day nine. shiloh and the valley of elah.

we started the day at Shiloh, the ancient city of Israel and it’s first capital. Before there was Jerusalem, there was Shiloh. for 367 years, Shiloh was the center of the Israel. Before David established his kingdom in Jerusalem, Joshua established it in Shiloh.

like many other places in Israel, there’s a hillside full of old rocks. if you didn’t know it, you wouldn’t know how impressed you should be with the story of the rocks. in this case, a 3000-year-old city w is still waiting for you to see it in the Judean hills.

The Ark of the Covenant, now lost to us, once resided in Shiloh. There’s two places in the world where you can go and stand in a place where we know the ark once resided: in Shiloh and on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

for elaine and i, this place is special because it's story involves the namesakes for each of our children. it was here that Ana prayed for a son. it was here that she gave her son back, God gave her a son and she named him Samuel. and it was also here that the a messenger from the tribe of Benjamin delivered news and moved the people of shiloh to end a tragic civil war. 

...it's also here at shiloh that sam and ben found a turtle and i learned for the first time the reason that turtles are so slow...because they have to carry their house with them wherever they go. that makes so much sense i'm embarrassed i never thought of it before.

following our visit to Shiloh, we travelled to the Valley of Elah, where David fought Goliath. this was a highlight for our boys; one of their favorite stories is the story of “Goliaf.”

there’s a stream that runs through the Valley, filled with white smooth stones. the white smooth stones come from rocky white cliff that the streams run through. our kids enjoyed searching through the stream to find smooth stones, just like David did before his meeting with Goliath.

in biblical times, the hill you see in the background called "Migdal Oz", which is Hebrew for "strong tower." and the thought at the time was that the rocks in the stream are smooth because when water rushes down the hill, it causes them to rub against each other, eventually ending up in the stream, but polished by years of rubbing against each other before landing in the water. 

so here's the thought to ponder for today: when david was choosing smooth pebbles from the stream before he went to see goliath, as he looked up at the hill behind the stream, was he thinking about it's name, Migdal Oz, and recalling the proverb: "The name of God is Migdal-Oz (strong tower). A righteous person runs to it and is safe." (proverbs 18:10)

yep...that's a stick in ben's left hand. he's ready for battle.