The Tunnels of Hyrcania

I should tell a little more about my trip to Israel in March/April. Besides doing GPR scanning at Herodium, we also did some GPR scanning in two tunnels in Hyrcania. These tunnels are rather mysterious because the archeologists don't know why they were dug, nor do they know when they were built. These tunnels are situated in the sides of mountains in a wadi (dry river bed). The region is known as the Valley of Echor. The photo on the right is looking down into the tunnel from the entrance, so it appears to be well lit, but it was not (this photo used a flash). We had a rope that went down about one-third of the way (it would have been nice to have had one all the way down).

I personally was not totally prepared for the challenge of being in these tunnels. Stairs had been carved into the bedrock 150 m (450 ft) into the mountain. The inclination of the tunnels was about 45 degrees, so it was pretty steep. The tunnels got as narrrow as about 2 ft in places and 5.5 ft tall. Needless to say it was very dark (fortunately I had a head lamp with me). The archeologist (Oren Gutfield) told us that when they had dug in the tunnels to clear hard packed debris, they had run out of oxygen at the bottom. He also told us of other dangers that had been present. Needless to say, this made me get a bit nervous. I was also a little concerned that we might run into some animals that had decided to go into the tunnel and perhaps couldn't get out. He kind of chuckled at my worry about the animals. Little did I know that I would actually welcome the sight of the animals that we saw at the bottom. When we reached the end, we saw two pigeons that were ALIVE! I was thrilled to see that they were alive (in the photo to the right, Oren is holding one of the pigenons)--that meant that there was enough oxygen for them to live, so we probably would have enough O2 as well. Near the end the tunnel split into two chambers, they both ended about the same distance down. It was very strange. Another interesting thing was that there were pockets carved out of the walls approx. every 5 ft, which had been there for oil lamps to light it.

Once we had evaluated the situation, we had to make the climb out to get our equipment to bring down. Two trips in one day was plenty for me! It was physically exhausting. We went back again another day to scan the other tunnel--that one was not as deep. On the right you can see me leaving the tunnel (I carried the water bottles, which was more difficult than you might think).

This experience was one that made me realize that I am capable of more than I think. It was a bit of a mental struggle to go all the way down into the tunnel, but once I was able to get over the head games, it wasn't so bad. However, I can honestly say that I don't have a strong desire to go exploring other long, dark, dirty, warm, humid tunnels.

The photo above was taken without a flash (with only a headlamp on) and shows the "light at the end of the tunnel" as we were exiting.

Created to Create

This is another post which was inspired by the Truth Project. Have you ever thought about the fact that since we are created in the image of God that we have been "created to create?" It is quite a remarkable thought that the Creator of the universe created us to build/create too. Wow! "For six days the Lord made the Heavens and the Earth and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed." The Bible instructs us to also work for six days and then to rest. I have been told that the word for "work" might be better translated as "create."

Sometimes I get a little bit disturbed by American culture's attitude toward "work." There is not much encouragement for being creative (I am not meaning artistic) unless you can come up with some grand new invention that make tons of money. Everything seems so money driven. It seems that mass production, which has made many products cheaper to buy than to make, has put a damper on people's ingenuity/creativity. Many people would not know how to build/make something if their life depended on it. I know I have caught myself thinking, "I could make that, but it would cost me more in time & materials to make it than it would to just buy it." Sometimes we forget the satisfaction that comes from making something with our own two hands.

Excavation Pic from Herodium

This is a photo from Yahoo news that was taken recently at Herodium. If you compare the square opening in the middle on the left with the photo of Yaakov and Roi in the previous post, you will see that it is the same opening. They certainly did a lot of excavating after we left. It really is crazy to think that we were standing right on top of it...if we would have stayed longer (or gone a couple weeks later), we could have been there for the big discovery.

To the right is a photo that also shows this same square opening when we were there (before it was fully excavated). Mika is on the right.

Herodium

I went on a trip as a volunteer to Israel about a month ago to help do some ground penetrating radar (GPR) for a couple archeologists. While we were there, we did some scanning at Herodium at the request of Prof. Ehud Netzer. He has been doing excavations at this site for over 30 years. He told us that he still wanted to find Herod's tomb, so that he could feel good about retiring. There have been many speculations, but they hadn't found it at that time, but there was some new hope because a new area was being uncovered on the side of the hill showed some promise. He asked us to scan in the new area as well as at the base of the tower in the previously excavated area (a GPR team in the past said that the tomb was in the tower, but he didn't believe them).

To me it felt a bit like "looking for a needle in a haystack." There was a lot of area to cover, and we could not really give them any definitive data from our scans because the type of antenna that we had with us could only penetrate about 1.3 m in that type of soil. In addition, the fill on top of the stone was hard packed, so there was not enough of a dielectric change for us to detect with the equipment. We didn't know before we arrived in Israel what the scenario would be like in this location, which was unfornate. We were rather disappointed that we were not able to tell them more specific information (we did find some anomolies, but they weren't conclusive). However, it was a great experience to be able to work with Yaakov Kalman, Roi Porat, and the Bedouins who where helping with the dig. We even got to have lunch in the home of one of the Bedouin workers, which was a real surprise for us (the hospitality was terrific).

While we were scanning, we looked in some of the tunnels/entrances into the side of the hill. In the process, we saw some very large stones that Yaakov got very excited about. He said he had never seen stones like them at Herodium before.

Today, Prof. Netzer announced that they found Herod's tomb. When I saw photos of where they found it, I see that we were walking almost right on top of it. It is very exciting because we were working with this team just one month ago. Below are some photos from the archeological site.

We scanned at the site, but we were not able to detect much because of similar rock/fill dielectric constants and the frequency of our antenna was a little too high to reach the depths that we wanted to see. I guess they found it anyway.

Roi and Yaakov are excavating an area that is near the entrance to where they found the tomb.

Above are a glimpse of the area where "large stones" were that Yaakov saw the day we were scanning. He was very surprised by them and said he had never seen such large stones at the site before. It appears that these may have been the clues that led them to finding the tomb.

View of Herodium from a distance.

Below is the full story on the Hebrew University website.
http://www.huji.ac.il/cgi-bin/dovrut/dovrut_search_eng.pl?mesge117861762132688760

Divide by infinity?

I have been attending some of the weekly sessions of the Truth Project, which is a DVD series produced by Focus on the Family. I was a bit skeptical when I first heard about it, but after watching some of the sessions, I am sold. It contains some well-thought and well-organized foundational material regarding the Scriptures and the concept of Truth. I highly recommend it.

Part of this evening's session was about how God dwells in believers through the Holy Spirit. Believers do not have just a part of God becasue he cannot be divided. His very nature is about oneness. Dr. Tackett on the DVD used the mathematical illustration that when you divide infinity by any number you get infinity, so that is how God can dwell within each believer at the same time. It is truly amazing that God dwells in me through the Holy Spirit!

I started thinking about the mathematical converse. What if you take any number and divide it by infinity? Mathematically this is undefined, but from Calculus, we know that the limit of this approaches zero. Therefore, if we apply mathematics to the spiritual, we could say that if we try to remove (divide) God (infinity) out of anything, we are left with nothing of value.

Tragedy at Virginia Tech

I have been very affected by the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech. I had actually met one of the professors who was killed. Two years ago, I interviewed there for a post-doc position and possible faculty position. The interview was a full day, so I met with many faculty members. I toured the lab of Kevin Granata and talked to him about his research. He was a very nice man who was doing some great research. I took some brief notes from that day, and one thing that I noted about Dr. Granata was that he had taken time out of his schedule to meet with me even though he had a grant application due the next day. I may have also met one of the other professors who was killed on Monday.

I was offered a post-doc position at a lab in the building next to where the shooting occurred, but I didn't accept it because I felt like I was to stay in Seattle. The thought that I could have been there makes me think. How would I have reacted? What would I have done? My first thought is "I am glad I wasn't there." Not just because I could have been killed--"For to me to live is Messiah and to die is gain"--but because it would be such a trauma to witness something like that. The grief must be overwhelming for those who knew the victims well.

I think about the real possibility that some of the people who were killed did not know the Lord as their Savior. That makes me very sad. I saw the webpage of one of the victims who said that Jesus was the love of her life. She is in a better place now. I pray that through this tragedy many people will turn to the Lord and be saved through Jesus the Messiah who offers eternal life to all who call on Him.

May we all be ready to meet the Lord when our time on this earth is ended.

Grief

Grief is such a strange thing. This year I have been reminded of one year ago when my cousin died. I have been wondering why I have been so moody lately, but realizing that this is the anniversary of her death has helped me to get a handle on what I am feeling. It is strange how we can be grieving subconciously, but conciously be unaware of it.

It is difficult to understand how such a tragic and devastating event like that can happen. The one thing I have to remember is that God is good. He does not want to harm us or see us in despair--He wants to give us hope and a future.

Adopted

I had a discussion with a friend last week who was telling me how he finally could see that we as believers are connected to Israel because Jesus (Yeshua) is the Messiah of Israel and we are His children. I don't know how many years I have been trying to articulate that idea to my friends who think I am a little crazy. I thought about the concept so many people have where they think "the church" and "Israel" are two entities that can never mix or else they believe that the former has replaced the latter. Both viewpoints are in error according to Scriputre.

I, as a Gentile believer, am a child of God the Father, who was the One who made covenants with Noah, Abraham, and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai. Therefore, if I have been adopted into the family of God (see the writings of Paul), and can call God my Father and am made a co-heir with Messiah, I am in the same family as believing Israel.

As I thought about this more, I came up with the following illustration from my own life. I have two sisters adopted from South Korea. They are part of a very Finnish family. There is no difference in how my parents treat them compared to how they treat me or my biologic brother. They have all the rights and privileges of being in our family, same name, same inheritence, etc. They would not say they are of Finnish ethnicity, but they would say that they feel very Finnish (and for good reason). However, no one could say that they don't belong to our family. Likewise, I would not say that I am Jewish, but I am grafted into the same olive tree through Messiah (see Romans 11).