Tabernacle at Timnah

 After a late lunch we walked across the road 

to a replica of the tabernacle

 Mount Sinai is a wedding

 God taking his bride Israel

 The 10 commandment are the wedding vows

The word of the Lord came to me:  “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem:

“This is what the Lord says:

“‘I remember the devotion of your youth,
    how as a bride you loved me
and followed me through the wilderness,
    through a land not sown.

Salomon's Pillars

Walking away from Timnah the rocks started to change

 some interesting shapes

 middle of the "lake"

 Beauty

 At the bottom of these rocks was this excavation

 an Egyptian temple, see the standing stones

Going back in time, workers (slaves) worshiped here

Getting closer to a more accessible terrain 

there is some tourist info

 Sitting in the shade we wrapped up our story of 2 sticks

 Moses had learned for 40 years the Egyptian way of the stick:

oppress the weak

Then God send him to the desert for 40 years 

to learn the way of the shepherd's stick

take care of the weak

According to Todd, mount Sinai is 5x higher 

more steep and treacherous

and then you have to read how many times God had Moses climb up:

Then Moses went up to God

 So Moses went up  and the Lord said to him, “Go down 

and warn the people

 The Lord replied, “Go down and bring Aaron up with you. etc.

Waterdown Church picture

these rock formations are called Salomon's pillars

Down Timnah

The group stands at the edge

look below the feet of the person on the right ...

...that's where this arrow is

You can see the green glow in the hills. There is copper here.

 on the top is where the arrow was

We scooted down on our butts

it was gravelly with patches of bigger stones

very, very steep

We waited for the group to come down at the bottom of this section

Marc coming behind me

Our group came down quite slow and careful

Margaret was having a difficult time,

Mike was one of the people helping

later Margaret could hardly remember this hike

probably short of electrolytes

I had the same problem at En Gedi

what a blessing community is

I think this is where we became an Insula (community)

Trees have a difficult time here

we still had quite a hike

I had been in the first group 

but slowly I got to be with the later bunch

running out of energy, being exposed for a long time

Lake???

Standing Stones

I thought we were at the highest point, but forgot to look behind me

we usually go as high as we can

Follow the path, but here some time waiting, 

so we could take in the view

Marc was helping people up these stairs

Standing on a ledge like this wasn't great for some people

Made it to the top of Mount Timnah

It was supposed to be F120 = 48C

but is was breezy and cloudy

that kept the temperature down to 42C

February temperatures in May

Todd wondered if we had people praying for us :)

 We took a group picture

and made a standing stone (pile)

Everyone could contribute 1 rock

Marc had the largest

The men left so we could have a private pee-break

as private as it gets on top of a mountain without vegetation

 I walked to the edge to take this picture

and just to show you; here is the sign that accompanies the view:

It says: "Nehustan river" and "Timnah river"

next time when you read in the bible about a river 

and it's not the Jordan

think about this very dry riverbed

Mount Timnah

 When we got off the bus (extra water had to be taken along)

we knew we were in a different area

this looks Egyptian

 These were the last green trees we saw for a while

Getting ready for a big hike

Single file and try not to break the line

keep someone in front and in back view

Almost everyone took a picture from this rock

it looks cool

The path wasn't easy

I was walking with the first group

I do better when I'm not at the end of the line

admire people who go to the back to help 

they have to go slower then their natural walk 

and that makes it very hard for them

 Finally we were up

We heard the story of 2 sticks

Phoraoh's (punishing flail) stick

and Moses (shepherd) stick

Actually the strong people in the back helping their weaker community are demonstrating the shepherd's stick

We have a lot of Pharoah in us: Come here!, sit down!

we sang:

"It's not by might, not by power"