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Digging around in Israel
Whenever we travel to Israel for one of the feasts, we always look for something of interest to do. Traveling with our kids also means that we have to look for something that would interest them. However, in a country as rich in culture and history, it is not a difficult task. On one of these trips, we decided to give our kids a better understanding of what archeology is and what value it adds. After some searching, we found the ideal solution. We could join a group of professional archeologists who are busy excavating a site near Jerusalem. We would all join them in a physical dig! We ended up with a very pleasant and enlightening day that I am sure all the kids would remember. Let me share some of this with you.
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Who are the Samaritans?
Recently I saw the importance of context again when I was doing some Bible study. I wanted to get a good understanding of the changes that had happened in the world between the books of Malachi and Matthew. The purpose of this study was not to be a history lesson, but purely to understand how the people of Jerusalem went from a small group of people led by a High-Priest and Governor, serving under the Persians, to a mighty nation lead by the High-Priest, Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes under Roman rule. While studying the Persian period after Nehemiah and Ezra, I stumbled across a part in the book of Josephus that described the building of the temple on Mount Gerizim. This small bit of information lead me to a more complete study on the Samaritans. This provided me with lot more insight into two incidents in the Apostolic Scriptures. I have decided to write up this study as an example of how the context could lead us to a more complete understanding of the text.
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When is the next sabbatical year?
We have established that we should keep the sabbatical years, even if we are not living in Israel. The following question we need to answer for ourselves then is: Exactly, when is the next sabbatical year? Do we even know? The answer is yes, but it is not straight forward. You will need to do some digging in your Bible and the history books to find the answers. Let us go and find the answer.
