Shulem wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 4:44 pm
But If God wanted them to go east, they could have simply made their journey east on land rather than head to the southern coast to sail away into the unknown.
If they were going east, I guess the ball could have simply taken them by foot for thousands of miles through some of the roughest terrain known to man. Or they could have sailed by the maritime trading routes, like everyone else before the formation of the overland Silk Road.
But you bring up a good point. This ball doesn't seem to be very smart. I mean, if they were going west, they could have just sailed through the Mediterranean. It is pretty much a straight shot to Delmarva. Would have saved them all that time going around all of Africa and back up again.
South, and then right for a bit to get past the Horn of Africa, after which the ball would send them north again, before finally turning left to go west across the Pacific, is a really inefficient way to get from Jerusalem to Delmarva. It's circuitous enough to really challenge your case for a "south and then make a divine right" path. In fact, I don't see much reason to even argue that the ball knew what it was doing by sending Lehi to the right.
Shulem wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 4:44 pm
And where is the land of promise? Back east, you say? We are informed that this land
is choice above all other lands and moreover that
this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations lest it be overrun. So, it seems to be virgin territory separated by many waters and a land that according to prophecy would at a future day be discovered by Columbus and the Gentiles.
There's an interesting little Jewish story, about 18 chapters long, that was written in the early centuries of the Christian era about a group of desert nomads that lived in Jerusalem in the 6th century BC, and were carried by God across the Great Waters to a promised land, or paradise, in the east that had been set apart for them. There, God promised this righteous family that they would live in isolation from the World of Vanity with angels in place to prevent visitors from the "world" from crossing the waters to their little Biblical paradise. This land was known as Rahman, it was an island/peninsula in Southeast Asia.
So there is precedence for this argument that I'm making and you can read about it in
The Theme of the Earthly Paradise in the Ancient Apocrypha 1: Walking of Zosima to Rahmanam
Shulem wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 4:44 pm
So, it doesn’t appear that God intended to take them east among known lands or with the lost tribes. But they were to be separated from their homeland and nations thereabouts.
And, so, that is why I mentioned Ecclesiastes and the wisdom of Solomon wherein a right turn could be construed as the right way in God. I am simply looking for a spiritual reason in which God may have used in a genuine historical context.
I don't know of any precedent in ancient Judeo-Christian texts for God carrying his people west across the great waters. But there are texts that tell of God taking his people east, to an earthly paradise, set apart for their prosperity and preservation. That's why I think they went left, instead of right.