Jordan: Madaba & Mount Nebo

I'm writing this as we drive through Amman, heading to Mt Nebo. We stop first at Madaba, to see some superb Byzantine mosaics.

Next at Mt Nebo where Moses viewed the Promised Land, though his view was pre-smog.

To be right where the great Moses stood is an amazing feeling. We read from the last chapter of Deuteronomy and the first chapter of Joshua:

Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land--from Gilead to Dan, all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the city of Palms, as far as Zoar. Then the Lord said to him, "This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, 'I will give it to your descendants.'" (Deuteronomy 34:1-4).

This was where the conquest of the land began, where the history of the Jews became intertwined with this tiny piece of real estate in such complicated ways that the world has taken notice ever since. Of course, they conquered the land and were evicted for disobedience by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. and the Babylonians in 586 B.C. After the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. they were scattered to the four corners of the earth.

How amazing that after a 2000-year absence, the Jews are now back in the land that was promised!

Looking towards Jericho from Mount Nebo