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Aug. 2, 2023 - Jim Bakker Show
07:14
Footsteps of God | Aaron Lipkin, Derek & Sharon Gilbert
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Time Text
Footprints of Gilgal 00:03:46
Aaron, tell us about the footprints that you have found.
Do the footprint structures appear in the Bible?
So that's a very good question.
You know, what's interesting is not just the fact that you find an archaeological finding that proves the veracity of the Bible.
The next stage is to look at the finding and see how it even enriches our understanding of the scriptures.
And Professor Adam Zertal, when he surveys Samaria in the 1970s, 80s, 90s, he finds a very mysterious foot-shaped enclosure in Samaria and the Jordan Valley, which he doesn't know what it is, but he knows that it's Israelite.
He knows that it belongs to the time of Joshua.
And what you see is an enclosure that is shaped in the shape of a foot.
And it's adjacent to a slope that served as a theater for people to sit down and watch the ceremonies that were going on inside that enclosure.
The enclosure has an outline that could be a procession road where people would walk around.
And it also has an altar.
It has subdivisions inside the foot structure.
And so Adam Zertal was very curious.
He said, you know, if this is such a huge structure, this is like three football courts.
This is really big.
If the Israelites invested so much energy in building these structures, they have to appear in the Bible.
So he's opening the Bible.
This is interesting.
He finds something, and then he goes to the Bible to better understand what it is.
And so he opens the Bible and he's looking for the worshiping sites of the Israelites at the time of Joshua.
And a name comes up, the word Gilgal.
Okay, we've all heard of, read the word Gilgal coming up.
We see that the Israelites are coming into the land of Israel.
And before conquering Jericho, they're circumcising at Gilgal of Jericho.
They're crowning King Saul at Gilgal.
And we always thought that Gilgal was the name of a place near Jericho.
But when you look at the Bible closely, you see that Gilgal appears in several places, several locations in Israel.
And so Adam Zertal said, this has to be Gilgal.
This has to be the place that's mentioned in the Bible.
And if I'm correct, then there's another Gilgal waiting to be found on the border between Benjamin and Judah.
If I'm able to find another enclosure like that, I will prove scientifically that my theory, that these are the biblical Gilgal, this will be true.
And so he takes satellite footage and he looks in the area of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin.
And at a certain point, he can't believe his eyes.
He actually was able to identify another enclosure, another footprint structure.
And that finally proved his theory that these footprint structures are Gilgal.
And he actually wrote a book about it.
It's called The Footsteps of God.
And what's interesting is that after finding this, and by the way, one of these structures is also around Joshua's altar.
Feasts as Footprints 00:03:41
In other words, the Israelites, the reason why they built this enclosure is to sanctify a certain area versus the other places that are not holy, that are not important.
This is the only place where only the high priests could go in or the judges or the important people.
And So suddenly these insights are coming to Adam Zertal.
How do you say in Hebrew a feast?
You know, Passover, Sukkot, Pentecost, tabernacles, these are all the three feasts.
How do you call them in Hebrew?
In the Bible?
They're called Regel.
Regel means a foot in Hebrew.
Okay?
Now we understand why.
When the Israelites worshiped God during those feasts, they went to the foot to worship God.
Okay?
That was the foot.
Another thing, how do you say a holiday in Hebrew?
A holiday is a chag.
Chag means in Hebrew to circle.
And the footprint structures have a procession road around them, which shows that the Israelites, when they came to worship their God, they went circling around the foot structure.
So it's amazing that when you find an archaeological site from the time of the Bible, it doesn't just prove the Bible.
It also adds more understanding to our understanding of the Bible.
And, you know, every time that Derek and Sharon and I, when we bring groups to Israel, people don't just see the Bible come alive.
It gives them a better understanding of the scriptures.
Yeah, absolutely.
Deuteronomy 11, 24, every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours.
God's promise to Moses and Joshua and the Israelites.
And now we've got this series of footprint structures across the land.
And interestingly, I went and looked at a 19th century map of old city Jerusalem, the city of David and the Temple Mount.
It's shaped just like that.
Just like a sandal.
Yes, yes.
This was apparently.
And Adam Zertal tried to understand why are the Israelites building these footprint structures?
Where does it come from?
And he went to the Egyptian culture because that's where the Israelites are coming from.
And he sees that the foot of Pharaoh was a very important thing in the Egyptian culture.
It showed the Egyptian conquest of lands.
It showed the control of Pharaoh over the other nations.
And when you look at the book of Joshua, you see that the main theme is the Israelite conquest of Canaan.
So when the Israelites are building these foot-shaped structures, what they're actually saying is this belongs to us.
This is their way of saying it belongs to God.
These footprint structures are God's feet.
And when we read the Bible, we see that the Bible constantly says that the earth is God's footstool.
This is where God puts his feet.
Jerusalem, Mount Zion is the place where God puts his feet.
And so suddenly, after you visit these sites and you learn about the footsteps of God, when you read the Bible, you start seeing feet over everywhere.
The word foot suddenly has an important meaning.
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