It Must Have Been Love @ Amazon.com
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“And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, ‘Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel: They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.’” Exodus XIV 1.3. Moses is admonished by God that Pharaoh will follow and undertake to recapture the fleeing Hebrew slaves with his mighty army of 600 chariots, to fetch them back to Egypt. To a modern-day realist, religious or atheist, – these words of the Old Testament – when equated to modern satellite topography (and in a lot of recent books, photographs of an eight-mile undersea land bridge throughout the Gulf of Aqaba, with strewn ancient Egyptian chariot wheels) makes for arousing and attention holding considerateness – is the Exodus story throughout history true? Topographical and undersea photos of the Gulf, bordering the Sinai Peninsula, provides recent visual understanding that the biblical phrase “entangled in” or “entrapped by” the land, means incisively that – the Children of Israel were veritably entrapped: behind them was the Egyptian chariot army; on both sides there were rugged, impassable hills; in front of them, a wide, deep sea. The Bible says that the escaping Hebrews had been following columns of clouds and fire for the duration of the days and nights since fleeing Egypt – innovative topographical proof proceeds the saga: they are led along a narrow wadi arid river bed, (Wadi Watir in the Sinai Peninsula), the path winds among rugged hills, forcing the Hebrews into a single-file, slow, processional: families, wagons and cattle; then they are led unto a huge, flat, open, unprotected beach (Nuweiba Beach); then to the shores of a seemingly impassable, wide and deep body of water (Gulf of Aqaba, east arm of the Red Sea). They are genuinely trapped and helpless – yet, by both ancient Egyptian artifacts and the Bible, somehow, they did escape to safety while their pursuers were destroyed – how? 21st century facts, artifacts and logic conclude the only comprehensible statement seems to be – some kind of a miracle will have to have occurred! The topography distinctly shows the fleeing, hapless, Hebrew ex-slaves as being genuinely entrapped by the land – at the finish mercy of their pursuers, the Egyptian chariot army. With an undersea pathway bridging the eight-mile width of the deep Gulf – and with coral-covered Egyptian chariot wheels plus bones of horses and men strewn along the pathway (discovered only in the last 10-15 years) – indisputable proof therefore exists today of the result of the biblical events of 3500 years ago. A finish reversal of fortunes seems to have taken place amidst “pursued” and “pursuer” for the duration of the Red Sea Exodus – but how? A gold-silver chariot wheel is likewise visible (a “royal” metal, to which coral will not attach), indicating the presence of Pharaoh himself – the biblical tale therefore seems to be completely verified, the Hebrews escaping all over the undersea pathway to safety, but the Egyptian army subsequently engulfed and drowned. Verification is by readily viewable artifacts on the Internet (a dozen or so remnants of chariot wreckage and bones are strewn along the pathway in spite of three millennia of storms and turbulence) – veritably indisputable evidence. The Bible says that Moses lifted his staff and an East wind split the Yam Suf revealing a pathway on which the Hebrews crossed safely – after which the wind abated and the sea returned, drowning the carrying out or participate in Egyptians. However, a less miraculous, more established comprehensible statement than the Bible’s “East Wind” splitting the sea may also be imagined – perchance in ancient times the pathway was at sea level, then after the Hebrews were across, a minor earthquake shook it down, drowning the Egyptians. Such a scenario would be more or less less supernatural than an East Wind splitting the sea at Moses’ command, but it is likewise reliant upon miraculous timing. n addition, however, there is another element – how does one explain the noteworthy topographical elements, the vast amount of sand from the wadi, the big beach, the undersea pathway spanning eight-miles of deep Gulf – does that set-up not merit wonderment? (Note: The exceedingly strange concentration of sand from the wadi – to almost wholly fill a wide, deep gulf while building the present-day undersea bridge – is so particular as to warrant a “hypothetical” thoughtfulness as a “set-up”since the world was produced (if there was a God/Creator – to demonstrate the miracle wrought in saving his “chosen people”, and then demolishing their pursuers). For certain, the photographic proof viewable today is incontrovertible – the fleeing Hebrews were without doubt or question “entrapped by the land” – but then, somehow, the strange topography proves that events someways reversed the fortunes of pursued and pursuers, converting entrapment into safety for the Hebrews, but destruction to their pursuers!) To believers in a God/Creator, the biblical phrase above, the “set-up” of sand, undersea path, even an “East Wind” splitting the sea for the Hebrews to escape – are all readily acceptable. However, to a firm atheist or even an agnostic, how may these be reasoned out: the sand build-up; the undersea pathway with strewn chariot wheels and bones – then leading to what is without doubt or question Mount Sinai Mt. Jabal al Lawz, the most eminent mountain in Saudi Arabia, with all the features, precisely as described in the Bible. Thus, there is a remarkable fifty-foot high “cleft rock”, mounds of stone surrounding the mountain, the molten top – plus all the biblical features, including two altars (decorated with drawings of the distinguishable Egyptian Apis bulls, 200 miles from Egypt), etc. And summarizing ancient Egyptian history, there are the unalterable artifacts in Egyptian museums: that the Hebrews had been slaves in Egypt for centuries – and, sometime and somehow, they did genuinely achieve an “exodus” from Egypt, settling in Canaan-Palestine-Israel (with their Kings Saul, David and Solomon). To non-believers, how are these facts of the Exodus event rationalized? Was there a miracle to split the sea, or a less dramatic shake-down of the bridge-way to drown the Egyptians? How did those ancient coral-covered Egyptian chariot wheels, those bones of horses and men, get to where they are view-able today? |
