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Excerpt The Ark of the Covenant is in the news again. This time it comes from a world-renowned, truly distinguished, widely published scholar who is speaking from his field of expertise. Tudor Parfitt is professor of Jewish Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London... Continue reading
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This article was first published in the March 2008 ABR Newsletter.
The Ark of the Covenant is in the news again. This time it comes from a world-renowned, truly distinguished, widely published scholar who is speaking from his field of expertise. Tudor Parfitt is professor of Jewish Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
While not Jewish himself, his research focuses on the history of the Jews in Africa and Asia, Judaizing movements and modern Hebrew language and literature. In his latest book, The Lost Ark of the Covenant: Solving the 2,500 Year Old Mystery of the Fables Biblical Ark (Harper Collins, 2008), Parfitt suggests he knows what happened to the lost Ark of the Covenant as an outgrowth of his life's work-tracking the lost tribes of Israel in Africa and Asia.
Tudor Parfitt is already recognized for his research among the African Lemba tribe whose oral tradition claimed that they were a lost tribe of Israel.
While such claims seemed pretty unlikely to Parfitt, evidence supporting the Lemba claim came from a truly unexpected source. A 1999 DNA study of the Lemba identified a specific genetic marker that is common among Jewish men of families named Cohen. Cohen (or Cohane) comes from the Biblical Hebrew word for "priest," and men in this Jewish family are understood to be descendents of the Israelite priesthood. The same frequency in which this precise genetic marker (dubbed the Cohen Modal Haplotype) appeared among Cohens was also found among the Lemba's Buba clan, their premier family descended from their great ancestral leader. The study indicated that, genetically speaking, this Lemba leadership clan was directly related to the Cohens (priestly family) of Israel. Parfitt and the Lemba both became international news.
Then Parfitt began to consider another aspect of Lemba tradition, a drum-like object called the ngoma. According to the Lemba, the ngoma was sacred, used to store ritual objects, and carried by poles inserted into rings. They believed it was too holy to touch the ground or to be touched by non-priests. They also believed it emitted a "Fire of God" that killed their enemies and, occasionally, Lemba. A Lemba elder told Parfitt that it "came from the temple in Jerusalem. We carried it down here through Africa."
Parfitt's research suggests that the Lemba once lived in Yemen, at a venerated city called Senna in Lemba tradition. Here, in an area where people genetically linked to the Lemba still live today, he found the ruins of an ancient city by that same name. So the theory, according to Parfitt, proposes that the Lemba migrated there from Jerusalem (as Lemba tradition teaches) by a spice route-and from Senna, via a nearby seaport they sailed down the African coast (as Lemba tradition also teaches) to the Zimbabwe region.
Stories of Jews living in oases of the Arabian desert recorded in some 8th century Arabic texts suggested the Ark had been transported to that region.Could the area have become home for exiled Jews with a special "mission?" Parfitt believes at some undefined point the Lemba became the caretakers of the Ark, probably in this area.
But, exactly how the Israelites' Ark of the Covenant related to the Lemba's ngoma is not clear. Parfitt has another theory. He proposed that the Ark was actually a prototype of the Lemba's ngoma, a combination reliquary, drum and primitive weapon fueled with a somewhat unpredictable proto-gunpowder.
The Bible is clear that the Ark of the Covenant was a repository of holy articles. Parfitt suggests its use as a drum may be related to the Israelites' use of trumpets in association with the Ark. He also references the Biblical story of King David dancing in its presence. Admittedly, Parfitt's multipurpose object is a bit far-fetched for both ancient cultures, but he believes it is an appropriate argument to make the connection between the two. The gunpowder fuel aspect would explain, he says, the unintentional conflagrations mentioned in the Bible in association with the Ark.
So, the apparent discovery and photographing of the Lemba's ngoma, some 60 years ago, by Swedish missionary Harold Von Sicard would be vital evidence for Parfitt's theory. Unfortunately, after Von Sicard's encounter with it in the Museum of Southern Rhodesia in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, it disappeared from sight around 1949. It became an imperative for Parfitt to see if it still existed. Traveling to Egypt, Ethiopia and even New Guinea, clues finally led him to a storeroom in the Victoria Museum of Human Science in Harare, Zimbabwe in the spring of 2007. Here, catalogued under the number 5218, he saw an old round wooden drum. He observed it had an uncharacteristic burnt-black bottom hole ("As if it had been used like a cannon," Parfitt notes), the remains of carrying rings on its corners; and a raised relief of crossed reeds that Parfitt thought reflected an Old Testament detail. "I felt a shiver go down my spine," he writes.
A splinter, which Parfitt took from the ngoma when he saw it, was carbon-dated to AD 1350. But Parfitt is not deterred. He asserts that "this is the Ark referred to in Lemba tradition." It is the object that Von Sicard photographed and is the Lemba ngoma. Furthermore, he points out, Lemba legend teaches that the original ngoma destroyed itself some 400 years ago and had to be rebuilt from its own "ruins." Parfitt believes this 14th century ngoma was a reconstruction by the priests, replacing the original Ark of the Covenant. A small hole in the bottom of the ngoma suggests to Parfitt that it might have been constructed around a piece of the original Ark which has since rotted away. For Parfitt, "there can be little doubt that what I found is the last thing on earth in direct descent from the Ark of Moses. For me it was the Ark, the son of the Ark or the essence of the Ark.. Anyway, the Ark." To his thinking, it is the last thing on earth to have a direct connection with the Ark of the Covenant.
Professor Parfitt's research is thorough and insightful, offering us valuable historical and anthropological research. His book is a good read, but it is not really about the Ark of the Covenant of the Bible. For Parfitt, the Ark of the Covenant is an ancient artifact in the traditions of the very interesting Lemba tribe of Zimbabwe, Africa. While their tradition does suggest a connection to the Biblical Ark, he is able to offer no solid evidence for the transition and transference of the Ark to the ngoma beyond Lemba tradition and a series of interesting circumstances.
The physical characteristics of the ngoma and the Ark are not similar. As part of his case, Parfitt actually dismisses the very specific Biblical descriptions of the Ark of the Covenant. The Bible describes it as a wooden box, just over 4 feet long, 2.5 feet wide and 2.5 feet high, constructed of Achaia (shittim) wood and covered inside and out with gold. The ngoma is a round wooden drum about 2.5 feet high and in circumference. They are so different that they just cannot be confused, and in fact, Parfitt does not confuse them, but tries very hard to connect them. He can conjecture all he wants that a piece of the original Ark once was at the center of the ngoma, but it will only be his best guess.
The uses of the ngoma were not the same as the Ark, and Parfitt's explanations are interesting, but a real stretch. The Ark was a sacred repository for the two tablets of stone (the Ten Commandments: Ex 25:16, 21; Dt 10:5), Aaron's rod that budded (Nu 17:10) and a golden pot of manna (Ex 16:33). The Ark also supported the solid gold "mercy seat" (and cherubim) which served as its top (Ex 25:17-21). Above the mercy seat, between the cherubim, was where God said He would meet with and commune with Moses (Ex 25:22). The musical connection (Jo 6:4; 2 Sa 6:5) and David's dance (2 Sa 7:12-17) are a good try, but very unconvincing. As to the ancient gunpowder and conflagrations around the Ark (see Ex 40:43-45 [cloud of glory]; Lv 10:1-2 [fire from the LORD]; 1 Sa 6:10 [death]; 2 Sa 6:7 [death]; 1 Kgs 8:6-11 [cloud of glory]), it takes more imagination than I can muster to buy that scenario.
A good detective, archaeologist and researcher must have a fertile imagination and be willing to think outside the box. Professor Tudor Parfitt is an accomplished scholar who has used his extensive research and a good bit of outside-the-box thinking to propose what happened to the Ark of the Covenant. Yet, for all his research into ancient oral traditions, ancient written texts, genetic testing and carbon dating, the line of historical connection between the Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem and the ngoma of Zimbabwe is speculative at best. If he had just written about the Lembas and their ngoma, his book would have been important research and a great read.
But that title and subject would not have made for much publicity. I don't blame him, it was a good PR coup and got him the public notice that the title should have garnered. But once people actually considered what he offered, the story quietly disappeared. The only ancient mystery Parfitt has solved in his The Lost Ark of the Covenant: Solving the 2,500 Year Old Mystery of the Fables Biblical Ark is the mystery of the Lemba's ngoma, what it was and what happened to it.
So, what about the Lost Ark of the Covenant? Where is it today? Over the years I have collected an interesting list of theories. Here they are in a basically chronological order.
1. Taken to Ethiopia (Axum) by Menelik, son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (see 1 Kings 10; 2 Chronicles 9; the Ethiopian royal chronicles (Kebra Nagast - The Glory of Kings)
2. Taken to Tanis, Egypt by Pharaoh Shishak (Sheshonk-1 Kings 14)
3. Taken in battle by King Jehoash of Israel (2 Kings 14)
4. Given by King Hezekiah as tribute payment to Assyrian King Sennacherib (2 Kings 18)
5. Destroyed by King Manasseh when he desecrated the Temple (2 Kings 2;, 2 Chronicles 33)
6. During days of Manasseh, taken by Israelite priests to Elephantine Island on the Nile and eventually reached Axum, Ethiopia (see 2 Kings 21; 2 Chronicles 33)
7. Hidden by Jeremiah on "the mountain which Moses ascended to see the heritage promised by God." (Mt. Nebo, Mt. Sinai or Mt. Olives - 2 Maccabees 2)
8. Taken by Jeremiah to Ireland
9. Hidden by Israelite priests beneath the Temple Mount before Babylonian captivity (Mishnah Shekalim 6:1-2; Babylonian Talmud Sotah 9a; Yoma 52a-54a; Tosefta Sotah 13:1)
10. Hidden by Israelite priests beneath Golgotha before the Babylonian captivity (Gordon's Calvary - Hebrews 9)
11. Returned to Kiriath Jearim from Jerusalem by Israelite priests before the Babylonian captivity
12. Taken by God to the Heavenly Temple, probably before the Babylonian captivity (see Revelation11:19; Hebrews 9; also Exodus 15; 1 Chronicles 28)
13. Destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon when he plundered and destroyed the Temple (2 Kings 24-25; 2 Chronicles 36; Lamentations 1)
14. Taken to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 25; 2 Chronicles 36; Isaiah 39; Jeremiah 52; Lamentations 1; 2 Esdras 10; Babylonian Talmud Yoma 53b; Tosefta Sotah 13:1)
15. Hidden by priests in a cave near the Dead Sea before the Roman destruction of Jerusalem (the Copper Scroll).
16. Taken to Rome and ultimately hidden in the Vatican (Josephus, Wars 7:148-149)
17. Taken to Rome by Titus, taken from Rome to Carthage by the Vandals, taken to Constantinople (Byzantium) by Beligarius, returned to Jerusalem by Justinian and hidden beneath the New ("New") Church in Jerusalem (6th century AD Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea)
18. Hidden at an undetermined time in a fully reconstructed Temple buried in the Hinnom Valley (the Ezekiel Tablets)
19. Swallowed by the earth (2 Baruch 6)
20. Transported to Yemen and incorporated into the Lemba tribe's sacred ngoma
21. Stored away in a US government warehouse somewhere in Washington DC (Raiders of the Lost Ark)
Where is the Ark of the Covenant today? If someone knows, they have not been forthcoming. Not only do we not know where it is, we do not even know that it still exists. Wherever it has been for the last few millennia, the Lost Ark has still not been found.
The Temple and the Rock
The Coming Last Days Temple
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I feel the Ark Of The Covenant could still exist today. God directed the ark to be covered inside and out with pure gold. Gold does not deteriorate nor does it tarnish. It is about the only element that has these characteristics. The ark could have been moved and hidden before invading armies destroyed the temple. I feel that it does still exist and is still in the region of the Holy Land. I don't feel God would allow such a Holy object to leave the Holy Land. Some day it may surface again, only a matter of when????
Del Smith - 4/30/2009 12:49:18 PM
I don't mind believing that it is in Ethopia. The priests there seem to believe it. Apart from its historical significance, it really (sadly) means nothing now. Once God's presence left the temple in Ezekiel it became a gold box. Yes, it would be great to find it and study it and see the tablets, if they exist still, and know that it had such an amazing part in history. But as I said, it is now a gold box. But thanks be to God who has given us Christ as our propitiation (lit. in greek-mercy seat). Thanks for the article!
daniel sargent - 1/14/2010 5:07:12 PM
As a child i first heard stories about the ark being in ethiopia via the menelek queen of sheba story i began to read as much material as i could on the topic, but now that i think we are in the last days i believe that the ark was hidden by either the preist or some group of isrealites who may have gotten some kind of warning that the temple was going to be destroyed. I truely believe that the ark is well hidden somewhere in Jerusalem and there are those who know where it is and have protected its location. In time of course God's time it will be revealed, i think it could happen in our lifetime, but really what does its exstitance mean to us and to those who will say its a fake and everyone will argue about it and take the focus off of God and on an object that yes was and is still holy, but what my prayer is is that the focus will be on salvation through Jesus Christ, but somehow i think when its found people will still deny that God even exists and like i said everyone will argue about it or find something about the ark to argue about. Therefore, what will finding it really mean to us (belivers) who already believe in God and those who just will do anything to prove that God doesnt really exists.
michele - 1/22/2010 4:59:02 AM
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Woman beats and strangles disabled man for his ATM PIN
BROWNSTOWN TWP., Mich. (WJBK) - A woman breaks into a home in Brownstown Township and attacks a disabled man.
Police say she tortured him to get the pin number for his debit card - and now she's facing life in prison.
Investigators say 34-year-old Nicole Lytton, went to great lengths to get the ATM code from her victim - including beating, strangling and using a weapon to get what she was after.
That victim was a 63-year-old man who is disabled from a stroke who lives in the Tanglewood mobile home community - which by most accounts is a quiet peaceful place to live.
"You got a lot of good people out here and they watch out," said Tom House.
House has called this community home for six years and lives two doors down from the alleged attack.
"I didn't hear a word," he said.
Police say it happened at about 7 p.m. on August 20th. The suspect knew the victim and police say the victim's wife gave her permission to use their car.
It's alleged that she used that trust to beat, strangle and steal an ATM pin from her victim.
The victim was able to give police her information; she was tracked down and arrested.

subset: commoncrawl


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(AP) — A bipartisan deal announced Monday would authorize about $17 billion to help veterans avoid long waits for health care, hire more doctors and nurses to treat veterans and make it easier to fire executives at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
An agreement announced by the chairmen of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs committees is intended to fix a veterans' health program scandalized by long patient wait times and falsified records covering up delays.
The bill includes $10 billion in emergency spending to make it easier for veterans who can't get prompt appointments with VA doctors to obtain outside care; $5 billion to hire doctors, nurses and other medical staff; and about $1.5 billion to lease 27 new clinics across the country, lawmakers said.
• Sen. Kirk wants probe of Illinois veterans hospitals
• Former Marine named Illinois veterans director
• About 900 Illinois veterans requested, didn't get care
The bill also would expand a scholarship program for veterans, allow all veterans to qualify for in-state college tuition and grant the VA secretary authority to immediately fire senior executives, while providing employees with streamlined appeal rights.
"This bill makes certain that we address the immediate crisis of veterans being forced onto long waiting lists for health care," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs panel.
The measure also "strengthens the VA so that it will be able to hire the doctors, nurses and medical personnel it needs so we can permanently put an end to the long waiting lists," Sanders said at a news conference with Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., his House counterpart.
Miller said the bill would "go a long way to resolve the crisis" that is gripping the VA. The agency has been rocked by reports of patients dying while awaiting treatment and mounting evidence that workers falsified or omitted appointment schedules to mask frequent, long delays. The resulting election-year firestorm forced VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign in late May.
Sanders and Miller reached agreement on a plan to reform the VA over the weekend after more than six weeks of sometimes testy talks.
The compromise measure would require the VA to pay private doctors to treat qualifying veterans who can't get prompt appointments at the VA's nearly 1,000 hospitals and outpatient clinics, or those who live at least 40 miles from one of them. Only veterans who are enrolled in VA care as of Aug. 1 or live at least 40 miles away would be eligible to get outside care.
The proposed restrictions are important in controlling costs for the program. Congressional budget analysts had projected that tens of thousands of veterans who currently are not treated by the VA would likely seek VA care if they could see a private doctor paid for by the government.
Sanders and Miller acknowledged the bill's steep cost, but said it would include about $12 billion in new spending after accounting for about $5 billion in unspecified spending cuts from the VA's budget.
"Funding for veterans' needs must be considered a 'cost of war' and appropriated as emergency spending," Sanders said. "Planes and tanks and guns are a cost of war. So is taking care of the men and women who fight our battles."
The deal requires a vote by a conference committee of House and Senate negotiators, and votes in the full House and Senate. Miller and Sanders both predicted passage of the bill by the end of the week, when Congress is set to leave town for a five-week recess.
If approved by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama, the veterans' bill would be one of the few significant bills signed into law this year.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Obama welcomes the bipartisan deal. "There are much-needed reforms that need to be implemented" at the VA, Earnest said Monday.
The White House is especially pleased that the bill includes emergency spending "to provide VA the additional resources necessary to deliver timely, high-quality care to veterans through a strengthened VA system," Earnest said.
Garry Augustine, executive director of the Disabled American Veterans, called the compromise a promising first step to rebuild the VA and provide enrolled veterans with timely health care.
"While no veteran should be forced to wait too long or travel too far to get their care, we remain concerned that simply giving veterans plastic cards and wishing them good luck in the private sector is not a substitute for a coordinated system of care," Augustine said. "The VA must remain fully responsible for ensuring the best health outcomes for veterans."
An updated audit by the VA this month showed that about 10 percent of veterans seeking medical care at VA hospitals and clinics still have to wait at least 30 days for an appointment. About 46,000 veterans have had to wait at least three months for initial appointments, the report said, and an additional 7,000 veterans who asked for appointments over the past decade never got them.
Acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson has said the VA is making improvements, but said veterans in many communities still are waiting too long to receive needed care. The VA provides health care to nearly 9 million enrolled veterans.
The Senate is expected to vote this week to confirm former Procter & Gamble CEO Robert McDonald as the new VA secretary, replacing Gibson.


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Approximately 60% of the human body consists of water. It is one of the most important components that help in the process of digestion, blood circulation, mineral absorption and even excretion, ensuring smooth functioning of your system. A mere drop in the water content of your body can lead to dehydration, which can affect your body in more than one ways. Dehydration can also take a toll on your skin leaving it dry and life less. In order to ensure the health of your skin, it is highly recommended to keep your system hydrated.
How drinking water affects the skin?
Keeps skin soft: Skin is made up of 3 layers namely, epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous tissue. When the water content of the outermost layer of the epidermis is insufficient, your skin tends to lose elasticity and feel rough. Intake of adequate water hydrates the skin cells and makes them function properly, making your skin soft and supple.
Moisturizes dry skin and lessens the appearance of wrinkles: Insufficient intake of water makes your skin appear dry and flaky; such a skin is more prone to wrinkling. When you drink sufficient water your skin cells hydrate from within. Hydrated skin is resilient in nature and therefore, it has less chance of suffering from premature wrinkling.
Improves skin tone: Water is known for its abilities to flush out toxins from your system and for maintaining the proper functioning of your kidneys. Sufficient intake of water ensures that harmful toxins and impurities are regularly flushed out of your system, thereby, adding a healthy glow to your skin.
Makes your skin appear younger: It is advised to drink a minimum 8 glasses of water daily to keep your body hydrated. The condition of your health can be analyzed from the condition of your skin as a body that is hydrated well, makes your skin appear healthy too.
Gets rid of dark circles: The problem of dark circle arise over the years due to the damage of the capillaries under the eyes. The skin around the eyes is thinner than facial skin which hinders the smooth flow of fluid through them. Plenty intake of water on a regular basis can reduce the appearance of dark circles dramatically, making your skin appear healthy.
Mosambi, also known as sweet lime, is one the most delicious and nutrient-dense citrus fruits. Apart from being immensely versatile in nature, sweet lime is a rich source of vital nutrients as well. Including it in daily diet can provide you with a lot of health benefiting properties. However, what makes this fruit more versatile is its ability to treat a lot of skin woes as well. Yes, you read that right! Mosambi can be easily used on face, either as a whole or as a face pack. It is an inexpensive way to treat skin problems. Here's how you can use mosambi to get a soft and supple skin that too in the comforts of your kitchen. Just get hold of few ingredients and get going.
Mosambi For Face Cleansing
Mosambi is an excellent source of vitamin C and the citric juice present in it acts as a great cleansing agent. To begin with, cut a mosambi in two halves and use one half to gently scrub your face in a circular motion. Continue doing this for 7-8 minutes and then wash off your face with water. Pat dry your skin and feel refreshed.
Mosambi Face Pack For Stubborn Tan
If you are suffering from summer tan and wish to get rid of the same, then this face pack will come to great use. All you need is ground mosambi peel, just a pinch of cosmetic turmeric, and 1 tbsp of natural honey. Mix the ingredients thoroughly till a fine paste-like consistency is attained. Apply on the face and allow it to stay for 5 minutes. Rinse off with water. Repeat this procedure twice a week and say bye-bye to stubborn tan.
Mosambi For Dark Circles And Puffy Eyes
Sweet lime is known to effectively reduce dark circles. If you happen to have puffed eyes, then apply this mixture on your under-eye skin and watch out for results. For this, you need is 1/2 tsp of sweet lime juice, 1 tsp of banana paste, 1 tsp of cucumber juice and 1 tsp of vitamin E gel. Add the four ingredients in a bowl and combine them to form a smooth paste. Refrigerate the bowl for 3-4 minutes and with the help of a cotton pad, apply this paste on your under-eye are. Let it sit for 10-12 minutes and after that massage for few seconds and rinse off with water.
So, make your skin feel rejuvenated by using this inexpensive home remedy.
When it comes to skin and hair care, natural oils can prove to be quite beneficial. If you wish to have a soft, supple and nourished skin, then natural oils can do wonders as they have their own unique set of skin benefitting properties. Rice bran oil is used as a dressing in salads. It is not only great for cooking but is also widely used as a natural skin care product. It is quite rich in various vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
Rice bran is the outer layer of rice grain. According to Bangalore-based nutritionist Dr. Anju Sood, "Rice bran oil has the right amount of poly unsaturated fatty acids in it. Apart from this, it also has flavonoids present which can do wonders for skin and hair health." Here's a list of 5 benefits that rice bran oil has to offer. Read on to know more about them.
1. Nourishes Hair:
Rice bran oil is rich in omega 3 and 6 fatty acids which help nourish the hair. If you happen to have frizzy hair, then bring this oil to your rescue as regular use of this use oil could possibly make your hair thicker and easily manageable. To reap its benefits, massage your hair using this oil before hair wash. It will keep your hair follicles healthy.
2. Protects Skin From UV Rays:
Take 2 drops of rice bran oil and gently massage it over your face until it is fully absorbed. This oil will protect your skin from pollution and also act as a natural sun screen.
3. Acts As A Makeup Remover:
The natural antioxidants present in the rice bran oil could also help you get rid of excessive makeup, making your skin look supple and soft. It is an excellent source of vitamin E which has the tendency to penetrate deep into your skin's layers.
4. Prevents Early Hair Greying:
The antioxidants present in the oil not only provide skin nourishment but also help in keeping the skin young. It prevents early signs of hair greying. Use warm rice bran oil and massage your hair twice a week. To make the most of it, add 2-3 drops of this oil to your shampoo as well.
5. Prevents Dark Circles:
Rice bran oil enhances the blood circulation around the eye area and prevents puffy eyes and dark circles. The high concentration of sterol in it lightens the under eye skin and prevents dark circles.
So what are you waiting for? Bring this natural oil to your rescue and reap all its benefits!
Even some of the most stunning women often have to resort to concealers and make-up to hide their dark circles. Not only do these under-eye circles make you look much older than what you actually are, but they also have you looking ill or unhealthy.
Before we even begin this natural journey, let me tell you that dark circles take time to cure and require great discipline. A regular skin and health care program should be followed, by the book, so do not expect magic to happen overnight.
Causes of Dark Circles
Firstly let's get down to some of the basic causes of dark circles.
1. Lack of proper intake of water – It is important to flush out toxins from your body constantly and store them lest they harm you. Start with atleast 10-12 glasses of water in your daily intake.
2. Haemoglobin Levels - You need to also check on internal problems with regards to your haemoglobin levels and get an appointment with your doctor to see if there is any internal weakness for which you may have to take vitamin supplements. This, however, can also be substituted with a high protein and balanced diet.
3. Genetic causes - Many times, the reason for dark circles may be genetic and not be directly related to your nutritional intake. In such a case, you will not be able to get rid of them completely but once worked on properly, will definitely be able to reduce them drastically.
4. Sleeplessness - For the night owls who party hard, smoke or drink, dark circles are bound to appear. Balance out your lifestyle and get proper rest.
5. Stress - Most people who are very stressed out also have sleep problems. Either they suffer from disturbed sleep and toss and turn or due to incessantly thinking don't get to sleep. They often wake up groggy in the morning.
6. Lack of proper diet - Junk, preservative-heavy food and lack of fresh salads and adequate nourishing food in your diet will also cause the skin to look sallow and give you dark circles.
7. Prolonged illness - When recovering from a long illness, dark circles could begin to appear due to internal weakness.
8. Computer hours - Long hours in front of the computer can be harrowing for the eyes and can lead to eye stress and dark circles. Cup your eyes in your palms every hour to relax eye muscles and improve blood circulation.
The Solution
So how do we combat them? How do we look younger and most of all how do we even out our complexion?
For all of you who have internal problems, whether it is weakness, bad diet or irregular lifestyles, you know exactly how to change it. Lessen stress in your life by incorporating yoga, meditation or even a hobby at least three times a week into your life. This will change the way you look and feel.
Vitamin supplements are often needed and I would recommend Vitamin B & C which help repair and improve the skin texture. Citrus fruits like oranges, lemons, kiwi fruits, apricots and melons have high contents of Vitamin C and should be included in your diet.
You can also follow the following skin care tips that help reduce panda eyes in no time at all:
1. Massage
Mix coconut oil and almond oil and massage gently in circular motion around the eyes. Leave on for about an hour. This should be done daily.
You can also make the following eye mask that lightens dark circles if used regularly. My suggestion is that you make the mask and store it in the fridge. It will easily last up to 1 week without going bad.
2. Eye Pack
Ground fresh coconut
A few drops of lemon juice
2 tsp grated cucumber
1 tsp fresh cream
3 tsp china clay
Mix all these ingredients together and keep in the fridge. Cover the eyes with cotton gauge and apply the mask over it taking care that the pack does not drip into the eyes. You can lie down in a cool place and relax. This should ideally be left on for a minimum of 20 minutes before gently washing off with milk and then water.
3. Tomato Eye Toner
Mix lemon juice and fresh tomato juice and massage the eye area with this daily. Leave the toner on for about 20 minutes and wash with coconut water.
4. Grated Potato
Raw grated potato or even cold raw potato slices have proven to have lightening effects on the skin. I have used this ingredients many a times with positive results to lighten dark circles.
5. Herbal Teas
Most of us have smartened up and realized the vagaries of too much sugar in tea and coffee. We have switched over to healthier substitutes like herbal teas and non-sugary drinks. If you too have crossed over and drink herbal teas, never throw the tea bags in the bin but keep them refrigerated. Use these on the eyes especially after doing an eye massage. Chamomile tea bags are wonderful for this and have proven to lighten the eye area dramatically!
With these wonderful natural recipes you are now geared up to reduce dark circles. But let me warn you, no skin care routine can ever be complete without its magical ingredient and that is regularity and discipline. So start right away!
Dark circles can affect both men and women. Now there are many reasons for dark circles to appear under your eyes; from stress , lack of sleep, hormonal changes, a disturbed lifestyle, hereditary and many more. But if not treated on time, they will not only dull your overall appearance, it can also lead to serious health issues.
We list down some easy and doable home remedies to make your 'how to get rid of dark circles in 2 days ' easy.
1. Tomatoes
Tomatoes are an excellent solution for getting rid of dark circle, as it naturally helps to decrease the dark circles and also makes the skin soft and supple.
2. Grated potatoes
Acing the list of 'how to remove dark circles in a week' is potatoes. Grate some raw potato and extract the juice of the same. Now take a cotton ball and soak it in the potato juice. Close your eyes and place these cotton balls on your eyes. Make sure they cover the entire area of the dark circles under your eyes as well as the eyelids. Leave it on for 10 minutes and wash off with cold water!
3. Cold tea bags
Another simple technique to get rid of the dark circles is using cold tea bags. Soak a tea bag preferably a chamomile or green tea bags in water. Chill it by placing it in the refrigerator for a while. Now, place them over your eyes. Use this remedy on a regular basis to see considerable difference.
4. Almond Oil
Almonds are loaded with vitamin E and its oil is as an emollient which helps in making the skin supple. With no tantrums, this 'how to get rid of dark circles in a week' ' routine is easy to do. Just apply little almond oil on your dark circles and massage gently. Just leave it overnight and wash it next morning.
5. Cold milk
Regular use of cold milk will also decrease the dark circles and also soothes your eyes and skin. Take a cotton ball and place it in a bowl of cold milk for a while. Now apply the cotton ball making sure that it covers the entire eye with the affected area. Keep it for a while. Wash it regular water.


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Whittle Taps Exeter, Dalton Veterans to Start New York School
| show details 9:20 AM (14 hours ago) |
Whittle "is a marketer par excellence," said Levin, a professor at Columbia's Teachers College. "He's lost a lot of money for a lot of people. He's got a track record on that."
Perhaps this is what Klein meant when he tol D2 parents who are locked out of their public schools b/c of overcrowding that they have "choices."
| ||
Whittle Taps Exeter, Dalton Veterans to Start New York School Bloomberg http://www.bloomberg.com/news/ By John Hechinger and Oliver Staley - Jan 30, 2011 11:00 PM CT Christopher Whittle, the education entrepreneur whose company lost more than $300 million running public schools, is opening a for-profit private school in New York City headed by veterans of Phillips Exeter Academy, Hotchkiss School and Dalton School. Backed by $75 million in private financing, Whittle, 63, is responding to parents' demand for spots for their children in the most selective private schools, he said in an interview on Jan. 27. Whittle aims to build a chain of more than 20 schools in cities worldwide, including London, Shanghai and Mumbai, he said. Investors may be leery of the for-profit institution, called Avenues: The World School, after Senate hearings raised questions about the cost and quality of for-profit colleges, said Trace Urdan, an analyst with Signal Hill Capital Group in San Francisco. Avenues also lacks the cachet of New York's top private schools, Amanda Uhry, a private-school consultant, said in a telephone interview. "The New York parent who can afford this -- they want Fieldston, Horace Mann, Trinity," said Uhry, founder of Manhattan Private School Advisors, listing three selective New York private schools. "They have 20 schools in their mind, and that's it." 'All-Star' Management Avenues World Holdings LLC plans to open its first school in September 2012 in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood and will start taking application inquiries tomorrow. The school will charge about $36,000 a year, about the same as top-tier private institutions, and can compete with 200-year-old rivals because of its "all-star" management team, Whittle said. Avenues' co-heads are Tyler Tingley, who led Phillips Exeter in Exeter, New Hampshire, for 12 years, and Robert "Skip" Mattoon, who ran the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut, for 11 years. Gardner Dunnan, academic dean, led Dalton in New York for 23 years. Benno Schmidt, the former president of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, will be chairman of Avenues. Schmidt co- founded New York-based Edison Schools Inc., the public schools operator, with Whittle in 1992. The school wanted to "assemble a leadership group so parents just go 'Wow!'" Whittle said. Tingley, who retired from Exeter in 2009, wouldn't disclose his pay at Avenues. At Exeter, in the year ended June 30, 2009, Tingley received $1.15 million in compensation, according to a tax filing. Of that sum, $354,000 was salary, and the rest was deferred compensation and benefits, Tingley said. 'About the Excitement' "They're paying me well, as Exeter did, but this isn't going to change my standard of living," Tingley said. "It's all about the excitement." To attract families that want their children to compete in a global economy, Avenues will require all students become fluent in a second language and take a "world course" that stresses non-Western history, geography and issues, according to the school's marketing materials. About 6 million students -- or about 11 percent of U.S. schoolchildren -- attend more than 33,000 private schools in the U.S., including parochial institutions, according to the U.S. Education Department. The average tuition is about $10,000. There are about 3,000 to 4,000 for-profit elementary and secondary schools in the U.S., said James Williams, executive director of the National Independent Private Schools Association, which represents for-profit schools. Avenues has little in common with for-profit colleges, whose students depend on federal money for loans, Whittle said. "We take not one dollar of government money," Whittle said. "That has been the core debate area and we're not involved with that." Avenues will contribute $4 million a year from its tuition revenue to financial aid, Whittle said. Edison's Contracts Edison had public contracts to operate schools in cities such as Philadelphia, Detroit and San Francisco. In the 2002-2003 school year, Edison enrolled about 80,000 students in 149 schools in 22 states and the District of Columbia, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Edison went public in 1999 at $18 a share and peaked at $36.75 in February 2001. A group of investors, including Whittle, took the company private in 2003, acquiring it for $1.76 a share. At the time, the company had run up more than $300 million in losses since its founding, according to an SEC filing. The company is now called EdisonLearning Inc. Whittle's failure to deliver on his promise -- of running public schools more efficiently while turning a profit -- raises questions about the credibility of his latest venture, Henry Levin, director of Columbia University's National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, in New York, said in a telephone interview. Whittle's Difficulties Whittle "is a marketer par excellence," said Levin, a professor at Columbia's Teachers College. "He's lost a lot of money for a lot of people. He's got a track record on that." Edison had difficulties because it was a pioneer in a movement to overhaul public education through charter schools, Whittle said. "It was tough, it was very hard," Whittle said. "We had our ups and downs, as anybody in the charter movement did." New York City already has individual for-profit schools owned by their administrators, said Ronald Stewart, headmaster of Manhattan's for-profit York Preparatory School, which he founded in 1969. London-based Word Class Learning Group oversees British Schools of America and is opening a school called World Class Learning Academy in Manhattan's East Village in September. To contact the reporters on this story: John Hechinger in Boston at firstname.lastname@example.com; Oliver Staley in New York at firstname.lastname@example.com To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonathan Kaufman at email@example.com. . |


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Oregon State University College of Pharmacy students in the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program spend the third year of their studies at Oregon Health & Science University's new Collaborative Life Sciences Building (CLSB) in Portland. The CLSB brings together Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), Oregon State University (OSU), and Portland State University in a collaboration of education, research, patient care, and community service.
The Doctor of Pharmacy program at Oregon State is a fruitful collaboration with OHSU—the degree is conferred by both universities, and both OSU and OHSU are noted on the diploma. This collaboration is beneficial to our students, but also to each school, with joint faculty appointments and close proximity allowing a healthy exchange of knowledge, ideas and technology.
Along with spending their third year in labs and classrooms on the Portland campus, many PharmD students also do part of their fourth-year Advance Experiential Program clerkships at OHSU, rotating through various hospitals and clinics at the university.
Our new facilities at OHSU have provided us with technologically advanced classrooms that include audience response modules, allowing the instructor to receive immediate feedback from students. The new space also has seminar rooms, a brand new computer lab and patient rooms.
Learn what it's like to be an OSU PharmD student from Dan Rackham ('08), who discusses his experience as a third-year PharmD student at OHSU:
"I've really enjoyed being at OHSU, especially because of the clinical faculty that are up here, we get to see a different side of pharmacy. They practice a little bit in different settings than what are the traditional settings we hear about in Corvallis. You know, you hear about more than just a retail pharmacist or a hospital pharmacist. You hear about pharmacists who have clinics where they're seeing patients; pharmacists who have a real strong knowledge base—and the Corvallis faculty, do too, it's just in different areas. The OHSU faculty tend to kind of be experts and specialize in a certain are and so through our therapeutics lectures, we have them come in a give a specialized lecture in that area. When we do infectious disease, it's people who do research and consulting on infectious disease, and when it's cardiovascular disease, it's someone who's working with cardiovascular disease patients and so they really know how those patients are dealt with and how to treat them. So, there's a lot of really strong faculty up here."


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34. Jeremiah: The New Covenant
This lesson is the third of three that highlight the Books of Jeremiah and Lamentations. The order of the lessons is chronological and thematic. The first covered Jeremiah's word about the coming judgment of the Lord against Judah and Jerusalem. The second covered the fall of Jerusalem and the Book of Lamentations. This lesson returns to Jeremiah to look at his teaching of the New Covenant.
As the first lesson on the Book of Jeremiah showed, Jeremiah spoke of the coming judgment of God at great length. It was a difficult and joyless message to carry, but carry it he did for over 40 years. Jeremiah's letters of hope to the exiles may have been a welcome relief to his message, but such relief could only be mixed; he was writing to banished people. I have described Jeremiah as a soldier obediently standing his post, with no compensation but having done the will of God. That assessment is mostly true, but the Lord did bring a word of hope to Jeremiah: The restoration of the people to the land and the New Covenant to come. One might even be so bold as to say that these two promises alone are sufficient for the author of Lamentations to have found hope in the truth, "The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness"321 (Lamentations 3:22; 23).
As with Jeremiah, so it is with us. In this lesson, we can move away from terrors and horrors and see the good things that Lord has done for us. Unlike Jeremiah, who could only hope, we live in the day of the New Covenant and, indeed, have great cause to rejoice.
In this lesson, I will look at the Old Covenant and tell why it failed. I will then look at the Lord's plan to bless His people in spite of their apostasy. After that, I will describe the New Covenant as promised and as delivered. I will conclude this series with a retrospective of the whole.
Why the Old Covenant Failed
The Old Covenant was presented and ratified by the children of Israel during the days of Moses. The covenant was a good covenant. It was fair. It faithfully laid out the duties of each side. It said that the Lord God would bless His people if they obeyed the Law and that He would curse the people if they disobeyed. Of course, when you distill the essence of the covenant in such terse terms, it sounds awful. The actual reading and meditation of the Old Covenant is enjoyable and uplifting, because one can sense the underlying principles and know that it speaks of relationship, truth, justice, and goodness. After all, it is the Old Covenant that the Psalmist refers to when he says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Psalms 119:105).
No matter how light giving the potential of the Old Covenant, the fact was that in Jeremiah's day, it was time for the "curses" to kick in:
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, "Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, "Cursed is the man who does not heed the words of this covenant which I commanded your forefathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, 'Listen to My voice, and do according to all which I command you; so you shall be My people, and I will be your God,' in order to confirm the oath which I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day." ' " Then I said, "Amen, O Lord."
And the Lord said to me, "Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, 'Hear the words of this covenant and do them. 'For I solemnly warned your fathers in the day that I brought them up from the land of Egypt, even to this day, warning persistently, saying, "Listen to My voice." 'Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked, each one, in the stubbornness of his evil heart; therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not'" (Jeremiah 11:1-8).
I believe that in this section Jeremiah based his argument on Deuteronomy 28. There, Moses describes the blessings that would come upon the nation if they obeyed all the words of the covenant. One could group the blessings as providing prosperity, health, and safety. On the other hand, in the same chapter, Moses put forth the curses that would follow disobedience. In a nutshell, instead of prosperity, health, and safety, there would be poverty, sickness, and terror. Certainly there was motivation to obey, and yet the Israelites failed over and over again to appropriate the blessings until, in Jeremiah's day, the full force of the curses fell on them. Judah and Israel received what their forefathers agreed to. No one can bring a charge of unfairness to the Lord. Instead, one can see His sustained mercy through the centuries until the point where not bringing judgment would, itself, be fatal to His people and their destiny. As the following table shows, to read Deuteronomy 28:49-68 is to read Lamentations. The one looks forward and the one looks backward, but they see the same curses.
Deuteronomy 28 |
Lamentations |
49-52: A foreign nation with an unknown language will come against you and destroy the walls of your city. |
2:8, 9a – The Lord determined to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out a line, He has not restrained His hand from destroying, and he has caused rampart and wall to lament; they have languished together. Her gates have sunk into the ground, He has destroyed and broken her bars. |
53-57: Men and women will fight over and eat their own children. |
2:20 – See, O Lord, and Look! With whom have you dealt thus? Should women eat their own offspring? The little ones who were born healthy? |
60-62: Sickness and plague |
3:4 – He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away, he has broken my bones. |
63-65: Scattered to the nations |
1:3 – Judah has gone into exile under affliction and harsh servitude; she dwells among the nations, but she has found no rest; all her pursuers have overtaken her in the midst of distress. |
66-68: Depression and despair of soul |
3:17-20 – My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness. So I say, "My strength is gone, and so has my hope from the Lord." Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers and s bowed down within me. |
With such great blessings for obedience and such horrible curses for disobedience, why could not the nations of Israel and Judah choose rightly? Why did they come to receive the curses instead of the blessings? The answer lies in the ineffectiveness of the Covenant of Law.
The Law is ineffective because the heart (mind, will, and emotions) is defective. The heart of man does not naturally lean towards the Lord and His ways, but rather is full of self-interest. Jeremiah wrote:
The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds (Jeremiah 17:9, 10).
In other words, the heart leads the man against the things of God. It is dishonest and sick.
The Law is ineffective because the heart is unmoved by it. The Law can reveal lawless behavior, but it is usually ineffective in changing behavior. I may find myself wanting something my neighbor has. If I have the means, I may get one for myself. If I do not have the means, I may stew and fret over my misfortune. I may secretly hope that my neighbor loses his possession or breaks it or tires of it. The point is, I am in a mental and emotional state. Its origins are within myself, because of the deceitfulness of my heart. When the Law comes along and says, "Do not covet," what am I to do? Often, I am in the same mental and emotional state with the addition of the Law's condemnation. The Law typically does not correct my heart; it only condemns my heart. I can read the command and know that I am a man who covets. The command does not lead me to seek my neighbor's good.
One could say that Paul's words in Romans 7 are all about the defectiveness of the heart and the ineffectiveness of the Law to correct it:
What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "You shall not covet." But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.
I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin (Romans 7:7-25).
The Law is ineffective because the heart gravitates to legalism and defeats the intent of the Law. We have a sick heart and a law that shows its sickness. At the same time, we might acknowledge that the Law is good and marvel at our inability to meet its standards. One scheme that the heart, in its deceitfulness, has for self-justification is legalism. Legalism focuses on what is measurable in the Law. Meeting the requirements of such laws requires discipline and character, and in the meeting of the measure, the heart contents itself. The misfortune is that laws of measure do not get the heart right with God.
Here is a maxim well worth understanding: "Legalism likes the tithe and hates the corners of the field." The tithe, Deuteronomy 14:22, is a gift of 10% of your income. The corners of your field (Leviticus 19:9) are what you leave unharvested for the sake of the poor. One can know when he or she has met the tithe standard, but when have you left enough of your field behind? Can you count what you leave behind in your field as part of your tithe? The questions can go on and on. In the asking of the questions, the weightier issues of generosity and compassion are lost, and yet it is generosity and compassion that both the tithe and the corners of the field would like to promote.
This is why the Jewish leadership could reject Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. The Oral Law, later codified in the Talmud, defined the details of "Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy." Under the Oral Law, keeping the Sabbath was "measurable" like the tithe. Jesus went beyond the measure and, therefore, was guilty of breaking the Oral Law. Jesus saw the Sabbath as an opportunity to demonstrate compassion and to do good to others, but he broke a legal standard. The deceived heart behind the legal standard would rather see a man or woman sick and suffering until sundown. The intent of the Sabbath in the Old Covenant was thereby defeated.
The Law is ineffective because the heart misuses the redemptive provisions in the Covenant of Law. The blessings in the Old Covenant of Law did not demand perfect obedience. Instead, an entire system of blood sacrifice and offerings was erected to provide a covering for sin. So there were Guilt Offerings, Sin Offerings, etc. Once a year, the high priest would take blood into the Holy of Holies to provide redemption for national guilt. In other words, the Law never required perfect obedience. However, the provision for covering tends to promote more sin. What God intended as a vehicle for His mercy, man distorts as a palliative for a guilty conscience. The Lord, through Jeremiah, expressed this well:
"'Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known, then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, "We are delivered!" — that you may do all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,' declares the Lord" (Jeremiah 7:9-11).
The Law is ineffective because the heart's deception and wickedness does not seek God by faith. Faith is not a New Testament concept. Genesis 15:6 and Habakkuk 2:4 both underpin the role of faith in establishing righteousness in a man or woman. However, the heart's gravitation to legalism subverts the formation of faith.
In short: The Law reveals sin, but it does not impart righteousness. Ask yourself this question, "When is a thief not a thief?" You might answer, "When he is not stealing." That is wrong; a thief not stealing is a thief out of work. When is an adulterer not an adulterer? You cannot say, "When he is not with his mistress," because his mind is full of lust and memories and the schedule for the next encounter. Once more we see the commandments "Do not steal" and "Do not commit adultery" provide a diagnosis of sin, without imparting righteousness. You can see, in part, that this is because the Law identifies sin, but not righteousness. Righteousness is more of a "corners of the field" issue. It always moves outside of self-interest and engages in the interests of others. Thus, in answer to "When is a thief not a thief" one could do better with the answer in Ephesians 4:28:
"He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need."
A person who works to have things to give to others in need is not a thief.
The Lord's Plan to Bless
What should be apparent, from the above discussion, is that the Old Covenant, although good and right, was doomed to fail. In the days of Jeremiah, all that remained of the Covenant was the execution of the curses. Through Jeremiah, the Lord diagnoses the condition of the people and gives His prognosis of the outcome, "For thus says the Lord, 'Your wound is incurable and your injury is serious. There is no one to plead your cause; no healing for you sore, no recovery for you'" (Jeremiah 30:12, 13). The disease is terminal. There seems to be no hope. The children of Israel must be, it seems, no more.
But like a cancer patient who is told that there is no hope, but only certain death, so it is with God's people. We can always turn and seek the power and mercy of God. Some people diagnosed with a fatal injury or sicknesses are healed. I do not know of a single believer who will not pray for the healing of someone he or she loves. And so, even though the prognosis for Jerusalem and Judah is not good, we find that the Lord revealed to Jeremiah His plans to heal and restore His people, "'For I will restore you to health and I will heal you of your wounds,' declares the Lord, 'Because they have called you an outcast, saying: "It is Zion; no one cares for her"'" (Jeremiah 30:17). Again the Lord tells Jeremiah, "Behold, I will bring it to health and healing, and I will heal them; and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace and truth" (Jeremiah 33:6).
A different path to righteousness is needed to accomplish this healing, however. The Covenant of Law could not bring righteousness, but perhaps there could be another way. Through Jeremiah, the Lord says, "In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell in safety; and this is the name by which she shall be called: the Lord is our righteousness" (Jeremiah 33:16). Here is a recognition that the deceitful heart of man could never stand in its own righteousness, but that perhaps the Lord, Himself, could supply or be the required righteousness. I cannot help quoting Romans 8:3, 4 here, although it might logically be better placed elsewhere in this lesson:
For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did; sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Clearly, Jesus our Messiah has accomplished for us what the Law failed to do. However, this thought really is where the lesson is moving. We are not there yet.
Besides health, healing, and righteousness, the Lord promises His people through Jeremiah that He will restore all things:
"Thus says the Lord, 'Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwelling places; and the city will be rebuilt on its ruin, and the palace will stand on its rightful place. From them will proceed thanksgiving and the voice of those who celebrate; and I will multiply them and they will not be diminished; I will also honor them and they will not be insignificant. Their children also will be as formerly, and their congregation shall be established before Me; and I will punish all their oppressors. Their leader shall be one of them, and their ruler shall come forth from their midst; and I will bring him near and he shall approach Me; for who would dare to risk his life to approach Me?' declares the Lord. 'You shall be My people, and I will be your God'" (Jeremiah 30:18-22).
Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare in the coastlands afar off, and say, "He who scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock." For the Lord has ransomed Jacob and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he. They will come and shout for joy on the height of Zion, and they will be radiant over the bounty of the Lord— over the grain and the new wine and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; and their life will be like a watered garden, and they will never languish again. Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old, together, for I will turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and give them joy for their sorrow. I will fill the soul of the priests with abundance, and My people will be satisfied with My goodness," declares the Lord (Jeremiah 31:10-14).
Thus says the Lord, "Yet again there will be heard in this place, of which you say, 'It is a waste, without man and without beast,' that is, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, 'Give thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for His lovingkindness is everlasting'; and of those who bring a thank offering into the house of the Lord. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were at first," says the Lord (Jeremiah 33:10; 11).
And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, "Have you not observed what this people have spoken, saying, 'The two families which the Lord chose, He has rejected them'? Thus they despise My people, no longer are they as a nation in their sight. Thus says the Lord, 'If My covenant for day and night stand not, and the fixed patterns of heaven and earth I have not established,
then I would reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, not taking from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them'" (Jeremiah 33:23-26).
And so you can see the complete restoration of all things: kings, priests, prosperity, health, and safety. This is what the Lord intends to do. But how can such things really be? The heart of man is still the heart of man. What is to prevent a recurrence of apostasy?
The New Covenant
It is the heart of man that preempts the blessings intended by Old Covenant Law. That is why the Law convicts of sin. For the Lord to bring healing, something fundamental must happen to the heart. It is not surprising, then, when Jeremiah writes down the words of the New Covenant to come, that it involves the heart:
"Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the Lord. "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the Lord, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the Lord, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more" (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
"I will put my law within them and on their heart I will write it." The houses of Judah and Israel broke the Old Covenant. The first tenet of the New Covenant is that the Law would be within the people of God and that it would be written on their hearts. The Law would not be on tablets of stone or on the leather pages of a scroll. It will instead be an operating principle in the heart. This is indeed new! Under the Old Covenant the forefathers forgot the Lord, but in the new, "they will all know me." Under the Old Covenant, sin was remembered, but in the new, "I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more."
On our side of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, we see that the New Covenant is operational. We should be able to examine Jeremiah's text and see its fulfillment in the New Testament. So let us take these three components of the New Covenant:
1. We will all know God;
2. Our sin will be forgiven and forgotten; and
3. The Law will be within us and written on our hearts.
Let us look at some New Covenant Scriptures that illustrate how all these components are part of the righteousness that comes by faith in Jesus the Messiah.
"They will all know me." The presence of Jesus the Messiah on the earth revealed the Father and made Him known in an intimate way. For us to know Jesus is to know God. Note these two passages from several in the New Testament:
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, (Hebrews 1:1-3).
"If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him" (John 14:7).
The writer to the first century Jewish believers tells us that God has spoken to us in His Son and that the Son was an "exact representation" of His nature. And Jesus' own words tell us that to know Him is to know the Father.
"I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more." The single most complete treatment of this aspect of the New Covenant is presented in Hebrews, chapters 8 through 10. In chapter 8, the writer clearly connects Jesus as the high priest and mediator of Jeremiah's New Covenant. In chapter 9, he tells us how Jesus took His own blood into the holy place that is in heaven to provide an "eternal redemption." Chapter 10 contrasts the work of the Aaronic priesthood with the priesthood of Jesus. Throughout this section in Hebrews, the superiority of Jesus sacrifice for sin is put forth.
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance (Hebrews 9:11-15).
"I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it." The first two parts of the New Covenant are well understood by all believers. They form the basis of the gospel message preached today. We all speak of salvation in terms of "knowing Christ" and "forgiveness of sin." What is not so well understood, because of a widespread misunderstanding of the place of Law in the New Covenant, is having the Law "within us" and "written on our hearts."
Let me first talk about the misunderstanding of the place of Law in the New Covenant. The way some Christians talk, one gets the idea that the Law is bad. Such a notion does not stand the test of New Testament Scriptures. In the first place, Paul used Law to argue his points. For example, in 1 Corinthians 9, Paul quotes Deuteronomy 25:4 to establish the right of a minister of the gospel to make a living from the gospel. In the second place, Paul spells out the place that Law has in the life of faith:
But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted (1 Timothy 1:8-11).
According to Paul, the Law still serves to identify sin. A person who is righteous has no need for the Law, but who is righteous? The point is that Jesus Christ did not do away with God's standards of righteousness. It is still there, it still gives light, and it is still useful. Paul's admonition to the Galatian churches was that they do not bind themselves to the Old Covenant to seek its blessings, because that path can only bring the curses. Instead they were to "walk by the Spirit."
According to Jeremiah, and also the teaching of Paul as we shall see, Law has a place in the New Covenant. But the placement of the Law changes from stone and parchment to the heart of man. Perhaps the best way to understand what it means for Law to be "written on our hearts" is to examine Mount Sinai (Exodus 19, 20) and the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2). This might seem strange to you, because very few Gentiles know that Pentecost is the day when the Jews celebrate the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai.322 So you can see that this day commemorates both the beginning of the Old and the New Covenants. Therefore, it would seem worth our while to compare the two events.
Here is a very brief summary of the flow of events when the Law came forth from Mount Sinai. The Lord tells Moses that He desires to have a "nation of priests" (Exodus 19:6). A few days later, the Lord descends on Mount Sinai with fire, smoke, the sound of a trumpet, and other manifestations (Exodus 19:16-25). On the mount, the Lord speaks, out loud, the ten commandments to the people (Exodus 20:1-17). The people respond by drawing back and asking Moses to be a mediator. In the end, the people do not become a nation of priests. Rather, that responsibility falls to the descendants of Aaron.
Let's compare these events with the Day of Pentecost. Whereas a single fire descended and landed on the top of the mountain and before a barrier keeping the people away, when the Holy Spirit came, the fire separated and alighted on individual believers. This is an incredible statement of the new access to the Father in the New Covenant. The presence of God no longer must be remote and terrifying, but is now individual and within. Whereas the Lord spoke from Mount Sinai, it is the believers, filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit, who speak. Whereas the ancient Israelites withdrew, on the Day of Pentecost, the people came close and 3,000 were saved. Indeed, all became priests (Revelation 5:9, 10). When Jesus died and took His own blood into the Holy Place in heaven, He established the New Covenant. Because the hearts of men could now be cleansed and healed, the Holy Spirit could now indwell every believer.
I will say this strongly. It is the Holy Spirit who is the key distinctive of the New Covenant over the Old. You might say that we are saved by faith. That is not new, because Abraham is the father of justification by faith (Genesis 15:6). Blood has provided a covering for sin since the Lord clothed Adam and Eve with animal skins. The Lord's lovingkindness and mercy are expressions of His grace. Faith, blood, and grace are active principles in the Old Covenant. The new thing in Acts 2 is the indwelling, sanctifying, and empowering effect of the Holy Spirit made possible by the cleansing blood of Jesus the Messiah. From this base, we can comprehend what Jeremiah meant by the Law written on out hearts:
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you (Romans 8:1-11).
Notice Paul's words "that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:4). One can begin to see the dynamics of the Lord's words through Jeremiah, "I will put my law within them and on their heart I will write it" (Jeremiah 31:33b). As we walk according to the Spirit, we begin to manifest a godliness that emanates from within.
This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? (Galatians 3:2-5)
When Paul says, "Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:3b), does he not imply that there is a "being perfected" by the Spirit? The doctrine of sanctification recognizes this principle that the Holy Spirit sanctifies the believer by conforming him or her into the image of Jesus Christ. This transformation is the work of the Lord putting His Law within us and writing it on our hearts.
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another (Galatians 5:16-26).
Think of all that this lesson has discussed concerning the heart, and the Old and New Covenants, and you will find expression in these few verses. Paul's words here tell of the propensity of the heart to deceit and sin. It hints that there are laws against the expressions of the flesh. It puts forth the fruit of the Holy Spirit as He operates in the lives of believers and does the work of writing Law in the heart. The work of the Holy Spirit is the work of generating righteous self-giving behavior. We must understand that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is not that I receive, from the Holy Spirit, love, joy, peace, and so forth. Rather it is that I, by the Holy Spirit, will be a source of love, joy, peace, and so forth. A tree does not eat its own fruit. The fruit is for those who come to the tree hungry.
The fruit of the Holy Spirit, in concept, is like the "corners of the field." When do I show enough love, bring enough joy, broker enough peace, and have a character as kind, good, faithful, gentle, and under control as can be? Through the Holy Spirit, I can increase in such things every day of my life. Not only that, but I need the discernment of the Holy Spirit to know when the loving thing is to be close or to be far away.
So the New Covenant is the basis by which the Lord can fully restore all things. His Son came to earth, lived, died, and rose from the dead. His death enabled the cleansing of our hearts from sin so that the Holy Spirit could indwell, empower, and sanctify us. In this way, we have forgiveness of sin, the knowledge of God, and the Law within us. It is for these reasons that the New Covenant will succeed where the Old Covenant failed. Does this mean that we will find perfection in this life? No! Even Paul near the end of his life refers to himself as the "foremost of sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15, 16). The writing of the Law on our hearts is a process, which is why Jeremiah's New Covenant also tells us that the Lord will forgive our sin and remember it no more. How good it is to be in this age!
Retrospective on Jeremiah and Lamentations
And so we come to the end of these lessons on Jeremiah and Lamentations. In them, we saw how Jeremiah announced and oversaw the failure of the Old Covenant; how he saw and grieved over the destruction of Jerusalem; and how he saw and announced the day of a New Covenant. Through all of this, I believe that we can come away with these fundamental lessons:
1. It is God's lovingkindness, mercy, and faithfulness that are everlasting. Since to know Jesus is to know the Father, we need only look at His life on the earth to see the Father's heart. Jesus was always quick to show mercy over judgment.
2. His discipline, the tribulations He brings our way, and even the wrath that He pours out are momentary, and work to establish His lovingkindness, mercy, and faithfulness!
ADONAI TZIDKENU: The Lord is our Righteousness.
320 This is the edited manuscript of a message delivered by Donald E. Curtis at Community Bible Chapel, on October 7, 2001. Don is an elder at Cobb Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Kennesaw, Georgia. You can e-mail comments and questions to /email.asp?email=curtis
321 All Scripture is taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE.
322 Donald E. Curtis, "The Lord's Appointed Times," No pages. Cited January 3, 2002. online:/docs/ot/books/lev/deffin/lev-17.htm.
Related Topics: Dispensational / Covenantal Theology


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I am happy to say that while I didn't win this round overall (the competition was pretty impressive!) I am advancing to round 2. The theme is Mod Podge, so stay tuned next week!
This was a very fun project for me. I have a friend getting married this October in the desert. I had been thinking I wanted to make a little family tree for her, and with the contest theme being "beads" – I was hit with inspiration. Why not make an actual tree, with birthstone beads representing their families? The end result is something that embodies both roots and growth, which is the perfect message for the beginning of a new life together!
This is a bit more time-intensive than what I usually show you, but I wanted something special not just for the contest, but also for my friend's gift. I would estimate I have about 5 hours into it, because beading and wire wrapping, while not difficult, can be pretty time-intensive. I did work on it about an hour at a time, so it is something that you can easily put away and come back to later. I'm also not going to go into a lot of detail here, because this is one of those things where there is no right or wrong, you just have to go with it however it shapes up for you. I'll just give you a few pointers. If you try it, use plenty of wire and do what you like the looks of, and you can't go wrong. :)
I started with a rock from my yard. If you attempt this, I have some suggestions. You definitely want something flat and stable on the bottom, and after putting this together, I was surprised at how heavy the beads were after adding so many. So I would say, as a general rule, decide how far you want your branches to reach on all sides, and choose a rock that's an equal diameter. Mine was slightly more top-heavy than I would have preferred. It doesn't just tip over or anything, but I want it to be really safe from getting bumped into. I will probably mount it on a small wooden base before giving it for added stability (which will also protect any surfaces from that wire under the rock).
First, I cut about 2 dozen lengths of copper and brass wire about 24″ long for a tree about 8″ or 9″ tall. I used 24 gauge copper and 22 gauge brass… and if I were to do it differently, I would use 24 gauge for the whole thing. While I love the looks of the two thicknesses, the 22 gauge was too big in diameter for my smaller beads! Fortunately the larger beads were fine, so I stuck with it, but if you're shopping – shop for 24 gauge for the whole thing. So test out your beads and make sure they will work – then, wrap the "roots" around the rock base.
Once you have your roots started, twist your wire to create your trunk. You'll want to wrap a few additional times closer to the bottom before moving up to make it thicker at the bottom – more like a natural tree trunk.
Once you're satisfied with the height, start sorting your wires back out to form branches. This was my favorite part. Consider starting each main branch with anywhere between 4-8 strands of wire, give it a twist, and continue separating them and branching them out until you are down to just individual wires.
The beads here represent the people in my friend's and her fiance's families. I did a little research on birthstones, and found that most months are already represented by easily obtainable semi-precious stones. I was able to find genuine garnet (for January), amethyst (February), peridot (August), and citrine (November). Diamonds and rubies were of course out of my budget, but with a little more digging I found that carnelian alternatively represents July, and white quartz represents April. So with everyone finally represented, I got to work beading each branch.
Now, I found it most helpful to work from the lower branches and go upward, but there's no rule.
As you go, just look at your proportions and arrange the beads and branches in a random and natural-looking way. When I got to the end of each branch, I just coiled up the wire on round-nose pliers, but you could finish it any way that appeals to you.
Thanks for dropping by to let me show off! :)
I link up to these great parties!
~ Adrianne


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It's a fun group, and part of the motive of the gathering is sketching in the host city. Baltimore is a sketcher's paradise. Here's a gouache I did yesterday of the Domino Sugar factory, which looks over the inner harbor.
During an evening boat cruise, Tim Bell, a painter in the American Impressionist tradition, did a demo of oil painting techniques.
One of the evening speakers Aleksander Novak-Zemplinski, an architectural illustrator who grew up in Poland and has become a master of digital techniques.
Here's a sketch of Jon Soules, who was in the audience.


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AUTHORITIES IN THE French region of Alsace have launched an action plan to save a hamster facing extinction, more than two years after Europe's top court rapped Paris for neglecting the little rodent.
The five-year project will see farmers in the eastern region implement measures to try to encourage the reproduction of the Great Hamster of Alsace, which can grow to 25 centimetres (10 inches) long, has a brown and white face, a black belly, white paws and little round ears.
It aims to raise the population of the creature to around 1,500 from 500 to 1,000 currently.
As part of the €3 million project announced on Monday by Alsace's regional council, farmers have pledged to grow plants or grains that the rodent likes such as wheat or alfalfa on parts of their fields.
An action plan for the hamster had been put in place in 2007, but the European Court of Justice ruled in 2011 that France was still not doing enough to protect the furball, which hibernates for six months and spends the vast majority of its life alone.
The hamster has been protected legally since 1993 but its numbers fell from 1,167 in 2001 to as few as 161 in 2007, although they have since gone up slightly.
The preferred grazing of the creature – forage crops such as alfalfa – have largely been replaced by the more profitable maize, which it does not like.
Farmers will therefore try planting a mix of maize and alfalfa, or leaving strips of plants in between each line of maize.
"The aim is to find innovative… practices to preserve the animal without harming farmers' activities," the regional council said in a statement.
Rampant urbanisation has also contributed to eroding the rodent's population, and the hamster currently lives in just 14 zones in Alsace criss-crossed by busy thoroughfares.


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SolarReserve has completed the central point of a solar project that uses molten salt storage to deliver power to the grid well after the sun has gone down.
The startup company today said it has completed the 540-foot tower of the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project near Tonopah, Nev., which is expected to start delivering 110 megawatts by the end of 2013. When it comes online, it's projected to have 10 hours of storage, the longest full-load storage capacity for a solar plant.
Adding storage turns solar into a continuous power source and allows project developers to earn more money for their electricity. As a result, solar projects that use heat to make electricity have added molten salt storage to their facilities.
SolarReserve's technology is different than traditional molten salt storage systems in that all electricity is generated from storage and there is only one working fluid–salt, heated to about 1,000 degrees.
In the summer, the Crescent Dunes project's general contractor intends to start installing a field of 10,000 billboard-size sun-tracking mirrors called heliostats around the tower. Sunlight is reflected onto a 100-foot receiver which house a series of tubes of circulating salt. The heliostat field will be about two miles across.
Salt stored in a tank at 500 degrees is pumped up from the base and heated up. Then the salt is circulated down into another storage tank. When the utility calls for power, the hot salt goes through another heat exchanger on the ground to make steam which drives a traditional electricity turbine.
Utility NV Energy expects to be drawing on the power plant between noon and until 10 p.m. or midnight since the bulk of its load is Las Vegas, said SolarReserve CEO Kevin Smith.
That steady operation through storage results in more energy produced over the course of a year compared to solar photovoltaic projects with the same power rating. The 110-megawatt Crescent Dunes project will produce about 500,000 megawatt-hours per year. A solar photovoltaic project with 110 megawatts capable of peak output would produce less than half the energy on a yearly basis, Smith said.
Funding for this size of project is significant. SolarReserve raised $260 in private equity and $737 million in debt from the Department of Energy's Loan Guarantee program.
The company is already working on other projects, including larger ones in the Middle East, Smith said. But the primary challenge, apart from completing this project, is bringing the cost of electricity down. With the plunge in solar panel prices, a few large-scale solar projects have scrapped solar thermal technologies for photovoltaics.
The cost for energy from this plant is projected to be 13.5 cents per kilowatt-hour and will go up 1 percent a year during its 25-year power purchase agreement. That's cheaper than a new nuclear power plant or a coal plant with carbon capture and storage, but more expensive than a new natural gas plant, Smith said
"This technology has been well proven. (But) this is project No. 1, so it's like a hand-crafted large-scale project," he said. "The key for future projects is to make improvements on the pricing."