I wanted to share a special experience with y’all from my trip to Israel! October 28th was just one of those unbelievably wonderful days from start to finish, we didn’t harvest grapes, instead we toured some of the most significant Biblical sites that not many get to see because we are in what is deemed in modern political terms the “West bank”…interestingly enough this so-called West Bank is the West Bank of the Jordan River and approximately 80% of what we read in the Scriptures took place HERE. Biblically and more appropriately we can call it Judea & Samaria. Samaria is where we are in the northern region, Judea is the southern region. On Monday we got up long before the sunrise & got on the bus for a place called “Elon Moreh.” Elon Moreh is the site of Genesis 12:6-7,
“Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time, Canaanites were in the land. Yehovah appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” He built an altar there to Yehovah, who had appeared to him.”
This very mountain is where Yehovah spoke to Abraham and promised this land to his descendants. As the sun rose we ate cinnamon rolls & heard teaching from the Bible (both old and new testaments) about this site and God’s amazing promise which is strung beautifully all the way through His Word. After that we had a sweet time of worship just under the only standing Oak tree on Elon Moreh. In most of our Bibles you’ll read “oaks of Moreh” and in Hebrew Elon means “living tree”, so quite literally God made the promise to Abraham at the Living Tree of Moreh. This Live Oak tree standing there today could likely be a descendant of that same tree, some 4,000 years down the line of acorns dropping and growing again. A pretty amazing representation of that very day God spoke that promise to Abraham. A pretty amazing reminder that our God is the same God even now. He doesn’t change. His Word stands & He keeps His promises. He can be trusted. And He will bring His people back, all His people, and I believe today we are seeing the fulfillment of Ezekiel 37 in progress.