Many Rich Stories

We started out the day at Kiriath Jearim, and Tim read 1Samuel 4-7 to us at the base of a Catholic church with a large sculpture of Mary atop the Ark of the Covenant on the rooftop. This location was the resting site of the Ark for 20 years under Eleazor (son of Abinadab) who was consecrated to guard it (and his face did not even get melted off).

We then visited Bet Shemes in the Shephelah, where the tribe of Dan settled. The Philistines kept pestering the Israelites here, so they relocated to the north end of the Via Mares. The Philistines resided on the coast of the Mediterranean while God’s people resided in the mountains. The Shephelah was where the two groups met. Eric talked to the group about being effective in our personal Shephelahs and encouraged us to identify what that place is for each of us individually.

We visited a site to view the location of Samson’s community and learned what a “Nazarite” is. Many lessons for us lie in Samson’s story. We also descended into an ancient cistern where water was stored. This site had a group of archeologists from Faulkner University conducting a site dig that we watched briefly as well.

Later, we hiked a gnarly steep trail to the top of a tall hill where the Philistines’ viewpoint was over the Valley of Elah, the site of the battle of David and Goliath. We had lessons from an ancient Jewish viewpoint on this story and the significance of many previously overlooked details in the text. We were also able to gather stones from the river bed where David gathered the five stones he selected to slay Goliath.

We ate lunch (Yes, all the above was even before LUNCH) and visited the cave where David sought refuge from Achish (1Samuel 21) and wrote Psalm 142 and Psalm 17. We also visited a first century tomb carved into a hillside with a large stone guarding the tomb. The dead were kept in a tomb an entire year to decompose, and the bones were then collected and stored in family bone boxes. This was similar to the tomb Jesus was laid to not rest in. We continued our hike to an olive press in a limestone cavern. The Hebrew word for Olive Press is “Got Shemen” (as in Gethsemane), and our lesson here paralleled the pressing of Jesus and the weight of our sin upon him to the pressing of the olives in the press. Eric likes to use picture stories to teach lessons as the many rich stories in the Old Testament do. From here, we visited the carved out basements of King Herod’s childhood home.

Lehitraot,
Bonnie Wirrick and #Acacia14

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