By Dr. Randall Smith
Courtesy of Christian Travel Study Programs, Ltd.
“Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south” [Genesis 28:10-14].
The location of the site where Jacob dreamed of the Lord?s promise that his descendants would inherit the Promised Land is believed to be Bethel, adjacent to the modern Arab village of Beitin. Located on an important intersection in the mountains north of Jerusalem leading towards Shechem in the north, Jericho in the east and the Beth Haran in the west, Bethel played an important role in the struggles between Israel and Judah.
During the Maccabee revolt against the Greek Seleucids, the site became a Seleucid bastion. Excavations carried out in the area during the last century revealed the foundations of walls and buildings from Canaanite period up to the days of Byzantium.
The fields and environs around Bethel are filled with terraces. Terraced agriculture, so common in the Land of Israel, was first introduced into the country after the conquest by Joshua, according to several archeological studies.
© Christian Travel Study Programs, Ltd.
