Another Tel

Walking up to a tell, from Hezekiah's time

 But because our rabbi did his best to avoid any signs

I had no idea where we were

and started to really like looking for clues.

They deduct the time of these digs also by the way a wall is made

 This one was constructed in such a way that it was hard to climb

but easy to shoot arrows from

 We looked around to the Bedouin camps around this tell

according to Todd, 

this is a picture of the tribes camped around the tabernacle

 

a little deeper there was more of a dig exposed

There down in the dig is an altar

from Hezekiah's time, also 2 stone tablets

It is a temple in very good shape, 

well preserved because it was removed with care

tell Arad

  if you say to me, “We are depending on the Lord our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem”?

 and it is such a great find because

from the temple that stood in Jerusalem, 

the only thing they found is:

a piece of the cap of the high priest's staff

We learned about covenant

The covenant with Abraham was a blood covenant:

God had a part:

 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.  I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.  The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”

and Abraham had a part:

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you

To "sign" the covenant, both parties had to walk 

the blood path

So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”

Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half.

Abraham knew he was in trouble that's why:

a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.

Then the greater party walks the path:

When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot

after that, the lesser party walks the path

but in this case God "walks" 2x

  a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces

he signs the covenant for both

If Abraham does not keep his part of the covenant

God will pay the price

On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram

To remember this covenant, every day at mid-morning and mid-afternoon a sacrifice was offered

the sacrifice would enter from the North

the north is the death direction 

The one lamb you are to offer in the morning and the other lamb at dusk

You are to slaughter it at the north side of the altar

The shofar would be blown

 and the sacrifice would die

for over 1800 years the daily sacrifice was made

 mid morning and mid afternoon

Then at the time of Passover

Jesus the lamb of God, gave his life

mid afternoon

when the shofar was blown

It was at a conference with RVL 

that I heard this story for the first time

I'd not understood the whole covenant thing much

We have to learn these things looking at how the people that lived at that time would have understood it, in the Bedouin culture, when a young man wants to marry a girl

the fathers of both argue back and forth over the bride price

after they agree

the father of the girl gets a lamb, cuts the throat and collects the blood

(lamb is prepared for the meal to follow)

The father of the son takes off his sandals and stomps in the depression where the blood is, attenders may be splashed, this is the symbol, you may do this to me, if my son fails

then the father of the girl follows and does the same

If the boy would abuse the girl you would find the father of the boy in a wadi with footprints in the blood

(divorce rate Bedouin is low)

Because of this picture language I understood

Jesus died because He took my place

at the covenant at the blood path

But understanding is not enough

God wants us all

heart, soul and mind

the path will not be easy

but he will bless our socks off