In Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, he pictures the archaeologist riding a horse down into the red cliffs of a canyon, searching for the holy grail. The film location is of ancient Petra in present day Jordan. I went there years ago with a group of friends, wearing my Indiana Jones hat, leather jacket, riding a mighty horse, led by the hand of one of the Bedouins who trained the horses. I was the same as Indiana Jones but different. He never let go of the lead and I was glad. The massive temple carved out of the sandstone cliffs looked so impressive from the outside. I expected this elaborate façade to conceal an intricate honeycomb of dwellings with archaeological treasures. But it was just a small one room cave on the inside.
Before Spielberg’s film crew made a movie there, the cliffs of Petra were once inhabited by the Edomites, the descendants of Esau. Just as Genesis lists Ishmael’s descendants, it lists Esau’s as well. We don’t really know any of them except Esau. He and Jacob were too rich to live next door to each other. The required land to graze their herds separated them by a distance. Robert Frost said good fences make good neighbors. Boundaries are still important, even for brothers.
Wait. The story is about Jacob. God chose him to receive the promise. Why do we need to know all about Esau’s family, anyway? Well, they are descendants of Abraham. The Lord blessed Abraham’s family and made them a blessing. Esau and Jacob lived apart but they lived in harmony. When the time came, they buried their father together.
A few days after we rode down into Petra humming “dundudundun dundudun,” some Bedouins got into a quarrel there and a few of them were killed by the military. Perhaps one who led our horses had died. I wondered if any of the tourists had ever told him about Jesus. Everywhere we go, even in the seemingly distant and remote places there are people. Who are they? Each one is a person created in God’s image with the opportunity to become a child of God. Remember the children’s song? “Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had Father Abraham. And (by faith) I am one of them, and so are you. So let’s just praise the Lord.”
