Tel Arad. One of the many ancient Biblical sites we visited on my cross cultural in the Middle East in the Spring of 2012. It is mentioned in the Old Testament a handful of times, and in more or less an indirect way. The king of Arad is mentioned, but other than that, it is used as a geographical location. Arad is located just about 8 miles west of the Dead Sea. Because of its climate, sea level, and surrounding geography, this land is very barren on its own. While exploring the site, I could not imagine attempting to cultivate such dry brittle land, even with today's technology. Their dirt could be easily comparable to sand. I'm used to rich, dark, and moist soil back in Virginia. Even with their lack of rain and with their poor soil, Arad was almost constantly inhabited. We quickly learned at Jerusalem University College that trade is one of the most important commodities in Biblical times. If you could get yourself on a trade route, or better yet, and intersection of two trade routes, you'd probably do pretty well. That is exactly what Arad was built. Routes from the East and South East ran close by.
In Deuteronomy 12, Moses clearly lays out how God wanted the Israelites to worship Him. In verse 5, they are commanded to seek out the place (not places) the Lord chose to dwell. As most of you know or could guess, this place is Jerusalem. There are laws upon laws about sacrifices, tithing, and other forms of worship which I won't go into, but Jerusalem is clearly the place to go. However, it becomes pretty hard to travel all the 60 miles to Jerusalem no matter how wealthy you are. There is always work to be done, especially in a smaller community such as Arad. It is not uncommon to find sacrificial alters scattered throughout Israel and the rest of the Middle East. Arad had one as pictured below. There was probably around a 5 foot drop right after the alter. (I was standing on the remains of a wall to take the picture)
One thing that is quite interesting about Arad is that they actually had a Holy of Holies. There is only supposed to be one Holy of Holies... They believed God to dwell there, and there alone. So why would they build their own? I dunno. Anyway, here is the incense alter at the entrance for YHWH. I guess that's pretty normal, or as normal as it can be considering the craziness of this situation.
More about Arad. They were not in complete isolation from everyone. Most of the tribes/cities/towns/whatever you want to call them worshiped the goddess Asherah. She is known as the goddess of heaven (Jeremiah 7:16-20; 44:17-19). It is clear in this last passage that these people, while in Egypt, fully believed that Asherah was responsible for their fertile crop and general well being. But those living in Arad were clearly Jewish. They were God's chosen people. They wouldn't have had a Holy of Holies otherwise!! But here's the kicker...
They didn't solely worship God. As you can see depicted in the photo below, they worshiped a second, smaller god, probably God's "wife." So much is wrong with this. Not only do they depict God having a wife, they also have graven images for God. In case you can't tell, the alter on the bottom left is YHWH's incense alter, bottom right is likely Asherah's. The stone tablet (it has a technical name that I can't remember) in the upper left represents God, and the one in the middle of the picture represents His "wife."
I couldn't wrap my mind around this for the longest time. These were God's chosen people. They were quick to make you know it too. You would think that out of all people, they would be the ones to remain loyal to their God since He clearly anointed them. However, it seems like all the Israelites did was complain. They whined when they were in the desert. They wanted to go back into captivity in Egypt. They needed sign after sign after sign to believe God's sovereignty. Here, for whatever reason, they weren't solely worshiping the One True God. There are a few arguments that can be made as to why, but I don't want to spend too much time on them. It could be that their neighbors convinced them that they needed to worship Asherah to prosper in this land. It could be that maybe they believed there was a possibility that Asherah did exist, so they didn't want to make her angry by neglecting her. Or maybe it could be that they wanted to fit in with those who surrounded them, and cared more about being liked and not getting into trouble with them than getting into trouble with God.
I tried time after time to put myself into the shoes of an Israelite while I was on my cross cultural, and I have to say, it's a lot harder than it sounds. Yes, I hiked Mt. Sinai, but I did it in a large group with plenty of resources, and were only there for half a day. I didn't go by myself. I didn't go for 40 days. I didn't wander in the desert wondering if I was going to survive... I feel like EMU would be in trouble if they let their cross culturals do such things. So I don't know what I would do if I was in the situation of those in Arad. I would love to say that I would stand firm in my faith and never waver, but honestly, if someone held me at gunpoint and said, "If you at least look like you're worshiping my god too, then it's no biggie." I can't guarantee that I'd say no. Maybe those living in Arad were like, "Well, God, you know in my heart that I only worship you. This is all fake. We just don't want any trouble."
So maybe we don't take it to the extremes that they did in Arad. But we constantly jeopardize our relationship with God. We put things next to (or heaven forbid, above) God that really deserve no such exhaultedness. Yes. I just made up a word. But really. We all have things in our lives that we let get in the way of God. Maybe it's money, or that trashy romance novel, or pornography, or alcohol. Or maybe it's something that seems a little less harmful such as a relationship, a hobby, or serving. Yup. Even serving. There should be nothing else in our "holy of holies" unless it is glorifying God. (We know that God dwells in us, so our "holy of holies" is essentially our lives.) So even if we have good intentions for something, such as serving the church, if we aren't doing it for the glory of God, it is just as nasty as worshiping Asherah alongside God. Except, instead of Asherah, we're worshiping ourselves.
Luckily for us, God never changes though. He has a plan of redemption for us. He wants to have a relationship with us, and has wanted to be in communion with us since day one. We just keep messing things up. Thankfully, we can have full assuredness that Christ has come to redeem us and there is nothing that we can do to undeserve His grace. So no matter how many times we let our personal Asherah's slip into a place they don't deserve, we will always be able to receive God's grace. Not at all saying we should purposefully go around and sin, because we do need to fully repent which is a whole different topic.
So my main point. We are not awesome, but we serve an awesome God.
I tried time after time to put myself into the shoes of an Israelite while I was on my cross cultural, and I have to say, it's a lot harder than it sounds. Yes, I hiked Mt. Sinai, but I did it in a large group with plenty of resources, and were only there for half a day. I didn't go by myself. I didn't go for 40 days. I didn't wander in the desert wondering if I was going to survive... I feel like EMU would be in trouble if they let their cross culturals do such things. So I don't know what I would do if I was in the situation of those in Arad. I would love to say that I would stand firm in my faith and never waver, but honestly, if someone held me at gunpoint and said, "If you at least look like you're worshiping my god too, then it's no biggie." I can't guarantee that I'd say no. Maybe those living in Arad were like, "Well, God, you know in my heart that I only worship you. This is all fake. We just don't want any trouble."
So maybe we don't take it to the extremes that they did in Arad. But we constantly jeopardize our relationship with God. We put things next to (or heaven forbid, above) God that really deserve no such exhaultedness. Yes. I just made up a word. But really. We all have things in our lives that we let get in the way of God. Maybe it's money, or that trashy romance novel, or pornography, or alcohol. Or maybe it's something that seems a little less harmful such as a relationship, a hobby, or serving. Yup. Even serving. There should be nothing else in our "holy of holies" unless it is glorifying God. (We know that God dwells in us, so our "holy of holies" is essentially our lives.) So even if we have good intentions for something, such as serving the church, if we aren't doing it for the glory of God, it is just as nasty as worshiping Asherah alongside God. Except, instead of Asherah, we're worshiping ourselves.
Luckily for us, God never changes though. He has a plan of redemption for us. He wants to have a relationship with us, and has wanted to be in communion with us since day one. We just keep messing things up. Thankfully, we can have full assuredness that Christ has come to redeem us and there is nothing that we can do to undeserve His grace. So no matter how many times we let our personal Asherah's slip into a place they don't deserve, we will always be able to receive God's grace. Not at all saying we should purposefully go around and sin, because we do need to fully repent which is a whole different topic.
So my main point. We are not awesome, but we serve an awesome God.
