The Land and the Bible

I have had several people tell me that they are following my blog and are enjoying the pictures and learning from the experiences I've shared. Thank you for the encouragement to keep posting! I have never been a deep thinker, writer, or one to share my thoughts so openly...so keeping up a blog has been a challenge! Not just deciding what to write and how to write it, but finding the time too.

One of the major themes that has been impressed on me so far is the correllation between the land and the Bible. The accuracy with which the Bible describes (with great detail) the geography of Israel is amazing and completely attests to the historicity of the events which occur in its pages. The men who wrote these words knew the land - there is no way it could be made up. For one of our classes we have a large map book made of satellite maps of Israel. There are some where around 40 maps, each with major cities, routes, and boundaries from different time periods and events throughout the Bible. Looking at the map and then looking at the description in Scripture is really cool (this is something anyone can do at home!). You can see where Joshua came across the Jordan with the Israelites and defeated Jericho, then a few chapters later he chases the Amorites on the Ascent of Beth Horon where God throws hailstones upon them. We were able to travel on the Beth Horon Ridge Route and we also went to Jericho and explored the Tel (mound of ancient remains).

There is a seeming contradiction found in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Matthew 20 and Mark 10 record Jesus healing a blind man as he is "coming out" of Jericho, while Luke records the same incident but says that Jesus is "approaching" Jericho. This was easily explained a long time ago, but it is just a good example of how the land supports the Bible. We were able to see how both accounts are accurate when we visited Jericho. The first picture is of the municipal/royal area of Jericho where palaces and other administrative buildings once stood. You can see the remains of a palace and behind it you can see the residential part of Jericho about 1.5 miles apart. Because there were two Jerichos in a sense, Jesus must have healed the blind man in between them.

The picture below is of modern Jericho with the Tel visible in the middle of the picture. This Tel is the remains of the ancient site of Jericho. We were able to go and explore it and learn more about it.

Here, Tiffany is drinking from the same spring that the prophet Elisha purified near Jericho.
Below is another example of how we can look at the Bible and then look at the land and they match! Here are the two "rocky crags" mentioned in 1 Samuel 14. The one to the North (left) was Bozez and the one to the East (right) was Seneh. This pass goes between the villages of Michmash and Geba which are still standing today. This is where Jonathan and his armorbearer killed a garrison of Philistines by themselves.