All right, turn your Bibles tonight to Joshua chapter 10.
Joshua chapter 10, the Kevin's got the idea.
You might want to move up a little closer if you want to be
able to see these especially, especially while the Sun's still
out, kind of bright might be a little bit hard to see.
So, move up if you want to and getting a place where you can
see this pretty well. We talked about Ashkelon last
week, and we talked about gas last week and I'd planned to get
to La Quiche. It's a lot of times it's
pronounced lakish. We pronounce it lakish kind of I
guess in the English pronunciation its Lucky session.
Actually they have that really. It's more like a lot quiche if
you were going to say it in Hebrew but it's everybody
pronounces it like that there's really not any other
pronunciation as far as you know, I've mentioned last week
that that sometimes there Are different pronunciations,
different spellings and things like that depending on where you
are, where you're from there in Israel.
But lucky she's always pronounced the same way so
that's what we'll call it and that's probably what I'll always
call it from now on when I read it in the Bible, I've heard it
so many times now but very very interesting things that happened
here. So this is a The Visitor Center
was actually not open the day that we were there.
I don't know if I think, I think it's actually brand new so I
don't even know if it had been opened period yet but that's
that Remember somebody? Somebody tell me what it what a
tell is this is tell lucky shush, Alex.
Yeah. So a mound, basic a man-made
Mound. That's the, that's an easy way
to say. It's a man-made Mound because it
was torn down a city was built and usually, it was already on
some kind of a little bit of a mound because that's that gave
it a little bit of a strategic position.
And then that City got destroyed somehow or they abandon it
somehow and it fell into disrepair.
They completely covered it up and then took the materials that
were there and built on top of it, and then covered it up and
built on top of it. So many of these tells have
layers and layers of civilization underneath of them.
This one is a pretty obvious picture of a tell.
Really you can, you can kind of tell when it's not a man-made
Mound, especially because most often.
It's just this mound of dirt in the middle of a middle of a
field or something like that, right?
But this is kind of as you're approaching La Quiche from the
outside lucky, she was actually a Canaanite City and it was a
Canaanite city that was conquered by Joshua.
Speaking of Joshua, it's not moving anymore.
I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
Am I reaching you? Is it moving back there?
Nothing's happening. There we go.
Okay, great view of it right there, as well.
I'll explain what you're looking at here in just a second.
But let me, let's read this. In Joshua, chapter 10 and verse
number 31, The Joshua course, this is as they're, they're
coming into the land. In fact, let me do this.
Let me show you on this map. We're lucky she is.
Alright, so here is the Sea of Galilee, okay?
This is the northern, this is Mount Hermon.
This is the north half of Israel.
Try to get in a place where everybody can see it and there's
two sides to this map. If you want to come, look at
this one, doesn't really have a lot of places.
This is more of a topography map of like the mountains in the
Ali's and all that stuff. By the way, I don't know if I've
mentioned this or not but the Dead Sea is the lowest place in
the world. The lowest spot in the world and
the Sea of Galilee is not too far behind it.
As far as far as being a low place.
But anyway, this is the this is the Sea of Galilee course.
The Jordan River runs all the way down into the Dead Sea and
then the Dead Sea doesn't have any outlet and that's why it's
the Dead Sea. There's no, there's nothing
alive in the Dead Sea. Of course, then all the way down
here is the little finger. In fact, Let me, let me, let me
show you this map. So you can get a, maybe a
broader picture of what everything looks like.
Okay, this is the entire land of Israel and Egypt and Jordan and
Saudi Arabia and turkey and Syria.
So this is, that's the entire region.
All right. And that's that'll give you a
pretty good view of what everything looks like here.
So, Israel is basically here, of course, all of this is
Mediterranean Sea. Okay.
Here's Cyprus. But all of this is the land of
Israel and kind of cuts off about right here and then and
then back up this Sway. So all the way down this Edge,
pretty much is Jordan all the way down here.
Saudi Arabia. All the way here is Egypt, this
is the Sinai, Peninsula, right here, which remember the
children of Israel wandered in the wilderness?
That was the area part of the area, where they wandered.
Here's the here's the main Red Sea, and then you've got the two
fingers that are coming off of that and those are actually
considered the Red Sea as well, but one of them, forget what the
what this golf is called Gulf of Suez, I think, is what the one
on the left side is this is the Gulf of Aqaba.
Aqua bra. If you're from the Jordan side
is the Gulf of a lot if you're from the Israel side.
So Israel calls it a lot, Jordan calls it Aqua bra on maps.
Most the time, it's labeled as Aqua but they both have they
both have access to that area. But really, there's a there's
kind of an imaginary line, that's drawn right down the
middle, and Israel has one half of it and Jordan has the other
half of it, but to give you an idea then.
So that's that's where you looking at everything.
In a full picture. Now, this is so this is the top
of that little finger right here.
All right, let me pull this back up, this this, what you're
looking at, on the very bottom, there's the top of this finger
on this side, okay? To give you a picture.
And again, the land of Israel is really not all that big in
total, but Allah quiche. Okay, here's here is, here's
Ashkelon. This is what we talked about
last week, right? Here's a shadow.
That's another one of the major cities of the Philistines like
Keisha is right here. Okay, and I know you can't see
it. It's too small for you to see
but, but the Dead Sea, the Mediterranean Sea.
It's not quite halfway, but it's about that far.
All right, that's what we're talking about.
So obviously, you're near the bottom, then the give K, this is
then to give this is the, this is the desert area where the
children of Israel wandered in the wilderness and all of that
stuff, and of course, then they crossed over the Jordan.
The Jordan River into the land of Canaan and that's when they
started their conquest of Canaan.
What was the first one that they came to and Concord Jericho,
right? Jericho was the first one.
What was in second one? Hey I.
Yeah. And then they get into all the
rest of them after that. But lucky she is one of those
places that they came and and remember it was the land of
Canaan. Right.
So who owns it or whoo-hoo the Canaanites, right?
Yeah. The land of Canaan, the
Canaanites. So it was a Canaanite City when
Joshua and the children of Israel came up to it.
There in Joshua chapter 10, verse 31 and Joshua pass from
Libya and all Israel with him unto Lakeisha.
And encamped against it and fought against it.
And the Lord delivered location to the hand of Israel, which
took it on the second day and smote it with the edge of the
sword and all the souls that were there in.
According to all that he had done to live NE.
So it was within the territory that was allotted to to Judah.
And I have another map here that has all of the tribes of Israel
listed on it. So this is all the land that was
allotted to the tribe of Judah and you Look at this afterwards
as well. It's a pretty interesting little
map. But this is a this kind of a
breakdown of all the different tribes and what they were given
the land of Judah had the land that and of course then the
Judean Wilderness, does anybody know?
And we're going to look at this as well but anybody know what's
significant about the Judean wilderness?
In the New Testament. Jackson.
Yeah, there's there's there's several things he had John, the
Baptist was in the Judean Wilderness, Jesus spent 40 days
and 40 nights in the Judean Wilderness.
And then in the course, the Temptation was right after that
and I'll show you some pictures of the Judean Wilderness.
It's a lot more mountainous, then you would think it would
be. But anyway, this is this is
where Joshua came and some of these.
And so I'm going to I'm going to go through these slides pretty
quickly once we get to some of these because I'm going to kind
of give you some things as I'm telling you, this story that are
going to be on the slides later on.
But lucky she actually became Israel.
Second largest city. It was very, very heavily
fortified very strategically located.
I'm going to show you some pictures off the backside, not
of Lucky shush, but when we get to some of these others and you
can actually see the Strategic position that that they were
actually in. Actually, no, it is, it is in
the, it isn't lucky. She, and I'll show you that when
we get up to the top of like uh but you're only seeing a very,
very small part of the actual city right there, it actually.
Because it gets you get up to the top of that hill and then it
goes back that way. So you really can't see it from
where we're looking at. You'll be able to tell as we get
further into it, but There's maybe a little bit further back.
All right, I think I think we have a picture here in just a
minute of what it actually would have looked like when it was
fully constructed and everything else.
And let me back up a little bit. Okay, I'm going to point this
out to you and you'll have to remember it okay on the far
right side of that. Tell you see what looks like a
bunch of rocks that have fallen down, right?
Okay. I'm going to point that out to
you because it's going to be significant later, all right?
Right. I'll remind you about what that
is but this is again, this is so where you see those the, the
stone wall right there that's going up, which obviously, you
know, the and the guide said, man, this is all brand-new, this
is beautiful and it was actually very very nice the way they did
it with the pathway going up there and everything else.
But that would have actually been the main entrance to the
city. And remember last week, I talked
to you about some some different four-chambered Gates and things
like that. I'm going to give you a picture
of that here just a minute. This is actually some of the old
wall. Now here's something that you'll
notice, and you're going to have to look really close to be able
to see it. I might as umm did a little bit
more but you see this black line right here?
See that and it actually goes all the way up.
You might not be able to see it all that well, but they do this
in almost every place. They put a black line there to
show you where they started building a reconstruction,
everything below that black line is original everything above, it
would have been rebuilt with stones that they found.
It's not like they're, you know, making stones are going to get
them somewhere else, but you can actually kind of see the
difference in the construction in those, you know, in that wall
and really the difference is that was all reconstructed later
on so you could get a better picture of what it actually
looked like. But then, so, you know what's
original? And what's not, they put a
little black line, right there, and kind of, like, at our line
or something like that. That's actually what the, what
the city would have looked like, and you can imagine imagine
coming up to that City. Not only do you have archers and
everybody else with stones, you know, they sling and stones and
shooting arrows, but they would have boiling hot.
Olive oil that they would dump over the edge as people were
coming. I mean, it was, I mean for you
to actually take over a city, that's why so many times.
They actually would lay Siege to a city and try to starve the
people out or, you know, do all the things because it was, I
mean, you lost you would lose a lot of men going up to a city
like that, so like it. Lucky's was a Canaanite.
City was conquered by Joshua, that is a picture of sennacherib
which he'll be significant in just a minute.
There you go. There's a there's where it's at
in relation to the Dead, Sea and Gaza and everything else.
I pointed it out to you there on the map.
It heavily fortified strategic location.
And it was actually located on that major road that went from
Mesopotamia to Egypt. And so that's, that's another
reason why it was such a. So there's there's a couple
things about every tell that you'll find out.
There were always located next to a source of water.
They're always located in a strategic position.
And what's the third one? Oh, come on.
You should know it. I can't remember, I don't know.
But there was always, there was three things and I can't
remember the third one it'll come to me.
But, but that was two of the main things.
They were always located in a strategic position.
Because number one, they wanted to be in a place where they
could charge some kind of money to allow people to pass through,
but also they wanted to be in a position where they could easily
defend themselves. So, many times, these tells are
up in a place where you can see for miles in every direction.
Of course, you know, this is there wasn't really, a chance of
a missile, coming through the air in the 700s BC, right?
You would be able to see a cloud of dust coming if there was an
Army or chariots, or something like that.
And obviously, you have guys that are up on those walls that
are looking for that and would give them plenty of time to be
prepared for an enemy that's coming.
That's what the my love lucky chouette, the administrative
Palace in the background and that City actually had a double
wall again for the same reason, protection mostly, but you had
to get over the First wall. And if you got over the First
wall, then you had to deal with everybody.
That was on the second wall to. So Very, very heavily fortified
and that's that's the that's the reconstructive drawing.
So the path that I pointed out to you, is actually the path
that you see that goes up to that main gate, which I'm going
to show you in just a minute, but you can actually see how big
the city itself really was. It was not a small City at all.
And again, I'll show you. You can see the palace in the
background, pay attention to that.
Because I'm going to show you where the palace where the
palace ruins are today. But you can actually see how big
that Palace is. And so The time of Solomon, the
Jews built roads that led to the gate, so it would give them
further protection. Really?
If an enemy was going to try to get in through the gate, now
they had to come up that road and it funnel them into a tiny
narrow little place, and it gave the gave the, you know, the
people in the city, even a more strategic Advantage.
Not only, you know. So so they're either gonna have
to try to come up the sides of it, which is almost impossible.
I mean, even if you were able to make it to the top of the dirt
area, now you got to try to scale straight up walls, while
you're being shot. Shot at and hot oil dumped on
you, right? So I mean it was not, I mean
these were very well fortified places so they had to get, they
had to get creative on how they, how they attack to these things.
And, of course, that's what we're going to see in just a
minute. But the enemy would be under
Fire from the walls during the entire Advance toward the gates.
Israel was a military Nation, they had their, their Mighty
Men. They understood fortifications
and fighting and all the stuff you see that under Joshua.
Especially they would have seen how well fortified the Canaanite
cities were Right. They would have, they would have
known what they fought against. They would have known.
That's a weakness. We don't want to do that.
All that was good. We want to make sure we do that.
So, and not to mention that they're taking these cities that
are already pretty well fortified.
So even if some of the wall gets broken down, all they have to do
is rebuild a little section of wall and now they have it and
obviously they had God on their side as well, but no matter how
Valiant and well-trained of God was against them, they were
defeated and that happened. Many many times that happened in
our quiche and that's what we're going to talk about.
So Micah in fact, Micah chapter 1 and Verse number 13, says o,
thou inhabitant of La Quiche. Bind The Chariot to the Swift
Beast. She is the beginning of the sin
to the daughter of Zion for the transgressions of Israel were
found in thee. Well, who's she thought?
Who's he talking about found in who lucky shush?
Right? The sins of Israel were found in
Lakeisha and so he said that Lucky shoes were the
transgressions of Israel were found and he's course he's
referring to the idolatry. And Israel.
How many times do we see in the New Testament?
That God told them to stay away, from the Canaanite Gods, stay
away from intermingling and everything else.
And they always went after bail. And after Ash ask Todd in all
these other gods, right? And how many times it got have
to punish them for going after these other gods.
But that's exactly what happened here.
Oh, there's Michael 113. But you see the city there as
well. Now sennacherib was the king of
Assyria. He led a campaign into Judah in
701 BC. All right.
Now sennacherib this is 2nd Chronicles 31, king of Assyria
came and entered into Juna Judah, and encamped against the
fence cities and thought to win them for himself.
Now again this is pretty significant because a lot of
people try to Discount the fact that there really was an Israel
or that, they were a force to be reckoned with or that they were
some, you know, some kind of prize, but sennacherib who is
one of the greatest Kings in that era, wanted Israel for
himself. And again, for a Lot of reasons.
And as we get up into Jerusalem and Galilee area and all this
stuff, we'll talk a little bit more about that, but to put it
in perspective. Hezekiah was the king during
that time. Hezekiah was in his 14th year.
As the king Hezekiah was a pretty good King.
They had a few things that he did that were that were serious
mistakes but the seeds of lucky she is mentioned in second
Kings, chapter 18, verse 14, through 17.
In fact, here's what I'd like you to do turn over to Second
Chronicles 32. Because that's that's also where
it's mentioned. And I want to read a little bit
of that passage actually. But sennacherib was it was the
king of Assyria and see if I can show it to you on the map here.
This is not really an it doesn't have the old.
It's not labeled on here, at least that I can see anyway, but
all the land that Israel had taken over and I should have
looked at it ahead of time, but all the land that Israel had
taken over and had conquered from the Canaanites and from the
Assyrians and the jebusites and the Hittites, and all those that
got mentioned over and over and over again.
Well, now they're starting to want some of their land back and
this is Generations later. But second chronicles, 32, and
verse number 1, after these things, and the establishment,
they're of sennacherib Bob King of Assyria came and entered into
Judah and encamped against the fenced cities and thought to win
them for himself. Now this is interesting because
again Archaeology is backing up the Bible.
There's not a question that sennacherib was a king who lived
and had great might And his name, his his name is right
there in the Bible and it says that he wanted to come and take
the Israelites in his for himself.
What we're going to read a little bit more of that passage
in a minute. But in fact, let's read it right
now, verse number 2. And when Hezekiah saw that
sennacherib was come and that he was purpose to fight against
Jerusalem. Now guy here is let me let me,
let me show you this so you can see.
Okay, La Quiche is here. Okay, here's Lucky's Jerusalem
is here, so you're not talking You're really talking about
probably 15 or 20 miles which for an army is nothing, right?
I mean they can March 15 or 20 miles in you know, maybe the
better part of a day less even as an army marching.
If they were on a mission, they could get there in half a day if
they had to. So he saw, and he realized that
snacker was getting ready to come up and fight against
Jerusalem. He took counsel with his
princes, and his mighty men to stop the Waters of The
Fountains, which were without the city, and they did help him.
So there were was gathered, much people together who stopped all
the fountains in the brook that ran through the midst of the
land saying, why should the kings of Assyria come and find
much water? Also, he strengthened himself
and built up all the wall that was broken.
And by the way, we're going to look at some of this stuff a
little bit later when we get to Jerusalem and raise it up to the
towers and another wall without and repaired Millo, and the City
of David and make darts and shields in abundance and they
set Captain War over the people and gather them together to him
in the street of the Gate of the city at speak, comfortably to
them saying, be strong and courageous.
And Be not Afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for
all the multitude that is with him.
For there being more with us, than with him, with him is an
arm of flesh. But with us is the Lord, Our
God, to help us and to fight our battles.
And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king
of Judah. After this, did sennacherib King
of Assyria, sent his servants to Jerusalem, but he himself laid
Siege against lucky. She and all his power with him,
onto Hezekiah king of Judah and unto all Judah that were at
Jerusalem saying Saying thus saith sennacherib king of
Assyria. We're on.
Do you trust that you abide in The Siege in Jerusalem?
This is right here, this is exactly what we're talking
about. And so, he laid Siege against,
like, quiche 14th year. I went, I went the wrong way.
The hill at that location was situated on.
This is actually I told you that this is from Brother.
David Cloud, dr. David clouds think so some of
his are mixed in here a little bit.
So, to avoid a direct assault on The City Gate, of course, for
the reasons that we just talked about.
There was not much of an opportunity to actually directly
Assault. The City Gate, the Assyrians
built a Siege ramp up, the southwest corner of the hill to
attack the walls at a weaker point.
Now that was something that was really not heard of at that
point. But you remember that picture
that I showed you that was where the siege ramp was and literally
what they did is they just went and got all kinds of dirt and
stone and anything they could find and they laid it next to
the city so they can walk right up the walls right up that see
dreamt that they made and walk right over the walls.
But what are they going to do? Nothing that the Israelites can
do at that point. All right, so and not to mention
it will talk about this in a little bit but they had they
there was a lot of men. There was a they had they had
all kinds of military instruments when it comes to
Shields to protect them. And that's what they did.
The shields were there, protecting them from anything
that they threw at them from the city as they were building this
Siege ramp. And And they had they shot back.
They had arrows and slings and everything else.
So from the Syrian side, the siege of lucky she is described
in a series of best reliefs found in scenarios Palace and
Nineveh. Now that's where that's where
snacker of came from the Assyrians Nineveh was the
capital of Assyria. Here.
We were talking about that in a little bit too, because we
actually went to the city that Jonah fled to Joppa and you
start to hear some of the things about the Assyrians.
They were ruthless evil people. Ooh and no wonder Jonah ran the
other direction. But Nineveh was worsen akram's
Palace was at and it was so significant to him what he did
there at La Quiche that he actually lined the entire inside
of one of his rooms in his palace with best reliefs.
All right. And let me see, that's that's
actually how big it is. Now that's that's actually in
the British museum. They have a lucky shroom in the
British museum but in the Israel Museum where we went and I'll
show you some pictures of these. As we get closer, there's going
to be a couple of them on here, but they've actually recreated
reconstructed it if you will and put portions of that in the
Israel Museum which we were able to see, they found the actual
ones and put them in the British museum where you can see.
And again, these bass reliefs depicting, great detail,
everything that happened at La Quiche and it lines up exactly
with the Bible's account or so. As an artist rendering now
that's wrong because that actually shows them and makes it
look like they're going in, through the front gate.
They didn't actually put it there, you can see exactly where
it was that. But here's here's part of the
best reliefs, all right? And so it's just this big long
picture. It's almost like it's almost
like if you were to take a movie and take every scene from the
movie and make a picture out of it, that's essentially what they
were doing. But you can see then the
Assyrians attacked was slings. They attacked with the arrows.
They They pushed five battering engines up.
The Siege ramp to destroy the walls in there.
It's kind of hard to see. I'll try to give you a second to
look at these. I want to want to keep moving
but it really, really interesting things.
I mean and and number one the artistry for them to be able to
depict exactly what's happening here.
You can see it. That's a little bit closer view
of it but you can see. So here's the here's the
battering ram and that's what they used to get up into it.
Let's see. Yeah, the city wall into
Defenders are on the top. Okay, there's a little bit of
labeling on here, but the Assyrian archers are here.
The captives, the battering engines are here and you can see
there's a guy in that battering Engine with an arrow that he's
getting ready to shoot up there. Of course the long spear thats
hanging off the front. That's what they would have used
to just knock the walls down and they're completely protected in
there, so it worked really well. But there's the, there's the
crew with the battering rams for soldiers and Archer, and a
shield, holder and operator for the Rams bettering our ERM
Amanda doused, the tank with water to extinguish the fire
bombs that were being thrown from the woman.
They had, they were prepared. They had everything that they
needed. There's a little bit closer.
Picture of that. The Jewish prisoners are.
So here's some of the things that they did, the Jewish
prisoners were impaled and you can see him hanging on the top
of the spears, right? That's from saying the Assyrians
were not nice people. In fact, here's some other ones.
There were flayed alive. I mean, they literally cut them
and peel their skin off. While they were, while they were
still alive the same way that you would gut a deer or
something, right? Their heads were cut off.
On fact, actually have a pile of heads.
A lot of the Jews heads were Keep them piles.
And that little thing that you see down there is a pilot Jewish
heads that were all cut off during the during this battle.
And all of these things are being depicted on the wall.
Think he wasn't proud of what he did.
He was proud of it, then the survivors were driven away as
slaves, and their goods were confiscated.
In fact, I'm going to tell you about Masada.
Not going to do it tonight, but Masada is another one where they
knew the reputation, and they were so set on not being
captured and we'll talk about that.
But but they were not nice to the Purrs Isaiah 316 through 26
die. Men shall fall by the by The
Sword, and I'm Mighty and War and our gate shall lament and
mourn and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.
Talking about lucky, she surviving Jewish leaders were
brought before sennacherib as he sat on his throne, of course
they were, you know, they were leaders.
So they were made to Bow before him and all these other things.
And again, all these are part of those bass reliefs that are
located there, but the panel is inscribed with the words
sennacherib king of the world, king of Assyria, Uh set upon a
throne in the captives of lucky she passed before it.
That's what it says. On the on the best relief there
underneath those pictures amazing it were made to Bow
before their captors. Now think this is also pretty
interesting to notice their appearance they had short hair,
of course there were roads but they had, you know beards and
short hair. Here's a little bit closer,
picture of it. Those are the leaders being
carried away and you see this guy, the front being made to Bow
before sennacherib. There's some copies of the best
relief. That's actually some of the ones
from the Israel Museum. Those are just copies of what
they have in the in the British museum.
That's the actual real thing. But So there's the seed rent
there's The City Gate, lots of excavations have been done in
Lucky since the 1930s and they found all kinds of things there
and and really just everything that they see perfectly lines up
with the Bible account and with snack ribs account.
So they know that this is the place and that's the remnant of
the front gate. That's left there is that there
is The Siege ramp, okay? Now this is, this is zoomed in a
little bit of the picture that I showed you before, but that's
the actual Siege ramp. They walked It right up the side
of that thing and right over the walls and of course these the
battering rams and everything else.
Now this is standing up there at the top that's what the siege
ramp look like from from above. I'm going to point this out to
you in just a second and it'll actually be a slide where you
can see it but but you go all the way down the hill and then
you start to go back up the hill.
And actually now it's a it's a cow Farm.
They milked cows and everything else there, but that's actually
worse than a crib had stationed himself.
Of during The Siege so he can watch everything that was
happening. Far enough away that he was away
from the danger, but he could still see everything going on.
That's another picture of The Siege ramp and you can just see
all the different depressions and things like that in the
ground from where he was at. In fact, the the gray area of
there is actually where that Barn is that and that's where
sennacherib was sitting there. Watching the entire thing,
watching them build the siege ramp watching them, you know.
Tear everybody out of there and then bring them before him,
another picture of The Siege ramp there.
So there's the neck rubs location during the seeds that's
where he was situated. And of course this little thing
here what you're looking at is the gate that's going all the
way up to the top. They found all kinds of stuff
sling, Stones, 850 arrowheads, lance-heads, all kinds of other
things, proving that there was a very serious battle that took
place there. Those are some of the stones
that they would that they would. Oh and in fact the next one is
there's a size of a man's fist compared to those stones.
So they're big. I mean if you got hit with one
of those things you're not You're not going to live.
If you got hit in the head especially but again,
arrowheads, those are all on display at the British museum.
And there's so that's the gate that was fully excavated 13 feet
tall, 80 feet wide and 80 feet deep, the largest known gate of
the first temple period. So this is first temple.
Period goes all the way back to the 700s BC and that's where
talking there, but six-chambered gate and actually see the
picture of that from the top. You can, you can very clearly
see three of the chambers. And the other three chambers
would be on the other side, okay?
Now the ones that are on the, if you're looking at it, the ones
that are on the right side are original.
The ones that are on the left side are rebuilt.
So you could actually see what it looked like.
And obviously, you can kind of tell that from there but they
would do all kinds of things in there.
It would, they would, they would use it for storage.
They would more than likely the first.
First two would be soldiers would be stationed in there so
if anybody's trying to come Through the gate, they would be
able to stop them there. They would have used it for
business City business. You know, any number of things
that would have happened there, there's a picture of It from the
ground there, and as you're walking up, you can see the
chambers. All right.
I'm going to show you some pictures pretty quickly of those
chambers but you can see see how the chambers are there.
All right. And then and then, where that
fence is your actually, this, this is kind of the main gate
area, then when you walk in there, you actually get into the
six, Chambers, the six-chambered areas.
Right here. So this is the everything on the
left is pretty much original. Everything on the right is
pretty much rebuilt with materials that they found there
but you see they're not huge rooms but they're pretty big.
I mean you think about 80 feet I mean this Auditorium front the
back is like 53 feet or something like that so if you
have a gate that's 80 feet deep there's quite a bit of room in
it, right? There's that's what more of what
it would look, what it looked like inside there.
That's looking at it once you're through the gate looking back at
it. There's some of the different
little Chambers in there. That's, that's a lot of the
original stuff on the original side.
All right? There you go, some, some more of
the actual Chambers and how they would have looked back then.
All right. That is the ruins of the palace
that we looked at and told you to kind of keep that in your
mind. That's what's left of it.
There is that's Lucky's from the top.
So I am up standing right there. I was not, I was not even all
the way over where the siege ramp was not quite as far over
as that, but You can see how actually opened that would have
been and how many, how many things they would have been able
to fit their, you see the path that's going there.
And it's and it's very hard to tell probably from where you
are, but those are people on there.
So that'll give you a kind of a bigger better picture of it and
of how it actually, how big it actually is.
This is somebody walking right here.
Okay, somebody walking in that corner.
I guess that's the only two but this this year would have been
where the palace was. All of this would have been
houses for the most part and places of business things like
that. I'll just go through these kind
of quickly and give you some more of these pictures.
So this is looking and talking about a strategic location,
okay? That's the Judy and Highlands
there in the background that you're looking at, but you can
see from miles and miles and miles from the top of that, that
tell. And again for very obvious
reasons, they wanted to be able to see anything that was coming.
These are some of the ruins of the houses, that would have been
in there. And they've done a lot of
excavations through there, that's kind of looking from the
back. Looking back up at the top,
where the palace Was again for a couple of reasons.
The palace was built higher number one, it gave it a little
bit more of a strategic position.
They would have to take the lower spots first, if there were
trying to conquer it before they got to the Palace but also
remember they didn't have air condition or anything like that.
And so the higher you were the more likely you were to be
exposed to some more air flow and what it made it cooler
during the summer for the for the king, there's the palace but
a lot of Kings actually had went Enter Palace isn't summer
palaces, and they would, you know, depending on what season
it was. They would go there because it
was a lot more comfortable and they could do whatever they
wanted. So they did it.
That's actually what the palace would have looked like, I took a
picture of it didn't turn out really great so I didn't put it
in here. But see that little hole on the
top, it actually had an overlay of of the existing structure
that still there with the palace.
On top of it. Not a great picture, but that's
what the palace would have looked like they're in the
middle of La Quiche. That's looking down from like
quiche and so you can see again how just how vast that area.
Is the Judy and Highlands again are in the background but just
gives you a picture of how strategic that position really
was and how much they could see as things were coming.
Now, this was one of those chambers the benches where the
judges in the city Elder set are still there, you can still see
them, that's what extent means. But those are the benches that
Beersheba at the Beersheba gate, but the ones that Lucky's were
very, very similar to that and I actually had an arm arm rest on
those. There's some of the excavations
that we're going on there like quiche and everything that they
found their backs, everything up to the Bible says, from the
idolatry. And they found all kinds of
little figurines of Baal and all kinds of stuff.
All kinds Kinds of things that they found that that proves
exactly what the Bible says. That that this was kind of a
seat of idolatry and God was going to destroy it and
obviously you see that's exactly what happened.
So Mike identified locations the place where the transgressions
were found and of course, Northern Israel is idolatry and
they found all of that stuff. But obviously than Josiah, he
removed the high places break the pillars cut down the after I
break in pieces. The Brazen serpent that Moses
had made for under those days. The children of Israel did burn
incense to and he called it. The who stood on this is pretty
interesting to, they found a toilet in the bail chamber, but,
but we're eating second Kingston and 27 how that Jake who made
the bail Temple and Samaria into a toilet.
And I think that's pretty interesting.
That's, you know, likeness of what it would have been.
Me, let me, let me have you turn 21 last passage here in second
Kings chapter 19. One last passage about.
Brother, Josh while we're doing this, can you go to the next
one? Second Kings, 19 verse 32.
Therefore thus said the Lord concerning the king of Assyria,
who is the king of Assyria. Sennacherib.
He shall not come into this city.
What city? No Jerusalem, he conquered
lucky, shush. He's talking about Jerusalem
there, he's not going to come into Jerusalem and God God's
talking Hezekiah here. I should have should have give
you a little background but he shall not come into this city,
nor shoot an arrow there. Nor come before it was Shield
nor cast a bank against it. What's a bank against it?
Yeah. Siege ramp, right?
I mean, God's talking about exactly what just happened in
the quiche, right? And God saying, that's not going
to happen to Jerusalem. Jerusalem were Hezekiah.
Was that was actually experiencing somewhat of a
Revival like quiche didn't and so God destroyed them.
But he told Hezekiah it's not going to happen here by the way
that he came by the same, shall he return?
Well, sennacherib was a powerful powerful King and he had a huge
army with him, and they were just rolling over these places.
What's to keep him. From coming into Jerusalem
nothing but God, right? But God said the same way that
he came in as the same way that he's going to go out and shall
not come into this city. Say at the Lord, for I will
defend this city to save it for my own sake and for my servant
David sake and it came to pass that night.
That the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the
Assyrians and 104 score and 5,000, it's 185 thousand men.
And when they arose early in the morning behold they were all
dead Corpses. So sennacherib king of Assyria
departed and went and returned and dwelt at Nineveh.
He came back, went back the same way that it came in and it came
to pass as he was worshipping. And the house of Nish Rock his
God that Ajram Alec and Sherry sir.
His sons smote him with the sword and they escaped into the
land of Armenia and Sr had in his son, reigned in his stead.
So God said, okay snacker of you can go ahead and take like
quiche there, they've sinned against me, they've turned
against me, you're not coming into Jerusalem and that night.
Right as they Camp. God killed 185 thousand
Assyrians. He woke up the next morning and
it's just nothing but a see a dead bodies, and he cut his
losses and went back to Nineveh and when he was worshiping in
the house of his God, his sons, his own Sons came in and killed
him. If that's not God's hand on his
chosen nation and on his City Jerusalem, I don't know what is
All right, don't over the 1st. Samuel 17 is a very familiar
story to you. Oh let me show you this.
While you're turning over that groover in National Park is
actually, and this is just very, very short, we stopped here on
the way through this is actually an Amphitheater.
Now, there's a difference between a theater and an
Amphitheater, okay? You've probably you've heard of
a theater and a lot of times somebody will come in and say,
oh, look at the amphitheater, it's not an Amphitheater, it's a
theater, a theater was something where they would perform plays
and readings and things like that on a Stage and Amphitheatre
is one where I had seating all the way around it, all right and
that's what this was. Okay?
Amphitheatre is a structure that typifies Roman culture.
It was used for Gladiator. Combat public displays military
training had enough seats for 3500 people.
And that's all in Ruins. I mean a lot of the seating has
been redone. It's just wooden back.
Then it would more than likely have been Stone and all of them
were but it was built on a foundation of a series of barrel
vaults which you see those all the way through.
And if you kept going around, you'd see him all the way around
there. But the the Arches were used as
service tunnels for the arena. And I'll show you one of those
in a second. But the amphitheater was in use
for over 200 years until his damaged by an earthquake in 83
63. Old, this thing is, but there's
the underneath of the amphitheater.
That's where the animals were kept.
So when they and, and again, lots and lots, and lots and lots
of blood spilled in that, in that Arena, right there.
Christians that were killed. Christians, that were made to
fight each other Christians that were made to fight Gladiators
Christians that were made to fight wild animals.
That's where the wild animals would have been kept before they
were released. So this is actually, this is the
entrance. What you're seeing right here is
the entrance into that. Into the amphitheater.
And so this would have been here.
If you went out that side, you would actually see the same
Arena that we just looked at. There's some different that was
that was a like a little trough that went all the way around it
as a little bit of a way of protection that's looking at it
from the outside a couple different pictures there.
So it was a it was a real quick stop but it was a pretty
interesting stop and we actually have some more good pictures of
an Amphitheater here later on, but the valley of elah.
And I'm going to try to cover this fairly quickly, but I want
you to be able to see some of these pictures.
So Really the the allow Valley. The valley of elah, it's It's
called both but obviously what happened there.
Does anybody remember Riley? David fought Goliath, right?
And it's all still there. The battle between David and
Goliath. 14 miles west of Bethlehem, where David came from
that morning. What was he doing in Bethlehem?
Then the Sheep right? That's what he did.
He was just a young man. He won the kid but Bethlehem is
right here. Okay, here's the Dead Sea.
Here's the Mediterranean Sea. Here's here is lucky.
She hears Bethlehem and it's not marked on this map where a law
is at but 14 miles, west of Bethlehem, okay?
So some were right in this area is where where the valley of a
law is and where David fought Goliath?
And you can kind of see it right there, there's there's Ashkelon,
there's ashdod, there's ekron, there's gas, those were all
those five, get Gaza Ashkelon ashdod, ekron and gather the
five major Philistine cities and of course, this is right in the
middle of it. So the the Egyptian I mean the
Philistines and the Israelites were constantly at war with each
other for a period of time there.
But they wanted to push East and Conquer Israel's territory.
And that battle was a major event in the war.
Well, obviously, they were at a standoff You know, the story,
right? But let's, let's look at verse
number one, second first, Samuel 17 one.
Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle,
and we're gathered together at Soco, which is how you say that,
which belongs to Judah and pitched between, So Co and has a
car in FS, damn him. All right.
Now, when I give you some pictures of this, okay?
That's where it's labeled. There is where the Philistines
were encamped. That was so cool.
And then what you see down there in the middle, that wide-open
field is the valley of elah ha. And then this hill, which didn't
really have a name, is where Israel was camped.
Well actually does it say that? Yeah, they It only says where
the Philistines were at but they because they had a huge huge
line and a huge position. So there's the allow Valley.
Israel of course then verse number 2, Saul in the men of
Israel were gathered together and pitched by the valley of
elah and set the battle in Array against the Philistines.
I've got some other pictures of this that I think is going to
help you see it a little bit better in just a second.
But verse number 3 and the Philistine stood on a mountain
on the one side and Israel, stood on a mountain on the other
side and there was a valley between them well in the Bible.
As they stood on the mountain, they were actually standing on a
mountain. I mean, it's not, you know, it's
not Mount Everest, but it's high.
It's really high and you'll see a picture of that in a second.
There's so this is Israel was on the left Philistines were on the
right? This is looking East toward
Bethlehem. Okay?
And here's some some some better pictures of it there, see how
big that actually is the field and all of that stuff there so
that the Philistines were up on this hill and Soco.
There's the valley of your law and then you had Israel that
were up here. And you think, you know, how
did, how did Goliath here? I mean, how did the Israelites
here, Goliath shouting well? Number one, there was no traffic
noise, right? I mean, when you're standing
there in the valley below, there's there's a road running
right behind you, and you here. A lot of traffic and everything
else. None of that would have been
there. Of course, the Israelites were
pretty scared and it's pretty obvious by the story that they
were pretty scared of Goliath, right?
We didn't actually do it but as I watched a video of a somebody
that was that was there and his wife was standing up where the
Israelites would have been and he ran all the way down into the
valley about about a third of the way and he said, send me a
man is why should I can hear you like?
You're standing right next to me.
So I'm going to go a little farther and he went to Two
thirds of the way and same thing.
He went all the way to the other side.
He hollered send me a man to fight and she's like, I can hear
you. And you can hear him and her
talking to each other. I mean, they're yelling but not
that loud. So you got a man like Goliath,
who was as big as he was with probably a booming voice and and
you know they would have understood that Goliath was no
small guy and nobody would have wanted to fight him.
So there's some more pictures of it.
May be a little bit better picture of the the mountain that
the Israelites. Were on.
There you go. That's a lot better picture of
it. That's our group.
Somebody in our group brought a drone and I went a lot of fly at
every place. You're not allowed to fly it
into any of the national parks or anything like that.
But actually gave us some pretty good perspectives.
So I'm going to show you the the Eli Brooke here in just a
minute. But I wanted to point it out
with arrows on here so you can see this is actually a road that
kind of keeps going there. So that you'll have Brooke
starts here and goes around kind of back toward the mountain
where the Israelites would have been at.
But that's that is Brooke that David would have taken the
stones out of obviously, it's dry most of the year.
It's dry only for only during the really heaviest rainy
season. Is there any water in that book?
But there it is. That's the Brooke.
I mean, it is. I mean, look at it.
There's not much to it, right? And I brought back a bunch of
stones from the from the brook and I've got them here.
So I'll give one to every family.
When we get finished tonight, you can pick one and take it
home with you. And leave it sitting somewhere
if you want to. There's the brook and the road
actually keeps going the brook turns and goes back toward the
mountain there. Again, there it is.
That's where it turns and goes back.
Very, very small. I mean, you think I don't know
what and my mind, I don't know what I thought before because
now this is all I see when I think about it, but I think as a
kid, especially I thought it was this massive Brooke that he had
to Wade through to get to the other side to go fight Goliath
and he picked up some stones on his way past.
Well, no, wonder he pick stones out of the brook, it was no
water in it, you know, and it was very easy for him to just
pick a few stones and keep going.
So that's that's where it was at now.
The Things. So, the hill that we were just
looking at is the one right there, where it shows you that
Israel was was that and then you have So Co and the valley of
elah and then, but the Philistines Camp, the Philistine
line went from Sokol all the way around to Oz a car.
For, for David, to be able to go and fight Goliath and have a
winner-take-all battle, was a huge Advantage for the
Israelites. They were surrounded almost and
the filler. I mean, you could just imagine
everywhere you look there was Philistines camped and Israel
was on that little spot right there and they didn't have a lot
of people and I'm surprised the Philistines didn't just you know
attack and you know take them over but what for obviously God
knew what he was doing but Philistines gathered together
their armies to battle and we're gathered together at so Yoko.
Which belongs to Judah and pinched between pitch between So
Co. And as a car, which is way way.
And I'm going to show you a video here in a second.
All right. This is it, okay?
So this is the valley of elah. That's what we're looking at,
right here. That's what we're standing in
over here is Soco where the where the Philistines were at
And it doesn't, it doesn't give you.
I don't know why it gets so choppy.
It works fine on my computer and we put it on that one back there
and it gets choppy but look how wide that is.
And it's just a bad but look how much land the Philistines had
where all their people were. I was a car is the tallest spot
right there. See that little that little spot
in between the trees, that's that's as a car where the
Philistines rat they had all of that land all the way around.
Now, what you're going to see here is the is the mountain that
the Israelites and where he's walking right, there is actually
in the brook. But that's that's that's the
spot that the Israelites had the Philistines, had everything else
all the way around there. Pretty amazing, pretty amazing.
So they gathered a hill on the northeast side That's the valley
of elah in the middle. That's the Philistines
northernmost flank that's Ozzy cos zoomed in as we were
leaving. We were able to get some good
pictures of it, just because it was so far away, it really was
amazing. So, in fact, let's look back in
first Samuel 17, verse number 4. And there went out a champion
out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of
gath, which we talked about and we were there, remember?
Or we saw it whose height was six.
Cubits, and a span. How tall is that?
9 foot 9 inches pretty much. All right?
And he had a helmet of brass upon his head and he was armed
with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat, was 5000
shekels of brass. Guess, we don't have the actual.
Oh yeah, yeah. Made of brass plates arranged
like the scales of a fish that weight about 125 pounds.
How much do you weigh Jackson? About that, right?
Well, Bryan's 125. So imagine walking around with
Brian on your back. Now, you'd be dead, you know, I
don't do any of that, but I think Jackson's, I think roughly
125 no less than that. Okay, so, so, so carrying around
this coat of mail, that's that's even heavier than probably Alex
and Riley combined, right? I mean, that's, That's Heavy.
It's a big guy, I'm not gonna imagine how big Goliath must
have been but verse number 6, in the end, he had Greaves of brass
upon his legs and a target of brass between his shoulders and
the staff of his spear was like a Weaver's beam.
And the spears head weighed 600 shekels of iron 15 pounds.
And one bearing a shield went before him and he stood and
cried into the armies of Israel. Instead of them.
Why are you come out to set your battle in Array?
Am I not a Philistine? I'm not a Philistine and you
servants to Saul choose, you a man for you and let him come
down to me. If he be able to fight with me
and to kill me, then will be your servants.
But if I Prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our
servants and serve us. The Philistine said I defy the
armies of Israel. This day, give me a man.
That we may fight together. So there's Goliath, defier
defied, the armies of Israel and he cursed them in the name of
his false gods. In fact.
Let's look at look at verse number 43.
I'm not I'm the wrong passage. Let me get there.
First Samuel 17, verse number, 43.
And the Philistine said on a David, am I a dog that they'll
come to me, with staves and the Philistine cursed David by his
Gods. So cursing cursing, and of
course, David understood that it was it was God's honor.
That was at stake. It was more than just that.
But verse 17 and 18 were or were there.
We can go back and look at that. Look at that passage, if you
want to look at it there where you can look at it up on the
screen. Jesse said in a David his son
take now for that brother and thief of this parched corn, the
Ten Loaves and run to the camp to thy Brethren.
Carry these ten Cheese's under the captain of their house of
their thousands and all thy Brethren fair and take their
pledge. See how they're doing, come back
and let me know, David Rose up early in the morning and left
the sheep with a keeper and took and went as Jesse had commanded
him and he came to the trench as the host was going forth to
fight each other for the battle. So David understood again that
the issue was God's testimony and he volunteered to fight.
David wasn't trusting in a sling.
He was trusting in living God and you read through some of
those other passages. And again, it's Saul there.
And for Samuel 17 might be helpful for you to read it
again, but all of, that's there. And basically, David said that
exact thing I'm not coming at you.
With, with all these things, I'm coming at you, in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ, right? The Lord, Our God, but this is
good, verse 45 and verse 46. Then said, David to the
Philistine. Now, comes to me with a sword
and with a spear and with a shield, but I come to thee, in
the name of the Lord of hosts, the god of the armies of Israel.
Whom thou Hast defied this day, will the Lord deliver the end of
my hand and I will smite thee, and take dine head from thee.
Can you imagine Goliath hearing that?
Some you know, David's not a little kid by the way, a lot of
people, you know, a little Shepherd boy who 10, 12 years
old and he's out there, you know, I'm gonna take your head
from you, you know. He's that's not it mean David
was, you know, he was he was getting toward a grown man at
that point. But everybody could still tell
that he was a young man, right? And to hear.
I mean, this is their champion, and he's saying to him.
I'm going to take your head off and then he continues and I'll
give the carcass of the host of the Philistines this day under
the FAA. Fowls of the air into the wild
beasts of the earth that all the Earth.
May know that there is a God in Israel, that's a strong
statement and that is some serious Faith, because if
Goliath had gotten ahold of David, he could have snapped
them in half if he wanted to. But again, David wasn't this
little boy, that's, that's depicted.
In a lot of the children's stories.
He was a brave. Strong young man, had fought, a
lion had fought a bear. I mean, he's not a 10 year, old
kid out there. Watching sheep killing Bears,
right? So he's probably around the 18,
20 years old. He said that I went out after
Him smote him, delivered him out of mouth.
Caught him by the beard smote him, and slew him.
That's actually an Asian lion and we didn't get a chance to go
to the Israel Zoo. But the Jerusalem Zoo, the
Jerusalem Biblical Zoo has as many of them as are still alive
because there's some of them that are extinct animals that
are in the Bible. There's, there's the lion and
now there's a bear the Syrian brown bear is actually extinct
and Israel now, but but that's the type, that David fought and
it's not as big as a North American Grizzly but It's 550
pounds. If it took that thing on, By
himself. Can you imagine that?
And that's the Syrian brown bear.
You see? The hump on the back?
That's the mark of a grizzly. I mean, that's a big animal.
It's a big animal and David, David killed killed, the bear.
This is actually pretty interesting, the Byzantine
mosaics, because a lot of the Crusaders actually.
Okay, so here at Crusader night is fighting a Grizzly.
They are actually the ones that made them as think.
It was a way to prove your manhood and improve your honor
and your bravery to go out and kill a lion or bear with the
sword. So they killed so many of them,
there's nothing left and but they depicted that in the Mosaic
there, and that that Mosaic is actually in the, the Israel
Museum. I'll show you some pictures of
that a little bit later, but this is interesting as well.
You know, a lot of people telling the story, you know, put
Saul's armor on it. David was walking around like
this and he couldn't, you know, he couldn't handle it because he
was this little kid in the armor was too big, and he told Saul, I
can't wear that it was not that the armor was too big, he hadn't
proved it, and that's exactly what the Bible says there.
In 1st, Samuel 17 fact, if you want to look there and Verse 38,
right? Saul arm David with his armor
and he put on helmet of brass upon his head.
Also, he armed him with a coat of mail and David, girded his
sword upon his armor and his say, to go it fit him, he was
ready to go with that armor. For he had not proved it and
David said, unto Saul, I cannot go with these four.
Have not proved them, David put them off and he said I've never
really fought in this stuff, right?
I don't feel comfortable in and I don't feel like I can move
around the way that I need to. It's not that he they didn't fit
him or that he was this tiny little kid and Saul's big
Armory, you know, looks like a kid and his dad's boots or
something like that. He just he just he didn't proved
it so he didn't wear it. That's that's the only reason
why before David killed Goliath, he played his heart for Always
described as a man of war and a mighty Valiant man.
There you go. He was probably 18 to 20 years
old. Not, you know, I mean again not
you know, not some 40 year old hardened battle lawyer or
something like that, but he was not a little kid like he's often
depicted. Now this is this is the last
thing here and I wanted to get to shore.
I am because that's where that's where the the Philistine Army.
Fled. There's a lot of pictures there
that wanted to show you, and we're not going to come to do
that tonight. So but the care of Tree.
And that's right there in the valley of elah that's Azure.
So can't really tell, but where I was standing probably in that
picture was in the brook. So you walk down and you can
kind of see how it's starting to come back up, that's coming back
up the other side, but that there is a carob tree there in
the valley and little bit closer, picture of it, but the
seeds of the Caribou are actually used as a unit for
weight and measure so an ephah How do you, how do you figure
out how big an ephah is? Well, it was measured and
weighed based on the size of the carob seeds.
And so that's a carob tree there.
And I think, I think maybe I'll have another picture of one a
little bit later on. I don't think I actually got a
picture of a carob seed, nothing was growing at the time.
You know, it was green obviously, but you'll see if you
go in and look at some pictures of Israel.
And think that's the last one. Make sure.
Oh sure, Ryan. So well.
Do that one later. There's a lot there that I want
to show you. I think it's very interesting
and we're out of time, but Where was I going with that, right for
that. Does anybody remember what I
said? Go back and listen to it real
quick. Well, thanks everybody for
listening. No kidding.
The what? Sure.
Am. Which Edgewood that just popped
up and that's what distracted me.
The trees. Oh, that's what?
Okay, thank you. Everybody was listening, good.
If you go back to any pictures, let's say and you look up a
place you like, you might look up the valley of a law on Google
and it shows up and everything is brown.
And some of the places that we went, I didn't even recognize,
when I went to look it up because I was trying to, I
wanted to make sure that I had my location.
Correct. And so, I went to look it up and
I said, and I typed it in and I was like, even look like the
same place, everything's Brown. Well, a couple of weeks before
we went, they had a bunch of rain and just that quick,
everything turned green. I mean, few days before we came.
And so, I mean, you see how you can't see it anymore, but how
how beautiful that Valley and how green that Valley was and
how all the trees had their leaves on and everything else?
I mean, and they basically say that for for most of the time
through the winter doesn't get that cold, but everything's
Brown and dead and the rains hit and everything turns green
overnight. And so we hit a Beautiful,
beautiful time. It rained on our way from the
airport to our hotel, on the first night.
And then for two solid weeks, there was no rain in the rainy
season in Israel. It's a pretty amazing thing.
Brother Cloud said, he said I've been to Israel 10 times and
every time I pray that we'd have great weather and not have to
not be able to go see a place because of how because the rain
and he said in 10 trips here. Always right around the same
time. It's never rained once And
that's a pretty amazing thing. I mean, the guide our guide was
like, I can't believe it hasn't rained.
I mean, we always get rain during this time of year, at
least at least a day where he's like, I can't believe it, you
know, but God gave us that great weather and just, I mean, could
not ask for better skies for the pictures and everything else and
we just turned out beautifully. So anyway, I hope that's hope
that gives you a little bit better picture of what, you
know, I mean, how many times have you read the story of David
and Goliath and probably pictured in your mind?
What the valley looked like in? Everything else that's it.
That's what it looked like, and pretty amazing.
So if you want to go back and look at some of those pictures
again, but yeah, I guess you can go back and watch the live
stream or watch the watch the message again, if you wanted to,
but I posted a lot of these pictures on my Facebook.
So as soon as I'm out of Facebook jail or whatever they
call it, as soon as I get my account back, then you should.
I think you could still go on there and see it now but you can
you can go back and maybe look at some of those pictures, a
little closer, a little more closely and zoom in on them if
you wanted to. And whatever else but hope
that's helped. Let's pray.
And we'll be done father, we love you.
Can we thank you for your goodness?
I thank you for the way the Bible and archaeology, go
hand-in-hand and how we can trust the word of God.
Thank you so much for Reliable truth that we can stand on and I
pray that you help us to always trust it and print it out as we
go through these things that it would open up the Bible to us
and help us to see it in a different light and see it in a
different way maybe than we've seen it before and it helped us
to study the Bible. Thank you for all that you do
for us in Jesus. Name.
Amen.