Abraham called on El Olam, the everlasting
God! What a blessing. It is interesting to think about
Abraham. God made a promise. He understood the promise was to him and his
descendents. Thus Abraham died without
receiving the fullness of the promise.
But in his life he knew he was in “pilgrim” status, and he looked for
the true city made by God (Heb. 11).
But Abraham did receive two “possessions” in
the land. The first was a tree he planted,
following the agreement with Abimilech as to a well, a well which became Beersheba. The second possession was a cave for burial. Think about the picture this presents to us
on this side of the cross. We must access
the “Living Water,” Jesus Christ, as the source of life. And, if we are to follow Him, we must come to
terms with death. We must know we have
taken up a cross to follow Christ, the very symbol of one who has died to self
and sin. The symbol of one who has
committed himself to his Lord, as a living sacrifice.
Have you come to the well of living water
through faith in Christ? Have you taken
up the cross to follow Him daily? today?
We want to give a brief report on our
activities in Israel, and then recommend you find us on our Facebook page (RonCindyYoude)
where we have been posted photos.
On Saturday, Feb. 8 we had a bit of a free
day, doing things in preparation for the final couple to join us. The highlight probably was a stop at Tel
Gezer. Gezer was a city the Pharaoh of
Egypt captured and gave to King Solomon as a wedding gift when he married the Pharaoh’s
daughter. We also stopped at an Orthodox
Church in Lod. Lod was NT “Lydda” where
Peter healed a paralyzed man (Ac. 9:32-35).
But it is also, according to tradition or legend, the birthplace of St.
George the dragon slayer, patron saint of England. The church commemorates his birth, life and
death. In the basement is his sarcophagus. Again, photos are on FB.
Sunday, Feb. 9 was our first full day. And we do mean full. The GPS lead us around some traffic as we
headed out of Tel Aviv on our way to Ayalon Canada Park. The alternate route actually brought us to a
place where we had a great view of the Ayalon Valley (where the sun stood
still). By putting the Scriptures
together of where the battle between Joshua/Israel and a confederation of
city-kingdoms (Josh. 10:1-14) we actually could get a sense of why it would
have been towards the end of the day when the battle was pressing on. The Israelites had the upper hand, but the
enemy armies were heading through this valley to get back to their walled
cities further south in the lowlands. It
all made sense that Joshua made this request, and as the passage indicates, God
responded to the prayer of a man in a unique and powerful way.
We continued through the Shephela
(Lowlands), the valley of Sorek (where again we were able to stop and get some
great pictures of the valley), the valley of Elah (David and Goliath) and the
valley of Zarepat. We then ascended to
the Hebron area, careful to stay in the Jewish areas of Kyriat Arba and the
Jewish side of Machpelah, the Cave of the Patriarchs (the burial cave purchased
by Abraham, Gen. 23). We then descended
back to the lowlands for a final stop at Tel Lachish. There are amazing confirmations found there,
confirmation of the truth of the Biblical stories.
No comments:
Post a Comment