Thursday December 13, 2007

Amy Hill
Journal Entry
12/13/07
The Day to Study
Thursday, December 13th, 2007 was a day to study, and study only. I haven’t heard of anyone that went into the city that day, and if anyone went anywhere it was to Hadassah Hospital to visit Shannon, who had an eye infection. No, studying on Thursday was imperative, for the day following was the dreaded Huntington final. In Galilee we had been handed our study guide, a packet of paper with almost two hundred questions to know. With everything going on between Galilee and the end of the semester, it was difficult for many of us to find time to study. We had to decide how to juggle our time, and sometimes it was difficult to prioritize. Wednesday was a full day field trip to Tel Aviv, which left Thursday, the day before the exam, to buckle down and memorize the answers to those two hundred questions.
Here are samples of some of the questions we had to know the answers to:
1) Where was Joash hid, and who hid him?
2) What did Tiglath-pileser III boast?
3) How long does Hezekiah’s tunnel ‘meander?’
4) What was the difference between the Assyrians and Babylonians in terms of how they dealt with the nations they conquered?
5) Who was Sanballat and what did he attempt to do? List two or three.
6) Compare the type of worship under Antiochus IV and John Hyrcanus.
7) What is a municipia and a socii?

Perhaps that sampling of questions demonstrates just how much we have learned this semester. In New Testament, too, we had many amazing opportunities to learn, to grow, and to understand what life was like here in Jesus’ time. One of my personal highlights of the semester happened when we were in Galilee. There was one night when the wind was howling and the sky was dark. I walked to the waterfront, and stood facing the water, bracing my back against the wind. I thought of that stormy night when the apostles saw Christ walking on the water towards them. And I thought of Peter, bearing his faith against the storm, coming out to meet Him. It seemed a little like this life we have each embarked on. One day we all left the safety of our boats, our heavenly home, to enter the stormy seas of life. Do we have the faith to stand against the wind and the rain, and come to Christ? There have been times in my life when I have started to sink, times when I have been scared, or felt alone. Times when my faith has wavered just a little. But Christ has been there to stretch out His hand to me and raise me up again. My testimony of Jesus Christ as a literal Savior was strengthened as I stood there watching the stormy sea this semester. I am grateful for the opportunity I had to be there.