Before he ever puts his pen to the paper, a good playwright takes time to carefully assemble the elements of his drama: characters, conflict, story...and setting. Like the master playwright that He is, God sets every event in the Bible in a particular place, at a particular time, among a particular group of people. The land became the stage on which the drama of redemption unfolded, and continues to unfold.
God did not convey His message through abstract philosophy, but through the vivid accounts of farmers and sheep and goat herders-people of the land. Scripture is rich with references to specific plants, landscapes, and climate-all working together to shape and expre
Though just a tiny dot on the world map, no plot of land has played a larger role in history than Israel has. Therefore, the more we allow this unique land to teach us, the more alive the Bible becomes, and the better we understand its meaning.
As you follow the movement of God's drama, take time to examine the elements of the setting, down to the very details of the picture. How does a study of geography help us understand the Bible?
First, it provides a fuller understanding of the text. Living in the Promised Land is an act of faith. This simple fact is demonstrated in Deuteronomy 11:10-17. Understanding Israel's semiarid climate, one quickly realizes the people's dependence on God to send the life-giving rains each year in their season.
Jesus often drew illustrations from familiar local scenes in order to make His point. Reading His Sermon on the Mount it is possible to envision His hand gesturing to one scene after another. No doubt a flock of migratory birds sweeping up this enormous rift valley from Africa prompted Jesus to say, "Look at the birds of the air." Then, in the next breath, He looked at the hillsides blanketed in flowers and urged, "Observe the lilies of the field." Israel is second only to Switzerland in its display of wildflowers in the spring.
Jesus summarized that anyone who obeyed was like a wise man who built his house on the rock, rather than the sand. Probably some in the crowd were from Bethsaida, a town just below them where the Jordan River meets the Sea of Galilee. In summer, the dirt there is as hard as a rock. But the winter rains cause the river and sea to rise and wash away the alluvial sand. Beneath this crust is a layer of bedrock. The wise man sweats and digs and picks away at the hard sandy crust to the bedrock underneath. Such an insight can change the point of the text. It suddenly becomes an issue not where to build, but how to build.
Second, it helps confirm the accuracy of the text. Jesus begins His parable of the Good Samaritan with the words, "A certain man was going down Jerusalem to Jericho." Traveling from Jerusalem's location atop Mt. Zion, this unfortunate man headed steadily downward in elevation to Jericho, one of the lowest cities on the face of the earth, at the north end of the Dead Sea.
The same road is referred to in Luke 19. It is easy to follow the path Jesus took into Jerusalem as He faced His final days on earth. Again, coming from Jericho He was "ascending to Jerusalem" (Luke 19:28) approaching the villages of Bethphage and Bethany, both still located on the same road Jesus would have walked on His final approach into the city. Such geographical detail helps confirm the accuracy of Scripture.
Third, it brings the text to life. When I was a child in Sunday school, I loved the story of David and Goliath. What ten-year-old doesn't? First Samuel 17 gives the physical description of the battle site. But imagine standing on the hill looking down into the valley. There's a little brook on one side, and two large hills facing each other, and a broad green valley in between. When I stood there with my ten-year-old boy, I thought, "Wow, this is where it happened! David came from over there, picked up his stones from that creek there, and walked to this point here, and the giant was standing there."
The setting itself breathes life into the text. Suddenly, it's not "a once upon a time" kind of tale...it's real flesh and blood, facing the battles, trials, and tests of faith that you and I face right here and now.
In Luke 19:40, Jesus told the Pharisees on His triumphal entry into Jerusalem that if the people were hushed, the very stones would cry out. Sometimes it seems if you listen hard enough you can hear those stones, and fields, and hills, and deserts tell a story that only you or I can only imagine.
