Our first stop today was at a town called Emmaus.  This is where Jesus appeared after His resurrection to some of His disciples as they were walking.  This is described in Luke 24.  Here Jesus appeared to the two and they did not know who He was.  It was mostly talk about Jesus and His death but the disciple’s eyes were kept closed. Once they reached their destination, they urged Jesus to stay with them.  He stayed, and as He broke bread that night, the Bible says that their eyes were opened and Jesus vanished.  This all happened at Emmaus. The Emmaus we were at today was most likely not the site that this happened at. In Luke 24:13 it says that Emmaus is 60 strata away from Jerusalem, but the site we were at today is 160 so this cannot be the site. Another possibility is Emmaus Mozoa.  This is only 30 strata away but it was suggested that Luke might have indicated a round trip so that it would amount to 60 strata from Jerusalem and back.  To solve this, we compare the rest of his work in the Bible.  Ultimately, he did not refer geographically in this way so we must look for another location.  Emmaus Bebe is another idea but there is really no evidence, so in the end, no one knows.

            The second place we stopped at was Nebi Samwell.  This is the place where they believe Samuel is buried because of 1 Samuel 25:1.  This also could be the place where the Ark of the Covenant stayed at one point in 2 Chronicles 1:3-4. From this mountain one can see the city of Gibeon.  Gibeon was a place in Joshua 9 where the towns people saw all that Joshua had done and became afraid.   They in turn put on worn cloths, and made themselves look poor so that Joshua would not harm them.  Joshua made a pact and did not hurt them, but in the end, he found out their trickery.  To this day we know that this is the location of Gibeon because of a man by the name of James Richard found wine bottles in a cave that the name Gibeon engraved on their front.  The Ajalon Valley also was located north of where we sat and this was where in Joshua 10:12-13, God stopped the sun from going down until the sons of Israel defeated the kings of the Amorites. 

            The third stop we made was at Tel Elfool.  Here the king of Jordan, King Hussein, built his palace in 1967.  Looking in the past, it is a tel and William Albright finds an actual historic castle here in the tel.  No one really knows for sure what the castle was for but an event in the Bible did happen here that we do know of.  It is told in Judges 19 of a man and his concubine and the horrific story that happened here in the tribe of Benjamin. 

            Stopping at a hill we climbed to the top and looked around.  This place was right next to “the Pass” and here we read of battles and events that took place here.  For example, in 1 Samuel 13:8-23, Saul was supposed to wait for Samuel to sacrifice to the Lord before the battle.  Samuel was late and Saul was impatient so he sacrificed out of disobedience.  This story amongst others happened here including 1 Samuel 15 and 1 Kings 15:22. 

            We then drove to Jericho, the unique place where the walls came tumbling down.  This story is recorded in Joshua 6 of the Israelites marching around the walls and blowing their horns.  At the end, the Lord struck the walls and they literally came tumbling down.  At this point it is the worlds second most excavated place in the world other than Jerusalem.  The first excavator, Joseph Garstag, discovered the stone wall while Kathleen Kenyon found the mud brick wall.  Kenyon dated the mud brick wall back to the 1550’s, which is not in correlation with the scriptures.  The correct time for the date of Jericho is 1406.  But she was dating this wall because she dated based upon the pottery that was never there.  If dated correctly, everything matches the exact dates including, the pottery found, the burnt rubble, the grain still left in the bins and the loss of civilization for years according to the commands of the Lord in the end of Joshua 6.

            We then found a spring outside of Jericho called Elisha’s Spring.  This is where they believe Elisha purified the water in 2 Kings.  Also, next to this spot sits the Wadi Kilt described in Matthew 13 and Luke 18.  Here Luke and Matthew seem to disagree if Jesus was going out of Jericho or going into Jericho.  They both say two different things.  The answer to this question lies in the geographical history.  Here there were two settlements of Jericho because it had moved from the historical Jericho.  How great it is to be where Jesus was!