Elah, Elah, Goliath's Back

This weekend we took a trip with the Muhlestein and the Lewis families.  Kerry Muhlestein is the other BYU Religion professor here and Glenn Lewis works for the US Consulate.  Both Kerry and Glenn are counselors  in the Jerusalem Branch Presidency (Frank is the Branch Clerk).  Between our three families there were 16 children.  We left our home in the hill country of Judea and drove southwest to the valleys of the Shephelah (the low hills between the Judean hills and the coastal plain).   First we visited Sampson's neck of the woods in the Sorek Valley.  

We stood on Tel Beth-Shemesh overlooking Zorah, the birthplace of Sampson not far from where he burnt his enemies' fields with the help of 300 foxes (Judges 15).  This was also the location where the ark of the covenant was returned to the Israelites after the Hophni and Phinehas incident (1 Sam 6) .

Next we drove to the valley of Elah where the young shepherd boy David slew the mighty giant Goliath.  Between Azekah and Socoh you can still see a streambed, and you can still pick up stones, although the smooth ones are long gone, and if you bring along your sling, you can try to frighten the grasshoppers in the dry field to the left.  Or you can frighten your mother when the stone flies toward your sister instead of the grasshoppers. 

The hill behind Amanda is where Saul's armies would have encamped when they left the fortified city of Azekah and advanced toward the Philistine camp.  The Philistine chariots had a hard time penetrating to the hilly valleys of Judea, but they clung tenaciously to their territory on the plains. 

We thought about Uncle Mark and wished he were here to lead us in slinging.  (He returns home from Iceland in a month!)  According to Jeff Chadwick, the history teacher at the BYU Jerualem Center this year, a rock can reach 90 mph or more as it leaves the sling of an experienced marksman, which David certainly was.  From that perspective, the miracle was not that the stone killed Goliath, but that David hit his target on the first attempt.  David had perfect faith that with the Lord's help, he would succeed within five tries.

Notice how far apart everyone is standing.  There were no direct hits on each other, thankfully, and we all learned more about trusting in the Lord to overcome gigantic obstacles. 

The next valley south is Guvrin.  We explored some cool man-made caves at Beit Guvrin National Park.   The first cave complex was an ancient mine for soft chalky limestone, which could be mixed with water, heated up, and then applied to homes or cisterns to waterproof them.  This method of waterproofing cisterns was a crucial development in the region's history, allowing the winter rains to be stored for summer use and enabling people to live farther away from springs and rivers. The plaster was not permanent however, and the cisterns needed to be constantly repaired to make sure they did not leak.  Jeremiah told the wicked inhabitants of Jerusalem before the temple was destroyed that they had forsaken the living water of the Lord and were trusting in broken cisterns that could hold no water (Jeremiah 2:13).

   

The circular mining operation left behind bell-shaped caves with a circular opening at the top, and the bell caves eventually connected.  We walked from one cathedral-like dome to another.  In the soft limestone walls we could see carvings such as a Byzantine cross, the name of Allah in Arabic, and a reindeer!  We sang together, explored the rooms, and got dusty climbing on ledges.

Another cave complex contained empty Hellenistic tombs (built around the 3rd century BC), some of which were elaborately painted. 

These empty tombs provided for a fun game of sardines for the kids.  I'm not sure that those whose bodies anciently found a resting place in these tombs envisioned children one day "dancing" on their graves. 

The last place we visited on this trip was a Hellenstic dovecote with thousands of holes for birds to nest. The birds were raised for food, for fertilizer, and for sacrifices at the Temple of Herod (Luke 2:24).  Some of the doves raised here may have been used for the temple in Jerusalem.  The majority of the holes were twenty feet up on the walls, but there were a few holes lower down for some cute little turtle-doves.

We drove past eucalyptus trees imported from Australia to drain a swampy area, then we stopped for ice cream cones at a McDonald's before heading home up the Bab el Wad.

The weather is getting cooler, and the cloud cover made for a beautiful sunset.

Some strange creatures must have followed us home from the caves.