At about noon local time on Monday, May 17th, I stepped off of a plane in Tel Aviv after an eleven hour flight from Newark. Though tired, I was excited to have landed safely and to finally be in Israel. I had first heard about this trip last September from my Old Testament professor at seminary (who was also on the trip). But it wasn’t until a full three seconds later that I decided for sure that I was going to go on this trip . . . and that’s the truth. So I had been very excited for quite some time.After we made our way through security and got our luggage, we stepped outside to board the bus for Jerusalem. And it was there that I got my first taste of Israel. My first impression? Hot! And I mean beastly hot! As excited as I was, I sheepishly admitted to myself that I didn’t know if I could make it for three weeks in this kind of heat.
Well, once we got on the bus (chartered type with microphone in the front and air conditioning throughout), our new professor introduced herself and began to explain the itinerary, etc. And, it did not take long for her to address the hot weather. What we were experiencing, she said, was a condition known as Khamsin. It is pronounced “COMM-SEEN,” or if you want to practice your Hebrew gutturals, you can pronounce the “Kh” with that well-known sound produced when you try to bring up mucous from your throat. It’s up to you.
Khamsin is a condition that occurs in Israel from about mid-April to the end of May, where hot winds blow in from the deserts of Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula. It causes very uncomfortable conditions for people, and the winds will actually scorch the plants on the ground (see photo I took of a field of dried wheat). [I know, I know, you were expecting pictures with a little more zing than that . . . I promise I’ll have plenty more “interesting” photos as I continue my trip diary.] For people who have lived in Southern California, Khamsin is similar to the Santa Ana conditions, where the winds will come in from the California desert instead of the Pacific, causing uncomfortable heat for a few days.
Now, fortunately for us, the Khamsin ended after that first day, and the weather in Jerusalem was beautiful. It was warm and sunny with low humidity during the days, and the nights were comfortably cool with nice breezes. Again, it reminded me a lot of the typical weather in Southern California. Of course, when we ventured out on field trips to the desert and other areas, we experienced very hot conditions, but overall, hot weather in no way put a damper on my trip.
So, you might be wondering, who cares? Why am I telling you about Khamsin? Well, I bring it up because it illustrates something that I learned over and over again on this trip. That is, in terms of geography, climate, plant and animal life, etc., the land of Israel provides a clarity that I normally miss by reading the Bible in the confines of my own culture. Luke 12:54-56 says this:
54 He [Jesus] also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens.
55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens.
56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”
What is this “south wind” that brings “scorching heat” that is mentioned in verse 55? It is the Khamsin! This is a passage of the Bible that I have read many times, and in my mind I read it “south wind blah blah blah, scorching heat blah blah.” I never paid attention to what these things actually refer to. Here Jesus was using a well-known weather phenomenon to make a point.
This little Khamsin snippet also got me to thinking of all the “signs” that we can recognize. We know that a red sky at night means good weather. We know that when Blockbuster is packed, there must be a snowstorm in the forecast. Heck, I’ve watched so many sporting events in my life that I can tell when a team is so demoralized that they will not be making a big comeback. We know how to read signs, make proper judgments about them, and live our lives accordingly. For me, then, learning about and experiencing Khamsin has, in a small way, caused me to evaluate how I am living my life . . . Do I understand properly the “signs” of the current state of the world? What about the “signs” (teachings) that are given to me through the Bible? And am I orienting my life appropriately in a God-centered way?
One phrase that kept coming up during my time in Israel was, “The Bible brings the land to life, and the land brings the Bible to life.” As you might guess, I found this old saying to be very true, and Khamsin was just one small example of this.
This post reminds me of when Jesus met the woman at the well. He and the disciples had trudged along all morning and must have been thoroughly thirsted and hungry by noon. Yet he took the time to explain to this woman about “the well of living water that will never run dry”.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, I think frequently of the physical rigors that Jesus endured, of the meager diet he surely used, and, most of all, what he might have thought about the innumerable Old Testament passages with which he was so familiar.
I have no doubt that visiting Israel would greatly enliven one’s perception and vicarious experience in Jesus’ day-to-day existence!
You are absolutely right about the physical rigors that Jesus and others of ancient times had to endure. As an example, Jerusalem, and all of Israel really, is full of steep hills. We did a ton of walking in three weeks, and it was almost exclusively up and down hills. By the end of many days, we were pretty tired. As you know, it is easy to get cranky under such conditions. But our professor pointed out that Jesus would have been very tired at the end of many a day, yet he still showed love and compassion towards people.
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