benjamin field study

sites visited: Jericho, Temptation Restaurant (haha, near the site of the Mount of Temptation), tell Jericho, Tomb of Samuel the Prophet (a mosque, used only for the great views of the surrounding land), tell Gezer

The Benjamin field study—an inclusive view of the land of Benjamin, beginning with Jericho (the back door to Jerusalem) and ending with Gezer (the front door to Jerusalem). It’s impressive to me how these lands are beginning to come alive. Christa and I were talking about the church’s typical reading of the Old Testament geography and how they often skip over the various cities or regions mentioned. Even I fell into this trap when I took Old Testament Literature with Dr. Brensinger last January. It was a compact 3-week course, during which we read through the entire Old Testament, and I remember skipping over plenty of passages which simply listed names of cities or a king’s provincial improvements, simply because they didn’t have any “relevancy.” But now I’m looking forward to returning home and reading through the history of Israel again—with my Bible in one hand and my maps in the other—just to see what I missed.

And for being a pacifist (or at the very least connected to the Anabaptist tradition), I’m also a little bit fascinated by the war strategies of the land. Determining which cities to fortify in order to guard against an attack from an enemy is something I’ve never put much thought into. (But then again, I’ve lived in a very safe neighborhood in the United States all my life.) Therefore, seeing the land laid out (and in such short quarters) before me, it’s easy to understand the biblical kings’ military decisions.

Hiking to Jericho this morning certainly gave me a new perspective on traveling in the “land between.” I guess I have always taken modern transportation for granted, especially on hot, sunny days. The biblical characters must have been in great physical shape from walking the long, hot, dry roads from city to city so frequently. During our mini-lecture after the hike, I was watching three or four Bedouin boys running up from their home to our large group of American tourists. I noticed that one of the boys wasn’t even wearing shoes, yet he was running and jumping all over the rough rocky terrain. Everybody has told me that your body gets used to this kind of climate and lifestyle, so I suppose Jesus and Paul and all the other travelers were accustomed to these long journeys. The hike itself was great—mostly downhill and with gorgeous views on either side. However, the rock face was steep, and the path was narrow, so the possibility of falling was always a real one (especially with my clumsy nature).

I had a hard time focusing during the lecture in the shade at the bottom of the wadi. When I am surrounded by such majestic views, I am often overwhelmed by God’s creative nature. And God’s creation really is my wonder-point; that is, what amazes me every time. I see so much of God’s power and creativity in nature, and when I’m somewhere new (such as the bottom of an Israeli wadi), it takes me so long to drink it all in. Unfortunately, this time, I didn’t have hours to stare off into the horizon or explore around little rock formations; instead, I was trying to focus on a lecture about these great valleys. Perhaps I was successful—tomorrow at 1:30 p.m., we shall see….