Most people who read the Bible realize that their understanding of the text is increased when they can know something about the historical and cultural background of the text and when they can appreciate the relationships between the characters. But I don’t know how often we take time to wrap our minds around the actual places that are named in the text, the cities and territories, the distances between places, the terrain, the people who inhabit those places, and so on. We read of this mountain or this valley or this city and all of it means very little to us. Well, today’s excursion into the countryside of Israel reminded me that the Bible comes alive for us when we read it geographically. In fact, this was one of the most rewarding and instructive explorations yet!

Our first stop was modest but significant. The ancient city of Moresheth, no longer inhabited, barely excavated. Moresheth is a city name that probably doesn’t leap to mind. The city was located southwest of Jerusalem in the hill country overlooking the plains. From the top of Moresheth you can see the land of Israel for miles and miles across the plains to the west and looking east you can see the cities on the mountains, one of which is Bethlehem.

You can look up this and any other city online and read about its history and how it figures into various biblical stories. But what we focused on is the fact that the prophet Micah comes from Moresheth.

“The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem” (Micah 1:1). 

Micah warned of God’s judgment with a unique appreciation for the land because from the city in which he lived he could look out and see so much of it. His prophecy is fully of geography that he fully appreciates because he grew up in the center of mountains and valleys and steep places.

For behold, the Lord is coming out of his place,
    and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.
⁴ And the mountains will melt under him,
    and the valleys will split open,
like wax before the fire,
    like waters poured down a steep place (Micah 1:3–5).

We took time to read much of Micah 4 and 5, which holds out hope that God will save his people in the end, despite the coming judgment. And one of these texts is very familiar:

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
    one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
    from ancient days (Micah 5:2).

It was satisfying to read that text while facing the city of Bethlehem (no longer a “little town”), high on the small mountain in the distance. But the icing on the cake was stumbling across the opening to a cave that I have to tell you about.

Caves for various uses dot the hillsides in the terrain of Israel because they had many uses. For example, there were caves for burial, caves for storing wine, and caves for keeping animals. This cave appeared to be one of the latter. It was a large cave where several sheep or goats could be kept safely in at night.

Because of this, we got a great visual idea of what the “stable” would have looked like in which Jesus was born and was laid in a feeding trough. When we think of that holy night on which Christ was born, we often imagine a wooden structure. But a cave is much more likely. Then, after looking around for several minutes, imagining the scene with Joseph and Mary and Jesus, I exited the cave and was delighted to look up and realize that the entrance to the cave was directly facing the far-off town of Bethlehem.

This was a nice feel-good moment. But what we did next transformed my understanding of one of the most iconic and decisive battles in the history of early Israel, the battle with the Philistines centering around the matchup between David and Goliath.

Our trek into the Judean hills brought us first to the city of Azekah. Again, not a well-known city to most people. One of those cities names we read in Scripture and just keep going. But the city is mentioned several times in the Bible, and it was a strategic city because it was the city that would allow passage from the cities in the mountains to the cities of the plains. In 1 Samuel 17, we are told that the Philistines were encamped here at this city and that they spread along the hillsides to Socoh, which you can easily see from the crest of Azekah.

I’ve tried to illustrate what I’m going to say here with this panoramic picture taken from the crest of Azekah. The Philistines were stationed in Azekah, protecting that city, and their armies filled the hills all the way along the valley to Socoh. On the lower hill opposite Azekah stood the city of Shaaraim, which means “Two Gates.” This is the city that the Israelites were defending, led by their first king Saul. Notice that the Philistines surrounded the Israelites on both sides.

The two armies were in a gridlock. If Israel attacked, they would be outnumbered. And if they lost, the Philistines would take Shaaraim, which would then allow them to take Beth Shemesh, then Gibea or any number of cities like a domino effect and Israel would be overrun. On the other hand, if the Philistines attacked first they would have more casualties than they wanted. Plus they risked losing Azekah, the gateway to the plains. If they lost Azekah the Israelites could win a huge strategic advantage over the Philistines.

So in this gridlock, where neither side would move, for 40 days the Philistine champion, Goliath, came out in the sight of the armies and make his challenge to anyone who would dare to face him, and end this face-off. Now, when David was sent by Jesse to see how his brothers were doing, he would As I’ve mentioned, so often these historic sites have been buried by time. But in this case, everything is as it was over 3000 years ago. Except that the cities themselves have been torn down and never rebuilt.

Looking back we could see Azekah on the horizon where we had been standing. Here we could envision the armies of the Philistines encamped along the hills.

Then we turned and made our way along a dusty road, turning between the two hills and up to the city of Shaaraim itself.

This is where David heard the commotion among the Israelite soldiers as Goliath came out to the field below and made his challenge. This is where he started asking why no one fights this blaspheming giant in the name of the Lord, and where his older brother rebuked him for being insolent. This is the city where Saul heard that this young shepherd was incredulous that no one would face Goliath and send for him, where David said he would fight Goliath in the strength of the Lord God of Israel, where he put off Saul’s armor and headed down to the field where Goliath was carrying only his staff and his sling.

We walked along the path that led to the field. This had to be the path David took because the other side of the city is sheer cliff on the sides. We talked about what the other soldiers and David’s brothers were doing and saying as David passed through them down the dusty path on his way to fight Goliath. Maybe some of his brothers begged him not to be so foolish. Maybe some were cheering him on, but thinking he was certainly going to die.

At a certain point in this path we crossed over the river of Elah, where David chose his five smooth stones. (The river bed is dry in the summer.) Then out to the field where David would have faced Goliath. It’s a wheat field. It has likely been a wheat field or something similar for thousands of years.

We can settle on this as the likely spot for the fight between David and Goliath for at least two reasons. First, it’s a place where the river Elah runs between the Philistine line and the Israelite line. (The river doesn’t run along the other side of Shaaraim.) Second, it is a strategic place where Goliath could have been seen by all of the Israelite soldiers and the Philistine soldiers at once, in the center of the action. Looking back in the field we could fully see the place of the Israelite line and the Philistine line all the way up to the summit of Azekah.

This very field, then, is most likely the place where Goliath cursed David by his gods. “Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks?” (1 Sam 17:43). Goliath was referring to David’s shepherd staff. “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field” (17:44).

David cried, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand … that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel … For the battle is the Lord’s” (17:45–47).

This story came alive as we stood there in that field reading the text. When David slung that stone, 1 Sam 17:49 says that the stone sunk into Goliath’s forehead and he fell forward. This must mean that the giant was running at him, ready to kill him and his forward motion carried him headfirst into the ground. And when he took off Goliath’s head with the giant’s own sword, the Israelite army raised a huge cry of unbelievable delight. It was like David had hit the winning three-point shot at the buzzer. And 1 Samuel 17 continues by explaining that the stunned armies of the Philistines fled away when they saw the Israelites emboldened to sweep out of their encampment and that the Israelites pursued them all the way to Gath and even as far as Ekron before returning to plunder their empty camp.

So, of course, we had to follow the army to Gath, and see where the Philistines fled. So we drove over to Gath, once an enormous city of the Philistines. This is an excellent place to illustrate how an archaeological dig looks after it is excavated only enough to be able to date it. There is so much work that could still be done here.

Well, it was late in the afternoon by then and I was already sunburned from walking so much in the open sunlight on these tells. But there was one more site we wanted to see where we were again in a place where armies fought, the ancient city of Lachish.

Again, Lachish is not a household name. But the city is named in the Bible at least 22 times. It was a highly coveted and strategic stronghold, the last city that Sennacherib took over before he turned his attention to Jerusalem with 185,000 soldiers.

You can still see the siege mound that Sennacherib’s army built to take the city.

Some of you are familiar with the Assyrian reliefs that commemorate Sennacherib’s conquest of Israel where the Jewish people are being killed and led away into captivity. Lachish is the city from which they are being destroyed in those reliefs. Sennacherib had his sights set on the last and greatest conquest of the land, Jerusalem. But God spared Jerusalem by sending the angel of the Lord into the camp who killed Sennacherib’s 185,000-member army.

There is an ancient, six-sided clay cylinder in the British Museum in which Sennacherib was boasting about his conquest of Judah. He says that he besieged and captured over 200,000 people, small and great, male and female, horses … camels, etc. But then the cylinder reads, “Hezekiah himself [I reckoned] as a caged bird in Jerusalem.” In other words, Sennacherib did not conquer Jerusalem. He refers only to Hezekiah being shut in.

Following the wars of Israel throughout the Bible and even throughout the period between the Testaments is to follow Israel’s history. There is so much that happened in the nation that rises and falls on battles. But there is one truth that stands out again and again, the words of David: “The battle is the Lord’s.”