January 22, 2010 – Day Six

EGYPT / Mt Sinai

St Catherine’s surrounded by granite mountains. 5000 ft above sea level

Mt Sinai 3500 ft higher, altogether 8500 ft high.

Walk is 4 miles on the snake path + 800 steps to top

Alternate route is 3000 steps.

Burning Bush in Monastery.

Well of Jethru ( Ex 2 ) Where Moses met Zippo rah.

Monastery built in 4AD. Greek Orthodox, oldest active monastery in the world.

Chapel of Arron – Where golden calfwas made on altar. Nearest temple in Sinai dedicated to a god was the calf temple. Fertility and love goddess, so Israelites made a temple to worship calf.

St Catherine donkeys can go home and get lunch 30 miles and bring lunch back.

Snakes and scorpions in desert. Scorpions more dangerous in the Sinai than snakes. Yellow scorpion kills you. Bedouins are not bothered by scorpions. Mom delivers baby. Dad finds scorpion. Roasts it alive. Crushed it into a powder. Mom before first breastfeeding places it on her breast so the baby will get it in his system. Not allergic to bites. Like mosquitoes.

Men and women Bedouins never together. Arranged marriage. No dating. Father of daughter puts a white flag on house at 14 15 years old. People who live nearby see the flag and know that they want to marry their daughter. Father proposes for the son. If they agree, bride and groom don’t see each other till married. Must marry in the same tribe.

Exodus was about peace, relaxed, calm, clear mind. God wants children of Israel away from Egyptian distraction where you can find me and feel me. Two reasons why God took them out of Egypt was testing and humbling.

2 kinds of Hebrews.

Egyptian born Hebrews

Desert born Hebrews – they grew up without any distractions.

If I’m living here 10 years like a hermit, there are no distractions. No complaints, nothing! You just have God.

St Catherine of Alexandria is the monastery of Sinai. 3 monks had a dream of angels flying St. Catherine’s body to be buried at monastery. 294 – 306 ad. Checked the dream out. It was true.

First name given to the monastery was “Mother of God”

Second name was called the Transfiguration monastery.

Third name is St Catherine’s monastery

Chapel of the burning bush is the oldest part of the monastery. Monks were unable transplant the bush.

2000 icons in St Catherine’s and 40,000 manuscripts. One of the monks is digitizing the manuscripts of the library.

When it was first built there was no door. only a rope and bucket. = protection from enemies

The library is the 2nd largest library in the entire world.

Many natural resources’ and precious stones are here. Only place on earth where topaz is still mined.

The rocks around St. Catherine's monestary contain what appears to be fossilized images of the burning bush. The rocks can be split into many pieces and the image is still in every piece. This is the only place in the world where these rocks can be found.

The acacia trees live in higher elevations. Have a flat top. Common here. Wood used to build ark of covenant.