The River

It's September 1st, and like many of you, when I reach September and feel the crisp weather like today's (high in the 90s, 80+% humidity), I think of fall. For us in the Chronological Bible Study, our thoughts turn to something quite different. That's right--we have LESS THAN ONE MONTH left in the Old Testament. If your day so far hasn't been what you had hoped, let that be the spark you need.

My post will echo and amplify some of the comments made by David, so by all means, be sure to read his first if you haven't already. David's points about how God can bring life from something as barren as the Dead Sea is spot-on, and I want to illustrate just how desolate the Dead Sea is.

Since you can read Wikipedia articles like this one as well as I can, I'll summarize some of the highlights:

--The Dead Sea's salinity is 33.7%, or more than 8x saltier than the oceans. For those of you who have been in an ocean and had your first mouthful of ocean water, think about that.

--The Dead Sea is dead because water can't get out. Since it's located at the lowest spot on the Earth (1,237 feet below sea level), and water doesn't go uphill very well, the water stays trapped.

--I don't remember where I ran across this, but because of the salt content, waves look much different, and almost as if a wave is moving through a solid object. The high density of the water makes swimming more like floating.

--There is no natural flora or fauna, and that includes IN the sea either--that's right, in addition to no land animals or plants, there's no fish in the Sea. This is the ultimate definition of "desolate."

And yet, in Ezekiel 47:7-12, God describes a place that has everything man will need--food, fresh water and salt. Biblical scholars who care about such things are divided as to whether this describes the 1,000 Millennial Kingdom or serves as a metaphor for eternal life (and I certainly don't know), but either way, just as the people of Judah were shown the light at the end of their exile, we're being given a reason for the hope we have. God is telling us just as clearly that our exile will have an end, and that he was planning for it even as far back as the beginning of time, and it will be beyond anything we can imagine. He uses the complete antithesis of life, the Dead Sea, to show what the sovereign and omnipotent Lord of all can do.

Scott