Israel Study Tour with Northpointe Community Church

February 19 - March 2, 2018

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Don’t forget God

We began our journey today in a biblical garden in Kiriath Jearim. This was overlooking the valley where many of the battles between the Jews and Philistines were. We read through 1 Samuel 4 where the Israelites lost against the Philistines. Ronin, our tour guide, said something about this story that was crucial to the rest of our trip. He said that the Israelites forgot the ark of the covenant in this battle, so they forgot God.  He said that no matter how many sites we see and cool things we notice, don’t forget God. As we continue through the rest of the trip, my prayer is that this will continue to be the foundation for everything we see and learn—God is at the center. We continued through the garden learning about the promised land, and other foundational Israelite practices that are important to know for the rest of the trip.

Kiriath-Jearim

The biblical city of Kiriath Jearim is best known for the house of Abinadab which held the Ark of the Covenant from the time of Samuel until the time of David (about 120 years). Kiriath Jearim was originally a Gibeonite city that fell within the tribal territory of Judah near the borders of Benjamin and Dan. The prophet Uriah, a contemporary of Jeremiah, was from Kiriath Jearim.

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Then we went on to Beth Shamesh where Samson was born. Here, Ronnie shared that from Samson’s story we can learn not to be over confident in our own abilities. It was incredible to see the story of Samson come to life.

After stopping for lunch, we continued onto the top of Tel Azekah. At the top of this hill we saw the valley where David fought Goliath. Steve shared about having confidence in who God is and that He is a strong tower. We had the chance to sing together The Name of The Lord, which says “the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and are saved.” It was an awesome experience to sing this on top of a place where David ran toward the opposition in full confidence that God was in control.

Tel Azekah and Elah Valley

The Brook Elah is famous for the five stones it contributed to the young slinger, David. Some surmise that David chose five stones instead of the one needed in case he needed to face Goliath’s four brothers.

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From there, we headed to a place called Maresha which was once an important underground city full of 33,000 people. We got to go inside three caves. One was an underground pigeon farm, one was a burial site, and another was caves dug for selling the rock.

Then we loaded back on the bus to drive to our hotel on the Dead Sea for dinner, a shower, and a good night of sleep so that we can be ready to see and learn more tomorrow!

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