A Bronze Age Shepherd and Symbols

Places have symbolic meaning in stories both sacred and profane. Mt. Nebo has symbolic significance within one of the most significant stories in the world--the story of Moses and the people of Israel escaping slavery and making it to the Promised Land. Every Jewish generation since the end of the Bronze Age and every Western generation since the end of the Roman Age has thought about and internalized the story of Exodus, the escape from slavery or the journey to paradise on Earth.

The geography of Jersalem, the Jordan River, the Dead Sea, the site of baptism and Mt. Nebo are not geographic accidents happily together for the convenience of pilgrims and tourists.
For example, the site of baptism is linked with the story of Elijah who ascended to heaven in a dust cloud near the Jordan River, near where John baptized people, and near where Jesus was baptized. Where Elijah ascended to heaven to a chariot of fire, John purified with water, and Jesus would set about to purify with the fire of the holy spirit according to the gospels. Elijah and John were on the east bank of the Jordan--symbolically on the other side of the river from
the Promised Land and exposed to the deserts of wandering and shepherding.

What the symbol means is a good question, and I could think for weeks, discuss for days and talk for hours about what exactly the biblical locations tell us.
If we accept that the Jordan River marks the symbolic extent of the Promised Land within the tradition then the baptism of Jesus and the ascent of Elijah were outside of the Promised Land. They were however on the threshold of the Promised Land. Perhaps the significance is that a person needs to be cleansed while on the outside before it is possible to reenter with purity of heart.

Moses and the Exodus must also play into the meaning. Jesus, John and Elijah are going towards the land of wandering. But why didn't Moses enter the Promised Land? Perhaps there is a historic meaning in that Moses is from the Bronze Age, and the Bronze Age people of Israel were shepherds. Moses can't make it out of the Bronze Age reality of the importance of the shepherding life (think Genesis) in order to transition into the Iron Age of settled communities, farming, trading, and civic government. Unlike Joshua, Moses just doesn't belong to the world of Jericho. Moses doesn't belong to the world of taxation and streets...he belongs to the Bronze Age.The Jordan River is still a barrier both symbolic and real in 2008. Many of our fellow teachers and people we have met in Jordan are Palestinians, and they have grandparents and even parents who were born west of the Jordan. The site of the baptism is the only place where a civilian can touch the Jordan River--every other spot is militarized and off-limits to civilians.
In thinking about Tolstoy's writings (see yesterday's post)--for Moses to go to a physical promised land would mean that Moses was potentially going away from his connection to God. It is in the striving and living according to the covenant that Moses connected with God. It is in the journey that people find the Jerusalem of the heart. One could argue that an attempt to enter a paradise on earth without a pure heart can take a people further away from their humanity. Perhaps the process of conquering a land occupied by another people (think both ancient and modern) has always been a path out of slavery (think Exodus), but inevitably into a new form of slavery--the slavery of being tied to a specific piece of land that first needs to be conquered and then needs to be defended. In the process there a distancing from the spirit...