Currently, I am sitting in the lobby of our first Hotel in Arad, a city in the Negev desert. We left this morning at 8 AM from Bethlehem Bible College and began our trek with a stop at Bet Shemesh and learned about Samson's Story, as this was the valley that he was born in, and we talked about living as people in the Shaphela, which, during our trip, is symbolic of people living close to the world, but influencing the world, rather than trying to stop the world from influencing us.
We also spoke about listening to our shepherd, and were blessed to see a shepherd in the field below where we had our teaching.
Next, we stopped at Tel Azeka, and climbed up the side of the mountain to look out on the valley where the conflict between David and Goliath took place. The white X is a possible location for where the Israelites were encamped during this battle, and the yellow X is the possible location for where the philistines were camped.
Our next location was Tel Lachish. We read about the way that Sennacharib, the Assyrian King laid siege to the city and overtook it, then challenged King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. King Hezekiah gave the challenge to God, and God answered his prayer by delivering Jerusalem from the Assyrians. We ended the day at this site by reading Psalm 121, and singing "Our God Reigns". A life changing moment when sung from on top of the ruins of a great city that had turned away from God, and was given over to the Assyrians because of it.
Does God reign in your life? Are you living life with the faith of Hezekiah, and trusting, that, no matter what you hear, that God will take care of you? Like David, trusting that 5 little stones will take down a giant? These are the questions we pondered today, and the lessons we will be taking with us from these sites.
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