Samaria

Last Wednesday we took a field trip to the region of Samaria. We visited the Old Testament city of Aphek, which was the New Testament City of Aphek. The site is a national park, and although it was just another bunch of ruins (see a lot of those =) it was really pretty. Kind of a solemn spot. I Samuel records a battle between the Philistines and Israel, and the Philistines killed 30,000 Israelites, and they took the ark of the Covenant, which they later regretted.

Our second stop was at Shiloh. The Tabernacle rested at Shiloh after the conquest of Joshua. It was where Hannah asked God for a child in I Samuel, and God gave her Samuel.










We stopped at Shechem, a very important Old Testament city. Although we had to overlook Shechem from Mt Gerezim, because of the political situation, we still got a great view. At Shechem is where God promised Abraham the land, and later God fulfilled that same promise by giving the land into the hands of the Israelites during the time of Joshua. Behind Heather and I is the possible location of Jacob's well. This well is where Jesus met the Samaritan woman and proclaimed his deity. For some reason I really enjoyed this spot overlooking the city. For Jesus to talk to the Samaritan woman truly was a loving act. Because it wasn't bad enough that she was a Samaritan, but worse, an adulterer. His humanity is clearly seen because I see a real place, that he really lived, but His deity is even clearer, because no man would've done such a thing, offering her living water.

Probably the highlight of the day was our visit to the vineyard. We reenacted the Benjamites stealing the dancing ladies, and carrying them off to be their wives. Bill filmed it, and it can be seen on the Ibex websitehttp://www.ibexsemester.com/ .
As you can see, John caught his wife =)