One Year Ago

Fifty-Something PhD-Like Work Was a 4-Week Hebrew Intensive and Field Studies in Israel With My 17 Year Old Son

Last year at this time, Jeremy and I ventured from Grants Pass to Tel Aviv to launch 5 weeks in Israel. The two of us took part in a 4-week intensive in Biblical Hebrew and also went to some 25-30 sites around the land.

Three highlights from this Study Leave for me:

1. I was completely taken by surprise regarding the burden and desire to see reformed and evangelical churches planted in Israel. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. Oh Lord, send forth Your Word and bring the strangers home!

2. The Hebrew intensive offered a challenging refresher in the Book of Jonah. Above, you see one of our instructors, Aaron, in our classroom. Fun, fun fun! What a challenge, the hard work, doing the conversational thing and the TPR--Total Physical Response. The Biblical Language Center teachers at Kibbutz Tzuba were top-notch. Jeremy and I still make use of their methods and lessons.

3. The variety of landforms, the old villages and cities, and the connected benchmarks of history were overwhleming. Tops were Qumran Community at the Dead Sea, the amazing structures and memorials of Herod of Great--his fingerprints are all over the land--and the Galilee, in particular, Tel Dan.

God is so very good, who allowed us to take this trip. Amen and Amen.

G. Mark Sumpter

En Gedi

No wonder David found En Gedi to be a refuge from Saul (1 Samuel 23-24). What a place of refreshment in the hot Judean wilderness! Date palms provided vegetation too. The beautiful waterfalls seemed to drop down out of nowhere, shooting out from way overhead.

Over the weekend of January 17, four of us hiked back into wilderness of En Gedi. The trail snaked upward along the side of a ravine, and all around us were the crags and crevices, and gaping holes that looked like caverns. Along the route, we enjoyed looking at the rock badgers too.

My guess, the temperature was in the high 60s, low 70s that day. We would have been really huffing and puffing if it had been in the summertime heat!

During the time of the Davidic Era of Israel's history, 1000-900 B.C., there were settlements dotting the landscape on the western side of the Dead Sea. This region is known as the midbar, the desert. En Gedi is about half-way down, thinking about the north-south axis, right next to the Dead Sea.

G. Mark Sumpter

Tel Lachish

Lachish is located about 18-20 miles by highway to the southwest of Jerusalem . The place where the ruins of old Lachish is set, is marked by a National Monument sign, and it's entry-way is primitive, with a gravel parking lot, etc.

Lachish is mentioned about 15-18 times in the Old Testament. And it's regularly mentioned to show how strategic of a place it was with reference to the location of Jerusalem . In short, if an army could take Lachish, then it was well-positioned to take Jerusalem. My guess, if you marched troops up to Jerusalem through the brush and thicket, and across streams, you'd be looking at maybe a 12 mile hike. Looks to be rough terrain, but it obviously was done.



If you go to 2 Chronicles 32, here is the amazing story of when Sennacherib, the King of Assyria, made moves into Judah, and he sought to position himself to overtake Hezekiah and the Israelites in the City of David—Jerusalem. He made plans to storm the city.


A most interesting feature is the siege ramp (seen above here). It was constructed by the troops of Sennacherib around 700 B.C. as a way to make his assault on Lachish. Hundreds of iron arrowheads were found in the ramp as well as a chain device that was used for catching the battering rams.

Chapter 32:1 tells us about the cities of fortification—and bingo, one of these is Lachish. As the story goes on in the chapter, it was the Angel of the Lord who came with devastation on the Assyrians; He slew 185,000! God put a trouncing stop to Sennacherib's efforts to invade Jerusalem.

As a Tel, dozens of civilizations had at one time occupied this mound. Hence, the height and the multiple layers of flat surfaces made for an excellent location for a citadel. Up there are ruins of blocks of walls for housing, armament stalls, and nooks for food supplies, etc. I was stunned to think that we were standing on the ground where the very King of Assyria once plotted, planned and resided.

From up on top, we looked directly east across rolling valleys to see Hebron and Bethlehem . Maybe it was those hills near Bethlehem where the angel and the hosts first visited the shepherds announcing Christ's birth.

G. Mark Sumpter

Beth Shan

Ancient Beth Shan, situated in the central and northern part of the Jordan Valley, was known for it's strategic location because it sat at a crossroads for travel. You could go north and south to and from Jerusalem, and east-west between the Mediterranean coast and over to the Transjordan. The fertile Beth Shan valley provided crops for livelihood. Like so many prized locations in Israel, people group after people group came here wanting to stake their claim: the Egyptians, the Canaanites, the Israelites, the Greeks and Romans. Today, you see a vast archaeological excavation site with a 7,000 seat Roman theater, a huge Byzantine bath house, a market place, and tall columns from the ruins of the false temples. In 500-700 A.D. there was a population of about 40,000!


In Joshua's day, Israel could not drive out the Canaanites from this location; the Bible tells us of the iron chariots used by Israel's enemy. The Philistine advanced weaponry proved too much (Josh. 17:16). Bible teachers customarily think it was not until David's time, about 1000 B.C., that Israel finally took possession of Beth Shan.

From Beth Shan, just 3-4 miles to the southwest, is Mt. Gilboa (pictured below). It was here that Saul and his army took refuge during a battle with the Philistines. Saul was thinking that the Canaanite-Philistine chariots wouldn't be able to handle the rocky terrain up around Gilboa.


But the Philistines advanced and slaughtered the Israelites, and Saul and Jonathan died in the battle (1 Samuel 31:1). The day after the battle, the Philistines found the bodies of Saul and his three sons, and they cut off Saul's head and stripped him of his armor. They took the armor and put it into the temple of the Philistine Ashtoreth-god, and then tied Saul's body and the bodies of his sons to a wall at Beth Shan (1 Sam. 31:8-10). David, still seeking to honor God with his treatment of Saul, had the bones of Saul and Jonathan recovered and buried in Benjamin (2 Sam. 21:12-14).

G. Mark Sumpter

Jerusalem 2009 Meets Leviticus 19:27

One of the things that we noticed and always took in is the way of life around Jerusalem. Often you see the whole interwoven life of the influences of 1990s-2000s popular Europe and America, right along with traditional expressions of a Jewish lifestyle. We often did a double-take when downtown in Jerusalem and saw an ultra-orthodox Jewish man dressed in traditional dark clothes, a blazer over a white button-down long-sleeve shirt, a prayer shawl underneath, his black hat and long scraggy beard and glasses, and then, we'd see he has the cauliflower ear plugs listening to his iPod! Or you'd see 14-year old young girls, some with head-coverings and a little house on the prairie dress on, and they are giggling listening to one another's ring tones on their cell phones! Then we saw young men and women in uniform just about everywhere! The Israeli army requires all of their young to serve a term. The young soliders have strapped on their shoulder a semi-automatic rifle as they walk the streets. You also see an American sporting a popular T-Shirt over there, where on the front is the insignia of the Israeli army and then the words, Guns 'N Moses! That's a take-off of a popular rock band from Los Angeles. The influences of commericalism, technology and popular European and American culture make for an unexpected blend in Jerusalem! But we saw it, nonetheless.

G. Mark Sumpter

Non Modo...Sed Etiam

Jeremy and I returned to Grants Pass from Israel a week ago today, and what an experience taking part in a 4-week, 4-hours per day, 5 days-a-week class of Biblical Hebrew. Between the historical, geographical, ecclesiastical, political, culinary, and biblical study, we have received an abundance and then some! We are still debriefing one another, our family and the church family here in Grants Pass on the wide ranging variety of things experienced.

We count nearly 40 places of antiquity where we visited; 80+ hours of Hebrew instruction, with only 1-2% of it in the foreign language of English; 8 places of dining of the real deal of Mediterranean-Middle Eastern food; for me, preaching twice in the Community Christian Fellowship of Tel Aviv; and then, two times playing pitch and catch hoping to keep Jeremy's arm in shape for his coming High School baseball tryouts!

We're super grateful for this time of learning and growing together. Pictures and stories will be posted in the short days ahead!

G. Mark Sumpter

The Old City of Caesarea

Today we traveled north to Caesarea about 60-70 miles north of Tel Aviv to see the old ruins from the era of Herod the Great. As one of many architectural achievements, Herod built the city around 15 B.C. and named it in honor of Augustus the Roman Emperor. Herod, an Idumean by birth, was a double-tongued man, divided and playing off things between his own background in Judaism and that of Greek-Roman Paganism. He liked to be able to keep his Las Vegas lifestyle by high-tailing it out of Jerusalem to go and play in places like his Caesarea. In his building this city and naming it as he did, he was also smoozing with Augustus. This Herod was the infant-hater who sought to eliminate the little ones around the district of Bethlehem and hoped to kill the Christ Child, such acts of violence forced Mary and Joseph with their baby to flee to Egypt.

The old city of Caesarea, maybe 50-60 acres in size, hugged the shore of the Meditteranean and was primarily known, and very successful, as a shipping port; and it featured a palace, temple, theater, a prison, administrative courts and offices, a bath house and a hippodrome (for chariot races and games), along with a residential district. Later a Crusader castle was erected and a church building for God's faithful.

Paul the apostle, according to Acts 23- 26, sought to set things right with his testimony about his faith and life before the prominent Roman governors in Caesarea; this city was a beachhead for his missionary travels, as well as for the ministries for Philip and Peter. Paul was imprisoned here too. More on Paul in another up-coming post.


On our walk through the ruins we took notice of the sign telling of Eusebius, the bishop of Caesarea, 265-340 AD. He became known as the Father of Church History, being the first to pen a classic story line telling of the work of church. He was on more of the faithful side of the Arian controversy regarding the biblical teaching of the Trinity. He established a huge library, some 30,000 volumes, right there in Caesarea.


The placard telling of Eusebius at this place of the ruins was next to a deep water well. Down in the well, citizens of Caesarea would drop letters and signed memorials to witches, spirits and gods. It was a way showing devotion, maybe the well symbolized life with the water it provided, and so dropping notes to these spirits, in a way of sorcery, was part of their religious superstition. The placard went onto to say that it was Eusebius who preached sermons denouncing this letter-dropping, and of course, he preached against all forms of communication to the spirits, and he called for repentance regarding all forms of spiritism and supertitious living. He followed in the train of the apostle Paul who preached truth. In Acts 16, we read of Paul commanding the spirit to leave the demon-possessed girl.

G. Mark Sumpter

Study in Jonah

The study in Biblical Hebrew has been going well. Our class of seven students and three instructors reads, uses and memorizes half-sentences and verse-portions from the Book of Jonah. It's been so illuminating to see in Jonah the rehearsal of various biblical themes, for example, the various stories of a call issued to an OT servant, like Abraham or Moses. Or next, the rehearsal of the theme that water has. It's both a circumstance of rescue and a place of violence in the Old Testament, like with Noah and the flood, or again Moses at the Red Sea. Here in Jonah, as well, the water of the Great Sea plays a role of both destruction and salvation. It's been a great way to study Hebrew and the particulars of the Jonah narrative.

G. Mark Sumpter

Jerome, On the Bethlehem Scene

An important part of biblical and historical reflection in the old Mediterranean world includes the early church Fathers. One such pastor, scholar and servant is Jerome (lived 347 A.D.-420 A.D.). Bethlehem was his home from roughly 384 A.D. to 420 A.D. He’s best known at the popular level for his translation work and editorial scholarship of the Bible. He worked at producing a translation into the vulgar speech of the Latin Christian world of his own day. It became recognized as the Latin Vulgate. He began this venture in 381-382 A.D. and completed the project there in a Bethlehem monastery in 405 A.D.

Historians look back on Jerome and interpret his life with shades of controversy: was he truly the capable linguist, well versed in the biblical languages, as he’s been made out relative to the Vulgate? What about his loose interpretative commentary on the types and metaphors in the Bible in the area of biblical studies? But one matter over which there’s little debate is the access he provided for subsequent scholars with respect to the later work of Bible translation. His work with the Vulgate became an epoch-making contribution for comparative study for the Middle Ages and Reformation period. And with respect to the language of Latin, his work paved the way for Ecclesiastical Latin, the Latin of the church and of theological scholarship, and we know today, there’s a huge debt owed to Jerome in this light.

G. Mark Sumpter

The Arch-Way of Tyre

The Trye of old Phoencia was situated on an island about one-half mile off the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. This narrow water barrier fostered some protection and security for the citizens of the island. Of course, being an island-city, there were disadvantages; it meant having to maintain supplies from the mainland. The greatest import regarding Trye was her strategic location for overseas trade. She became a city to emulate, and many around the Mediterranean theater took economic and military cues from her.

Isaiah 23, Jeremiah 25, Ezekiel 26-28, Joel 3, Amos 1 and Zechariah 9 bring words of judgment, in fact, each prophet made doubly-sure that the inhabitants of Tyre knew that complete devastation was in the forecast. Why the strong words against Trye?

1. The alliance between Ahab and the Phoenician wife, Jezebel? (1 Kings 16:30-31)

2. The self-proclamation of being a 'god'? (Ezek. 28)

3. For selling the inhabitants of Jerusalem into slavery? (Amos 1)

Scholars make the case that it was Alexander the Great that ultimately brought Tyre to her knees (332 B.C.).

Jesus heaped up words of confrontation to His very own people of Galilee, and He refers to Tyre: Matthew 11:21-2 Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you.

Trye, along with these other cities, should register a recall for us, a recall to plead with God for pliable consciences and supple hearts, to heed His Word.

G. Mark Sumpter

Sha-a-rim

This is located off the border-edge of the Valley of Elah, as mentioned in 1 Samuel 17:52, in the region where David conquered Goliath. Specifically, it's the location on the way of the rout carried out by the Israelites, when they chased the Philistines out of the area, back to Philistia. It's cited as the way of the Sha-a-rim.

1 Samuel 17:52 “....by the way to Sha-a-rim, even unto to Gath...”

Jeremy, my 16-year-old son and I, the Lord willing, will see places just like this one in the coming weeks. We're grateful for what's ahead. Stay tuned for more details.

G. Mark Sumpter