The Don in Beersheba

Good Morning Ladies and Gents. It is currently Friday morning here and last night I did not have internet so I couldn't post. Here you go. Another one later tonight.

Abraham was the freaking Godfather. The Don. The Kingpin. What a wonderful way to start my morning. Beersheba is known as the city of the Patriarchs. In Genesis 22:19 Abraham settles there after the whole “sacrifice Isaac on the altar” incident. In Genesis 26:23 Isaac goes home to Beersheba after digging a couple wells and grazing his flocks in the surrounding area. In Genesis 28:10 we see Jacob leaving Beersheba. It is obvious that this was the home-base for the families of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It becomes the base of operations mainly because it is right along the trade routes. In the times of the Patriarchs the way to make money, if you weren’t involved in trading, was to live along trade routes and offer “services” to travelers. Services like a place to stay and eat and protection. Abraham had three hundred and eighteen trained men with him (Genesis 14:14) and along with all of their families, it made for a big group walking through. For goodness sake he was a walking city! So when travelers came through Beersheba and had to stay the night it probably went a little something like the epic scene in the Godfather where Abraham makes them an offer they can’t refuse. With three hundred and eighteen thugs I’m pretty sure you would never refuse any offer Abraham gave you, unless you wanted an accident to happen.

After seeing where the Godfather of the Old Testament and the father of my faith did business, the next place that I enjoyed thoroughly was the Wilderness of Zin. Highlighted in the Scriptures for their prominence as the place where the Israelites wandered for forty years, the Wilderness of Zin is a scary place where rain means rushing, deadly water and slippery feet proves an easy way to fall asleep (as the Bible would say). Climbing up the side of a cliff (there were steps and handrails part of the way) was stunning. Though I wish I had the skill and opportunity to scale the wall without steps it was still a beautiful sight to see and I’m glad I had a chance to see what the Israelites saw for so long after being stubborn people before God. I would not have minded if God wanted to rain down manna from Heaven as we were walking but apart from that I really enjoyed hiking up the cliff-side.

We have a chance to catch some really incredible sights on this trip and every one of them takes my breath away causing me to think about my life. Scripture says that God has, “made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before [Him]. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath (Psalm 39:5)!” Looking over a cliff into the hills of the Wilderness of Zin, watching the sun set behind the canyon, climbing up on some of the rocks around the canyon with the imminent danger of death below you, all of these things remind me how short my life can be. It reminds me how, despite my best efforts, my life is still nothing but a blip on the grid. I am humbled before God and I realize that my life is nothing unless it is focused on Him and even then I am, as Christian rapper Lecrae says, “nothing but stardust leading to the superstar.” The Gospel is a story of redemption. It is God in Christ redeeming all men to Himself by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not just a story of Jesus dying on the cross and coming back to life three days later but a meta-narrative from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 in which God saves us from ourselves. We are nothing but vessels of glory for God and what a beautiful thing to do what we were created to do, to bring glory to God. Before Jesus we committed high treason against the King of the Universe and He had to sentence us to death because He is just. But because of Jesus the price is paid, God is just, and He is also able to be our loving Father. God pursues us relentlessly and the only way to surrender is through humility. We must stop thinking much of ourselves and make much of Him. Today was a day of breathtaking sights that broke my pride and led me to repentance before God. I’m still stubborn and I still have to be told by God and other people to shut up many times, but I’m gaining at ethic of repentance. I am learning what it means to seek God in all things at all times.