Jericho — Joshua’s Battle Continues Today

On the monochrome landscape north of the Dead Sea, a conspicuous green splotch appears at the western edge of the Jordan Rift Valley.

“The city of palm trees” exemplifies what we imagine when we picture an oasis.

(Photo: Palm trees at Jericho. Courtesy of Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.)

Jericho’s date palm trees have roots that stretch toward a source of fresh water that has turned a desert into a garden. Visitors to Jericho, or Tell es-Sultan, can see the perennial spring that supported the city for centuries and provided a splendid irrigation system, distributing water to the plain as well as to all travelers in antiquity. Likely, Prophet Elisha purified this spring (2 Kings 2:21).

The “oldest city on earth” also sits as the lowest one—at more than 800 feet below sea level. Jericho owes its existence to the spring, to be sure. But the city also sits at the base of the primary roads that ascended from the Jordan Rift valley up to the Hill Country of Judea. Anyone crossing the Jordan River from the Plains of Moab had Jericho to face.

The walled city stood as a strategic roadblock that no one passing could ignore.

Enter Joshua…

There’s much more over at Wayne Stiles’ blog.

 

About these ads