A land flowing with milk and honey

After a very short night’s sleep at our hotel, our first day of touring began with a stop at a biblical garden at Kiriath-Jearim.

Pastor Matt started the morning with a reflection from the Sh’ma in Deuteronomy 6, and emphasized to us that the goal of this trip wasn’t simply to learn a bunch of facts, but as to have a real encounter with the God of Israel.

At this site our tour guide, Ronen, familiarized us with the agriculture of the land and the connection of God’s promises to the specific agriculture of this part of the world. He had us read Deuteronomy 8 where we find the promise of a “land flowing with milk and honey”. We learned that the “milk and honey” that the passage references is not what we tend to think about when we encounter these words in western culture. The “milk” is goat and sheep milk, and the “honey” is date honey.

Throughout our time at Kiriah-Jearim Ronen familiarized us with a number of important Israeli customs. We saw an example of a burial cave that was similar to one that would have been used throughout ancient Israel. In these caves families would bury their dead, and then after one year they would return to collect the bones and place them with the bones of their ancestors. We also saw a place where ritual washings would take place after contact with dead bodies. We learned that these ritual washings can happen in any body of water of sufficient size that had moving water.

We also saw an ancient threshing floor, olive press, and wine press. Ronen emphasized for us that the Jewish holidays that we see in the Old Testament are closely related to the agriculture calendar of the land. Ronen also showed us how different texts in the Old Testament reference various agriculture and culture practices. The bits of cultural context that Ronen shared with us helped us understand those texts in a deeper way.

Following our time at Kiriath-Jearim we visited a tell at Beth-Shemesh. Beth Shemesh is a place with literal layers of history, with evidence in the ground of Egyptian, Canaanite, and Israelite societies. While atop the tell we read the story of Samson, which took place in that area. Looking out at the geography of the area gave us an appreciation for how close together different civilizations lived. It also helped us understand how significant the temptation towards syncretism was for Israel during Samson’s time.

Our third stop of the day was at Azekah, a tell that overlooks the Valley of Elah. The Valley of Elah is best known as the site of the battle between David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17). Pastor Matt let us through a re-telling of the story of that famous battle, pointing out the places where the Israelites and Philistines would have camped. It was surreal to look out over the valley and consider its historical significance. That was made all the more surreal by the fact there now there is a two-lane road running through the valley, and power lines across the landscape.

Our final stop of the day was at the Caves of Adullam. These are the caves that David took refuge in when he was fleeing the Philistines in 1 Samuel 22. The whole group climbed down into one of the caves, and half of us crawled through a short network of tunnels to a smaller caves. The tunnels were small enough that we were flat on our stomachs, wiggling our way through the dirt. After a few minutes we emerged into a smaller cave. The air was heavy and humid, and once we had all arrived we turned out all of our lights and read Psalm 57 together. It was profound to sit in that darkness and hear those words. After we finished the reading we crawled out through another network of caves and rejoined the rest of our group.

Overall it was an action-packed first day. Despite our limited sleep after a demanding day of travel, the group was enthusiastic and engaged at all of our stops. Personally, I’m still trying to get my head around the wonder of being in the land where these Bible stories occurred. It is a truly remarkable privilege.

Tonight we are driving to the area near the Dead Sea, and we’re looking forward to another great day tomorrow!