Crawling through History

Today was a day in which Sunday School stories came to life. We visited the valley where Samson lived and judged Israel and caused a ruckus with the Philistines (Judges 13-16); of course we had to act out some of the stories as well. We visited the valley where David fought Goliath (1 Samuel 17) and almost got to go see the caves in Adullum (the road was blocked off) where David hid from Saul (1 Samuel 22). This is a picture of our fearless leader, Bill, demonstrating how to use a sling shot while he stands in the very brook where David gathered his stones to fight Goliath. We also visited Lachish and Azekah, two major cities destroyed by Sennacherib, king of Assyria during the reign of Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah (2 Kings 18; 2 Chronicles 32); then rebuilt and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar during the reign of Zedekiah and the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 34:6-7).

One of the places we stopped today was Maresheth Gath, the hometown of the prophet Micah. Just down the hillside from his OT home are caves and tunnels dug by the Jewish people during the Second Jewish Revolt in 135 AD. My friend, Tracy, and I are standing at one of the outside entrances to the tunnels. The tunnels were so much fun to climb through. There were many spots where I was completely flat on my stomach with stone below me and stone rubbing up against my back as I scooted through the passageway. They wound down and up and around through the hillside. There were so many tunnels to explore!

One of the best parts of the day was racing up the hill that Gath sits on just as the sun was setting. While we were there, we also talked about how David acted like a madman before Abimelech, king of Gath and then fled to Adullum. It was just then that David wrote Psalm 34 (see the note at the beginning of the Psalm). We recited the Psalm together and then sang the song, "You are my hiding place." As the sun finished setting and the new moon its rising, signifying the beginning of Sukkot, we sat and meditated on the faithfulness of God and how He protects, strengthens and guides His people. What a way to end the day! To see a fun video clip of our trip, visit this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA1BwaIyCNU