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Beersheba (aka Be’er Sheva, Beer sheva)

January 29, 2025 by memullin

Some things to know about Beersheva:

  • the ancient tel is located in the south of Israel and 25 miles north of the Wilderness of Zin where Israelites wandered for 40 years after leaving Egypt
  • Tel Beersheba is one of the oldest Biblical sites in Israel dating back to the time of the patriarchs. See
  • Excavations at Beersheba have identified many strata (different civilizations/occupations of the site)
    When the land was divided under the leadership of Joshua, Beersheba was part of the allotment of Simeon
  • The original water system for the town in ancient times was centered around the well. Later, rain water was collected from roofs and courtyards and diverted by a channel beneath the street into  the cistern. 
This gives us a good view of the ramparts of the city wall.

This provides a view of the rampart (glaci) outside of the city provided added protection for the city.
entering the city gate
Chamber inside of the gate. These areas would be used for conducting civil matters as well as business matters. Note the benches along the walls.
Benches inside the city gate where legal matters were handled by the elders of the city

Reconstruction in the gate niche showing it was plastered
another view of the gate niche which would hold soldiers in time of siege
evidence of the casemate wall that existed around the city
Beersheva – ruins of ancient tel
evidence of Israelite occupation – pillared houses
view from the observation tower – showing the extent of the ancient tel

entrance into the cistern (modern)
View looking up out of the cistern
Evidence of plastering of the cistern walls
The land/terrain surrounding Tel Beersheva
Artist’s rendering of the city in ancient times

It is our desire to help you grow in your knowledge of Adonai and His Word. If you are looking for additional information and/or materials, please visit our website at RootedinHisWord.org and our Facebook page. 

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Israel Day Two – Tel Arad

January 28, 2025 by memullin

We started in Beersheva and then made our way to the east to Tel Arad, which is located in the eastern Negev. Its location is strategically located on the route which led to both Sinai and Transjordan. Tel Arad was the site of a Canaanite city from the early Bronze Age. The city was a as large as 10 hectares at its peak. The Israelites occupied the site during the Iron Age, building a fortress on the northern portion of the city. Within the fortress, the excavators found a Judahite temple (a cultic site) with two standing stones and two incense altars. The fortress and the lower city both have water systems to collect rain water run off.

tel Arad – the Israelite fortress
tel Arad – the rampart and glacis
Wall structure
casemate walls of tel Arad fortress
Judahite temple – standing stones/incense altarts
Judahite temple – evidence of cultic worship
Fortress – tel Arad
ruins tel Arad
view of the lower city from fortress at tel Arad
view of lower city and surrounding area from tel Arad
tel Arad

It is our desire to help you grow in your knowledge of Adonai and His Word. If you are looking for additional information and/or materials, please visit our website at RootedinHisWord.org and our Facebook page. 

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Why go to Israel?

January 27, 2025 by memullin

Every time I go back to Israel, I get comments and questions, e.g. Is it safe? Aren’t you afraid? Why would you want to go to Israel? The questions are legitimate. Israel is situated in an area of the world in which there always seems to be a conflict occurring or at least one brewing. It has been that way since the Israelites came into the land more than 3,000 years ago. But I digress.

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Going to Israel is essential, in my opinion, to knowing God better and more experientially. It is not a substitute for daily study of the scriptures, but rather it enhances and enriches the devotional life of the student of the Word. This is true whether you are a Jew or a Christian–Protestant or Catholic. Coming to the land where most of the events in your Bible took place changes how you see God, how you experience Him. For the Christian it is also important in coming to a better understanding of the Jews, their customs, their culture and their faith.

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In Israel, it is possible to stand where Jesus stood–on the Southern Steps of the Temple mount or perhaps in the synagogue in Magdala. One can see where Elijah challenged the prophets of Ba’al near Mt. Carmel or over look the valley where David took on Goliath or visit the Pool of Bethesda where Jesus healed the lame man. So much of the history of God’s people can be anchored to physical geography of the land of Israel, i.e. the feasts, the worship, the battles, the births, and even the deaths.

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But the most significant thing about the land of Israel of me is the close presence of God. God hovers over Jerusalem. Despite the religious diversity, the tension, the rituals, the shrines, and all manner of religiosity, God set His name upon and made promises about Jerusalem. He cannot lie, and so the land emanates the fragrance of God. That is what draws me back–and the chance to learn even more about Him and His people, and the chance to draw ever closer to Him.

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It is our desire to help you grow in your knowledge of Adonai and His Word. If you are looking for additional information and/or materials, please visit our website at RootedinHisWord.org and our Facebook page. 

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Bible Study Acts Chapter 3 (Part 2)

January 23, 2025 by memullin

Read Acts Chapter 3
1.What facts about Yeshua does Peter recite in his sermon in the following verses?
Acts 3:13

Acts 3:14

Acts 3:15

Acts 3:16

Acts 3:18

2. How does Peter respond in Acts 3:12-26?

3. Copy Exodus 3:6. What is the connection Peter is making?

4. Copy Isaiah 52:13-15. What is the connection Peter wants them to make by quoting Isaiah 52:13?

5. What do you learn from the following verses?
Isaiah 50:6

Isaiah 53:4-6

Daniel 9:26

6. What exhortations does he give the people in Acts 3:19-20?

7. What prophecy about Yeshua does Peter refer to in Acts 3:20-21?

8. What does Peter say of Moshe in Acts 3:22?

9. Copy Deuteronomy 18:15-17 here. Meditate on this. Can you identify the prophet of whom Moses is speaking?

10. What does Peter tell them in Acts 3:24?

11. What truth does Peter remind them of in Acts 3:25?

12. What do you learn from the following passages?
Genesis 12:1-3

Genesis 22:18

Genesis 26:4

Genesis 28:14

13. Copy Acts 3:26 here. Meditate on this. What is the response of your heart when you read that Yeshua was sent by the Father to bless us by turning us back from our wickedness? Ask the Father to open your understanding to the significance of this in your life and the lives of those believers around you.

It is our desire to help you grow in your knowledge of Adonai and His Word. If you are looking for additional information and/or materials, please visit our website at RootedinHisWord.org and our Facebook page. 

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Bible Study Acts Chapter 3 (Part 1)

January 16, 2025 by memullin

Read Acts Chapter 3
1. Where were Peter and John going in Acts 3? At what time?

Going deeper: When is the 9th hour? What would have been going on at the temple at that time?

2. Why would they be at the Temple at that time?

Going deeper: Where in the temple complex was the Beautiful gate located?

3. Who was being carried according to Acts 3:2? Why?

4. What does the lame man ask of Peter and John in Acts 3:3?

5. What do Peter and John say to him in John 3:4?

6. How does the man respond in Acts 3:5? Why?

7. What does Peter say to him in Acts 3:6?

8. What happens in Acts 3:7-8?

9. What is the reaction of the people who saw him in Acts 3:9-10?

Prayer prompt: Review Acts 3:1-10. For 10 minutes, meditate on the images from the story, the place–Herod’s Temple. The people, Peter, John, the lame man, and the crowd at the temple complex. What do you see? How are these events impacting people witnessing them? For the next 10 minutes, reflect on the lame man. What is his life as a beggar? What would he be thinking about Peter and John? What might he have been expecting from them? How would the healing have changed his life? His ideas about God? As you think through this, how does your soul react? Does it believe God is capable of such miracles? Do you believe God is doing this type of miracle today? What healing do you need in your life? Do you believe God wants to do that work? How does your heart feel? Tell God the healing you desire. Listen to what He says.

It is our desire to help you grow in your knowledge of Adonai and His Word. If you are looking for additional information and/or materials, please visit our website at RootedinHisWord.org and our Facebook page. 

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The Coming King

December 26, 2024 by memullin

As we celebrate Christmas, we are celebrating the coming of Jesus. But Jesus, the child born in the manger, the man nailed to a cross and risen from the dead, already came. So whose coming are we anticipating?

What do the following scriptures tell us about the story of Jesus yet to come?
Colossians 3:4

2 Timothy 4:1

Revelation 5:5

Revelation 21:3-7

Revelation 22:12

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Posted in Christmas, Uncategorized | Tagged , , |

Christmas Poem

December 23, 2024 by memullin

–Christina Georgina Rossetti, 1885

Love Came Down at Christmas
Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and Angels gave the sign.

Worship we the Godhead,
Love Incarnate, Love Divine;
Worship we our Jesus:
But wherewith for sacred sign?

Love shall be our token,
Love shall be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.

 

Posted in Christmas, Poem | Tagged , |

WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH JESUS?

December 22, 2024 by memullin

WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH JESUS?

What will you do with Jesus?
Will you set up your fine nativity,
place the baby Jesus in
sit back and watch His angelic face
vaguely staring back at you?

What will you do with Jesus this year,
will you put Him in a box
gently wrapped in tissue paper
on the highest shelf atop?

Take Jesus out of storage.
Praise Him as the King of Kings!
Pay homage at the manager
and with the angels sing
“Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
He is Emmanuel!
God who dwelt among us
Your worship He compels.

For who else can offer eternal life?
Who can break the seven seals?
Who can pay the sin offering for all mankind
with blood shed sacrificially?

We’ve all a debt for sin we owe.
The wages for sin is death.
Jesus is the way, the truth, the life.
There is no other way.

What will you do with Jesus
the babe who in the manager lay?
His salvation is with in your grasp
the ransom has been paid.

Just believe on Him,
that He is the Son of God
and that He died upon the cross
the lamb unblemished by one sin

for you He paid the price.
He bought our wretched, sinful souls
in exchange His righteousness.

The baby Jesus is not an ornament,
an accessory to your manger scene.
He is the promised Messiah.
The Prophets told of Him.
Isaiah said, “Unto us a Child is born,”
seven hundred years before
His name would be “Emmanuel”
His kingdom without end.

God has had this plan for you
a life He wants to give
not the fading, temporal kind
that rots with death and sin
but life with Him eternal
reigning with Him in His realm.

What will you do with Jesus this year?
Will you take the life He gives
or will you settle for dear Santa
and his busy little elves?

Merry Christmas!

May the love of Christ be poured out on your family this Christmas. May the God of all Creation reveal His glory to you that you might enjoy the comfort and security of knowing how much He loves and cares about every detail of your life.

 

 

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Baby Jesus, Born to Die

December 19, 2024 by memullin

By M. E. Mullin

Baby Jesus, small and soft
born that star-filled night
for ages prophets had foretold
Light to pierce the night

Your heavenly home You left behind
eternal things put aside
to enter human time and space
the Father as your guide.

Why would You,
Almighty King
Lord of all the Lords
come down to earth to be with us
the outcasts and the poor

O Jesus, help me see the truth
Your life was not in vain
Your coming was to meet my need
Yours a blood sacrifice

For the living, it was needful
without blemish You were found
yet dying was the pinnacle
my sin stain it removed

The cross it is the centerpiece
instrument of pain
see where blood was flowing down
the lamb on it was slain

In dying You gave your life for me
propitiatory substitute
in rising You opened eternity
the accuser rendered mute

A baby born to humble means
lain in a manger bare
is only part the story told
look further if you dare

the only true and living God
the one they call “I AM”
He kept His promise in the child
He sent His Son, the Lamb

May God bless you this Christmas with a vision of Easter.

Copyright 2015

Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Jerusalem

Posted in Christmas, Jesus, Poem | Tagged , , |

Christmas Bible Study – Matthew Chapter 1

December 17, 2024 by memullin

  1. Consider Emmanuel–God with us. Compare this name for God to the names of God from the Old Testament and record your observations.
    El Roi
    Jehovah Shalom
    Jehovah Rapha
    Elohim
    Adonai

Read Matthew 1

  1. Note all the names that you recognize in the genealogy of Christ. Make a note of what you know about them.
  2. What does Joseph learn about Mary? What is his initial response? Why?
  3. What prophecy is given to Joseph in Matthew 1:18? Who delivers it?
  4. Consider Joseph. What would it feel like to find your fiancee is already pregnant and you have never been intimate with her? What would it take for you to be on board with God’s plan? Sometimes God asks us to trust Him–He doesn’t always send angels to convince us. Have you ever had a situation when God wanted you to believe Him and disregard everything and everyone else? Explain.

It is our desire to help you grow in your knowledge of Adonai and His Word. If you are looking for additional information and/or materials, please visit our website at RootedinHisWord.org and our Facebook page. 

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