denomination, Muslims, Druze and the Bedouins, many of who still keep camels and live in the tents in the wilderness.

It's easy to spot an Arab settlement for two reasons, first because of what looks like dozens of unfinished houses, and unfinished houses are exactly what they are, but with a twist.

When the son of an Arab family takes a wife, he doesn't move out of his father's house to set up housekeeping with his new bride, instead they both move in with the groom's family, necessitating the need for more living space.

They, for the most part, just ignore the building codes of the state of Israel and just start building a new level on the house, and more often than not forego painting and even leaving exposed rebar sticking up from the roof.

Secondly, the whole area is littered with trash, which evidently is just tossed out on the ground around the residences evidently in contempt of Jewish rule.

One of the truly amazing things about Israel is the ingenuity of the ancient civilizations that built it. The size of the stones which were quarried and moved from sites many miles away and how a wall was constructed with stones weighing many tons all stacked atop each other, you have to wonder how they lifted them.

Roman architecture is evident everywhere in Israel. The Romans had strict codes of construction that had to be adhered to and parts of the aqueducts they built are still standing. The intricacy of bringing water from a far away source and building the aqueducts in a way to keep the water flowing is nothing short of amazing for people who didn't have the modern tools to measure the exact gradual drop required to keep the water flowing.

The Bible speaks of a time when the desert would bloom and it's very evident that the time has come. Fruits, vegetables and flowers are abundant and exported to the European market.

As you ride through the dry and dusty desert you'll come upon groves of incredibly green date palms and banana trees. The Israelis have perfected irrigation to an art, knowing just how much water each plant requires to survive and prosper.

Israel is a small country, roughly the size of the state of Massachusetts, but this tiny nation will play the biggest of role of any nation in international politics in the days to come.

I was much impressed with Israel and will devote the next few columns to our trip and the places we visited. I will take you from the place where the battle of Armageddon will be fought to the holy city of Jerusalem and all the spots and experiences in between.

I only hope you will enjoy the articles and learn something about this ancient and fascinating place.

Pray for our troops.

What do you think?

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels

 

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