The LORD lifted me slowly above the hills of Gilead. I say ‘slowly,’ by comparison to my instantaneous placement from the clouds of glory to the Throne and transport to places near and far. Yet beneath us I observed the place in a way not visible in the print of Genesis.

As the families of Esau and Jacob parted, with Jacob and his escort traveling slowly west toward the Jordan, Mahanain and caravans of fading specks of dust diminished into pixels of a topical view of the Jordan River, flowing north and south. Then as in now-familiar scenes of man rocketing above the earth, the great Mediterranean Sea quickly appeared beneath us through the clear blue to the west. I looked to the north briefly and caught view of an inland Sea of Galilee, then turned my gaze to a southern view of a larger Dead Sea.

Bethel rose as a place high in the high mountain range between the Mediterranean and the eastern foothills of Gilead, west of the valley of Jordan from where I was taken up. Edom, home of Esau was now visible to the south and west of the Dead Sea as I could now look also with amazement on the curve of a calm Mediterranean against the contrast of a desert shore to the south and to my west. I noted two fingers of water to the south pointing one toward Goshen and the other toward the Dead Sea. I recalled that it must be the Red Sea.

Though we were high above the earth, I was more in awe of the scene below while in the presence of the LORD, than fearful of how the LORD held me in this atmosphere of His creation above a time and place of which I had only read.

Time also passed, days quicker than the seconds of which I was aware. Then the LORD said to me:

WE WILL RETURN TO WHERE ISRAEL FIRST FLED FROM HIS BROTHER.

We were now suddenly near the range of mountains once more.

To be continued…

A Temporary Throne is an original work of Roger Harned,

© Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved by the author.