S1 29: Images of the Desert — Wadi and En Gedi
Wadi and En Gedi
Episode Length: 33:18
Published Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2017 01:00:00 -0700
Session 1
About this episode:
Marty Solomon and Brent Billings continue the series on images found in the desert. We will see God’s continual use of the desert to minister to us and to teach us how to minister to others.
Images of the Desert — Wadi and En Gedi Presentation (PDF)
Flash Floods in Wadi Peres — YouTube
Flash Flood in Israel — YouTube
Israel: Flash Floods Hit Negev Desert — AP Archive, YouTube
Notes
*Note: The following notes are handwritten by me, Adam, and I reserve the right to be wrong.
Introduction
- Talking about three images in the desert.
- Sight
- There are three deserts of the bible. Negev, ???, and the Sin.
- Wadi
- A wadi is are a deep desert canyons that are carved out by the rainfall.
- The rain in this region is very little but it will rain for about two months a year, during the rainy season.
- It rains, not in places like the Negev but in areas like the Judean Hills, the Judah mountains, but because the land is so dry, it simply rushes toward east and south into the Rift Valley, toward the Dead Sea, and this rushing water over the thousands of years has cut these deep canyons in the desert.
- When you’re in the bottom of the Wadis, you cannot see around you.
- The desert teaches you how to follow voice because you do not know where you are going.
- Marty shares a story about when RVL got them lost in the desert and they had to trust the guide to find their way out.
- “Let’s see what’s around the next bend.” “Let’s see what the Lord provides around the corner.”
- Learning to rely on just enough.
- Learning to trust in this way is very hard for Americans.
- En Gedi (Mayim Hayim which means living water)
- En Gedi means Spring Of The Deer.
- It is an oasis in the middle of the Negev.
- Psalm 63 (desert image)
A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.
1 You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.2 I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.6 On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
7 Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
8 I cling to you;
your right hand upholds me.9 Those who want to kill me will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.
10 They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.11 But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God will glory in him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced.- In this dry and thirsty land, G-d is our living water, our mayim hayim.
- David calls out to G-d and says that in the desert, I have learned that you are my living water, my En Gedi.
- Just as we have learned with shade, we will learn with water that not only is G-d shade and water for us, but G-d asks us to be shade and water for other people.
- Jeremiah 2:13
13 “My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.- G-d offers to people living water and they instead choose to dig cisterns (which don’t even hold water well) that offer gross, stagnant water.
- Isaiah 32:1-2
1 See, a king will reign in righteousness
and rulers will rule with justice.
2 Each one will be like a shelter from the wind
and a refuge from the storm,
like streams of water in the desert
and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land. - Isaiah 58:9
9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. - What is Living Water?
- Living water must come from G-d which means if can only come in two forms.
- Coming from the ground, like a spring
- Falling from the sky as rain.
- Rain comes during the festival of Sukkot.
- Jesus has a teaching at the Festival of Sukkot but to understand the teaching, we must understand the festival.
- During the festival there is a water ceremony where everyone creates a lulav with palm fronds.
- Psalm 118
- When the palm fronds are shaken, they sound like rain.
- When Jesus
- Being loving water for others.
- Living water must come from G-d which means if can only come in two forms.
- Wadi Floods
- Floods, especially Wadi Floods, are the number one cause of death in the desert.
- Sight