Finally, we come to the last two places we visited on day one of our recent Rooted in His Word Israel tour.
The first of the two was Ziklag. This was a little off the beaten path. Literally, we had to wait for the herd of goats to pass before we could proceed. We reached a point where the road was impassible, and from there we climbed the tel. Ziklag, you may recall, was where David was at one point hiding out from Saul in the region of the Philistines. Ziklag was a town given to David by Achish, a Philistine king. (See 1 Samuel 27:6) While David was out with his men on a “mission,” his wives and the wives of his men were kidnapped by the Amalekites and the city was burned. (See 1 Samuel 30)
The ruins at this site have not been fully excavated yet, but it is very helpful to put a place to a name in a Bible story.
The final site of the day was another new stop on the tour. The parks service has done a wonderful job at this site. Lachish, you may recall from Bible history, was a great city of the Canaanites even before it was occupied by the Israelites. It is known as one of the fortified cities of Hezekiah, a city that was under siege by Sennacherib, king of Assyria, in 701 BC during the reign of Hezekiah, King of Judah. Lachish was, at the time, a highly fortified city, virtually impenetrable–or so it seemed. It had thick, tall walls, steep ramparts, and a well-fortified gate complex. The Assyrians were formidable foes, building a siege ramp against the ramparts of the city. Their custom was to use locals from surrounding towns and villages that they had already captured to build the ramp to discourage attacks on the builders. The residents of Lachish built their own counter-siege ramp, the remains of which can still be seen. To look up the siege ramp is to take in the amazing defenses of the city and to also know that they could see their end coming–closer and closer, day by day. The Assyrians were known to be such brutal enemies that some surrendered without opposition. This was not the way of the Israelites. They fought courageously until the end.
The tel at Lachish is quite extensive. The remains of the royal palace can be seen with a large open area believed to have been used for horses and chariots.
This site is a must-see and hopefully, we can add it to our future tours.
Rooted and Grounded 