Dear Grapevine.
I have read in these last weeks a series of articles by Caitlin Johnstone about the Israel/Palestine conflict. Others may be satisfied by torrents of reportage which are overloaded at times with vitriol. But I will test my courage to bring up something that may colour the conversation…
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. And as for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land” … And the sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on dry land, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and their left.”
Beginning in the 1970’s a series of discoveries were made in the eastern Sinai on the Red Sea. A granite pillar was found dating to the time of King Solomon commemorating the Red Sea crossing. Its counterpart was found across the water on the Saudi coast; this has lately been hidden. In the water on both sides of the crossing were found huge amounts metal and also human remains, evidence of Pharoah’s drowned army. Chariot wheel designs were dated back to the 18th Dynasty. This crossing is 3000 feet deep…
Further on that exodus route have been found petroglyphs made by Israelites, representing the golden calf they worshipped. Also the graves of those Israelites.
Further still, there are two massive rocks, once one, where water erosion marks show that a great stream flowed between them and down the slope.
And then: The Mountain of Moses, the top of which is thoroughly burned, unaccountably as it is not a volcanic peak.
People are often resistant to facts. They become exasperated. It is easy to ask too much of the rational mind; after all, I believe this mind is only rarely responsible for our views and decisions. A person might say, ‘What does it all mean??!’.
I believe that whatever the Israeli/Palestinian situation means only God knows, but that it cannot possibly exceed Jesus’ last command which was, ‘Love one another’. Also, even stone and bone evidence of a God of history will only lead to senselessness and despair without that historical road leading inevitably to the sacrifice a resurrected saviour, Jesus Christ.
Doug Rennpferd
