A PEGADA QUE CHOCOU ISRAEL! Arqueologia bíblica no Israel com Aline

Shalom and welcome back to ‘Israel with Aline!’ Today we are in Gilgal in the middle of the Judean desert, the site of one of Israel’s five giant footprints! We’re get to know about this impressive place and discover its connection to Joshua and the Bible. So, if you’re ready, let’s get started! Let’s start by understanding where we are, we are around 8 miles from Jericho and only 1 mile from the Jordan River, and here in the middle of the Judean desert a marking like that of a giant foot was found. Here we already see the outline of the giant footprint and it is connected to the conquest of the Promised Land to Joshua, to the Ark of the Covenant, and even to the Manna. But the only way to see this footprint is from the skies, it is 456 feet long and 288 feet wide. And in a moment we will understand how this footprint came about and who made it, but let’s start at the beginning; the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt for four hundred years after which, God with a strong hand takes the people out of slavery by opening the Red Sea. The people will then spend forty years wandering in the wilderness and finally after 440 years the people can enter the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua and it will happen in a very impressive way because the Jordan River will open and the people will enter. And Joshua with all the people, they set up their first camp in Gilgal which is exactly where we are now, I mean around here all the people of Israel sit and as the Bible tells us; when they cross the Jordan River Joshua takes 12 stones from within the river and brings them here to set up a monument. And the site of this monument exists to this day, come with me to see the 12 stones of Joshua, come on! And what is the reason for the construction of this monument? I think the reason is beautiful, it has an educational motive at the bottom, as it is written in this passage: ‘He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents ‘What do these stones mean?’ Tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea ‘when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over.’ Joshua 4:21-23 More than 3,300 years have passed since the time when Joshua built this monument and therefore much of it is not left, we can clearly see where it stood and there are still some stones here, but most of the monument has really disappeared with time. And the Bible tells us that it was a place of education for the children and that’s why I’m a little sad to see this place so forgotten. Of all the times that I came here in Gilgal, only once I saw a group passing by. But I have also decided that when Yair, my little son, gets a little older I will bring him here and I will show him this place and teach him the history of the people of Israel and who knows, maybe in the future more people will come here and use this place as an educational and historical place. But it is not the only site here in Gilgal that we have; an altar of sacrifice was also found here, and it is right over there, so let’s go together now to see the altar of sacrifices of Gilgal. Here we can clearly see this altar, it is a round altar which was not common here for the region, it is an altar different from all the others, so I am at the place of sacrifice but no sacrifice is going to happen here now. And the question is: how do we know that this was an altar of the people of Israel? Besides all that was found around here, on the altar there were animal bones. And these bones were analyzed and all the bones were from Kosher animals, that is, clean animals according to the Old Testament, the same kind of animals that were later sacrificed in the Temple of Jerusalem and also in the Tabernacle. And an interesting thing is that all the bones that were found here were from male animals. But how do we know all this? Professor Adam Zertal from the University of Haifa did archaeological excavations here and he discovered this giant footprint, but he didn’t discover just one, rather he found five footprints here in the area. “Gilgal” in Hebrew means a circle of stones this one here is a Gilgal, it is the first Gilgal that appears in the Bible but we have others besides where we are there are also: Massuah, Yafit, Sha’ab, Romani, and the last one is called El Bonat is the Gilgal that appears in the Bible that is next to Mount Ebal. And they are all shaped like a footprint or a sandal on the right foot. But the big question is, why over three thousand years ago did they decide to make so many places shaped like giant footprints? Guys, it is not a coincidence, if we say that one site was found, someone might say that it is a coincidence, but one, two, three, four, five footprints were found, and there is a sixth one which is also under discussion as to whether it is from this same period. So the question is, why did they do it in this format? And the answer is found in the Bible itself, the Bible speaks clearly: “where your feet touch, where the sole of your foot touches will be your territory” ‘Every place where you set your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea.’ Deuteronomy 11:24 And we see this also in Joshua first: ‘Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them —to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.’ Joshua 1:2-3 And so when the people come in here, they put a giant footprint. And this represents that they are stepping on and taking possession of the land because after all God promises this land to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants; Jacob who is also known as Israel and so the people of Israel are his descendants. And the footprint also symbolizes God’s foot, because the promised land is where he places his feet. He said: “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet This is where I will live among the Israelites forever. Ezekiel 43:7 We also see in the Bible in the book of Ruth Chapter 4, that when they go to exchange the land of the redeemer, that is, they are now exchanging Naomi’s land ownership from one person to another, they will do a ceremony with a shoe. So this appears several times in the Bible, and this also has an Egyptian origin because the people just came out of Egypt forty years earlier. The Egyptians, when they wanted to show victory and power, they showed Pharaoh stepping on his enemies. We have several drawings in tombs of Pharaohs with the enemies at their feet, we use expressions also like this until today in Portuguese “they are at his feet” and so here, when they want to represent the victory of the people of Israel and the victory of God, they use the symbol of the feet and this giant footprint, but the footprint doesn’t end with just this, come to the tip, to the heel of the foot to see what’s there. ♪ We are now at the heel, you can see here the end of the heel and it has a double path of 6 feet wide. Here we clearly see this path, but what was it, why is it here around the heel? This path is the path of the Levite priests, all Gilgal was important for the twelve tribes of Israel and within the twelve tribes there was the tribe of Levi and within the tribe of Levi there was a family which was the family of Cohen who were descendants of Aaron, Moses’ brother. And they were chosen as priests of the people of Israel, so they made this way here in a biblical ritual way, and it was done right on the heel because on the heel was the Ark of the Covenant; after it crosses the Jordan River this is going to be its place. But how could the crowds attend these ceremonies? The sacrifices made on the altar, the ceremonies of the heel-walking, how could they watch? You can see that here behind me you see a big hill with stairs that even look like a grandstand, and that’s exactly what this space was for, here the crowds could sit and look down and see everything that was happening there. And this is also where an angel of the Lord appears to Joshua and tells him the following: “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy” Joshua 5:15 You are in the holy land; again we see the connection of the feet to the earth and the connection to God. And now our last question is: what does this place in the middle of the desert have to do with the end of the Manna season? The Manna was the food sent by God that sustained the people of Israel during the 40 years in the desert. And after the desert the people come in here and become a free people in their own land in the land that God promised them. And so they come here into Gilgal and it’s going to be the first place where they are going to celebrate the Jewish Passover. So the people come here and celebrate the Passover, they’re going to have their first wheat harvest and then God stops sending Manna. Why? Manna was a necessary thing to get the people through, to get them through hard times and now that the people were in their own Land, they could start to set down roots. And not be dependent on God for Manna but be dependent on the whole land of Israel which was the God-given land, so here in Gilgal a new chapter of the history of the people of Israel begins. But Gilgal from a place of blessing will turn into a curse, for after centuries in the Promised Land part of the people will forget all that God has done for them and turn away from the right path. “Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, I hated them there. Because of their sinful deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious.” Hosea 9:15 Wow! Look at these heavy passages! And there is also this one in the book of Amos: This is what the LORD says to Israel: “Seek me and live; do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal do not journey to Beersheba. For Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing”” Amos 5:4-5 Gilgal was then abandoned and forgotten for more than two thousand years, and in that time the people of Israel were exiled twice, but God with love and mercy brought the people back to their Promised Land. And today we can see the blessings upon this land, the land is being reborn after almost two thousand years of exile. And Gilgal has been found again thanks to archaeologist Adam Zertal and the feet of the people of Israel have returned to this giant footprint and this place. I hope you enjoyed today’s video and getting to know such important and at the same time forgotten places, so let’s remember the biblical stories here, teach them to the next generations as well, so thank you for watching and see you next time!