I actually thought that these chapters were really interesting! yes, it was long and extremely dense but it talked about the land and the people that were living in it. As a Muslim a lot of the religious stories that were included in this book were familiar to me because my religion was built from the two previous faiths.
I never really thought about the word "holy" from the other perspectives... I mean, I have always known the in Islam there are three holy sites but I never really knew what the word "holy" meant to the other religions. I had always heard about "zion" but I can understand why mount zion is so important to the Jews just as masjid al-aqsa is holy to the Muslims and as the grave of Jesus is holy to Christians.
Through out these chapters I saw some repetitiveness with in the religion and how it was being formed. Earlier in the chapters when Karen talked about Baal and how he lived in zaphon ( the holy mountain), it mentions that there he would remove war from the earth, the he would pour peace in the depth of the earth and that love would increase in the depth of the fields. I in many ways felt re-assured of the way I felt about Judaism knowing that it was the result of the formation of love, peace, equality etc.. In theses chapters no matter who ruled the Hebrew prophets had urged and insisted on the prime importance of social justice ! it seemed to me that the rulers that would take control though the different eras would impose on how the faith was supposed to be practiced but never themselves practiced it! how is that okay?
Something that I had not thought about was how the Israelites were originally (slaves) from Egypt ! I have no idea how i didn't connect the two together knowing that it was moses who helped escape by splitting the Red sea! Also, I was kind of lost on who Yahweh was, I assume that that means GOD in Hebrew.
Philistia or philistine is such an interesting and fascinating land! to me it seems like its not the events from every religion that make it holy, but because God chose it to be the land where all kind of people with the three different faiths are connected. I think if more people saw the land its self as what is holy and focussed more on the similarities then the differences then maybe the land can be at peace. In my eyes it is so sad to see these similarities and know that all that is focussed on in reality is the differences.
oh, another story that I felt connected to was the story of Abraham and how he left hagar and his newborn in the the desert because Ishmael was to be sacrificed; in Islam when Abraham left the two stranded in the desert hagar had ran seven times back and forth looking for water for her son. she had placed him on the ground and while he was crying he was kicking his feet and from underneath his feet water appeared (zamzam).
I liked how in the book it said that when Abraham had reached Canaan he had lived there as an migrant and that he didn't own land there until he bought a burial plot for his wife when she died. This Proves that this land belonged to others and not just to the Muslims Jews or Christians !
It was the land of all people.......wow just saying that sounds holy ...
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