Tel Me More

Years ago, I took a cab to the airport in Tel Aviv, and the friendly driver kept pointing out archaeological/historical sites along the way. Which is to say, constantly.

Not far from Jerusalem, he pointed to the right, north, to a hill. It is the ancient site of Kiryat Ye’arim, the place where the ark of the covenant was brought back by the Philistines; this is recorded in 1 Samuel. In 2 Samuel, after the ark had been kept at the site for 20 years, King David brought it up to Jerusalem.

The site is also home to yet another Catholic monastery, which dot the Israeli landscape.

It is fascinating to note that the site is one of the few virtually untouched in Israel, a country where archaeological digs are more common than restaurants or gas stations.

(As a complete aside, nearby is the Arab town of Abu Ghosh, where a gas station with a giant statue of Elvis beckons customers.)

One of the excavators at the site, Tel Aviv University’s Israel Finkelstein, isn’t even sure the story is historically accurate, and that is both astonishing and dismaying. We live in a time in which Palestinians invent their own history, while certain Israelis deny their own.

In any event, the dig is to commence this summer, and of course will take some time. The biblical story goes that the Philistines were struck with a plague for keeping the ark, and so returned it on a wooden cart. This was in the time when the power of the Philistines was waning.

The ark itself is still lost to history, though many have speculated about its whereabouts. The biblical text goes silent about the ark’s location after the Babylonian invasion in 586 B.C. Some claim that the ark is housed in some subterranean chamber underneath the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. A couple people even claim to have seen it through an opening in a rock wall. I’d be skeptical of such claims, or of those that say the high priests who are preparing for the rebuilding of the Temple in our time know its location. We simply can’t prove these stories, and the honest truth is, we don’t know where the ark is or if it will be located again.

In the meantime, let’s anticipate the excavation in Israel and celebrate the fact that the events recorded in the Bible did in fact take place.

Filling the Land of Israel

What a fascinating time to be alive!

Both Good and Evil are flexing their muscles, and this has great relevance for Bible prophecy. In particular, we are seeing both good things in the offing for Israel and perilous times.

One day we hear that a new ally has popped up for the Jewish state; the next day a new threat.

This week, the news was full of information about both the removal of a “settlement outpost” (Amona, north of Jerusalem) and the announcement of more than 2,000 apartments approved for four communities in Judea and Samaria.

The latter, of course, enrages the international community.

Amona was established 20 years ago, on a hilltop that was claimed to be Palestinian agricultural land. Lawsuits ensued and it took until this week for an Israeli court ruling to be carried out: Amona was demolished.

While this was unfolding, the government of Benjamin Netanyahu approved the construction of homes for thousands more Jews.

According to the Jerusalem Post:

“All total in the last week, Israel has spoke of advancing or authorizing 5,500 units, including those on Galant’s list.

“Israel feels free to take such measures because it believes that the new US President Donald Trump will be support of settlement constitution in the blocs and Jewish building in east Jerusalem.

“It’s part of a series of gesture Netanyahu has made to the Israeli right and to the settlement movement in general to offset the anger over the outpost’s destruction. On Wednesday he also announced the creation of a new settlement.”

Even since the dreadful Oslo Accords of 1993, Israel has managed to house hundreds of thousands of citizens in the biblical heartland, and many more will come.

Despite sounds arguments from the best legal minds that the “settlements” (itself a propaganda term devised by the international community) are not illegal under international law, Israel’s critics say otherwise.

Here we see something important. In advocating for Israel, it does little good to cite these legal opinions, for one reason: the critics hate Israel and Jews, period. One could bring the legal reasoning down from Mt. Sinai, and the nations would rage anyway. They will rage.

And, as history often does, things have turned on a dime. No one really knows what Donald Trump really thinks about Israel, but one suspects it’s not bad at all. And infinitely better than the Marxist, Barack Obama.

So there appears to be time to do some things to benefit Israel. We know that this window will last four or eight years, and then we might well have another Obama in office.

In other words, another Haman.

For now, more and more Jews stream into their ancestral land. The joy for us is that every new home there proves prophecy. As we read in Isaiah 13:14:

“Like a hunted gazelle,
like sheep without a shepherd,
they will all return to their own people,
they will flee to their native land.”

Many of us are anxious for the Lord to return. But He will return in His time. In the meantime, it is exciting to watch His children come home.

Much to the consternation of the nations, who rage. Sadly, this raging also includes key American evangelical leaders.

Amona is gone. Four more take her place.

The gazelle is running home.

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com