I doubt there are many believers who don’t want to go. I believe there are fewer still who have gone and aren’t glad they did. I doubt as well, however, that those who haven’t gone know well enough what they are missing. My goal isn’t to shame anyone, but below are 5 reasons why you should make it a priority to tour the Promised Land.
1. It will help you remember that the Bible is true. Because its stories are long ago and far away it is too easy for us to see the Bible like a collection of religious stories. Going to Israel helps diminish the “far away” part. The point of walking where they walked, of drinking water from the same stream Gideon’s men drank water from isn’t to have some kind of mystical experience but to have a profoundly down to earth experience. Gideon was a regular man, called to extraordinary service, just like us.
2. It will help you understand the Bible. It has been said that the two biggest problems we have in seeking to understand the Bible is that we come to it as 21st century westerners and second, that we don’t come to it as 1st century Jews. The foundation of good hermeneutics is here- if we would understand the message of a given text, we first must understand what the original author was seeking teach his original audience. We don’t live in the geography of the middle east. We don’t work in an agrarian economy. The original audience did, as did the original authors. When you go and sit in the entranceway to a millenia old sheepfold you better understand why Jesus said that He is the door, that the sheep know His voice.
3. It will help you understand His providence. The people and places that make up the true story of the Bible are not there by accident. God didn’t choose the land for His people by accident. He didn’t send them first to Jericho randomly. Seeing the geography helps us grasp His reasoning, to get more of the big picture of history.
4. It will help you better appreciate the gospel. The depth and reality of His suffering for us comes to life when we walk the via dolorosa. The beauty of the resurrection shines at the traditional site of His tomb. Grasping the innerworkings of the scribes, the Pharisees, the Romans and the disciples manifests the beauty of God’s tapestry of grace.
5. It will help you better appreciate the universal need of the gospel. Visiting Israel is not a trip you take to meet with all your spiritual kin. Instead you see there, among the living, the myriad paths of the walking dead. Whether it is pious Jews chanting at the wailing wall, superstitious Roman Catholics rubbing their saint charms on the rock of the annunciation, dedicated Muslims heeding their call to prayer, or the vapid scurrying about of the hardened secularists, you will be surrounded, just like at home, by people who need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Both earth and heaven are full of believers who never saw the land of Israel. Going there won’t save anyone. But if you can go, you will be glad you did.