Day 18 and 19

Yesterday (Thursday) we went to the Jordan River a little bit north of were it goes into the Dead Sea. The Jordan River of today is smaller than it would have been when the Israelites crossed it. Now there is a dam near the Sea of Galilee that restricts the water flow and when the Israelites would have crossed it on their way to Jericho right around the time of the Passover it would have been at its flood stage, which could have been up to a mile wide. But even still, it is not like the Mississippi River or anything like that. This area was just reopened up to the public in the last few months, since the Jordan River is the dividing line between Israel and Jordan, and they don't always have the greatest of relationships to say the least.

Today (Friday) we woke up early and worked on an archaeology dig. It is the possible location of Ai (mentioned in Joshua 7, and a few other places). TJ and I were part of a group that worked in a section by the wall. No one has excavated in that spot before, and there should be a continuation of the city wall below the ground, which is exciting. That being said, it was mostly grunt work of moving stones. We did find pottery pieces, a circular flint stone (made for sling shots), and part of a grain grinding stone. The pictures below is the before picture, after picture, and one of 2 piles of stones we made.

Day 17

It is Thursday morning. I'm typing outside looking at the Sea of Galilee. It is our last day in this area. Wednesday we were in northern Israel. The landscape is very different from south or west Israel. They grow bananas, cherries, apples, avocados, and other things up here. We even stopped at a road side stand to purchase freshly picked cherries. To me it looks like the promised land.

We walked down to waterfalls near Caesarea Philippi, which is were Peter says Jesus is Christ for the first time (Acts 16:13-20). Since this waterfall is near the "land of Jordan and of Hermon", the psalmist may have been thinking of this location when writing Psalm 42. "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?"

Day 16

Today we took a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee, which is approximately 7 miles across and 12 miles long. There are mountains almost all the way around the Sea. It was a fairly calm day with just a little bit of breeze.

We stood on the hillside where Jesus gave the sermon on the mount, and read aloud Matthew chapter 5 to chapter 7. It was fun to picture a “great crowd” there listening to Jesus. Today it was very hot out (91 degrees, sunny and humid) and I found it hard to focus on reading of the passage the whole time. I wondered if the crowd in Jesus’s day was faced with the same difficulty. Whatever tries to distract us from Jesus, Jesus is still deserves our whole attention.

Day 15

Today has been very long. We've done a lot of driving and a lot of walking. Unfortunately we're getting to the point of the trip where everything is beginning to look alike. Yesterday we were at the beach on the Mediterranean, two days ago we were in Jerusalem where there it was urban and seemed to have no grass, three days ago we were in the desert of the Wilderness of Zin and Paran and today we are in the lush fields of the Jezreel Valley. The landscape has been incredibly diverse, yet this morning we were walking through a 2000 year old ruin and it felt like we've seen the same thing in previous days. I think it's because of the amount of information we're being given and we don't have enough time to process it. Yet, this afternoon it all changed. We reached Galilee and Capernaum. We hiked down the side of a cliff that overlooked the Sea of Galilee and all sorts of stories began to come alive. The cliff that was went down had ladder rungs and cables during the really "dangerous" parts to help give you a grip on the mountainside so we were safe enough. The Mountain that we climbed down was 590 feet above sea level and the Sea of Galilee is 700 feet below sea level. We didn't hike all the way down to the Sea of Galilee, but I bet we were close to 1000 feet when we finished.

We were really excited to be staying at a super nice resort, where they fed us grilled/barbecued chicken, and chicken with sauteed onions. After hiking down the mountain it was even nicer to eat well and then jump into the Sea of Galilee. It was so refreshing and satisfying. About halfway through the day, we went to the probable cliff that Jesus was brought in Nazareth after he read the Isaiah passage documented in Luke 4. The passage speaks about how the Messiah would come healing the blind and proclaiming the good news to the poor. Jesus then told the people of his childhood home that he was the one Isaiah was writing about. Then Jesus supposed that they would get him to perform his "magic tricks" on the people of Nazareth, since he had been doing these things in Capernaum and not his boyhood home of Nazareth. Jesus told them that he doesn't heal on command and that he wasn't going to these things in his hometown, probably because they were trying to manipulate his will. They brought him to the brow of a hill so they could throw him down the side of it. Jesus obviously escaped, but it presents an interesting dilemma in our lives. How many times do we try to manipulate God. I remember as a kid praying for God to make me incredibly wealthy and telling him I'd do anything if he helped my family win the lotto...among other things. I didn't know God at all then. I still don't know him completely, but I do know that I shouldn't be trying to manipulate God. The people of Nazareth tried to manipulate Jesus. They tried to get him to do his "tricks" without understanding him at all. Today, we challenge you to pray that God would reveal His will to you instead of you trying to force God's will onto your own plans.

Day 14

This is Sunday's post since we didn't have good internet at our last hotel.---- There was a Jewish holiday this weekend, which caused a lot of shops to be closed. It made souvenir shopping a little harder, but it did give us great traffic for yesterday. Sunday we went to Caesarea, another city that Herod the Great built. As crazy as Herod the Great was at the end of his life (killing his wives, killing his sons, and killing the babies in Bethlehem), he had “great” building plans and administrative skills to carry them out. In Caesarea, not only did he build a Roman city complete with a theater, hippodrome, and a palace, he also built a man-made harbor. The coast of Israel is very straight which makes shipping difficult. Some in Caesarea, he made a place that shipping vessels could safely dock. The harbor last for many years, but eventually fell apart due to earthquakes and rough seas, but you still can see the remains of it today. Caesarea is were Herod Agrippia I (Herod the Great’s grandson) killed James the brother of John and imprisoned Peter (Acts 12). Paul was also imprisoned in Caesarea for 2 years (Acts23:23 to Acts 27:2).

We went farther north to Mt Carmel which is actual a mountain range and not just a single mountain. Mt Carmel is mentioned a few times in passing in the Bible, typically referring to the fact it is very lush and fruitful. The main story that mentions Mt Carmel is 1 Kings 18 when Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal to a competition to see whose god is real. God through Elijah wins in spectacular fashion. It is a great story. Being there, you can see the story come to life. We were on top of one of the mounts of Mt Carmel. We could see the river of the Kishon Valley (vs 40) on the west and the Mediterranean Sea (vs 43-44) on the east. We stayed in Nazareth Sunday night (where Jesus grew up). In the breakfast buffet, they had spaghetti, I opted for cereal instead.

Day 12

We started off bright and early yesterday (Friday) at 5:00 am to climb up to top of Masada. Masada is a fortress on top of a hill/mountain next to the Dead Sea. Herod the Great is the one who built it up to a large structure during the time of Jesus, but there is some speculation that it could have been the “stronghold” where David hid from Saul in 1 Samuel 22:4-5. We were trying to make it up to the top by sunrise but we didn’t quite make it. It was still a beautiful view just below the top of Masada. Herod the Great in his typical fashion made it very grand. The front top of the mountain was carved out for one of his many palaces. He had a bathhouse and supplies to last years in preparation for a siege. The siege never came in Herod’s life time. But the Jews used Masada during the Jewish Revolt in 73 AD, and the Romans were able to capture it at that time. From Masada, we went north along the Dead Sea to the springs of En Gedi. This is the only fresh water source on west side of the Dead Sea. It has multiple waterfalls and all around it is desert mountains. En Gedi is mentioned in 1 Sam 23:29 and 1 Sam 24 talking about David hiding from Saul. It is a great place to hide because of the fresh water source and the many caves in the desert mountains. Scholars also think is inspiration for Psalm 57 and 142.

From En Gedi went across the street to float in the Dead Sea. What they say is true, you don’t have to swim. You can just float. The only effort you have to make is try to stay right side up, so you don’t roll over and dunk your face in the very strong salt water. We walked down the beach and found some mud to put on our skin (it’s supposed to be good since it is rich in minerals). The rocks on the edge of the beach had a thick layer of salt stuck to them. It reminded me of ice forming on the rocks on the edge of Lake Michigan.

We visited the Qumran ruins, which is where they found the Dead Sea scrolls, which is a mix of Biblical and non-Biblical writings. These scrolls were amazing preserved for hundreds of years in part because of the low humidity around the Dead Sea. One thing that makes the finding of the Dead Sea scrolls so important is, before they were found the oldest Biblical manuscripts we had were from 1200 AD and now we have them from as far back as 250 BC. This allows scholars to do textural criticism and what they found was an AMAZING preservation of the text. The Old Testament texts from the time of Jesus matched the ones from 2000 years later with only few small differences here and there. God is watching over his Word, and we can trust it to be true! Today we are back in Jerusalem for our free day (after the morning quiz). Basically we went souvenir shopping and rested. My arm is all healed from the sea urchins. :) Next week we are off to Galilee!

Day 11

Today was an easy day, hardly any walking. Unfortunately we got off to a bad start. We stayed right on the Reed (aka Red) Sea last night on the bay of Aquaba in the city of Eilat. The first scheduled activity was to snorkel there. They had a beautiful coral reef with tropical fish. We really enjoyed ourselves. The weather was perfect, it was warm with slightly cool but incredibly clear water. Another lady from our group was going in at the same time, and she kind of freaked out so TJ helped her get to the next dock. She was wearing a life jacket, but was not a very good swimmer and panicked every time a wave came. It was quite windy so the waves were splashing in her face. She couldn’t go back since it was against the current. Thankfully TJ survived and brought her to safety, even though she didn't make it easy on him. Heidi was left by herself, floating along and enjoying the scenery. There were plenty of non-stinging jelly fish and tropical bright blue/yellow fish, and like 200 little white fish in a school. The choral reef was also quite beautiful also. Heidi was taking her time and stopped to rest on some of the buoys they have available to allow you to take a break from kicking. Halfway to the exit dock, Heidi noticed that her arm hurt, and thought she had scratched it on the buoy. She stopped to look at it, but she didn't see anything on her arm. By the time she got out it though, it felt like it was on fire. She rinsed it off and noticed that it started to welt up. After waiting for TJ to get out (leading one stray sheep down the coastline of the red sea took a jolly good time, parting the sea and walking on dry ground would have made it quicker and easier). After we figured we were lied to and believed it to be a jelly fish sting we went to the snorkel instructor there. They told us that it was toxin from sea urchins that attached itself to those buoys. One of the employees applied vinegar to Heidi's stings and then aloe, which soothed it. As of right now, it still burns, though to a lesser degree. It's been a fun time though.

After our fun at the Red Sea, we went to a life sized model of the Tabernacle, and our guide explained how the Israelites moved it and function of the Tabernacle. For me, it gave me more of an appreciation for God’s holiness and how He was faithful to Israel.

We went to a "zoo" that contained native Israeli animals. It was more like a small wild life preserve. We saw venomous snakes, hyenas, and other animals that the Israelites would have had to deal with while wandering in the wilderness.

Here is a picture of a couple of porcupines huddled up together. The bobcats, wolves, and leopards were cool too. Tomorrow we get to swim in the dead sea. We're pretty excited about that! We'll write more soon.