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Lesson 18: Geography Study Concerning the Scriptures, Physical Topography - The Jordan Rift Valley, Continued
Psalm 104:5-9, Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever. Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them. Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth. Coastal Plain, the Central Mountain Spine, the Jordan Rift Valley, and the Transjordanian Plateau. Jordan Rift Valley (cont.)
Separating the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are only 65 airline miles.
The rift wherein the Jordan River lies varies in width from 2-4 miles, though it widens at the Beth-shan and Jerico basins.
Within that 65 miles the Jordan River meanders for more than 200 miles, all below sea level, twisting circuitously through the Zor, a hollowed out bed in the floor of the rift.
The Zor means “thicket” which is composed of tamarisk, willow, cane, and oleander.
Many Bible passages indicate that this area was a habitat for beasts of prey such as lions.
Some scholars say that the term Jordan derives from a verb meaning to descend, hence Jordan means the descender, downcomer
One geographer describes the riverbed as follows:
“There are hardly less ugly mudbanks, from two to twenty-five feet high, with an occasional bed of shingle, that is not clean and sparkling as in our rivers, but foul with ooze and slime. Dead driftwood is everywhere in sight. Large trees lie about, overthrown and the exposed roots and lower trunks of the trees still standing are smeared with mud, save where they have been torn by passing wreckage. There are, however, open spaces, where the river flashes to the hills above and an easy path is possible to its edge. but in the lower reaches this is mostly where the earth is too salty to sustain vegetation; and so it may be said that the Jordan sweeps to the Dead Sea though unhealthy jungle relieved only by poisonous soil.
So it is not difficult why Naaman objected so strongly to dipping in the Jordan instead of the rivers he knew.
2 Kings 5:9-12, So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. 10And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. 11But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. 12Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?
The Dead Sea, or Salt Sea (Sea of the Araba, or Eastern/Former Sea) has it is known in the Old Testament, measures some 53 miles in length and 10 miles in width, and it is divided into two basins by a 9 mile peninsula, which juts out from the eastern shore.
The northern basin is larger and, at its deepest point in the northeastern sector, a water depth of approximately 1300 feet has been measured.
The southern basin is much shallower with a water depth fluctuating between 3 and 30 feet.
The Dead Sea area can only be described as foreboding desolation and howling barrenness.
It is apparent the God intended for this area to be his teacher.
The Dead Sea, at 1300 feet below sea level, is the lowest point on the surface of the earth.
Our Death Valley is only 282 feet below Sea level, and the next lowest point is the Turfan depression in northern China at 490 feet below sea level.
It has been calculated that there is an inflow of 7 million tons of water daily into the Dead Sea, yet the Sea possesses no outlet for this water except through evaporation.
There is little rainfall, 2-4 inches per year, but there is an enormous amount of heat with temperatures as high as 125 degrees F.
Because of such a high rate of evaporation there is regularly a dense haze that on occasion is impenetrable to the eye.
Most of the streams feeding the Dead Sea are usually saline, flowing though nitrous soil and sulphurous springs.
At the same time openings in the floor of the Sea permit chemicals (sulphur, bromine, magnesium, potassium, calcium, iodine) to be pumped up from underlying fault crevices.
Located on the floor of the Sea are extremely high concentrations of sodium chloride.
Along the Dead Sea’s shores are extensive sulphur deposits and petroleum springs.
In the southwestern corner, there is a 300 ft. thick rock salt ridge, which is only the tip of an estimated 4500 foot salt plug that stretches for 5 miles.
All of these factors combine to produce a total salinity of 26-35 percent, which means that the Dead Sea is the earth’s most saline water body.
By contrast the Great Salt Lake in Utah is only 18 percent salt and the average ocean salinity is only 3.5 percent.
The Dead Sea has always been a source for bitumen (asphalt).
During the New Testament era, Dead Sea bitumen trade was controlled by the Nabateans who exported the product to Egypt where it was used in embalming.
The Egyptian word mummy originally meant bitumen.
During our time the Israelis have constructed two potash plants, potash being the ingredient to make chemical fertilizer.
The events of Genesis 19 with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, transpired in the vicinity of the Dead Sea.
God used the geography of the area to pronounce judgement upon the perverted peoples of this area.
God may have used a volcanic eruption or a spontaneous explosion of subsurface pockets of bitumenous soil.
But salt and bitumen were there at God’s command.
And Ezekiel envisioned a time when even the brinish waters of the Dead Sea will be recreated afresh and the stark lifeless character of the water will issue forth in life.
Ezekiel 47:1-12, Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar. 2Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side. 3And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles. 4Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins. 5Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over. 6And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink of the river. 7Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other. 8Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. 9And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh. 10And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi even unto Eneglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many. 11But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt. 12And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.
South of the Dead Sea, the great Rift valley forms a rounded trough that narrows to the Gulf of Aquaba.
There it begins to broaden again toward the Red Sea, and the Gulf is flanked by craggy slopes and high cliffs that rise in excess of 2500 feet.
Then again, there are places along the Aquaba not more than a mile from those cliffs where the water depth exceeds 6000ft. |