02/12/2023
"Now the Philistines fought against Israel ...and many fell slain on Mount Gilboa." (1 Chronicles 10:1) Or Gaza envelope...to get some perspectives and breath fresh air, we went to Mount Gilboa. Standing on Mt. Saul thinking about biblical times drama vs today. Have something changed? "Philistines pressed hard after Saul and his sons, and they killed his sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua."(1Chronicles 10:2 ) There is no family in Israel who had not known someone from "Gaza envelope". We are still mourning. All were our sons..daughters..brothers, sisters, mothers, friends. "Your Glory, o Israel, lies slain on your heights. How the mighty have fallen!" Tell it not in Gath, proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughter of the Philistines be glad.. " (Samuel 2:19)
"The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. They stripped him and took his head and his armor...They put his armor in the temple of their gods and hung up his head in the temple of Dagon" (1 Chronicles 10:8). This place could be at Beit Shean where we continued our tour. A beautiful place with rich history and archeology. Even Egyptian Governors found Beit Shean position very attractive. During the Hellenistic period, the settlement was known as Nysa-Scythopolis. Under Roman rule, Scythopolis was the leading city of the Decapolis. After being saved from many evil spirits, that entered a herd of pigs the men wanted to follow Jesus, but Jesus sent him to his own people. "So the men went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him." (Mark 5:20).
A multi-cultural metropolis under Byzantine rule, it served as the capital of the province of Palestina Secunda, and had a mixed population of Christians, pagans, Jews and Samaritans.
All this beauty became a ruins after devastating erthquakes of 749.