Day 2: Biggest Discovery Since the Dead Sea Scrolls

After my morning “nap”, I awoke to a 5:45am wakeup call. Two nights of sub-two hour sleep drained my energy, but hey … we woke up safely in Israel! And I knew that we would get to see RVL when we went downstairs. RVL is usually in good spirits, so he and fifty 18-year-olds greeted us when we got downstairs. This trip is primarily composed of graduating seniors who have taken RVL’s elective Discipleship class at Holland Christian School and are now trying to live that out in real life.

RVL’s Israel itinerary is built around two ideas. First, attendees don’t know what the itinerary will be each day, because you are learning to be a disciple of the rabbi (in this case, RVL himself). This is to simulate what a real discipleship experience would be and is similar to real life following Jesus. Second, RVL prioritizes understanding the Bible text, rather than visiting historical or cultural landmarks. Both of these ideas make RVL’s Israel trip very uncommon, but everyone who I know of who has been say they never looked at the Bible – or their lives – the same way.

After breakfast, we did our 6:45am devotional, which introduced everyone to RVL’s topic of the two weeks: caring for the poor. RVL often discusses that God set up the world such that people would be shown God’s love and kindness by the giving behavior of those who follow God. It frustrated RVL to no end that “Western Christianity” thinks that following Christ is only some kind of statement of faith or set of creeds, when it was always about connecting your faith to action.

Our morning devotional included the Shema (“Hear”), which is what Jews historically have said as a daily covenant with God. We recited both the Hebrew and English versions of the Shema. (“Hear O Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord alone. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul. And love your neighbor as yourself”). RVL asks the group to recite this statement several times a day as Jesus and his disciples would have, and it is quite a moving experience.

From 7am to 5pm, our tour bus made a number of stops around the Judah Mountains and along the Coastal Plains. We got out and hiked pretty far off the main roads so that we could reach a teachable moment and we followed RVL’s theme of discipleship in the Bible. The walking pace of the group was fast, even on hills, so it took some real effort for us to keep up. I was amazed at how hard people worked to stay up front with RVL. People just wanted to hear him talk about what we were seeing and ask him questions. Rachel and I had the privilege of being up front with RVL a few times throughout the day and to hear his thoughts was life-giving for us both.

RVL is a specialist on the Hebrew language, plants of Israel, ancient Hebrew culture, and Hebrew Bible symbolism. To hear him talk makes the Bible come alive in ways that I have never heard from anyone else. He is full of poignant examples of culture, geography, and language that few Americans seem to know. For most native English speakers, the Bible is a boring academic study, so I have found walking with RVL over the past few years to be eye-opening.

For example, on our first hike to Tel Gezer, we passed by two trees that created teachable moments: an atad and a fig tree. RVL explained that in Judges 9:15, Gideon’s son Abimilech explains to those who want him to be king that he will devour those who oppose him. But in English Bible versions, the word atad is translated “thornbush”, so, if we have never encountered an atad, we miss the fact that an atad is a poisonous tree that takes over every living plant around it.

RVL explained that in Mark 11, when Jesus curses the fig tree, English speakers completely miss the word picture. Fig trees in the Bible represent religious leadership. Right before Jesus cleanses the Temple, Jesus curses the fig tree because it bears no fruit. Later that day, the disciples remark that the tree has already withered. The word picture is that the Jewish leadership is not bearing fruit and that God will remove the Jewish leadership shortly thereafter. We miss the word picture completely.

While we were hiking, RVL noticed a dove “hovering” over the earth, meaning that it was staying in the same place flapping its wings to look for a nest. I have never seen a bird stay in exactly the same place while flying, and he said that this is a unique quality of doves to “hover” in this way. The word rachaph (“hover”) connects God’s Spirit hovering over the formless void/waters in Genesis 1 and God bringing peace out of the chaos. We see the same imagery in Matthew 3 when God’s Spirit is hovering to rest on Jesus during his baptism (i.e. waters of chaos and Jesus bringing peace).

RVL brought up a bunch of Hebrew word pictures that most people were not familiar with. We learned about “standing stones” and what it means to be a standing stone for God. Ancient cultures would set up stones with no marking on them to raise questions from passersby. When someone would ask what these stones meant, the locals would tell them what their God did there. We are called to be standing stones for God in this world according to 1 Peter 2.

We then went to Zorah and followed the story of Samson and how he truly was not a hero in any positive sense of that word. RVL mentioned that Samson is the only Bible character who took a lifelong Nazirite vow. Numbers 6 describes a Nazirite vow as drinking nothing from the vine, not shaving your hair, and not touching a dead body. Samson failed often in all three. RVL likened our faiths to taking a Nazirite vow – not in a sense of legalism, but in a sense of commitment. For us to succeed in showing the world who God really is, we need to have a total commitment to God and not to the world.

A highlight of the day was visiting Tel Shaarim, a city that was first excavated in 2010, that was mentioned in 1 Samuel 17:52. An archaeologist friend of RVL found a piece of pottery from 1200 B.C. with Hebrew writing calling for the poor to be treated well at the city gate, a priority for Bible-following Jews. This is the oldest Hebrew manuscript ever found. The existence of this city – and of King David himself – has been hotly debated for the past hundred years by scholars. This has been the first archaeological evidence that David existed. RVL said that this discovery has been the biggest discovery for Biblical historians worldwide since the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948. It was pretty cool to be there at the dig.

We went into a “Gethsemane” (more on that later). We located pottery from Abraham's time, and I (legally) took a piece. We found the dried stream where David pulled his five stones to defeat Goliath. I definitely took two of those stones. I have no idea what customs is going to do when I try to take this stuff back to the US! We finished the day by reciting the Shema again and having dinner together. It was a long day, but a really good day 1 of hiking.

A treat to our evening was seeing Patti and Annaliese Yukawa in the Isrotel Ganim Dead Sea Resort! We are staying in room 501 and they are in 505. What are the chances?! We got to catch up with them for a while and heard about their experience in Israel since Wednesday. And now it is time to go to sleep. Please pray for us.