Messages from Potholes and Absent Fathers

All the signs on the corner advertise liquor. The radio stations bump music appointing money and sex as king and queen. And all the boys on my baseball team know the smell of good cush like the back of their hand. This is my neighborhood and Jesus Christ is present here.

There is a generation growing up in my neighborhood right now that is walking in the footsteps of the generation before. Drug dealing is not a crime, it is a job opportunity. Fatherhood is merely an option to consider, not a responsibility to cherish. And hustling is a way of life. The streets are littered with garbage and the potholes are never fixed and it all sends one message: we don't care about you. Even the ones on the block who are fighting to provide for their families and to make a better life for themselves find it infinitely more difficult because of the hole society and sin has dug for them.

The only answer for them is Christ. Now, you may be nodding your head in agreement, but before you agree to the previous statement may I explain to you what agreement entails?

Agreeing that the answer is Christ makes you and I responsible 

We are responsible for the knowledge we possess. As Christians we know the way that leads to life and we not only know, we believe. Unfortunately, I worry that we easily forget the genesis of our salvation: grace. I am concerned with the perspective I see many, including myself at times, have lost: the grace we have received is the same grace others need, no matter who they are. We all too often act like we did something to deserve the grace God has shown us. We would never say anything like that, but we act like it. Do we think that because we were born in a certain place or to certain parents that we are blessed because of something we did? We have been shown grace and grace must be shown to the thug, the drug dealer, and the person we wouldn't expect could come to Christ. We are responsible to believe in the gospel we say we believe.

Agreeing that the answer is Christ frees us from responsibility

Wait, what? Yes, it also frees us from responsibility. The answer is not us, it is Him. We are not the "great white hope". It is not an us and them mentality. It is a collective perspective that must accompany the preaching of the gospel. It is not the saved saving the unsaved. It is the sinner presenting to the other sinner the way of life. It is the job of the Holy Spirit to save, not yours. You are a vessel. You point to Christ. It is not your money or your resources or your intellect or your truth or your love that will save anyone. Your money and resources can aid these people. Your intellect, truth and love, can provide evidence of what Christ has done and is doing in you. But at the end of the day, Christ saves these people. Christ will draw all men to Himself when He is lifted up (Jn. 12:32).

Agreeing that the answer is Christ keeps us on track

This goes along with the previous point. The ultimate goal is not what you can bring to the table. It is not better housing, education, or healthcare. No, my friend, the ultimate goal of the Christian on mission is the salvation of the soul of the people you interact with. Yes, love the people you are with. Invite them to dinner. Advocate for their children in the public school system. Help them move when they are evicted. However, at the end of the day we must not forget that because the answer is Christ, the end-all, be-all is the rescue of the soul of the person, not the care of the body.

We are responsible to act like we believe, we are not responsible to save, and we are always single-minded, focused on salvation. This is life borne out of belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Life borne out of belief in the gospel is real and gritty. It recognizes the attempt that my community is making at building bonds when they open up the fire hydrant. It is hot on my block and people tend to open the fire hydrant so that the kids on the block can have a place to play. The people still sit on their front steps and they wave at me as I pass by. Families are still here. Kids are still growing up. I must recognize this, you must recognize this on your block.

A new generation is being cultivated before my very eyes on my block, before your very eyes on your block. Who will sacrifice a comfortable way of life to bring them the truth of Jesus Christ? Will you?

The gospel is needed on my block and it is needed on your block. Do not close your eyes to the people you would not expect would be receptive to the gospel in your neighborhood. God sets things up. He did it for Peter and Cornelius. He will do it for you. You just have to believe in the gospel you say you believe. It is powerful enough to save the drug dealer, the thug, the old man, and the single mother. It is powerful enough to save the perfect family of four who does not think their life needs anything else. It erupts into the lives of people and destroys any sense of fake wholeness that they have created for themselves. Believe and act like you believe. If you believe that what you believe is really real, you will act like it. So, sacrifice your safety, your comfort, your perspective on people so that the gospel may spread. People are dying in need of the gospel you believe.

Family First

The last couple of years I have been consistently reminded of this simple truth: take care of family before you take care of other people. Today was another day in which I was reminded of that. Our professor said, “If you’re doing the work of God and you’re neglecting your own family then you aren’t doing the work of God.” Jesus had a mom and brothers and at some point the Scriptures stop talking about Joseph and only mention them. Scholars assume it is because Joseph has died at this point and Mary is a widow. Jesus doesn’t start His ministry until He is thirty and in the meantime scholars assume He is working as a handyman, taking care of mom. I’ve never thought about that. How did Jesus take care of His family? He gets a bad rap for Matthew 12:48 when He says, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” It’s almost like Jesus doesn’t care when people tell Him His family is outside but at the cross we get a different picture. “When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home (John 19:26-27).” He made sure that before He died He had someone taking care of His mother. I think it is safe to assume that when He does things like He did in Matthew 12:48 He is trying to make a point about the family of the Kingdom of God, but that John 19:26-27 show how Jesus really treated His mother. All too often I make the mistake of sacrificing my family on the altar of ministry and it shouldn’t be like this. That thought process all happened sitting within an old synagogue in the city of Capernaum, where Jesus lived after Nazareth (Matthew 4:13-16).

The synagogue in Capernaum is not amazing just because it is a synagogue, but because it is a synagogue in which Jesus Himself had been. Mark 1:21-22 explains that He taught in this synagogue and that people were astonished with what He was teaching. In fact, continue reading Mark 1 and you find out that Jesus healed a man with an unclean spirit there. Absolutely mind-boggling to be sitting on the ruins of a place Jesus was not only in but taught in. After that we climbed down the cliffs of Arbel, a place involved in the rebellion of the Jews and Herod killing all of them. It was more of a hiking trail than an incredible historical site for me. We climbed down some sheer rock wall using handles and ropes built into the side of the cliff. It was a blast to rock-climb like that. We also did it when we visited the aqueduct that Herod built to bring water to Caesarea.

Speaking of Caesarea, this old city was my favorite city of the trip. Right along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea this city built by Herod the Great out of nothing is gorgeous. Herod had a palace right on the edge of the water that must have been breathtaking. Acts 10 recounts the story of Peter being called by Cornelius, a centurion who feared God. Verses 9-16 explain a vision that Peter has about unclean animals but taking into consideration the surrounding context it does not seem to be talking about food to eat. After all, there is a group of Gentile soldiers coming to take Peter to Caesarea. These unclean people, these Gentiles, are obviously not Jews and God is telling Peter to not call unclean what God has made clean. God is talking about them! God is telling Peter that the Gospel is for all people, not just the Jews. It is a recurring theme among the Jews to believe that they are special and everyone else is terrible. God flips that on its head constantly by letting them know that really His plan all along was for the world, they were just the instruments. Herod’s palace in Caesarea is also where Paul spoke and was heard by multiple Roman officials in Acts 23:12-26:32. We were standing in the city where Peter and Paul preached. It was absolutely incredible to end the trip on this note. The last three weeks have been a whirlwind of learning and astonishment and thinking and wrestling with misconceptions and old ideas and new ideas. It has been a trip that will stick in my mind for the rest of my life and as I study my Bible and get ready to preach from it I will have the places we have visited in my mind’s eye constantly.

The Bridegroom Preparing a Room

We sailed on the Sea of Galilee today, an unexpected but pleasant surprise. In between waving at fishermen and enjoying the view we discussed fishing and Jesus. Luke 5:1-11 recounts the moment that James, John, and Simon Peter left everything they had and followed Jesus. But one of the things that struck me was how Jesus handled the whole matter. He did not tell them that what they were doing was bad or worthless rather before they followed Him He gave them one of their biggest catches yet. As our professor said, Jesus did not disregard or place work lower on the ladder of significance, He redeemed it. He took their skills and made them fishers of men. Another important thing to note is that the fisherman’s job is to kill. All day long he kills fish and sells it. Jesus changed it up. He made the fishermen into shepherds and the job of the shepherd is to preserve life. He stays with his flock through thick and thin and takes care of them. From the Sea of Galilee (which is more of a lake) we went to the region of Gergesa.

Gergesa may not sound familiar but the people of that town were known as Gergesenes, ring any bells? No? Your Bible may call them Gadarenes? Or Gerasenes? Anyways, Luke 8:26-39 has the story if you are wondering. In short, it is where a man possessed by, let’s say a lot, of demons is healed by Jesus and people freak out. This man was a monster. The Bible records that no one could hold him down with chains or subdue him. Jesus casts out the demons and the people ask him to leave, obviously. The sheer power that Jesus has to have to do this probably made the people tremble violently. But what I want to point is that when Jesus is leaving the man comes up to Jesus and begs Him to let him come. I mean, it makes sense. He had been an outcast for so long and Jesus had just turned his life upside down, why stay? Jesus has a track record for telling people to keep quiet when He does something great, yet in this passage He tells the man to go and tell people what God had done for him. What a concept, a Gentile missionary to the Gentiles. That must have rattled some of the disciples’ cages.

We moved from Gergesa to a lookout point over the Sea of Galilee and looked at Matthew 5:14. Scholars suggest that the city Jesus is referring to is known as Hippus, a Roman city prominently set up on a hill right by the Sea of Galilee. People from miles around could see it. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. The view was beautiful and it was a good reminder of how Christians are to be a pronounced blessing on others. Yet, my favorite part of the tour today was sitting in a rebuilt Jewish home from the fourth century AD. John 14:1-4 talks about Jesus going away to prepare a place for us. Unfortunately for everyone who grew up in Sunday School this doesn’t mean we all get a mansion in Heaven (I don’t know where that idea came from but it’s a pretty ridiculous one if you think about it, a mansion all for yourself? How boring). In the Jewish culture when a guy and a gal are going to get married they have a yearlong engagement period where they are basically married but not living together. It is extremely serious and during that time the groom is building a room to add onto his father’s house for his wife and himself. In that day they just built a new room rather than moving down the street and creating a sitcom (Everybody Loves Raymond reference? Really?). The kicker is that the room is not ready ergo the marriage does not officially occur until the groom’s father says it is. Meanwhile the bride is making all sorts of blankets and whatnot for their marriage but she is waiting for the day when the trumpets blast and the groom comes down the road to her house and takes her away to the wedding feast at his house. But that does not happen until the father tells his son that the room is ready. Jesus goes to prepare a place for us and before He promises that He says that in His Father’s house are many rooms, not cul-de-sacs with mansions, but rooms. The Son does not know the time, only the Father knows (Mark 13:32). Consistently throughout the New Testament we see the Church explicitly referenced to as the bride of Christ. He is preparing a room for us and we will not live down the street from each other but in close proximity, as a family. May this causes us to cry out in anticipation, “Lord, come quickly!”

The Danger in Symbols and Social Justice

We all know there is something special about the water from the Jordan River. It has a distinct golden glow about it and it gives immortality to whoever carries it around in a bottle. Well, that last part may not be true but the rest of it surely is, or you would have thought it was by the way people made a point of going down to the river’s edge to bottle some of the “Holy” water. A danger everyone faces at some point in their Christian walk is how to deal with symbols. From Catholics to Protestants, Charismatics to Baptists, symbols run rampant in our religious cultures. It has become much more pronounced for me while in Israel because absolutely everything is a symbol. The Holy Sepulcher Church has people kissing marble remembering where they laid Jesus. Jacob’s well sells decorated containers of water remembering the place where Jesus met the Samaritan woman. And now people bottle the water from the Jordan remembering where Jesus was baptized. All of these symbols are great as long as they stay symbols and point to Christ and ultimately to God. But symbols lose their value when they become more important than that which they symbolize. When symbols cease to point people to God they become useless and in some cases become demonic. They take the glory for themselves and attempt to rob God of His glory or rather people attribute glory to them that is to be given to God. I enjoy symbols. I think in symbols. Symbols, like I said earlier, are “pictures” to remind us of how much we miss God. They are to cause our hearts to cry out, “Maranatha, come quick Lord!” But we have the tendency to make symbols more than that and we must take care that this does not happen, especially in Israel where everything is a symbol of Christ.

As you can guess the Jordan River sparked some thoughts in my mind but we went other places today too. The city of Dan is found amidst springs springing from Mount Hermon where water flows from the rocks at an intense 22.5 gallons a second. It is the largest spring in the Middle East and was absolutely gorgeous to walk around. When we made it into the ruins of the city that have been excavated we had a chance to sit in the city gate. Throughout the Scriptures important transactions and judgments happen in the city gate as was customary in that culture and we began to talk about justice. The first thing we noted was that justice is public. Elders are called to the city gate and matters are settled before those walking in and out of the city and before God in Heaven (Ruth 4:1-2). The second thing observed is that the Israelite culture and the Scriptures see justice differently than we might perceive it. The Western mentality is that of retribution. Justice is blind and people must pay back damages for the crimes they have committed but in the culture of the Israelites justice is all about equilibrium. It is all about what is best for the community and what is best so that everything remains balanced and at peace. Take a look at Deuteronomy 22:28-29, “If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.” Seizing a virgin and lying with her is not cuddling, he raped her and now she has to live with him. We cry, “Kill him!” The Bible cries, “Marry her!” Confused? What happens if this man does not marry her? She is without hope of ever being married and bearing a son that would take care of her. She is no longer a virgin and her only hope is that her father lets her stay with the family and takes care of her, but for how long? This man has taken everything from her in a moment and the Bible forces him to take responsibility for her. He is now forced to provide for her and he can never get rid of her. She now has the opportunity to bear a son to take care of her and she is no longer without hope. Justice is served. Balance is reached.

After Dan we arrived at Caesarea Philippi, the setting for Matthew 16:13-20 where Jesus asks the poignant question, “Who do you say that I am?” Matthew 17:1-13 documents the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus and it says that Jesus went up to a high mountain. He was just in Caesarea Philippi and it is very likely that the high mountain is Mount Hermon, which is right there. Very cool idea to imagine that, to allow the mountain to become a symbol of the Christ in all His glory. We ended the day at Ben-Tal and all I remember (due to a combination of being tired and it being the best thing I have heard all day) is that the first “Gospel” was the Old Testament. I never thought about the apostles preaching from the Old Testament. I never imagined them opening up the Scriptures and explaining how all this time God has been setting up the redemption of all things and it finds its fulfillment in Jesus. The Jews who realize that Jesus is Messiah can tell their brothers and sisters that they finally understand what God has been doing. Throughout this entire class I have realized that the Jews of the Scriptures (because those are the only Jews I have interacted with) believe they deserve God’s blessing. What they, and inevitably I, don’t realize is that they, and I, have been blessed TO bless. The Jews are special because God picked them, God did not pick them because they are special. And what Jesus brings to light is that the whole point of everything that God has done and is doing through them is to provide redemption for the world. God was not just saving the Jews but Gentiles as well. What a scandalous message to those who believe they are better and more deserving than everyone else. What a humbling message.

The Good that Came Out of Nazareth (John 1:46)

THIS IS…Galilee. Of the Gentiles. Where Saul and Jonathan died. Where Elijah sarcastically ridiculed the prophets of Baal. Where widows receive their sons back from death. Where Jesus grew up. Now I know the previous sentences are not sentences technically, but they are for effect. I wish I could attach dramatic music to this to prove my point. Galilee is a big deal and today we started our tour of it.

We began at Bethshan, an early Canaanite city that fell to the Egyptians by Thutmoses III and was then occupied by the Philistines after him. On Mount Gilboa, right by Bethshan of the Philistines, Saul and his sons, including Jonathan, died (1 Samuel 31:4). His body was brought back to Bethshan and fastened to the wall there (1 Samuel 31:10) but the men of Jabesh-Gilead came by night and took Saul’s body as well as the body of Jonathan and burned it at Jabesh-Gilead (1 Samuel 31:12). In all honesty, it was mildly interesting to see this area but the best is yet to come.

From Bethshan we moved to Megiddo, the believed site of “Armageddon.” I say believed because it is such a common notion that I can’t ignore it and after what I heard today I cannot adhere to it. First and foremost, Armageddon is a name found in Revelation 16:14-16 and no one knows where “Armageddon” is. John writes as if it is a name transliterated from the Hebrew, but we have no idea of any city named Armageddon. So, being good toponomists (those who study the names of places across languages) scholars figure it could be Har-Megiddon (the mount of Megiddo), but the problem with that is there is no mountain at Megiddo! We could go on and on but the biggest argument against Megiddo being the last place of the end times is that there is nothing important at Megiddo! No one cares about an old city. There is nothing of value around it. But the argument becomes pointless after that (including where “Armageddon” really is). The end times are going to happen, trust Jesus. That’s all. What happened of significance at Megiddo? I’m glad you asked. The story of Deborah and Barak found in Judges 4 happens on Mount Tabor right by Megiddo. In one of the most action-packed stories of the Old Testament, Jael, the wife of Heber, drives a tent peg through the temple of Sisera, the commander of the Canaanite armies, and kills him. Oh, but it gets better.

After Megiddo, we went on top of the Mount Carmel ridge and looked down upon the Jezreel valley. Does the name Mount Carmel ring any bells? Of course! It is where Elijah asked the prophets of Baal if Baal was too busy on the toilet to answer their cries (There is definitely more to the story than that but that’s my favorite part). In the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal (found in 1 Kings 17-18) a few things are interesting to note. First and foremost, the land is in a season of drought because Elijah told Ahab that it would not rain anymore until Elijah prayed. In the story he has the people of Israel drench his altar with water from the Kishon. He had them use precious water, and a lot of it, for his sacrifice. Elijah may have been showing the Israelites how to have faith in God and how they would have to sacrifice to come back to Him after following Baal. The other thing to note is that the sacrifice was a bull. Baal is portrayed as a god of fertility and his image is that of a bull. I can imagine the smirk on Elijah’s face as he cut the bull for the sacrifice (1 Kings 18:33). But there’s more!

The last place we visited was Nazareth and as Nathanael said I wondered, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth (John 1:46)?” It is literally in the middle of a bowl with no access to the Jezreel valley. It was poor and isolated and our Savior grew up there. This was by far my favorite part of our trip today because of the story we looked at in Luke 4:16-30. Teacher Jesus goes to the synagogue in Nazareth as an adult and as was His custom. The people expected Him there and it was not surprise to them when He stood up to read the Scriptures. By this time it is believed that the synagogues already had a set schedule for the year of what to read when. What a coincidence then that Jesus reads a Messianic prophecy that He fulfills. He reads the first two verses of Isaiah 61 and sits down. In that day the teacher sat down and taught (maybe on a stool with black square-rimmed glasses and blonde hair and…did I just make a Rob Bell reference?) and the people turned and listened. So this is what happened and Jesus said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing (Luke 4:21).” The people rejoiced! This is the one we have been waiting for. The rest of Isaiah 61 talks of blessing and riches. The people of Nazareth will finally be recognized and honored! And Jesus, as always, has something different in mind. In Luke 4:25-27 Jesus pointed out that God sent prophets to Gentiles instead of Israel. In not so many ways Jesus is saying God loves everyone. The Jews are only special because God chose to reveal Himself through them, but they are not superior. And immediately the crowd took Jesus to the mountain ridge we were sitting on to stone Him and He just walked through them. The Jews forgot the promise given to Abraham that through them the nations of the Earth will be blessed. They forgot that they were to be the blessing to everyone and they were waiting to be blessed. That was definitely an eye-opener for me. God has created me to love, first Him and then others. I cannot wait until He blessed me. I cannot be selfish and claim the promises of God for myself just because. I cannot seek instant gratification. I must live to love Him and others. My purpose in this life is not to be blessed but to be a blessing.

To the Faithful Five or Steadfast Six...

Ladies and Gents,

To all five or six of you who read here I will be reading on the beach of the Sea of Galilee for the next four days and will not have access to the Internet. A joyous occasion really because I depend on the Internet for so much. It will be good to enjoy where I'm at for this last week in Jerusalem. When I get back there will be a flurry of blog posts so you can stop gasping for breath. Relax. It will come. Breathe.

Pictures will be up in about a week and a half. I'm off to go check my second test score (first was a 90%) and to enjoy cookies in the home of the Jerusalem University College President. Enjoy your days or afternoons or evenings wherever you are at.

Remember the Gospel.

Stupid Rebels...War isn't for Families!

Good evening ladies and gents. The Dead Sea was dead and so were most of the rebels in Masada. Who were the rebels in Masada, you ask? Great question!

Albert Camus asked the question, “What is a rebel? A man who says no.” The Sicarii sect of Jews was a group of men (and women) that said no. They said no to Rome. They even said no to their country-men who did not hold to their ideology. Their no was violent and it resounded in Israel’s arena on Masada for one whole year. Masada was the site of a year-long siege that the Romans placed on this group of extremists holed up in Masada. Before it was a fortress for the Sicarii though, it was a fortress/palace that Herod the Great built just in case. Just in case of what, you ask? Well, Herod was one paranoid king who built multiple “escape” palaces ICOR (in case of rebellion). All he had to do was push the big red ICOR button and he would be whisked away to one of his many palaces. But, really, he was one paranoid human being. The palace was gorgeous and had water shipped in because there was absolutely no water anywhere near Masada on a consistent basis. He built aqueducts to bring water in from the various wadis in the area when it did rain (though that was rare). His storehouses filled with food to the brim and his swimming pool filled with Roman soldiers, Herod’s palace was an absolute waste of time and money. Herod himself was only there two or three times that we know of. The Sicarii took the fortress in 66 CE (Herod only had it between 37 and 31 BCE) from the Romans and after the destruction of the Second temple more and more members of the Sicarii fled to Masada along with their families. In 72 CE a year-long Roman siege began against Masada. During the siege the Sicarii and their families enjoyed the rich storehouses of Herod as well as all the water he had stored in cisterns around the palace. The Romans had to take a day-long trip just to bring water from the Ein Gedi for the next day. As the story goes the Sicarii would taunt the Romans by jumping up on the wall and pouring water on themselves because they had so much they could waste it. Let’s just say the Romans were anxious to get inside and bust some heads.

The day came when the wall was broken through and as Josephus the Jewish Historian writes the Romans pulled away before entering the city because it was nighttime. General Eleazer ben Ya’ir gathered the men in their synagogue (one of the oldest synagogues in Israel right now) and proposed this plan: “The Romans will come tomorrow and they will kill us all and take our women and children into slavery. They will show no mercy and our women will be raped and some of them brutally killed. Let us burn almost all the food (not all of it lest they think we starved and laugh at us) and have each man kill his wife and children. Then we will select ten men by lots to kill the other men and then of those men we will select one man by lots to kill the other nine and then fall on his own sword.” Perfect! Rebels holed up in Masada almost acting surprised that Rome broke through their defenses and now they would rather kill themselves than face Rome. Some call it courage. I call it cowardice. First of all, you are a rebel against a government that owns the world at the moment. Taking your family along to your fortress does not seem wise. You are going to die and they will suffer. Second, if you were really a rebel you would be one to the day you die. Killing your family and yourself rather than fighting Rome with one last stand is not one last act of rebellion but the coward’s way out. Granted, I understand seeking to save your families from the pain Rome would brutally inflict upon them, but again they should not have been up there in the first place. The Sicarii have to be some of the stupidest rebels I have ever heard about. But it makes for a good story.

After leaving Masada shaking my head at the Sicarii I was excited to go to the springs of Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea. The waterfalls of the Ein Gedi were beautiful and along with the clear water of the spring I could definitely picture David sitting by writing various psalms to God. He could very well have done that (we can’t prove it but it is possible) and it was pretty sweet to see something like what David would have seen when writing his poetry. The Dead Sea on the other hand was, well let’s just say it was interesting. I literally sat in the water and stayed afloat through no effort of my own. The water felt like kerosene or oil all over your body and the salt definitely reminded you of every little cut you had. We rubbed the Dead Sea mud all over our bodies because it is supposed to be extremely healthy for your skin. All I know is it made a good picture.

All in all it was a great day and we ended it by “letting” ourselves into the already closed site of Qumran, where they found the Dead Sea Scrolls. Ending your day facing the National Park authorities is definitely placing an exclamation point where a period was going to go. My favorite scripture read today was Ezekiel 47:1-12. Ezekiel’s vision is of a man measuring out the temple and showing him the boundaries. In this particular instance there is a prophecy or an image (we are not sure) concerning water flowing from the temple all the way to the Dead Sea causing it become fresh. It began to thrive and even have water teeming with life. God is seen as rock, redeemer, and judge among other things but in this image He is the water that makes the Dead Sea alive. He is life-giver and sustainer. He is the one from whom all life flows. A beautiful picture of the Creator.