For our last day here, we headed out to the Valley of Elah and went there via Bethlehem, so we could get an idea of how far David traveled to go see his brothers in Saul’s encampment there. When we arrived at the valley, we departed the bus and walked down to the creekbed where Malcolm had us read through the story of David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17) as a drama. Malcolm handed out the various parts, got volunteers to read their parts, then he narrated the story. Let me tell you, standing in the middle of the Valley of Elah where David met Goliath and sharing in this story really brings it to life! After we reviewed the story, we all spent some time in the streambed picking up sets of 5 smooth stones–just as David did the day he met Goliath on the battlefield. By the way, do you know why David chose 5 smooth stones for his sling? It wasn’t because he thought he would miss. It was because he knew Goliath had 4 brothers who would have been present on that day!
We then made our way back toward Jerusalem, where we stopped off at the ruins of Beth Shemesh, a city given to the Levites long ago. From this site, we heard about the story of Samson (Judges 13-16) whose story takes place, in part, in the area of Beth Shemesh, his girlfiend being from just down the road in Timnah. This was a relatively new dig, but very significant–the most importantt Israelite city in the Sorek Valley (watching traffic from both north and south).
We stopped off at Emmaus-Nicopolis, one of the possible sites of the New Testament Emmaus. There is a Crusader church there that we paused to worship in, led by Mr. David Bill Walker. This is always a special spot as we have moved through the life of Jesus, finally coming to this post-resurrection location … celebrating once again the empty tomb and that Jesus is alive!
We ended our short day back in Jerusalem visiting the Jerusalem Model at the time of the 2nd Temple, along with the Dead Sea Scrolls on display in the Shrine of the Book. We came here primarily because of the Bible, our interest in it. And now we end the tour by seeing some original writings from the Bible. It doesn’t get any better than that…
My thanks to everyone for your continued prayers for us! And my thanks to all participants of this 2015 Pegram Holy Land Tour! It has been both a privilege and a blessing for both Dave & Jean Walker, as well as myself…
Next stop–home! We’re up at 2:30 AM here, hop the bus at 3:30 AM and we’re off to the airport… Pray us home, would you?
Pastor Rom
P.S. I’ll be posting more pictures from the trip here after arriving home…