October 26, 2007

Jocelyn Schmidt
Journal for October 26, 2007

You could feel the stress as we all rolled out of our beds this morning. The morning’s upcoming Archaeology and Old Testament quizzes were on the forefront of everyone’s mind. Throughout the cafeteria during breakfast you could hear each table of people discussing the questions and topics. Luckily, the Archaeology midterm went very well for most people, while the Old Testament quiz was a little more difficult. Due to the lack of sleep during the night before and the overwhelming amount of knowledge packed into our heads, most of us took the opportunity between class and the Jordan orientation to take a nap. The orientation meeting was exciting. We leave for Jordan early Monday morning, so it basically just went over certain safety precautions and our itinerary for the trip. We are going to Petra! I am soo excited! I think we were all relieved to hear that while we would still need to take more precautions during our stay in Jordan than we normally do in Israel, it wouldn’t be quite as crazy as Egypt. Around four o’clock, we split into groups of about 20 and walked down to the Western Wall. I am so glad that we had another opportunity to go and see the Shabbat welcoming celebrations. The first time we went down to the wall as a class I wasn’t able to appreciate as much as I did tonight, because I was taking in so much information at one time. There was a lot of energy in their singing and dancing. It amazes me, how much participation they have from the youth and the enthusiasm that they all put into it. It was also interesting to apply the knowledge that we have acquired from our Judaism class and be able to recognize the different sects and rituals that were apparent there. One insight that I have gained from the Old Testament this semester deals with King David (“Beloved”). I have always loved his story and was so happy that we got to go see the Valley of Elah where the actual battle of David and Goliath took place. He demonstrated complete trust and reliance in the Lord as he volunteered to fight the military giant. It has always been hard for me to understand how someone with so much faith and blessings of the Lord, could fall and in David’s extreme case commit two of the three worst sins. As we read in the Bible, his first major sin resulted from a series of bad decisions. His first mistake was that he stayed in Jerusalem rather than with his army. Secondly, when he accidently saw Bath-Sheba he looked and noticed her beauty and lastly, he sent his servant to go get her. From this story we can learn the importance of listening to the promptings of the Spirit and recognizing and repenting of our bad decisions early, before they lead to more poor choices and eventually lead us down a path that we really don’t want to go. I was also really impressed by David’s sincere repentance. He is one of the only kings that we have learned about who falls from such a esteemed position with the Lord, but then humbles himself enough to truly repent and to gain favor with the Lord again. I know that no matter what the Lord will always love us and accept our sincere repentance.