I know what I was expecting, but this was not it. I thought we might see some ruins of the walls of Jericho. Nope. According to the Bible and the children’s song, the walls, “Came tumbling down.” The stones from those walls were probably used for other purposes later.
After Jesus fasted 40 days, He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. Satan took Jesus to a high mountain where He could see all the kingdoms of the world. Satan offers all of this to Jesus if Jesus will only bow to him. Many people believe this was THE mountain. My opinion – of all the sites where events were supposed to have happened, I found this to be one of the greatest stretches of my imagination. No one but Satan and Jesus were present for the occasion. But, it IS in an area I would consider to be “wilderness,” and it makes for a good time of reflection whether the actual location is correct or not. Aren’t you glad the human Son of God chose to be obedient to the Father?
Of course, folks have capitalized on the location here in Jericho.
There is a lookout with a sign.
When I zoomed in to see what was on the mountain, this is the result.
There is a shop here with all kinds of temptations for spending money. As soon as we stepped off the bus, we were offered samples. I tried the sycamore nuts. They were coated with something sweet and baked. They reminded me of the nuts in Cracker Jacks. As a kid, i picked out those nuts in favor of the tasty popcorn, but as an adult, I like them. Several on the bus purchased dates and figs, and several folks passed around our goodies to share.
Another savvy business man gave rides on a camel for $5. The rides were short! Less than 2 minutes from the time they mounted until they got off. Not a bad hourly wage for this camel owner. I chose not to ride since I was still recuperating from a recent broken foot, but several from our group did including my good friend, Ruth.
“Look Ma, no hands!”
From here, we began our bus ride to Jerusalem with one surprise stop on the way.