One Moment of Clarity Can Change the Course of Your Life

Originally posted by Peggy Consolver in 2017.

It was 2009 when I turned to my husband and said, “If I really write this story [of the Gibeonites of        Joshua 9 and 10], maybe I should go there.”

He made it happen, and that statement launched a whole new era in our lives— the biggest adventure of my life began.

Touring Israel with Associates for Biblical Research. The Sea of Galilee in the background

Going to Israel with Associates for Biblical Research to participate in the 2010 dig at Khirbet el-Maqatir opened a whole new world in so many ways.

Climbing the hill to get to the dig site of Khirbet el Maqatir, 2010

The site of Gibeon of Joshua 9 & 10 from a hillside across Aijalon Valley.

On a side trip, our personal Palestinian tour guide and a Palestinian cab driver took us to see Gibeon from across the valley and then to stand on its summit.

The view from the top of Gibeon’s hill. The northern outskirts of Jerusalem are in sight less than 9 miles away.

By going there, I could describe the setting of Gibeon and Aijalon Valley with authority in Shepherd, Potter, Spy—and the Star Namer.

An ancient olive tree on the top of Gibeon.

It was on that dig at Khirbet el Maqatir we met Dr. Gene Merrill and his wife Dr. Janet Merrill. Dr. Gene endorsed my book before publication and an excerpt of his endorsement is on the back cover.

“With ‘the author’s colorful turn of phrase … experience solid learning interwoven with joyful, sanctified ‘filling of the gaps’ that make the ancient text alive…’  Eugene H. Merrill, PhD, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Old Testament Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary” (2015)

Being a friend of ABR opened a whole series of new relationships as well. Dr. Bryant Wood, our Dig Director in 2010,

Dr. Bryant Wood in brown hat, Dig Director, 2010.

Dr. Wood has an amazing bio on the ABR website.  I am in awe of his fortitude and dedication  defending the Bible, its authority and its reliability as historical record. I am most pleased and humbled that he volunteered to endorse my book this year.  (2017)

    “Shepherd, Potter, Spy–and the Star Namer tells the story of the Hebrews’ arrival in Canaan from a new point of view. A young Gibeonite shepherd’s eyewitness account captures the tension in the ancient land of Canaan. Accurate descriptions of the terrain give the Bible student new insights into this historical event of the Late Bronze Age. The use of the archaeological artifact known as the Gezer Almanac adds credence to the timeline the author constructs. Bryant G. Wood, PhD, Director of Research, Associates for Biblical Research, Akron PA.”

Dr. Scott Stripling was our square supervisor in 2010.

That’s me “draining the bathtub”—lowering the level of soil bit by bit in my area/locus. That’s Dr. Stripling documenting the finds in the whole 10x10 meter square called Square 20.

Subsequently, he became Dig Director for Khirbet el-Maqatir, which closed out after over twenty years of digging in 2016.  Scott is now director of ABR’s new excavations at Shiloh.

ABR’S Week 4 Dig Team at Shiloh, 2017

And we took our whole family, eleven of us: our kids, spouses, and five grandchildren ages 11-17 to dig at ABR’s first season at Shiloh.

That’s us in 2017. But this pic was taken at Jericho on our tour week with ABR.

Have you ever experienced a moment of clarity that changed the course of your life? Share when this happened in your life.

I’d love to hear from you.

Baptisms and Mine Fields

Near the north end of the Dead Sea is a new site not available to us in 2010. (A re-post from 2017.)

Our family “floating” in the Dead Sea.

In 2010 we visited a Jordan River baptism site at the point where the out-flow of the Sea of Galilee entered the Jordan River. At the time we were told this most northern point of the Jordan River was the only part accessible to tourists to Israel. The rest of the river all the way to the Dead Sea was in a military zone–and there was hardly any water in it due to agricultural use. The new baptism site we went to in June 2017 is near the Dead Sea.

It seems evident to me that Israelis saw great value in building a tourist site available for Christian baptisms closer to the actual site of Jesus’ baptism in the gospels.

I do not know the process or negotiations that took place between the Palestinians, the Jordanians and themselves, but Israelis spent a great amount of money to provide this place and the accessibility at Bethabara. Scott Stripling, our tour guide and dig director at Shiloh, translated the name as “the house of crossing.,” It is on the western bank of the Jordan River. The country of Jordan is across the Jordan River to the east.

The western bank is in the territory of the Palestinians known, logically, as The West Bank.

Beside the road down to the baptism site of Bethabara.in the West Bank near Jericho.

In 2010, we were told the western bank of the Jordan River from the most southern point of the Sea of Galilee was a Palestinian military zone off-limits to Israelis and tourists. We saw this area labelled DANGER, MINES! beside the road in 2017.

All this resulted in a continual flow of tourists coming to be baptized. And Israeli military personnel stood nearby to watch over us all.

An Eye Witness Account: Eskie & the Crossing

A peak over the Jordan River at Jericho. A possible spot for a spy’s perch. (2010, trip to Israel)

ESKIE, A LATE BRONZE AGE SPY: INTERVIEW OF THE MAIN CHARACTER OF The Star Namer and the Unchosen:

AUTHOR: Good Morning to "Digging Deeper into HIStory." We are here again with Eskie, third son of Ishtaba the master potter of Gibeon. Eskie, you had us on the edge of our seats yesterday describing how the Jordan River was out of its banks, at the height of its flood stage, and the Hebrews began to dismantle their camp and move toward the rushing waters of the river as if they intended to cross. What happened next?

ESKIE: As I said, I would not have believed it if I had not seen it with my own eyes. Every one of the Hebrew tents were loaded up and in orderly arrangement and ready to cross. And the large tent at the center of their camp was dismantled piece by piece until at last a piece of furnishing covered with a blue cloth was revealed. Two poles that flashed in the sunlight extended beyond the blue covering.

AUTHOR: You say the poles flashed in the sunlight?

ESKIE: Yes. We were convinced they were covered with gold.

AUTHOR: And what happened next?

ESKIE: Four men approached slowly, waited, and lifted the poles to their shoulders. The four men walked slowly, straight to the edge of the river. Without hesitation the first two stepped into the water, and the ground beneath me began to move.

AUTHOR: Wait. They took one step into the water, and you felt the ground move where you were? What happened next?

ESKIE: What happened next is I scrambled to get out of the way of a large boulder as big as the Ra-eef' guest house or be flattened as flat as my mother's flatbread.

AUTHOR: Well, what about the Hebrews? What happened there?

ESKIE: I do not know what happened. I can only tell you what I saw. As soon as I could stopped shaking from the horror of nearly being crushed to death, I elbow-crawled back to my well-worn slot. Beside me at that point was a gaping vacancy where the stone had been. And I gaped with mouth wide open. I could not believe my eyes.

AUTHOR: What?  

ESKIE: The four men and the conveyance they bore stood still on dry ground—in the middle of the riverbed.

AUTHOR: Dry ground?

ESKIE: Yes. And the Hebrews were crossing. By the time I got back in place, the first wave of heavily armed fighting men were halfway across the river. They ranged far out on either side of the four men and their conveyance and never coming closer than a wheat field to the furnishing carried with golden poles.

AUTHOR: Amazing. But, Eskie, where was the water that had been there? The flooding water?

ESKIE: Below the crossing, the waters rushed toward the Salt Sea as before leaving behind dry ground. Above the crossing toward Mt. Hermon, the waters piled up and glistened in the sunshine?

AUTHOR: Uh. What did you say?

ESKIE: I told you you would not believe it either. But the water stood up, piled up, built up at the village of Adam up the river. The flood just sat there, not moving, while the Hebrews crossed with their families, their flocks, herds, and wagons. I am lying there shaking my head. Not believing it. But I cannot deny what I saw.

AUTHOR: So, how did the day end?

ESKIE: All the Hebrews crossed and set up camp at Gilgal. When every last one had gone over, the four men in the middle of the river bearing the golden poles on their shoulders proceeded to finish crossing. As soon as they stepped out of the dry riverbed, the waters upriver rushed down with a roar and a fury behind them. The four men bore their burden straight forward into the entrance to the large tent that always stands in the middle of their camp. It was fully reassembled and ready.

AUTHOR: Amazing. Thank you, Eskie, for that eye-witness report of the day the Hebrews crossed the flooded Jordan River. Folks, thank you for coming back for the rest of the story. Coming soon we will have more interviews of our fictional characters who witnessed events of the Bible—from Numbers 20-Joshua 10. All these events are related to you in Shepherd, Potter, Spy—and the Star Namer and in The Star Namer and the Unchosen by Peggy Miracle Consolver. (Provide link to reviews.)

AUTHOR: Until next time, keep on 'digging deeper into HIStory!'

George and Peggy at the cut through 25 layers of civilization at the tell of ancient Jericho. (2010 trip to Israel)