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Ghost churches on the western bank of the Jordan River, near where Jesus is believed to have been baptized, could be reopened to pilgrims as part of a project to remove booby traps and land mines.
The river banks were once a war zone between Israel and Jordan and were littered with thousands of mines and unexploded ordnance. The two neighbors made peace in 1994, but it took many years before some mine-clearing began.
Both claim that the site where John the Baptist and Jesus met is on their side of the river. The Gospel of John refers to "Bethany beyond the Jordan" without further details.
In 2002, Jordan opened its site, showing remains of ancient churches and writings of pilgrims down the centuries to bolster its claim. UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 2015.
The site in the Israeli-occupied West Bank opened in 2011 and has stairs for pilgrims to descend into the muddy river. It has more visitors than the Jordanian site but its churches, mostly built in the 1930s, has remained strictly off-limits.
The Halo Trust, a Scottish-based charity that has cleared minefields worldwide and was once sponsored by the late Princess Diana, is looking to raise $4 million to make western site safe.
It says it will need two years to clear the small churches along 100 hectares (247 acres) of land that belongs to the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, and that Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian authorities support the endeavor.
The mined area is about a kilometer (half-mile) from the cleared area at Qasr al-Yahud where Christian pilgrims already flock to be baptized.
"Over 450,000 tourists from all over the world come to visit this site every year and Halo believes that after (the church area) is cleared and rebuilt, the local economy will benefit," Halo's West Bank project manager Ronen Shimoni told Reuters.
Christians are also baptized on the Jordanian side, where several churches from different denominations have been built in recent years to welcome pilgrims.
Qasr al-Yahud is near the Palestinian town of Jericho and about a 30-minute drive from Jerusalem.
Halo says some of the seven abandoned church buildings were boobytrapped by Israel after it captured the West Bank in a 1967 war, making the work for the group's team of 35 to 40 sappers, mainly from Georgia, more complex.
At the time, Israel planted the explosives to help secure its frontier against infiltration from Jordan.
"We are expecting to find around 4,500 targets. Most are anti-tank mines, but there are also anti-personnel mines and a few hundred unexploded ordnances, abandoned explosives, and improvised devices inside the churches," said Michael Heiman of Israel's Defense Ministry.
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JERUSALEM, Israel -- If you dig in Jerusalem, you never know what you might find. One family recently discovered an important treasure from the time of Jesus in what's believed to be the hometown of John the Baptist. They found it under their living room floor.
After Tal and Oriya (they asked we not use their last name) bought an old home in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem neighborhood, they wanted to renovate. That project led to a big surprise.
"One day during the work with heavy machines, the machine just slipped down," Oriya told CBN News. "It disappeared so we figured there is something. There is a hole."
"So we stopped working with the machines and we started digging with our hands and found out that there is something," she said. "We didn't really know exactly what it was."
Under their living room, they found a 2,000-year-old mikveh, a Jewish ritual bath.
"We were a little afraid or concerned about the whole process with the [Israel] Antiquity Authority," Oriya explained. "We didn't know what's going to happen with our house, if we will be able to keep our private normal life."
So, the family kept their discovery a secret for almost three years.
"But it kept 'talking' to us, and we kept feeling that there is something important here that doesn't belong only to us," she explained.
That sense led them to contact authorities.
By law, any antiquities found while building must be reported. And in a country with thousands of years of history, that can literally happen anywhere.
"I saw a huge ritual bath, complete, dated to the Second Temple Times," IAI archaeologist Amit Re'em told reporters. "While we agreed to not show the home from the outside, we can tell you it's located in Ein Kerem, which has its own place in history."
"From the beginning of the sixth century A.D., Christianity identified the neighborhood of Ein Kerem with the birthplace of John the Baptist, where Elizabeth, the mother of John, met Miriam, the mother of Jesus," Re'em explained.
Archaeologists also found pottery shards and stone vessels inside the mikveh.
"So must be that somebody maybe very important, some kind of a priest live(d) here in this neighborhood, had a ritual bath," he explained.
Oriya said she wonders about the people who lived in this place.
"I'm trying to listen to the story that they left behind," she said. "It's something very strong to live with."
But for now, they say they'll put their lives back in order.
"I guess we close the doors," Oriya said. "We'll put the carpet, we'll put the chairs, and we'll try to go back to our lives with knowing that something very important belongs to the story of this place and to the story of our life."
We all walk through peaks and valleys—and we all have our wilderness experiences. But there’s a big difference between being a voice crying in the wilderness in obedience to God and finding yourself stuck in the wilderness, going around the same mountain over and over (and over).
I’ve experienced both realities, and I can tell you the former is liberating because you know you are smack-dab in the center of God’s will. The latter is frustrating because you know you’re absolutely missing it somewhere.
Of course, if you don’t have a revelation of why you are in the wilderness—if you are antsy for your big ministry debut, even though it’s not God’s timing—then you could be frustrated even in the will of God.
So, how do we interpret our wilderness experiences? With the help of the Word of God and the Spirit of God. I’m offering up a few possibilities here. There may be others. The important thing is not to play guessing games about the season you find yourself in. You need revelation and understanding that you can hang your faith on while you go through the wilderness so you don’t faint and give up.
1. Unbelief and Rebellion Will Leave You Wandering in the Wilderness
Sometimes you find yourself wandering in the wilderness year after year after year. It feels like you are going around the same mountain over and over (and over). That may be because you are. Remember, it was a three-day journey from the Red Sea to the Promised Land, but the Israelites wandered around in the wilderness, circling Mount Seir, for 40 years.
Why did it take so long? One reason was unbelief. The Father was prepared to take them into the Promised Land after two years, but 10 of the 12 spies Moses sent into the Promised Land brought back an evil report of unbelief (Num. 14). God waited until all the unbelieving men of war died, just like He said He would (Deut. 2:14).
Psalm 78:17 also notes that the Israelites rebelled against God in the wilderness. And Hebrews warns readers, “Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years” (Heb. 3:8-9). If you have been in the wilderness for years, ask the Holy Spirit if there is unbelief or rebellion in your heart.
2. God Is Waiting for His Perfect Time to Reveal You
John the Baptist seemingly spent much of his life in the wilderness. Luke records this about John: “So the child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel” (Luke 1:80).
John was the one Isaiah prophesied about: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God’” (Is. 40:3). We know John did just that, as Mark pulled out Isaiah’s words when introducing John, who “came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins” (Mark 1:4-5).
John’s public ministry lasted only months after the day of his manifestation to Israel. Herod murdered him, but not before he fulfilled his ministry as a forerunner of Christ. Now, John was not in the wilderness because of anything he was doing wrong. John’s manifestation to Israel was a matter of God’s timing.
Think about it: John was prepared in the wilderness. He received revelation in the wilderness. He learned humility and obedience in the wilderness. He built a strong relationship with God in the wilderness.
If you find yourself in the wilderness right now, take heart—it may be that God is preparing you for something marvelous. Take the time to get to know Him because that relationship will serve you well after your revealing.
3. God Is Positioning You for Greater Power
The Holy Spirit Himself may drive you into the wilderness for a season. That’s what happened to Jesus. Matthew records, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matt. 4:1).
Satan offered Jesus three temptations that are common to man today. Jesus did not bite on the devil’s bait. He wielded the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, to send the enemy packing. He resisted the devil’s temptation, and the devil fled. But look what happened next: “Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region” (Luke 4:14).
Jesus was already baptized in the Holy Spirit, but he gained power through His wilderness experience. He went into the synagogue and essentially declared His public ministry. When He left there, the first thing He did was cast out a devil. The next thing was healing people, followed by preaching.
If you find yourself in a period of temptation, use the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to resist the devil, and know that God wants to take you to a higher place.
David spent much of his life in the wilderness, either tending sheep or running from Saul. David did what other wise men have done during wilderness times: He got closer to God. When you land in the wilderness, check your heart and take joy in fellowshipping with God like David did in Psalm 63 when he was in the wilderness of Judah: “O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory” (vv. 1-2). Amen.
