Part of Our Caravan at Dothan
Dothan stands near to the main road running southward from Galilee toward Sharon, Philistia and Egypt. The place is five miles southwest of Jenin and about twelve north of Samaria. On this main road armies have marched. It is the route of kings. Here Thothmes and Necho came from the sea coast. Through the ages soldiers came down this famous path from Parthia, Assyria, Persia, Babylonia and Syria. Turks and Crusaders trod this highway. As George Adam Smith says, “There is probably no older road in all the world than that which is used by caravans from the Euphrates to the Nile, through Damascus, Galilee, Esdraelon, the Maritime Plain and Gaza.” From the sides of Tell Dothan the brethren of Joseph could see their father’s favorite approaching from the South. And they could see the caravan of Midianites, merchantmen from the East, as they came across the Plain of Esdraelon. Did Joseph and Mary recall the boy of Hebron, his father’s love, his brothers’ envy and his pitiful fate as they stopped by the road side for rest at noon-day? And, as we linger in the grove, the hill of Dothan rising above us, we hear the echoes of the long centuries—the tread of plodding pilgrims, of invading armies, of merchantmen in caravans, and recall the story of Joseph and the splendid vision granted to Elisha’s servant when the army of Syria sought to arrest the prophet.
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