Lessons from the Land

The Land as the Fifth Gospel

Ed Visser

by Pastor Ed Visser

For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land — a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. – Deuteronomy 8:7-9

One of the first lectures I heard when I traveled to Israel was entitled, “The Land as the Fifth Gospel.” Since we would be visiting largely New Testament-related sites, it was helpful to see that the land was nearly as illuminating as the four gospels when it came to understanding the life of Jesus.

For the people of Israel, the wilderness had been a testing field, causing their dependence on God. As they came to the promised land, God reminded them of its goodness, but he also issued a warning:

Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. – Deuteronomy 8:11-14

Such forgetfulness, which can easily happen when one has all that he/she needs and doesn’t feel the need for God, would bring about dire consequences for Israel. God explains this very pointedly a few chapters later:

Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, and so that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your forefathers to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. It is a land the LORD your God cares for;
the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.

So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today — to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul — then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.

Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the LORD’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you. – Deuteronomy 11:8-17

Jezreel Valley from Mt CarmelGod had brought Israel into a very unique land in the Middle East: a land of milk and honey; that is, a land flowing with both shepherds (milk from goats) and farmers (honey from dates) ¬– very unusual in a region that has either one or the other. But a more crucial uniqueness is that the land is utterly dependent on rain — and the God who brings rain. While the Mesopotamian region has the Tigris & Euphrates rivers, and Egypt the Nile, and their fertility comes from flooding and irrigation — Israel is dependent on rain that comes down from the mountain regions to water the land. And it had to come at just the right times: autumn & spring. No rain, no crops = famine!

God makes it very clear that the rain is dependent on covenant faithfulness on the part of Israel. Famine would be punishment for their failure; and if they got really bad, God would exile them from the land. We see both types of punishment through the Old Testament, and the Bible and land together help us understand the reasons for it.

While most of us do not live in the land of Israel, and famine is something we’ve never experienced, this connection between God’s blessing of the land and Israel’s obedience to the covenant reminds us that God takes his covenant relationship with us very seriously. Do we?

The Pool of Siloam

Ed Visser

by Pastor Ed Visser

Jesus, to the man born blind: “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam” John 9:7

A fascinating thing about visiting Israel is that you find yourself in the middle of new and ongoing archaeological discoveries. Since biblical archeology didn’t really get underway until Israel became a nation in 1948, the past 50+ years have been the time of the greatest discovery of biblical places Pool of Siloamsince Jesus walked the earth! What at least one scholar described as the “archaeological discovery of the decade for biblical studies” was found a few weeks before I visited Israel: the first century Pool of Siloam.

For years, another pool from the Byzantine era was thought to be the Siloam pool (both supplied by the Gihon Spring). But a little further down the steep hill of David’s City, archaeologists Eli Shukron and Ronny Reich found steps to a first-century pool as they were checking the site before a sewage pipe was to be installed. What we saw was just the initial stages of uncovering the pool; since then a large section of the pool has been excavated.

When we visited the pool, we had just been at the southern stairs of the Temple. That is surely where Jesus was nearly 2000 years ago when he encountered a man born blind (begging at the Temple entrance). To heal him, Jesus spit in the dirt, made some mud and applied it to the man’s eyes. Then, in words that may have stunned the man, Jesus told him to “go, wash in the Pool of Siloam.” He obeyed, and he came back seeing. It’s a nice story, but visiting the location adds to it’s impact. You see, the Pool is half a mile from the Temple Mount, down a very steep grade to the bottom of where the Kidron & Hinnom valleys meet. Walking down to the Pool (albeit on paved sidewalks), we felt what the man born blind experienced — a scary hike for sighted people!

How does that impact the story? And why didn’t Jesus just heal him there? Jesus was calling the man to real faith — not just belief, but to put his faith into action — by calling him to make a treacherous half-mile hike down a mountain. To take even that first step was an incredible confession that he believed Jesus was the Messiah. As he did often, Jesus linked healing with faith. Sometimes we think faith is about intellectual assent to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God. In reality, faith is about taking first steps toward doing God’s will, even when it seems very much impossible. Is that the kind of faith we show? Do we confess Jesus with out feet?

The Priest’s Mikveh

Ed Visser

by Pastor Ed Visser

A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man,
he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite …
Luke 10:31-32

Priests MikvehBetween two flights of stairs leading up to the Temple on its southern side, archaeologists have found a number of Jewish ritual baths, called mikvehs. Many more have been found south of the Temple stairs. Mikvehs were used by the people to purify themselves before entering the Temple. If this was important for the common folk, it was even more important for the priests and Levites who ministered there.

While at the southern stairs, we wandered off the beaten path to just below the southeast corner of the Temple mount, where we found the mikveh pictured above. Some scholars believe this was used by the priests serving at the Temple, for two reasons: 1) the Mishnah tells us the priests had a separate tunnel entrance here so they wouldn’t become unclean by coming into contact with anyone. 2) Note also how different this looks from a typical mikveh (below), since it has steps all around it (vs. one entry), perhaps allowing a number of priests to use it at once. Priestly purity was taken very seriously.

Masada MikvehThis is pictured memorably in one of Jesus’ parables, set on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem. This desolate road was known for brigands and thieves, and Jesus pictures a man left ‘half dead’ by some. A priest and a Levite both pass by this man on their way from their home in Jericho (one of the main residences of priests) to Jerusalem, undoubtedly to serve their Temple “shift.” This scene presents them with a dilemma: the man is ‘half dead,’ a technical term for one who could die any moment. Coming in contact with a dead body would render them unclean for Temple service (even beyond help from a mikveh). The question they faced was sticky: what’s more important, serving God or man? So they weren’t being callous; but, according to Jesus, the “good” Samaritan showed the better way, since we serve God by serving man.

The Spirit and the Southern Stairs

Ed Visser

by Pastor Ed Visser

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole House where they were sitting.… All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.…
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd….”
Acts 2:1-4,14

Southern StairsOne of my favorite places to visit while in Israel was the southern stairs of the Temple. Not only did it offer shade at the right time of the day, of great importance under the summer sun, but it is also a very “authentic” place. There are not many places in Israel where you can say for certain, “I stood/walked where Jesus did.” — but this is one of them. Many of the original steps leading up to the Temple remain, including the threshold in front of the main Temple entry gate, across which Jesus must have made a number of trips. This was also one of the best locations in Jerusalem for a teacher to speak to a group, something Jesus likely did as well.

But the southern stairs have a special meaning for the Christian church for another reason: this is the most likely location for at least some of the events of the day we know as Pentecost. That is actually the Greek term for the Jewish feast known as Shavuot or the Feast of Weeks. This harvest festival, held 50 days after the feast of first fruits, also celebrated God’s giving of the Torah on Mt Sinai. At nine in the morning — the time Peter identifies for us — every good Jew (Jesus’ disciples included) would have been at the Temple for the morning sacrifices related to this feast.

Temple from Mt OliveFor some reason, over the years, the Christian church has often associated Pentecost with the Upper Room, but there is no indication of this in Acts 2. In fact, all the clues point to the Temple: 1) ‘House’ in Jerusalem (v.2) was always the Temple; 2) every good Jew would be there for the feast at 9AM (15); 3) it would be the only place where you’d have so many foreign (diaspora) Jews (5-11); 4) the southern stairs was a logical place for Peter to preach to such a large audience, and 5) the only area in Jerusalem with enough mikveh’s (ceremonial baths) — over 140! — to baptize 3000 people (41).

For God, often represented by wind and fire in the Old Testament, to fill and then leave the Temple, was a picture of God changing his address. No longer does he live in the Temple in Jerusalem, but in his followers, those Paul described as “the Temple of the Holy Spirit.”

The Road to Emmaus

Ed Visser

by Pastor Ed Visser

“Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
Luke 24:32

Emmaus to Jerusalem010The group I traveled to Israel with in 2004 (along with others tied to the En-Gedi Resource Center) was called Emmaus Educational Services. The name was chosen because the leaders wished for people to better come to know Jesus through their experience, even as Cleopas and his friend did when they encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). By visiting places where Jesus walked and taught, where he fished and healed, where he died, arose, and ascended, we grew to know him better — getting our feet wet and dusty where he did. We knew the Bible; but there’s something about getting to know the land of Israel that makes Scripture come alive.

But Cleopas and his friend, in a sense, had the opposite need. They knew the land and had experienced many of these events with Jesus. They needed to know Scripture in a new way: from the other side of Easter. So, just as we needed to go back to their side, by walking the dusty roads, they needed to be transported to our side, to see from a post-Easter perspective this Jesus they had been following. They needed to read a new reality back into the ancient scrolls of the Torah and Prophets.

As they walked the familiar Roman road from Jerusalem back home, they talked about the events of the past few days. They shared their hopes that Jesus might have been Messiah, their distress over his crucifixion, and their confusion over the morning reports of an empty tomb. Soon they were joined by another traveler who started by sharing his ignorance of these recent events, then upbraided them for not seeing fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy in what had happened. On that seven-mile journey, he gave them a seminary course on promise & fulfillment that left them with heartburn! Only when they arrived at Emmaus did God open their eyes to see Jesus, and then he disappeared, after which they ran seven miles back to Jerusalem (uphill most of the way!).

Emmaus RoadThis has always been one of my favorite stories in the Bible. Perhaps that is part of the reason I am so passionate about trying to see Jesus in the Old Testament passages, patterns, and symbols. What I wouldn’t give to have been in Jesus’ class that day — and the following 39 days — as he taught his disciples how the Old Testament speaks of him. Thankfully the New Testament retains a lot of the lessons Jesus taught them, which is why it is so important to read the New Testament with “Jewish” and Old Testament eyes.

Walking the road to Emmaus on our last day in Israel — and continuing to walk that road every time I study the Bible and try to “see” Jesus in the Old Testament and get to know him better — makes me feel a little closer to Cleopas, almost as if I were that unnamed disciple (maybe that’s why he’s unnamed!), walking with Jesus and getting spiritual heartburn.

The Son of Man Betrayed

Ed Visser

by Pastor Ed Visser

“Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?…

JESUS: “… the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.”
CAIAPHAS: “Are you then the Son of God?”
Luke 22:48, 69-70

GethsemaneAs the group with whom I visited Israel sat in the Garden of Gethsemane, thinking back to the long evening Jesus spent there before his crucifixion, we focused on an aspect of his suffering that often goes over-looked: betrayal. Amidst ancient olive trees, some possibly old enough to have witnessed Jesus’ prayer, we pondered the Jewish view of betrayal in the first century. The most obvious betrayer was Judas Iscariot, who, for 30 pieces of silver, led the Temple Guard down through the Kidron Valley, and up to the Garden. There he targeted Jesus with a kiss, making an affectionate middle eastern greeting now a hideous symbol of betrayal (irony not lost on Jesus).

Neatly framed between the olive trees one can see the eastern gate of the Temple Mount. Under the cover of darkness, Jesus was escorted up to the Temple and into a room on the southern side called the “Sanhedrin,” after the court that usually met there. This, however, was not an official or Temple from Mt Oliveeven legal meeting of the court. Rather, it appears a hastily called session of some of its members, mostly priestly leaders, headed by Caiaphas.

What follows is a fascinating exchange between the High Priest and Jesus. Jesus answers the question of Caiaphas (are you Messiah?) in a very Jewish way. Jesus alludes to Psalm 110:1, historically linked by the sages with Psalm 2:7 (God: You are my Son), both referring to the coming Messiah. Caiaphas picks up Jesus’ cue, alluding to Psalm 2:7: are you then the Son of God? With Jesus’ affirmation, the “council” brings Jesus before Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, with three political charges showing Jesus to be a revolutionary against Rome.

What the high priests do, turning Jesus over to the Romans, would not have received approval by the populace. To be a moser, one who betrays a fellow Jew, and especially handing him over to pagans, was considered by the Jews an unforgivable sin! Judas, the first moser, realizes this and responds with suicide. The crime of the priests was even worse; yet they show no remorse, likely believing they saved the nation from Roman intervention. Acts 4 shows their later attempt to keep their actions (guilt?) quiet.

Jesus in the Synagogue

Ed Visser

by Pastor Ed Visser

On the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me …” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them,
“Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke 4:16-21

Moses SeatMany of the places we visited in Israel boasted the ruins of ancient synagogues. As we read in this passage, Jesus was in the habit of attending synagogues in Galilee, often being asked to read the
Bible and preach. In those days, that entailed reading a prescribed Torah passage & a self-chosen portion from the prophets, all done standing. Then the reader would sit in Moses’ Seat and share what the Scripture meant to him (the sermon).

One Sabbath Jesus was invited to do so in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth. We don’t know what the Torah portion was for the day, but Jesus chose to read Isaiah 61:1-2, changing the reading in a couple of important ways: 1) he dropped the last half of Isaiah 61:2, “the day of vengeance of our God”; and 2) he added a phrase from Isaiah 58:6, “to release the oppressed.” While this may seem like Scriptural manipulation to us, it was a a very acceptable form of biblical interpretation for the Jews, in which they linked verses that contained similar words or phrases to make their point. So what was Jesus’ point?

CapernaumSynagogueThe Isaiah 61 passage had been linked with the biblical theme of Jubilee, freedom from slavery and return to the land (when in exile). But it also was seen as the promise of the coming messiah, who would bring not only Jubilee for Israel, but God’s judgment on their oppressors. Thus, many (including John the Baptizer) expected messiah to bring freedom by coming with a sword.

Jesus’ changes in the reading were his way of challenging faulty expectations. Messiah was not coming with “vengeance” (at least not yet), and Jubilee was to be a mutual effort of Messiah and the people of God. Messiah brought freedom from sin. But Isaiah 58 is a message calling Israel to enact Jubilee themselves by taking care of the poor & oppressed among them, not waiting for Messiah to do it! Jesus then sat on the Seat of Moses and told them that he was Messiah. But, as we gather from the Wheat & Weeds parable, the final judgment would come later, when he returned.

Until then, they, and we today, live in the Kingdom of God and are called to enact Jubilee on earth. How are we doing?

My Father’s Business

Ed Visser

by Pastor Ed Visser

After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
Luke 2:46-49

In my travels through Israel, we spent a little time in Jesus’ neighborhood: both Nazareth and the nearby city of Sepphoris. Here we explored a bit about the “silent” period of Jesus’ life, from ages 13-30.

Sepphoris TheaterWe get a few hints about Jesus during these years. We are told that he is the “carpenter’s son,” and that he lived in Nazareth with his parents and was obedient to them, growing in wisdom, stature, and in favor with God and men (Luke 2:51-52). And then we have this somewhat enigmatic scene in the temple courts when he was 12, talking about needing to be “in my father’s house.” What is that all about?

It might surprise you to learn that the word “house” never appears in this verse (in the Greek). Rather, the phrase reads “in the things of my father.” Given the setting is in the temple (God’s ‘house’), most translations opt to go that direction. The King James opts instead for “about my father’s business.” Either version is an acceptable translation. The other question is: which father is he talking about? Almost all see God the Father as being referred to here; but some suggest that Jesus may be alluding to both of his ‘fathers.’ We know about the divine Father’s ‘business’; what about Jesus’ human father?

Joseph is described as a tekton, which we find usually translated “carpenter.” In our society, that’s a bit deceptive, since such a person works almost exclusively with wood. But in Israel, there’s not much wood for building; most everything is made of stone. So the ‘business’ that Joseph was in, and would have taught his son, was more like stone masonry. In nearby Sepphoris, construction was booming during Jesus’ silent years, and likely father and son would hike the mile or two there to engage in their ‘business’.

Joseph would also have served as Jesus’ first teacher. He is called a tzaddik (“righteous man”) in Work of TektonMatt 1:19, a technical term which meant that he would have been educated, possibly even a sage. So when Jesus is wowing the sages in the Temple, partial credit must go to Joseph his father (the sage?). Could this be, at least in part, the “father’s business” that Jesus is going about? Certainly there is more here; his heavenly Father’s business would be his eventual life’s work. But we shouldn’t completely ignore the role Joseph played in Jesus’ growth as a person, and even as a sage himself!

Oh Little Town of Bethlehem

Ed Visser

by Pastor Ed Visser

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over the flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them … “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”
Luke 2:8-11

Bethlehem shepherd fieldOne of the places I was able to visit while in Israel was the “little town of Bethlehem.” I say this with gratitude because, despite all the peaceful scenes of Bethlehem on our Christmas cards, today it is often a place of strife, off limits to tourists.

Bethlehem is found in the central hill country of Israel, surprisingly close to Jerusalem. It is also on the border between the farm belt and the wilderness — literally right across the road from each other — so farmers like Boaz and shepherds like David coexisted here (a little more peacefully than Palestinians and Israelis!). One sign of that is especially apparent in the fall: for the only time all year, sheep are allowed to graze in farmers’ fields. It proves a symbiotic relationship: sheep, normally confined to desert grazing, get the crop leftovers but also leave behind fertilizer for the upcoming growing season.

This phenomenon, which occurs only in “frontier” towns, may explain the wording of Luke 2:8 that the shepherds were “in the fields” nearby Bethlehem. If so, it dates Jesus’ birth to sometime in the summer or fall (perhaps in conjunction with the Feast of Sukkot?). But the fact that these sheep were in the Bethlehem area also suggests another insight: that they were Temple flocks being raised for sacrifice. The Mishnah tells us that only sheep from the flocks of Bethlehem were to be used for this purpose. Is this an additional pointer toward Jesus, the sacrificial lamb of God?

Another feature of the area is the Herodian fortress-palace, which actually casts a shadow over the herodian fortresstown of Bethlehem in the early morning. From the top, one can see not only Bethlehem but even Jerusalem to the west, as well as a good view of the wilderness to the east. Every person in the Christmas story — whether Mary & Joseph, the shepherds, the Magi, Simeon & Anna — would have to “buy into” the idea that this poor child was the true King of the world, when King Herod’s presence was so obvious and ominous nearby.

It certainly took a lot of faith to be part of that first Christmas story set in Bethlehem. But it takes no less faith today — when so many other “kings” vie for our attention, when evil sometimes seems enthroned — to cast our lot with that unblemished Lamb born in Bethlehem to be the sacrifice to atone for our sins. Have you cast your lot for him?

Shepherd, Sheep, and Goats

Ed Visser

by Pastor Ed Visser

We were traveling through the Judean desert toward Jerusalem when we saw it. Coming over one of the many hills, we spotted this pastoral scene, of which I quickly snapped a picture. It’s a typical scene in the land, a bedouin shepherd leading his sheep and goats to food. And yet, the scene before us was atypical of the images we hold in our mind when we read passages like Psalm 23.

sheep and goatsThe Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not be in want.
He makes me lay down in
green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he restores my soul.
He guides me in
paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.

Admit it! You probably don’t envision “green pastures” that look like sand dunes (where’s the green?). Or thousands of “paths” (the horizontal stripes you can barely see) that crisscross the hills (which ones are the “right paths”?). Whatever your Sunday School pictures showed you about Psalm 23, this is the image you should have firmly in your mind! And when you get the right image, you “get” the Psalm.

After all, what’s more like real life? God plopping you down in a field of lush grass, giving you everything you need for your lifetime? Or God leading you, day-by-day, to little tufts of grass, just enough to get you through the day but demanding that you trust him for the next day (“give us this day our daily bread”)?

What’s more like real life? God showing you a nicely paved path and reminding you not to stray off it? Or God leading you, in the midst of a maze of different paths you could choose, down the path that will allow you to live rightly and find sustenance for life (rather than the edge of a cliff)?

You will notice that the shepherd (top, far left) is out in front of his flock — leading them, not driving them like cattle. God wants our relationship with Him to be one of hearing his voice & following, rather than having to be “driven” to hear and obey. True sheep, as Jesus notes in John 10, hear his voice and follow.

But sometimes we don’t follow; we go our own way. What then? Well, Jesus reminds us that a good shepherd will go out to seek and save his lost sheep, for they are precious to him. But there are limits; there will be a time when sheep & goats will be separated, and different fate will await them both. Why did Jesus differentiate between these 2 types of flocks? After all, in Israel you generally see sheep & goats grazing together. But look closely at this picture. The group of animals in a neat circle nearest the shepherd are sheep; the rest scattered on the hillside are goats. Apparently this is common, for while sheep are good followers, goats often have a mind of their own. Goats have an independent streak which causes them to stray. Do we?