Israel Day Three - Committed to the Text

Day Three – Committed to the Text

One of the most interesting things we did the whole trip happened on day two and I forgot to mention it. We visited a place called Tel Arad located in the desert of the Negev in southern Israel. Not far from here live the Bedouin people who are known for their hospitality. We walked three miles across the rocky desert to visit where they live, learned about their history, eat some bread and drank some tea they prepared for us. It was a really cool experience and a great example of hospitality. The lifestyle of the Bedouins was practiced in the Old Testament. "People in Old Testament times believed guests were sent to them from God.  Abram and Sarah prepared a meal for their guests (Gen. 18:2-8). One of the first things a host did was to offer a guest something to drink (Gen. 24:17-18) and then a meal (Gen. 26:30)" (Omar Garcia). It was a blessing to experience this. It helps give a real picture of life and practice of the Patriarchs.

Day three we had three big stops. We first went to En Gedi where we hiked the Wadi Argot. Here again we saw the Bible come to life. This is where David hid from Saul, spared his life, and where David snuck up on him and cut the corner of his shawl.  We see the heart of David and his passionate obedience to God. We also got to see first hand how God supplies water from a rock in the desert. Rather than relying on our supply of cistern water we should rely on the “Living Water” that God supplies. 

We then went to one of Harod the Great’s fortresses at Masada. He built this palace of refuge on top of a rock plateau. It was crazy and impressive to see the engineering, supplies, strategy, and luxury of that place. It was a huge hike up but awesome to see what Harod had built.

Our last stop was at Qumran. This is the place where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. We saw the cave where the book of Isaiah was found as well as many other caves. It was a challenging hike to the top but a great view. From the top we could see “Bethany beyond the Jordan” where John the Baptist taught about the coming Christ and where he baptized Jesus. On the other side we could see the Judean Wilderness and we were close to the spot where Jesus was led by the Spirit and tempted by Satan. 

We learned about the Essences and their commitment to be people of the text.  We too made this commitment, to be men and women of the scripture.   

As I blog about our day it is hard to find what stood out to me most or describe the most significant thing God taught me. Its pretty overwhelming to see where the Bible took place and to learn the lesson God taught there. Probably the things I think of 

most today have to do with people. The Bedouin people were a cool experience and it was a blessing to meet them and to learn from their hospitality.  It was even more significant for Holly and I to be atop of the Qumran Mountain and commit to being people of the text. The moment, the hike, the history, the view, the Bible, the day, the scripture, and us together…it was great to commit to the text together in just that way.

As a people of God’s own possession, a people He desires to reveal Him, to glorify Him, to fulfill His purposes…we must be people committed to the text!

Israel Day One and Two- Smooth Stones

This is a first in a series of blogs we plan to post about our trip to Israel. Check back each week for an update. 

FYI, I also plan to start a weekly series on the Life of Christ and the book of Colossians on my ministry blog site (www.bstone3@blogspot.com). I am teaching both right now and plan to include a summary thought of the truth and challenge as a blog. 

Smooth Stones

Today, our first full day touring and studying Israel, has been a great day. God is at work in our hearts and minds. 

We are seeing places and touching things we only imagined existed from reading the Bible. 

As I write this blog I don’t even know where to start. Not only are we literally walking as fast as we can from place to place we are reading the scripture and seeing it “in context” like never before. It’s a fire hydrant of information that we will be processing for a long time. 

It’s hard to choose the place that impacted me most so far. Last night we stoped at Gezer and learned about Cannanites and their dead stones of pagan worship. But today, weather it was Beth Shemeh where we learned about Sampson and his “slippage,” Lachish where we learned about Hezekiah and his passionate faithfulness to God, or taking a swim (more like a float, literally) in the Dead Sea, its hard to choose the place that impacted me most.

I have decided to share about a place where a very familiar story happened. It’s located in the Shephelah, in the Valley of Elah, in the city of Azekah. It’s the story of David and Goliath.  As we sat on a hill looking over this valley, reading the story from the text…I saw the story come to life. I can’t share all that I learned but I understood in a new way how a young boy, full of trust in God, aware of his talents and how he was gifted, with the passion for God’s glory, and the motive to make God of Israel know in the world can have a huge impact.  He was not focused on his own glory like Saul but focused on the glory of God and was used in a huge way.

Beyond the story that took place there was what we got to do after our study. As you know, this valley was a common place for battles between Israel and the Philistines 

and this valley was naturally between two mountain ranges, Israel on one mountain and the Philistines on the other with the battles taking place down in the valley. You remember how David killed Goliath. He took five smooth stonesfrom the stream, put them in his pouch along with his sling, and aggressively approached the line of battle with Goliath. He took out a stone, slung it at Goliath hitting him in the forehead and killing him (2 Sam.17). 

Here is where we come in. There is only one stream in this valley and it sits at the bottom of the mountain on the Israel side. This is the only stream for David to collect five smooth stones…Holly and I walked through this stream today. It’s crazy because this had to be where David came down the mountain to get his stones to fight Goliath…we were in this exact same spot! We even pick up stones from the dry steam bed. I can’t believe it…as we looked onto the valley where David killed Goliath Holly and I pick up stones from the exact same stream that David did. Totally cool! 

There are many lessons I learned from all our studies today that I could share, but I am so blown away that God has given Holly and I this blessing that I can’t get it off my mind. The blessing of being in Israel and seeing where the Bible originally took place is unbelievable. I can’t wait for what we will see and do tomorrow!