No Wasted Time - Jan 5 Recap

This is a recap of Jan 5 - Day 3

We didn’t waste any time today. Weary eyed and jet-lagged we stumbled into breakfast at 7:00 am and got started on a very full day. The sun was warm in the cool morning air as we started our journey together at Kiriath Jearim. Here we had our first glimpse of the beautiful Israeli countryside, lush and green in the midst of their rainy season. Kiriath Jearim has a “Biblical Garden” where they have reconstructed a wine press, olive press, threshing floor, and tomb. We enjoyed learning from Dr. Greer and Judah, our guide, about the way of life in the Ancient Near East.

Our focus for the rest of the day was learning about and exploring the Shephelah, the hill country east of the coastal plain. This is the region which Israel occupied through most of Biblical history. It is beautiful and rugged. It can be quite agriculturally productive but only through diligent labor building and maintaining terraces to hold the soil. The Shephelah is intersected by five valleys which served as major travel routes from the coast to the interior regions of the country. Each of these valleys, and their accompanying travel routes, were controlled by fortress cities and have served as major points of conflict throughout the centuries. We were surprised by how far you can see and how relatively small the country is, 60 miles wide at the widest point. You can literally see across the width of the entire country on a clear day.

From Kiriath Jearim we headed to the ruins of the ancient city of Gath. Gath was one of the five major Philistine cities which fortified their position in the coastal plain. The city was built on a large hill giving it an impressive stature. Occupying the coastal plain gave the Philistines the most productive part of the land. The land here is flat and fertile. It is much easier to cultivate and yield bountiful crops. The international highway runs through the coastal plain, avoiding the rocky hill further inland. This gave the Philistines international connections for cultural and material exchange. They were likely the high class, sophisticated urbanites.

From Gath we headed to Bet-Shemesh and heard the story and Samson while overlooking the valley where the events of his life took place. Standing there on the border between the hill country and the coastal plain it became much clearer how Samson had found and married a Philistine woman, she was in the next town over which is just a couple miles away. We also had the opportunity to explore a 10th century cistern which was dug to provide the fortress city with water. The cistern is a cave which was dug with chisels into the rock and then coated with a thick plaster. They directed the rain water into the cistern with channels and were able to survive long periods of drought with plenty of water.

The next site we saw was the city of Azekah overlooking the Elah Valley. The city is built on impressive hill with steep sides giving it a tactical advantage over any besieging army. One of the coolest parts of this site was overlooking the hills where the Philistines and Israelites faced off and God used David to defeat Goliath. This common story that we have told and heard so many times has a real setting in history and geography. This is the story of the one true God who intersected with human history and brought about divine deliverance for his people through the hands a young man. The odds were impossible, like the Pee Wee champs coming to face the Detroit Tigers, not a chance of victory, except that God decided to demonstrate his faithfulness through the faithful response of one young man.

Lachish is another impressive fortress city and one with a tragic history to tell. Walking up to the Tell you can plainly still see the siege ramp built by the Assyrians when they conquered the city under Sennacharib. It terrifying to picture the giant wave of soldiers walking in down the Lachish Valley. A glittering sea of hundreds of thousands of soldiers coming to destroy your city like they have the other cities they have faced. The foreboding walls and double gate complex were not enough to save the city. In a matter of a few months they built a ramp over the walls, possibly using Judean slaves to do it, and destroyed the city.

By the time we had finished climbing down from Lachish it had been a full and rewarding day. We took a bus ride down, down, down, to our hotel on the banks of the Dead Sea. Under moonlight skies a few brave souls took a dip in the sea while the smart ones stayed inside to enjoy a warm shower or trip to the pool. A great buffet dinner and it’s time to turn in for the night. What a blessed start to our adventure!

Ben Phebus (Master of Divinity Student: GRTS)

We didn’t waste any time today. Weary eyed and jet-lagged we stumbled into breakfast at 7:00 am and got started on a very full day. The sun was warm in the cool morning air as we started our journey together at Kiriath Jearim. Here we had our first glimpse of the beautiful Israeli countryside, lush and green in the midst of their rainy season. Kiriath Jearim has a “Biblical Garden” where they have reconstructed a wine press, olive press, threshing floor, and tomb. We enjoyed learning from Dr. Greer and Judah, our guide, about the way of life in the Ancient Near East.