The geography and history of the Bible

Evgeny Bakhmutsky of Moscow describes how the Bible stories he grew up with first felt like fairy tales. This teaching tells how visiting Ephesus and Israel, and standing where David met Goliath, showed him these are real stories about real people facing challenges like ours.

Evgeny Bakhmutsky (Ekklesia Russia), “The geography and history of the Bible,” Field Notes, Enjoy Journal.

My name is Evgeny Bakhmutsky. I’m from Moscow, Russia. And for me, such a privilege to have kind of short conversation with you today.

I grew up among Christian relatives. Both my grandfather were church ministers, been in prison for their faith. And so, I heard the gospel and I read the Bible from early ages. And for me, as a young kid, it’s been like fairy tales or like a folk stories or literally kind of items, works. And when I got a little older and I started to discover geography and travel a little, I was surprised how much I’ve been missing in my Bible reading. Neglecting or not really knowing that all these stories, they’re not really fake created stories. They’re all real stories about real people who facing similar challenges and I facing, who’ve been living in a similar situation.

And when I started to visit some kind of Bible sites locations, like when I went to Ephesus, ancient Ephesus, it helped me to understand better, even better, several Bible passages, Book of Acts and all these missionary journeys of Apostle Paul. I saw how he was strategic in his ministry. That he purposely was going to main cities and try to be as close as possible to where all people get together.

When I went to Israel, I really got not just a completely new perspective, but my picture of ministry of Jesus became so much enlarged and strengthened. And when I was in a place where David and Goliath fought, and I just realized, “Wow, there were two hills. They didn’t want to start the battle because nobody want to go down. Everybody want to be up.” So, David really went down trusting the Lord completely that God Almighty going to give him victory.

So, study biblical archaeology and come and visit many places. And when you read the Bible, just remember, this is a real story about real people, real challenges, people like us. And it going to help you to be appreciated way more for God’s word.