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Isaac and Maria moved to Israel from Latin America a year ago. They settled in Ashdod, so their sick daughter Lilietta could live a peaceful life. That peace came to a halt on October 7.

They were asleep that morning when Maria heard a distant siren, saying, “I thought I was imagining it. But when we heard the next siren, we checked the news, and realized we were under a terrorist attack.” Isaac added, “I grabbed Lilietta and ran into the safe room. We heard people screaming.” Their little girl became very agitated as sirens went off for the next 12 hours.

The couple was devastated. Israel had become home for them, and they loved the land and the people. They had felt safe. But now, they were huddled in a bomb shelter for many sleepless days, scared of terrorists who were entering people’s homes to kill them. Concerned for their daughter’s health, they were afraid to leave the shelter to go to the hospital.

That’s why we are so thankful that friends like you came to their rescue through CBN Israel. Caring donors relocated this family, and many others, to a temporary shelter in a secure area. They welcomed them with hot meals, hygiene kits, clothing, toys, and trauma therapy—even for the children. Maria said gratefully, “It gave us great peace of mind…our daughter was safe and cared for. Thank you!”

Your gifts to CBN Israel can speed emergency aid to terror victims, while also bringing crucial help to single moms, Holocaust survivors, and refugees in need.

And your support is vital, especially as the war escalates. You can supply food, housing, finances, and even bomb shelters to vulnerable Israelis.

Please let us hear from you today!

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 By Marc Turnage

The Galilean village of Yodfat lies in the hills three miles north of Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown, across Beit Netofa Valley, an easy day’s walk. Its primary industries were textiles and pottery manufacturing. The inhabitants of Yodfat herded sheep and goats for the purpose of converting their wool into fabrics and textiles. Archaeologists discovered a number of loom weights in the area, which indicates that an industry of textiles came from Yodfat.

Yodfat provides an important window into the world of Jesus. During the First Jewish Revolt (A.D. 66-73), the first century Jewish historian Josephus relates that he commanded the Jewish forces in Galilee. He fortified villages throughout Galilee including Yodfat. 

The Roman army laid siege to the village building a siege ramp for soldiers to cross over its wall. As the Roman forces besieged Yodfat, Josephus and some of his men hid in a nearby cave. He convinced them to commit suicide rather than surrender to Rome. When the moment came for his death, however, he changed his mind and surrendered to Rome. He was taken to the camp of the general Vespasian. Roman forces destroyed Yodfat. It was never rebuilt.

Yodfat provides a time capsule into the Galilean world of Jesus in the first century. Archaeological excavations at Yodfat show the social strata of a Galilean village. A home with beautifully painted frescoes was discovered similar to other wealthy homes excavated in Jerusalem. The finds also indicate the presence of both merchant and artisan classes, who owned and distributed, manufactured and produced textiles and pottery. We can also assume the presence of poor people as well, but they do not leave remains within the archaeological record.

The excavations at Yodfat speak to the religious life of first century Galileans. While a synagogue has not yet been discovered, archaeologists uncovered Jewish ritual immersion pools (mikva’ot). These stone vessels indicate a concern for Jewish ritual purity laws. The animal bones discovered at the village show a distinct avoidance of pigs in accordance with Jewish law. The archaeology of Yodfat indicates that the people living in this area were Jews concerned with observance of Jewish law.

These were the Galileans to whom Jesus taught, healed, and ministered. Yodfat was destroyed a little over 30 years after Jesus’ crucifixion. When we touch the site of Yodefat, we touch the Galilee of Jesus and his disciples. The pottery that litters the ground of this site is the kind of pottery used by Mary in Nazareth. Yodfat’s close proximity to Nazareth suggests that Jesus would have known this Galilean village, and likely visited it. And it offers a view of the hills and valleys that Jesus and his disciples traveled.

Marc Turnage is President/CEO of Biblical Expeditions. He is an authority on ancient Judaism and Christian origins. He has published widely for both academic and popular audiences. His most recent book, Windows into the Bible, was named by Outreach Magazine as one of its top 100 Christian living resources. Marc is a widely sought-after speaker and a gifted teacher. He has been guiding groups to the lands of the Bible—Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and Italy—for over twenty years.

Website: WITBUniversity.com
Facebook: @witbuniversity
Podcast: Windows into the Bible Podcast

“Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11 NASB).

Jesus often alluded to passages from the Old Testament in His teachings. When He taught His disciples to pray, He instructed them to say, “Give us this day our daily bread.” This image would have drawn to the minds of His disciples the story of the manna in the wilderness.

God provided manna in the wilderness to feed the children of Israel after they left Egypt (Exodus 16:11-36). They were permitted to gather only enough for that day. They could not gather more than a day’s sufficiency—except on the sixth day. On that day, they gathered a double portion to keep them for the Sabbath.

Prior to Israel’s entry into the promised land, Moses reminded them how God kept them in the wilderness: “He gave you manna to eat, which you and your fathers had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:3 HCSB).

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He instructed them to ask only for their “daily bread.” Just like those wandering in the wilderness, He expected His disciples to understand their need and reliance upon God for His provision.

The emphasis on looking to God for the sufficiency of the day also reminds us of Jesus’ instruction to His followers to not worry about what they will eat or wear because God knows what they need (see Matthew 6:25-34).

That sounds great, right? Don’t worry. Trust God.

Have you ever wondered whether the Israelites in the wilderness ever went to sleep at night worrying that the manna wouldn’t be there when they woke up?

Spiritual slogans often wither in the heat of life’s cruel realities. That’s why our faith cannot rest upon motivational words, but on a genuine encounter with the living God, who provides our daily bread. He is trustworthy, even when our momentary circumstances seem to scream otherwise.

He does provide our daily bread. And we must look to Him and trust Him. He, however, doesn’t give us what we need tomorrow, today. We have to trust that today’s sufficiency is enough for today, and tomorrow’s will be there tomorrow.

Jesus called upon His disciples to trust God, even in the midst of hardship, trials, and difficulties—to not let the cares of life choke our trust in God. Do we have faith enough to see God so intimately involved in our daily lives providing our daily bread?

PRAYER

Father, give us this day our daily bread. Amen.

On the morning of October 7, Israel woke up to what is now being referred to as the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Hundreds of armed militants simultaneously infiltrated Israel from Gaza with surprise attacks by land, air, and sea.

They left a trail of death, destruction, and suffering in their wake: Some 200 people were taken hostage, over 1,200 Israelis were killed, and many more were injured.

Thousands of deadly rockets fell upon Israel’s major cities and towns, forcing families and entire communities to seek refuge in emergency bomb shelters that friends like you helped make possible over the past several years through CBN Israel.

Prime Minister Netanyahu then declared war against Hamas to protect Israeli citizens and restore security—mobilizing over 300,000 reservists in addition to Israel’s standing army. Civilians were quickly evacuated from towns near the front lines, creating a need for emergency shelter, supplies, and basic sustenance.

Thanks to caring donors, CBN Israel was there to meet the immediate requirements of hundreds of families who live along the Israel-Gaza border. We provided evacuees with transportation to safety, as well as temporary housing, food, water, hygiene items—even toys and games for children. We are also offering trauma counseling for the victims of these horrible attacks. 

“We are just so thankful for the people who organized and donated so that we can have somewhere to stay,” exclaimed an evacuee named Sara. “I can’t believe the amazing generosity of people who have helped to make sure we are safe.”

Your prayers and support can be powerful reminder to Israel and the Jewish people that Bible-believing Christians like you are standing with them during these difficult days.

Please join us in blessing Israel and her people in their time of need!

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Gezer sat an important geographic juncture between the Coastal Plain (the Plain of Philistia and the Sharon Plain) and the Aijalon Valley. It guarded a stretch of the international coastal highway that connected Egypt with Damascus and Mesopotamia; this was the most important route in the Ancient Near East.

The Aijalon Valley offers an east-west corridor from the Coastal Plain through the Judean lowlands into the Central Hill country. Gezer sat at this juncture protecting the international coastal highway as well as the inland route into the Judean highlands. It was an important regional hub.

According to the book of Joshua, Joshua defeated the king of Gezer (10:33). Gezer remained a Canaanite city throughout the period of the Judges (Joshua 16:10; Judges 1:29). David fought against the Philistines near Gezer (2 Samuel 5:25; 1 Chronicles 20:4). The Egyptian Pharoah gave Gezer as a dowry to Solomon for marrying his daughter.

The biblical text mentions Gezer most prominently with Solomon’s building efforts (1 Kings 9:15-17). Solomon fortified Gezer along with Megiddo and Hazor; all three cities guarded stretches of the international coastal highway between Egypt and Mesopotamia. By the biblical writer mentioning Solomon’s building up of these three cities, he communicated the strength of Solomon’s kingdom along this very important international highway.

Like Megiddo and Hazor, Gezer, which was a very significant regional hub within the Levant (modern day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, and the West Bank), was not mentioned often within the Bible. The lack of mention of these cities within the biblical text does not correspond to their regional importance; rather, it reflects the reality that the Israelites rarely exerted control over these cities.

The site of Gezer consists of two hills, an eastern hill and western hill connected by a low saddle. Excavations reveal that Gezer reached its zenith in the Middle Bronze Age (1950-1550 B.C.). The city had large walls and fortifications during this period. Excavations uncovered a high place of ten monolithic standing stones, which could be used to commemorate an event, as burial markers, or a covenant relationship (see Genesis 28:18-22; 35:9-15, 19-21; and Exodus 24:3-8); these monoliths stand in the saddle that connected the two hills.

In the 10^th century B.C., Gezer was refortified with a six-chambered city gate attached to the city wall. Each chamber of the gate contained plastered benches. This underscores that gates within Iron Age cities were not merely for entering and exiting the city, nor solely the city’s defense, but they served as a meeting place, a place where the city elders sat to judge the affairs of the people, as well as a market and gathering place of the people (see Deuteronomy 21:19; Ruth 4:1-11; 1 Kings 22:10; 2 Kings 7:1; Amos 5:10, 12; Isaiah 29:21; Jeremiah 38:7; 2 Chronicles 32:6).

The Iron Age settlement also had a water system hewn into the bedrock with stairs also hewn into the rock descending into it. The campaign in Judah of Pharaoh Sheshonk I apparently destroyed Gezer in the late 10^th century B.C. The city was rebuilt, but was destroyed again in the 8^th century B.C., probably as a result of the campaign of the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III (733 B.C.). Gezer remained settled in the Persian and Hellenistic periods, with its final period of settlement being during the Hellenistic period.

Marc Turnage is President/CEO of Biblical Expeditions. He is an authority on ancient Judaism and Christian origins. He has published widely for both academic and popular audiences. His most recent book, Windows into the Bible, was named by Outreach Magazine as one of its top 100 Christian living resources. Marc is a widely sought-after speaker and a gifted teacher. He has been guiding groups to the lands of the Bible—Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and Italy—for over twenty years.

Website: WITBUniversity.com  
Facebook: @witbuniversity
Podcast: Windows into the Bible Podcast

“Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds His people from this time forth and forever” (Psalm 125:1-2 NKJV).

Psalm 125 is the sixth psalm of the Psalms of Ascent (Psalms 120–134). Pilgrims sang these psalms as they approached the Temple at times of pilgrimage, especially the festivals of Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Pentecost), and Sukkot (Tabernacles).

The psalmists often used realities that people knew to illustrate and articulate what God or people were like. The Bible and the biblical mind functioned in concrete ideas and images instead of abstract ones, as we tend to do. The psalmist in Psalm 125 described those who trust in God as unmovable as Mount Zion. What provided such surety?

When David conquered Jerusalem and made it his capital, the city resided on a hill known as the eastern hill; the Bible refers to the northern part of this hill as Mount Zion. The eastern hill is surrounded by hills higher than it. People settled on the eastern hill instead of one of the higher hills due to a water source, the Gihon Spring, a karstic spring that continues to produce water, at the base of the eastern hill. The city remained on the eastern hill until the eighth century B.C. 

The population grew and began to settle on the western hill—what today is referred to as Mount Zion—which was included in the walls of the city toward the end of the eighth century B.C. At that time, the western hill rose above several of the surrounding hills. Thus, Psalm 125 was written when the city only existed on the eastern hill, for only then did the mountains surround Jerusalem. 

It sounds beautiful. “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds His people.” That is, until you stand on the eastern hill and realize that strategically all the other hills look down on you. The position is vulnerable. Attacking armies could position themselves on the higher hills looking down into the city. In such a vulnerable position, what made Mount Zion unmovable; what would protect it? God served as its protection, and therefore, Mount Zion cannot be moved. He defends Jerusalem—and those who trust in Him. 

Trusting God sounds easy. Our world often makes it difficult. The question gets asked to us many times a day, “Has God really said?” “Can God truly protect and deliver?” “Can I really trust God?” 

The inhabitants and pilgrims to Jerusalem when it sat on the eastern hill were confronted by similar questions. It seemed too vulnerable. Yet, God protected. He takes care of those who do good and choose to obey Him. Trusting in God is not a mere mental exercise. It means that we do what He commands, confident that He will prove true to His word. 

PRAYER

Father, we trust in You. You are our defender and protection. You repay those who obey You and choose to do good. Amen.

As we continue seeing tragic news reports about the war in Israel, you have been a true blessing—offering vital aid through CBN Israel to those who were trapped on the frontlines.

Many living by the Gaza border were forced to flee. Their homes were destroyed, they suffered trauma, lost loved ones, and they feared the possibility of Hamas terrorists still roaming nearby in Israel. In the midst of all this, our partners helped these victims escape to safety.

Sara and her family were among those evacuated from the Gaza border. She initially panicked, saying, “We didn’t know what we were going to do. Where are we going to go?” But friends like you brought her and other evacuees to Eilat, one of the most peaceful places in Israel right now.

Caring donors met the needs of hundreds of families—transporting them to safe lodging in hotels, far from sirens and bombs. They handed them hot meals, water, clothing, hygiene items—and toys for the children. Plus, they are offering trauma counseling for victims of all ages. Sara exclaimed, “I can’t believe the amazing generosity of people who have helped to make sure that we’re safe. I am so, so thankful!”

Your generous gifts to CBN Israel can also bring essential relief to single mothers, new immigrants, aging Holocaust survivors, and others, who need our assistance to survive in the Holy Land. You can let them know they are not forgotten.

And during this sudden time of turmoil, your support can offer lifegiving aid to growing numbers in crisis. You can rush emergency food, water, and essentials to those on Israel’s frontlines, while supplying ongoing relief to hurting individuals.

Please join us in blessing Israel’s people!

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One of the largest and most important sites within the land of Israel during the Old Testament period is the city of Hazor. Along with Gezer and Megiddo, Hazor watched over the most important roadway within the Ancient Near East that connected Egypt with Damascus and Mesopotamia; for this reason, according to the book of Kings, Solomon fortified these three cities (1 Kings 9:15).

The international significance of Hazor is attested by its mention in Egyptian execration texts (from the 19^th-18^th centuries B.C.), as well as the Mari documents and el-Amarna letters, which indicate that Hazor served as a major commercial center within the Ancient Near East.

Hazor is located in the Jordan Valley, nine miles north of the Sea of Galilee, an area referred to as the Huleh Valley. It sits at the foot of the mountains of the Upper Galilee. This international highway that connected Egypt with Damascus and Mesopotamia ran past the mound upon which Hazor sat.

According to the book of Joshua, Joshua conquered Hazor (11:10-13). Deborah and Barak confronted the forces of Jabin, king of Hazor, and his general Sisera (Judges 4-5). The scant references to Hazor in the Old Testament do not reflect its importance within the land of Israel.

Quite often Hazor, like Gezer and Megiddo, found itself, because of its international significance, under the influence of greater foreign powers. In general, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah only controlled these major cities during times when the empires of Egypt and Mesopotamia were in decline.

Excavations of Hazor uncovered a destruction layer of the city during the Late Bronze Age, which some archaeologists identify as the destruction of Joshua. The city consists of two areas: an upper and lower city. The lower city was founded in the Middle Bronze Age. The city reached its zenith in the 14^th century B.C. when it was the largest city in Canaan. Excavations of the upper city uncovered a palace, temples, and well as the water system of Hazor.

One of the temples excavated follows a similar pattern in layout to the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. Archaeologists discovered a gate complex at Hazor that consisted of six chambers. Similar gate complexes were discovered at Gezer and Megiddo, which led some archaeologists to identify these as connected to Solomon’s fortifications mentioned in 1 Kings.

Marc Turnage is President/CEO of Biblical Expeditions. He is an authority on ancient Judaism and Christian origins. He has published widely for both academic and popular audiences. His most recent book, Windows into the Bible, was named by Outreach Magazine as one of its top 100 Christian living resources. Marc is a widely sought-after speaker and a gifted teacher. He has been guiding groups to the lands of the Bible—Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and Italy—for over twenty years.

Website: WITBUniversity.com  
Facebook: @witbuniversity
Podcast: Windows into the Bible Podcast