Shephelah ha ha ha

Recently we took a trip down in elevation from the Judean Hill Country of where we are staying to explore the "Shephelah" or lowlands of Israel.  We arrived first at Beth-Chemesh and the Sorek Valley, which is where Samson lived most of his life.  We got to take some fun pictures with us fighting one of the guys in our group who had a donkey's jaw bone and was fending us off with it.  

Next, we made a stop atop of a hill in Azekah that was overlooking the Elah Valley.  This was a significant site primarily because this was where David fought Goliath.  We got to read the story from 1 Samuel 17, take a few pictures and then continue our way south.  Later in the day, we would come back to the Elah Valley and reenact the battle of David and Goliath with our own students and ancient Israelite sling.

We then climbed around in some tiny caves that the Jews had dug in the time of the Great Revolt around 130 AD.  It was fun to crawl back into these secret rooms that the Jews had created to hide from the Romans.  After messing around in these secret passages, we ate lunch at an old Roman Colosseum just down the road.  

After lunch, we made our last stop at the site of Lachish.  This was one of the last fortresses standing in the nation of Judah.  Although it was overrun by the Assyrians under Hezekiah, it was later built up only to be ran through again, but this time for good, by the Babylonians.  We got to walk around the ruins of Lachish and then make our way back to the Moshav.  

All in all, it was a beautiful trip with plenty of scenery and biblical insights that I am afraid that I do not have the time to get into (even though that is probably the most important part about being over here!).  Anyhow, I miss all you guys and love you all!  Hope you are enjoying the Lord and striving to be a good steward of His Gospel!

Herro Herodium!

This past Wednesday we had our field trip to Bethlehem and various other sites south and east of Jerusalem.  To begin our day, we went up to Bethany where Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead, resided and visited the Mount of Olives.  This location was quite significant in the Life of Christ containing some prominent events such as: the Olivet Discourse, the Triumphal Entry and His Ascension up into heaven.  It is so close to Jerusalem and has a great view overlooking the Old City from the east.  

After this, we ventured to some tombs outside Jerusalem that were known for containing the oldest piece of the Bible that we know.  In these tombs, a silver amulet dating back to 600 BC was discovered with the Hebrew etching of Numbers 6:24-26, which is the priestly benediction, "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace."  Once again, it is awesome to see verification of our faith and God's Word.

Next, we progressed south to the city of Bethlehem.  This city was not anything like I expected it to be, which was small, quiet, and peaceful; rather, the modern city of Bethlehem was crowded, hostile, and frankly uncomfortable.  Nonetheless, we observed the fulfillment of the prophecy in Micah 5:2 as seen in the birth of our Messiah in Luke 2.  We then were left to wander the city and check out the Church of the Nativity for a little while.   From here, we moved on to climb atop of the Herodian, which is a monumental fortress erected by Herod the Great in the time of Christ.  This was a very sophisticated and genius fortress not only because of its strategically defensive location but also because of its advanced water cisterns that were able to hold up to 400,000 gallons of water.

On our way back to the Moshav we made two final stops.  First, we pulled off on the side of the road and went into a local field outside of Tekoa, the hometown of Amos the prophet.  We read from Amos 5:6 which says, "Seek the Lord and live..."  This was the message that this shepherd from Judah had to take to Israel in the North.  So simple but so true and I cannot begin to even imagine of taking a message of destruction to a nation that is like your older bigger brother.

After this, we did some hiking in the Rephaim Valley.  This was a nice green valley with hills that we ran up and rolled some rocks down.  Nonetheless, this was the probably the valley that David chased the Philistines down and out of Judah three times.  So, this was a fun final stop and relaxing way to end our day.  Sorry for the delay in the posts... as you can tell, things are getting busier.  I encourage you to check out facebook for some more pictures if you have time. 

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Love you guys!

The Curious Trip of Benjamin

Yesterday we had our first trip to somewhere other than Jerusalem and we ended up going basically everywhere, but we just called it the Benjamin Trip.  First, we went west heading toward the Mediterranean and passed Emmaus also known as Nicopolis.  Though this is most likely not the same Emmaus that is mentioned Luke 24, where Jesus is with two disciples on the road to Emmaus, we still read the story.  We saw the Coastal Plains and Tel Aviv where we flew in almost three weeks ago.  Then, we turned around to head east and stopped up in the mountains to get a good view.  To get to this location, we traveled on the Beth Horon Ridge Route, which is seen several places in the Old Testament.  So atop the mountain we were on, we read Joshua 10, which speaks of Joshua driving the Amorites away from Gibeon down this same route we had traveled on.  It is such a great story because the victory is won for the Israelites but only through the Lord, since He caused the sun to stand still and was picking off Amorites with "large hailstones" throughout the battle.  In verse 11 of chapter 10 it says, "the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them from the sky, and more of them died from the hailstones that were killed by the swords of the Israelites."  Israel was not a powerhouse nation so the thought of them conquering Canaan and taking the promised land in the time of Joshua was only accomplished through several divine acts of God, just like this one.  It is so cool to see and read of how God's omnipotent and sovereign hand reached down in order to make the impossible, possible for His chosen people.  

After this, we visited some sites in the Central Benjamin Plateau.  Here, we saw Gibeon, Geba, Gibea of Saul, Ramah, Michmash and several other important locations in Old Testament times.  A couple highlights were Gibeon and the Geba-Michmash Pass.  At Gibeon we got to read 1 Kings 3, where Solomon, recently crowned King of Israel, asks God for wisdom.  It was awesome because after this we got to pray as a group and ask God to give us wisdom in the midst of lives allowing us to apply immediately what we had read.  Then at the Geba-Michmash Pass we got to see where Israel was encamped at Geba under Saul and Jonathan to fight against the Philistines who were encamped just a mile away at Michmash in 1 Samuel 13-14.  At this time, the Israelites seemed against the odds having only three thousand men in comparison to the Philistines who had, "soldiers as numerous as the sand on the seashore."  And what's more, but the fact that all the Philistines had weapons while verse 22 of chapter 13 shows Israel's slight disadvantage in arms, "So on the day of battle not a soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword or spear in his hand; only Saul and his son Jonathan had them."  Even so, in chapter 14 Jonathan crosses the path and crawls up to Michmash with his armor-bearer and puts to death 20 Philistines causing a complete disarray in the Philistine camp.  From here, Israel goes on to rout the Philistines, but it is imperative to not forget God's hand in this event in 14:23, "So the Lord rescued Israel that day, and the battle moved on beyond Beth-Aven."  Reading this account created a great mental image as we stood on a hill overlooking Michmash to our left and Geba to our right and pictured where Jonathan might have crawled up to start the panic in the Philistine camp.  Once again, it was only through the written Word of God that any of this was special because other than thinking on God's intervention for His people at this location, there was nothing special to see. 

 

Finally, we made our way more east and got to see Jericho and the Wilderness.  This was pretty awesome since we were able to walk around on the ruins of Jericho and collect any potsherds that we might have found.  It was surprising how small Jericho actually was, measuring 300x150 yards!  This made it easier to see the whole place and actually identify where some of the wall crumbled from the earthquake God created.  It was interesting because before this trip we read an article debating the existence of Jericho.  Some archaeologists claim that it was not a city in the time of the Israelite Conquest, but there is much evidence that actually proves quite contrary.  For example, some archaeologists claim that the Egyptians overtook this city way before Israel was in the promised land.  However, in the remains of Jericho, several pots were found still full of grain and other simple items that anyone would expect to be plundered and taken when a city is destroyed by a foreign nation, like Egypt.  Also, if Egypt in fact conquered Jericho in their traditional manner, they would have taken months to do so, and if this were the case, you would not expect the people of Jericho to let months go storing up pots full of grain while they're being overtaken by the Egyptians.  As a result, this evidence seems to favor a swift destruction like the seven day period recorded in Joshua 6.  Also, Joshua records the Israelites attacking in the spring right after harvest so this would explain the pots still full of grain at the time of destruction.  All this to say that it was once again comforting to see God's history through the Israelites proven through more than enough evidence.  I know that you can give people all the evidence in the world and they still will refuse to believe in God, but yesterday definitely helped me to see what an honor it is to serve a True and Living God.  

This basically wrapped up our day and the next big thing we have is a nice little hike on Sunday!  Love you all and hope you are experiencing the reality of God and His love through His Word!

Jerusalem (New Testament Remix)

On Wednesday this last week we embarked on our New Testament walk into Jerusalem.  To begin our day, we visited the Temple Mount since it is only open at certain times in the mornings and afternoons.  So, we made our way up to the Mount I was surprised initially to see how much bigger it was than I thought, while the Dome of the Rock appeared smaller than I thought.  Our teacher, Abner Chou, then talked to us about the significance of this place throughout all of redemptive history.  We traced back to Genesis 22 where Abraham was commanded by God to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on top of Mount Moriah, which is the Temple Mount.  He also reminded us that this was the same place where the presence of God dwelled in the Ark of the Covenant, which was in the Holy of Holies of the Temple.  Then, we turned to John 2 where we read of Jesus cleansing the temple area.  Then, Abner gave us some info about the details of the Temple Mount.  The Temple Mount is 300 acres in size or 1,000,000 square feet.  So when we were reading that Jesus cleansed "the temple area," it brought a whole new picture to my head of Jesus sprinting all over this track of land turning over the tables and whipping those who were treating lightly the dwelling place of God.  Our teacher reminded us that Jesus was powerful and strong- he must have been in shape to run all over this area and cleanse it.  This was not only awe-inspiring to picture my Lord accomplishing all this, but even more so, what He said after doing this in John 2:19, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."  In the following verses, we see that the Jews instinctively thought Jesus was speaking of the physical temple when John makes it clear that Jesus was speaking of His body.  This means that Jesus was claiming to be the same Temple where God had dwelled for numerous years in the Ark of the Covenant.  Jesus was claiming to be the presence of God.  This fits perfectly the emphasis of John's gospel, which preaches the Deity of Christ.  Therefore, I was amazed to be standing at the place where God dwelled in the Temple and in the bodily form of His only Son, Jesus Christ.  

Next, we visited the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu in the City of David, just south of the Old City.  Gallicantu is a latin word meaning "cock-crow" commemorating Peter's triple rejection of Christ.  This byzantine church had a dungeon and a decent view from where it stood.  We only stayed for a little bit and then headed off to eat our sack lunch somewhere in the Old City.

On our way to find a place to eat, a couple friends and I encountered an elderly Jewish man whom I had met a couple days earlier and briefly talked with.  I felt convicted after talking with him the few days earlier because it was just superficial and I didn't mention Jesus.  So, this time when I saw him, I just couldn't pass it up and knew that I couldn't have another interaction with this man without him knowing what my life is all about.  So we started to dialogue about God or "Yahweh," which he said over and over again.  I found out that he was a preacher in the States for quite some time and he used to be a Church of Christ evangelist.  Therefore, as the conversation moved, I found out he knew Scripture very well, both the Old and New Testament.  He was constantly quoting Scripture the whole conversation and at many times, it was very difficult to track with him and actually understand his thoughts.  As we discussed more and more, it became more and more discouraging because he loved the sound of his own voice and talked the whole time.  We rarely had an opportunity to say anything, and whenever I did say something, I felt like I was cutting him off.  It was weird that he believed in Jesus and knew quite well the writings of the Old Testament but he did not believe Jesus to be God.  This was the hardest and saddest part of the conversation because whenever we mentioned obvious statements on the Deity of Christ from John and Colossians 1, he would respond and say things like, "It doesn't say that..." or "The New Testament wasn't written in Greek..."  So, all that to say it was a difficult time but I do not regret it at all.  I am glad that I was able to give a reason the hope that I have within me, and that is Christ.  I am so thankful that Christ was not just a man but so much more and in fact God or Yahweh in flesh, the God-man who established forgiveness for sins and freed me from the bondage of my flesh.  After talking, my friends and I were able to pray for Claude, which was definitely a good time to be humbled and realize that, as always, this soul is in God's hands.  After seeing this man's knowledge, I have been challenged to, "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," as Peter says in concluding his second letter.  I look forward to what other opportunities may lie ahead in the future and hope that I will be better prepared and equipped to represent my Lord.

After eating lunch, we visited a museum containing some remnants of houses that were partially burned during the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD. by the Romans.  It was so interesting to see the difference in housing and how small the "upper class" homes of the time compared to our homes now.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any pictures because we were not allowed to take any.  Even so, our teacher did point out something cool in showing us some large stone water jars that were present in these houses when they were discovered.  He said that these were probably the same stone jars that were used in the wedding where Jesus turns water into wine in John 2.  However, he explained to us the significance of these stone jars being used rather than standard clay pots, which they also had at the time.  Apparently, clay pots were used for all types of liquids and drinks, but stone jars were only used to hold one type of liquid.  Thus, to the Jews, they used clay pots all the time and these would be easier to consider contaminated.  Stone Jars, on the other hand, were considered impenetrable and set apart for holding whatever substance they were to hold, and nothing else.  As a result, when Jesus turned these stone jars full of water into wine, He was penetrating something that was considered impenetrable.  No one could say, "Maybe there was left over wine in these jars that made the water taste like wine..."  That was completely out of the question and therefore, no human explanation could suffice for what Jesus had done during that feast.  

The final location we stopped by was the Garden Tomb, which is just north outside the Old City.  This spot has been claimed to be the location of Jesus' death, burial and resurrection because there is this hill that looks like a skull and the location is outside the city coinciding with the gospel accounts.  However, this location was not proposed until more recently and there are a couple reasons why it probably isn't the exact site.  First, the tomb itself is not the standard style of a 1st Century AD tomb.  Second, people have suggested that in front of the tomb there was a degrading in the ground to prove that a stone was rolled in front of the tomb; however, this was in fact a water channel.  On top of that, if this water channel was to be an indicator that a stone was rolled in front of this tomb, then it would have to be much deeper to support the stone that was to be rolled in place.  Nonetheless, it was still great to focus on the gospel message as Paul succinctly put it, "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures."  

Well, I love you all and hope you all have a great Super Bowl Sunday!

Tunnel me...

Today we had our official Old Testament Walk of Jerusalem.  We saw far too many things to recount and accurately speak of, so I have made it a point to just hit a few highlights of our day.  The first site we went to upon arriving in the Old City was a small portion of the wall remaining from the reign of King Hezekiah.  This was significant because we were able to picture and read the story of King Hezekiah in his defense against the siege of the Assyrians led by Sennacherib.  As the Bible and history confirm, the Assyrians were one of the most brutal empires during their conquests of the eastern world in that time.  They had just ran through Judah's big brother Israel in the north and were next planning to seize Jerusalem and overrun Judah in the south.  Sennacherib set up outside of the walls of Jerusalem and sent Hezekiah a most insulting message oozing with arrogance.  In Isaiah 37 Hezekiah responds to the threatening message by relying completely upon the Lord.  In verse 20 he says, "Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his (Sennacherib's) hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God."  Hezekiah, knowing what the Assyrians had done to many, had the option of simply surrendering to the empire and going in peace; yet instead, he thrusted Himself upon the grace of God.  By the way, this was not necessarily the easiest decision to come to for Hezekiah in light of Judah's alliance with Egypt being severed prior to this Assyrian expansion.  As a result, he received grace in a comforting message from the Lord spoken through Isaiah saying, "'He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here.  He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it.  By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city,'  declares the Lord.  'I will defend this city and save it for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!'"  It is immediately after this message that we read in verse 36, "Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty five thousand men in the Assyrian camp."  So the Lord answered Hezekiah's prayer and made Himself known by disallowing this vast empire and supercilious dictator any possibility of conquering, let alone touching Jerusalem.  This brought conviction to my heart and caused me to consider deeply my shortcomings in dealing with my own sin.  I pray that God would enable me to trust Him like Hezekiah in battling my own sin and desire the result of God's glory in the end.

Next, we we're able to see the grave of Oskar Schindler, which lies right outside the city to the south.  This was very neat to see and it was also from here that we could see the Hinnom Valley.  This is where many people in Jerusalem were sacrificing their sons and daughters as Jeremiah mentions in chapter 7.  It was also interesting to find out that "ge," the Hebrew word for valley, is combined with Hinnom to make the Greek word "Gehenna," which we translate to mean hell.  

At the end of our day, we made our way down to the City of David, which is just south of Jerusalem to walk through Hezekiah's Tunnel.  Before we did this however, we visited the Water Gate and read Nehemiah 8.  It was so cool to picture all of Israel, who had returned from the exile, assembled at this place to hear the reading of the Word by Ezra for hours and days upon end.  They were convicted and cut to the core just from simply hearing the Word of God read to them.  After visiting the Water Gate, we walked through Hezekiah's Tunnel, which was created to draw water from the Gihon Spring into the city walls of Jerusalem.  Some of my friends and I had a blast splashing our way through the tunnel while singing some new Hebrew worship songs that we had learned this past week.  It was a very tight fit as far as trying to squeeze through the tunnel but it was definitely well worth it to get wet on the beautiful day God had created for us.  Finally, we visited the possible burial tomb of David and then got on our bus to head back to the Moshav.  On Wednesday, we have our New Testament Jerusalem walk, which will hopefully be just as enriching as everything else we have done so far.  

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"Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God!"  Psalm 48:1

I am the good shepherd

Today we had our second class for Life of Christ and I was once again pierced by many deep insights from the Word; unfortunately, I cannot go through and share them all.  However, there was one truth that I feel like God opened my eyes to see today as Abner taught our class with his much anticipated passion and accuracy.  This truth has to deal with the magnitude of the Life of Christ in everything He did and said.  So often we read flippantly through the events of our Savior's life and are left unaffected, while much of this may be due to the fact that we do not know the background of what Christ is saying in relation to the Old Testament.  This can be often overlooked by us believers in the age of grace where the Jews in the time of Jesus would have had no problem picking up on what Jesus was making reference to.

The example that Abner gave us was from John 10 when Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd."  Those of us on the other side of the cross can hear this and simply say, "oh, that's nice of him to say that," when really the Jews, who had a very extensive knowledge of the Old Testament most likely had a completely different reaction.  The first time the term "shepherd" is used in the Bible is in Genesis 48:15 when Jacob says, "May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day..."  Another reference to this term is in Numbers 27:15-17 where Moses appeals to the Lord to implement another leader or shepherd for Israel to take them into the promised land since Moses himself was not allowed to lead God's people into the land.  

Of course, there is the obvious appearance of the term in the twenty third psalm by David whom the Jews knew plenty about.  Not only does David say, "The Lord is my shepherd," but it is interesting to note the psalms that sandwich this chapter.  There is something to be said in regard to the fact that Psalm 22 is all about the suffering and death of the Messiah, when merely six months after Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd," He is crucified.  This is of course why He says, "The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."  As Psalm 22 refers to the first advent of Christ and His suffering ministry, so Psalm 24 refers to Christ's second coming as the King when it says, "Life up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in."  Therefore the Jews, being well aware of David's writings, knew that Jesus in claiming to be this good shepherd was essentially claiming to be God.  Jesus was claiming to be the shepherd who would come first to suffer (Psalm 22) then again to reign (Psalm 24).

Finally, an obvious passage that should ring a bell to the Jews, as if they didn't remember Jacob, Moses or David somehow, is Zechariah 13:7, "'Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is close to me!' declares the Lord Almighty.  'Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the little ones.'"  This is another prophecy keeping in terms with the direction that God the Father wanted His Son to walk in for His earthly ministry.  

So basically from observing these Old Testament passages that the Jews themselves were probably quite familiar with, we now see the resounding emphasis in Jesus' statement in John 10:11, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."

Who better to study?

Yesterday, we had our first class for the Life of Christ and The History of Ancient Israel, both classes being taught by Abner Chou.  Even though both classes were introductory in their style and setting the framework for the rest of the semester, I was still impacted by something Chou shared in our class for the Life of Christ.  In the introduction of our notes, he asks the question "Why study the Life of Christ?"  Under that, he basically answers it with another question, "Who better to study?"  At this point, he had us all turn to Revelation 5, which paints a beautiful scene of heaven, yet poses the dilemma of who may open the seven-sealed scroll with writing on both sides.  From this description, we can see that this is no standard scroll but rather, it is of utmost importance since it had writing on both sides (uncommon for papyrus scrolls) and since it was sealed seven times.  This scroll was the title deed to the earth, as we see the results of opening it from the rest of the book of Revelation, and yet we read in verse 3, "But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it."  This caused John to weep in verse 4 since there was no one worthy to even look inside it.  Then, an elder comforts John and tells him, "Do not weep!  See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed.  He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals."  Thus, we see in possibly one of the most tragic moments in all history, proven in John's weeping, Jesus Christ the Messiah, displays all authority over mankind and heavenly beings by taking the scroll from his Father who sits on the throne.  It is at this very moment where Jesus takes the scroll that a threefold progression or eruption or praise breaks out.  First, the four living creatures and twenty-four elders fall down with harps and bowls of incense singing, "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seal, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.  You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth."  Second, John looks and sees "thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand" angels encircled around the throne, the four living creatures, and twenty-four elders singing, "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!"  Then finally, John closes the chapter with verses 13 and 14 saying, "Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!"  The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped."  

So... why study the life of Christ?  Who better to study?