Hard to know where to start. Coming to Israel, being in true God country forces you to search. To search for meaning, search for God moments, search for what He may be showing us. The trivial things are what you may see with any international trip. The flight was somewhat uneventful. The 12-hour portion was insanely hot. The plane was kept at an uncomfortable temperature up in the 80\'s. Made the already close quarters pretty intolerable. We arrived in Istanbul 10 minutes after our flight was boarding to Tel Aviv. Mad dash for the two hour final flight (which was both spacious and air conditioned!)
We\'re traveling with 52 other folks. Always interesting. I think there must be set rules about personalities and someone just steps up to fill each seat. Welcome to Israel - it\'s not about you. Ha!
We traveled far today, as far as you can in a country that only takes one hour to cross from side to side (and 5-6 hours lengthwise), with 8 million residents.
We started in Kiryat ye Hem talking about the heart of God and His desire for us. As we overlooked the valley leading to the mountains of Judea, we could visualize the battle taking place as the Phillistines captured to Ark. Ronan, our Israelite guide led us thru the gardens pointing out various plants and their significance. We learned about the 7 keys to the country and its people, as determined in Deuteronmy 8:8, Wheat, Barley (bread), Figs , Olive, (oil), dates, figs, pomegranate and grapes (wine).
Deuteronomy 8:8. Loved this! Start the day in a garden, my kind of start.
"For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
A reminder how God provides all we need.
We then traveled to the Lower Hills of Judea. At Beth Shemesh, we talked of Samson as we overlooked ruins and the valleys and foothills where Samson lived. So much of his story is about his blatant disobedience after God asked him to take a special vow. The word that came over and over was COMPROMISE. Compromise....Samson compromised his faith, his vow over and over. Compromise - are their areas in my life to look at? Areas I am compromising? Areas where I am telling God, soon, not now or next time? God used Samson in amazing ways, but what could God have done IF Samson hadn\'t compromised? What could God do with me, or us, if we were pure in our obedience? And, are we being honest with ourselves and God in this manner? And just to be clear, we don\'t have to be perfect, we just need to be right with God. Even a bad olive can make good olive oil for the community.
We traveled to Tel Azekah. From our vantage point on the mountain, we could almost see where battles were forged, strongholds were created and armies readied themselves. With Bethlehem in the distance and Jerusalem over the hill, we were witness to the Valley of Elah, where one of the most inspirational battles of all time took place ... young shepherd David slew the giant Goliath changing history forever and letting us all know that with God on our side, all things are possible and we cannot, will not be defeated...even when battling giants.
Much of the day was spent hiking? Climbing? Descending into caves. AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING caves. At Bet Guvrin, we went thru 14 underground caves. In ancient days, the homes were above ground, but their "industry/business" we\'re below ground in man made caves where they could work in the cool during the heat of the day. We went thru 14 interconnected huge caves, used for work as well as for sisteen to collect water. Just in the Sidonian Cave area there are over 600 caves and still more being excavated. A HUGE underground city - literally. We hiked down, down, down and up, up, up as well as crawled thru small portals from cave to cave. Not for the faint-hearted to be sure!
We ended our day traveling to the desert region and the Dead Sea, the lowest elevation on earth. This morning we sung worship songs and heard a message by Pastor Paul, about conquering our giants. seems right on target as today, we head to the desert - the Negav. Hopefully, we won\'t wander for 40 days and 40 nights.
