When he was at his weakest...

After a long day of travel and getting to bed after midnight, we rose early, 6:00 a.m. or earlier for some, to a beautiful sunrise, gusty winds, and cool temperatures. Upon going down for breakfast and looking out the breakfast lounge glass windows I could see the beautiful coastline and rising skylines in the distance. It looked familiar, like back home, but you knew it wasn’t the same. Just a hundred years earlier skyscrapers didn’t line the horizon of Israel’s shores like they do now. God is working here.

After a fantastic breakfast, that beats the pants off a typical continental hotel breakfast in the USA, we took a short drive to a place that has a model Biblical garden. What you see in this garden is how people produced wine and olive oil. There was also a model threshing floor which separated the wheat and the chaff. We also had a time of worship at this site. Off in the distance from this site we saw the hill where the ark of the covenant was before David brought it into Jerusalem.

Beth Shemesh (Bet Shay-mesh) our second location brought the Old Testament to life in a vivid way as we observed where Samson and his tribe Dan settled, a saw an authentic with a cistern (or water well). Samson lived in close proximity to the Philistines, who were probably a half mile to a mile away from where he lived. We saw the hill where the city of Samson’s birthplace was located, and the valley where he fought the lion with his bare hands.

We continued our journey through the Old Testament by going to see the Valley of Elah. This is the famous valley where David defeated Goliath. On either side of the valley are the hills where each army encamped. At Beth Shemesh and the Valley of Elah, Pastor Mike did a great job bringing out the implications for Samson and David’s stories for us today. When Samson trusted in his own strength, he failed, but when he was at his weakest, he was strongest for God. David’s battle with Goliath was ultimately a faith issue as well. David was the weaker opponent by all human measure, but his faith in a strong God, who was the living God, gave him victory.

Maresha was our last tour stop of the day, where there are deep caves that run underground and are connected to one another. One of the caves had a real underground olive oil factory.

We concluded our day by arriving at our hotel by the Dead Sea, having a wonderful dinner. Several of us talked about the day’s highlights. Mine was pretty unspiritual, I loved the breakfast, others liked seeing the Valley of Elah, but Kay Ferraro had a great comment, that I think is the main reason most of are here. We get to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. Amen.

—Matt Chapin