In the Land of Milk and Honey: May 23, 2012

Evening of the first day in Israel

At our hotel we walked through the gardens

a few times

we were soooo tired

Hardly dared to sit down for fear of falling asleep

In the garden was a wedding canopy

made me think of Mount Sinai

where there was this great wedding ceremony

with the cloud as a canopy overhead

On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled.

We had a good meal and it was finally Bed time
zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Shephelah

looking out over the Sorek from the hill of Zorah.

We had a lesson about Samson, a Shephela person.

The Israelites lived in the mountains, the Philistines on the coastal plain

They interacted in the Shephelah

The Shephelah is where God's people meet the pagans

where is Shephelah in our culture?

We sat in the full sun, asked not to look for a shady place

It was hard to stay fully awake

Samson's name is "light"

Delilah's name is "Darkness"

Samson, like others, had a problem with his eyes

He saw something, and he wanted it.

The Philistines took out his eyes (his light)

In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

Hebrews 11, the 'Hall of fame":

And what shall I more say? for the time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah; of David and Samuel and the prophets

If Samson makes it, we have a change, let's dance!

We are Mountain People living in Shephelah

faith Question:
How is your Shephelah (how are you influencing your culture, or is your culture influencing you?)

Hazak

We started our next hike from the bottom of the Sorek valley

we quickly climbed quite steep

we were encouraged to "find the line" and lean against it

keep pushing yourself past what you think you can do

Hazak = Be strong

Washroom break are in the open

After everyone had caught up we pressed on

We usually climbed up the highest hill

Standing Stones

Following our Rabbi

we learned that in life one should always have a Rabbi and a disciple

Higher up where old standing stones

Standing stones were erected to remember a story

Usually at the top of a hill or tell

(a tell is a hill of layers of civilization)

When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”

At tell Gezer

the story that belongs with the Standing Stones is lost

We are also Standing or Living Stones:

you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house

Do you know someone who was a "standing stone" for you?

Go and thank them!

we sang; "I love to tell the story"

Gezer is on the valley of Aijalon

It is so big (19 layers of civilization) because

it is at a very strategic place in the world on the

Via Maris the main road in the ancient world from

Europe / Asia to Africa
^{In Salomon's time 1.500.000 people used this road}

It is still strategic

God has put us too on the cross roads of society

and sometimes our story gets lost

4 Chamber Gate

The gate at Gezer has 4 chambers,

that's why we know it is from Abraham's time.

(Salomon's gates have 6 chambers)

Important people, like Judges, sat in gates

Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city

Jesus said:

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.

Christians are also gate keepers who say:

be welcomed inside

we were encouraged to look around for a tax collection bin:

(learn with your eyes)

This was in one of the chambers a collection bin or:

manger

A tax collection bin was called a manger

Looking for Talmidim

We started to hike off the beaten path

before we left I had decided to imitate our Rabbi in everything

to be a disciple a talmidim, you walk where the Rabbi walks

you pick up a rock if he picks up a rock

you throw down your hat, when he throws down his hat

But that is easier said then done

I found that I am a very independent person who doesn't follow that good

Those that didn't follow where called "goats"

sheep follow, goats always know a faster / easier / better way

We had come up making our own path

through a "field" with prickly plants

This was experiential learning

The prickly plant was supposed to help us remember the faith lesson

We got to a dig in the tell,

iron age 1000BC (Abraham)

a sewer was running out into the valley

we had just walked through.

The sewage runs out into "hell"

The biblical picture of hell is a sewage dump

gives a different picture to the worm (maggot)

And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where

“‘the worms that eat them do not die,
and the fire is not quenched.’