Benjamin Field Study

On Sunday we had the opportunity to go on a field study to the land of Benjamin. Benjamin is the strip of land that comes straight off Jericho and separates the old divided kingdoms of Judah and Israel. It is a very important land because whoever owns it gets the passage into Jerusalem. We studied the geography and learned what makes this land so special and why it was fought over so much. In all the stories of the Bible when location is given over 60% of them are in the land of Benjamin.


We started out the day in the wilderness on the Jericho road above the wadi Qilt. We learned many of images of Psalms that have to do with the wilderness. We then headed down to Jericho. There are two locations for Jericho. O.T. Jericho and N.T. Jericho. We went to N.T. Jericho first and looked at another of Herod's palaces and learned why this land was so important to Rome. After that we headed to O.T. Jericho where Joshua conquered the city and went into the promised land. We learned why it was such an important city to conquer and why Joshua did what he did.

After that we headed into the Shephelah and went to Gezer. It was a lot different being there in the winter months, everything was green! We learned about how Gezer was a hinge between Egypt and Israel and why it too was very important for holding the land.


Overall it was an awesome day. We got to learn a lot about the land and see a real oasis down in Jericho. One thing i miss is the application to our faith from what we are learning. The geography is all related the the bible and some passages we unfold to find their meaning, but many times we only talk about the land and the application isn't mentioned. One of the biggest lessons that we learned when here with Ferret was about the standing stones at Gezer and how our lives should be standing stones to other people, but we didn't talk about it at all this time. All three of us feel that the geography is a very important part of learning what the Bible says but also what is equally and even more important is how that applies to us. All that we learned from our own studies, in my brother's class, and from Ferret is a huge part that many people are missing out on. We feel fortune to have already learned the application information so that now we can now connect it all with the geography.