10th Dec 2019 Walk through the canyon to the Treasury, Petra Jordan

Petra (Canyon walk to the Treasury)

Petra’s main access is via a narrow crevice called the Siq, which winds for about a mile through mountainous terrain. The Siq provided an excellent natural defense for Petra’s inhabitants. Petra was in the land of the Edomites, who were descendants of Esau. Israel and Edom were constantly at odds, starting with Edom’s refusal to allow Moses and the Israelites passage through their land on their way to Canaan (Numbers 20:18-21). During the kingdom years, King Saul and King David both fought the Edomites (1 Samuel 14:47; 2 Samuel 8:13-14). During the reign of King Jehoshaphat, Edom invaded Judah and was repelled (2 Chronicles 20). Later, King Amaziah fought against Edom, and he took control of Petra, renaming it “Joktheel” (2 Kings 14:7). When King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC, the Edomites gave aid and comfort to the enemy (Psalm 137:7). For this, they were strongly condemned by the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Obadiah (Isaiah 34:5-8; Jeremiah 49:16-18). For centuries, Petra seemed secure in its unassailable fortress of rock, but today its ruins lie uninhabited, in fulfillment of the prophetic word: “‘As Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown, along with their neighboring towns,’ says the LORD, ‘so no one will live there; no people will dwell in it’” (Jeremiah 49:18).

When the Nabataeans were defeated by the Romans in 106 ce, Petra became part of the Roman province of Arabia but continued to flourish until changing trade routes caused its gradual commercial decline. After an earthquake (not the first) damaged the city in 551, significant habitation seems to have ceased. The Islamic invasion occurred in the 7th century, and a Crusader outpost is evidence of activity there in the 12th century. After the Crusades the city was unknown to the Western world until it was rediscovered by the Swiss traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812.

Who were the Nabataeans?

Nabataean history goes back thousands of years, but since it is so elusive, most historians start in 586 BC, when the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar's leadership captured Jerusalem and the Jewish people were hauled off as captives to distant lands. During this time, Jerusalem lay deserted and destroyed. The emptying of Jewish lands provided an opportunity for the Edomites, the enemies of Judah from the south. With no one to stop them, the Edomites began packing up and moving from the barren hills of the southland into the rich abandoned lands of Judah to their north. About this time, we begin to find records of Nabataeans living in Edomite territory. Did they immigrate into the area when the Edomites left or had they been present for hundreds of years, living quietly along side of the Edomites? Most historians believe that the Nabataeans must have migrated into Edomite territory when the Edomites started their move north. It is possible that the Nabataeans were living in Edomite territory long before this, and it was only when the Edomites left that the Nabataeans gained enough prominence to obtain a homeland that they could call their own. It was also believed that Nabataeans lived in other places in the Middle East at the same time, setting up their small tent communities on the outskirts of the ancient cities of Arabia.