Mt Nebo

One of the most important things we have learned in our travels to Israel is that "this may or may not be the exact spot" and that there are at least 2 or 3 different places that it could be.

My Nebo is one of those.  When you stand here, you can see that to the east, this is not the highest spot.  There are other mountain tops where people believe Moses was told that what he could see would be given to Israel.  This is the most "common" spot.  It really makes you wonder what is accurate and what is not.

Of course one church or another and sometimes multiple churches felt it was necessary to put a church over the spot rather than leave it in it's own natural surrounding.  I suppose that's to be expected with the thousands of years that have passed since Moses stood "here".

 

This shows you a map pointing to the directions of what was given to Israel.  What stood out to me is the vastness.  Why do we call it Lebanon, the West Bank, Judea, Samaria, Jordan, Egypt....it really should all be "Israel".

 

From here we toured a factory where they make mosaic tile.  I could not sit here day in and day out cutting tiny pieces of tile.  Numerous different stones give the natural color.

 

I took this to show the size of the tile....and some of the cuts were much smaller than this.  Like any rock, when you pour water over it, the colors come to life.

 

Not my cup of tea, but I can definitely appreciate the amount of time and labor that went in to creating this and others on display.  Sometimes 2 months to produce one piece,.

 

Next we went into the church of the map.  Lots of interesting mosaics but most of these tiles were 1" square.  On the floor is a mosaic of a map of the Middle East.  Thus the name of the church.

 

We had the fastest driver on earth.  Narrow roads like this and he would go 135 - 140 kph.  That translates to 83-86 mph.  I probably should have slapped him!  But he was actually a very good drive and got us to Petra safe and sound.  Of course, both of us slid across the seats more than once!

 

Our last stop of the day was at a spring in Wadi Musu.  Wadi means Valley, Musa is Moses.  This is where Moses struck the rock and the water came forth.  Of course, there are 6 Wadi Musa springs in Jordan, each one claiming to be the spot where Moses struck the rock.  April and I were discussing this.  Scripture tells us of 2 incidences when Moses struck the rock.  Were there more that were not recorded?  Obviously his every move was not written down.  So is it possible that all 6 springs were where Moses struck a rock?  Interesting thought!

The photo above is of a castle from the Roman era.  There is just so much history here that sometimes I don't know where to start or stop.  And I took over 100 photos today - can't possibly post them all in this blog!

 

My friend, Carol Friedman, called and told me there was a small paragraph in the "Jewish News" about my presentation in Neve Daniel on the 21st.  That made me smile - that she called to tell me.  

It's only 8:30 pm here, but we've been up since 4 am, walked 8 miles today and I'm tired.  So the post on Petra will wait til tomorrow!