Until I visited Israel in person, I never truly understood the importance of geography to a better understanding of the biblical narrative. Now, a few years after my trip, what sticks in my mind more than anything is the geography.
It is unfortunate that maps are usually relegated to the back of the Bible, if they are present at all. The best Bibles have at least ten pages of maps and diagrams; my favorite Bible has 19! Why? The history of the land of Israel is a history of tribes and kingdoms and empires—united and divided monarchies, Assyrian and Babylonian, Greek and Roman, and of course one can't forget about all of those "ites" (Ammonites, Moabites, Canaanites...) and many others. To understand a story in its historical context, you simply have to have a basic understanding of where and when a story took place. Here are three simple examples...