Day 6; Footsteps of Abraham and Jesus

On this day six we wake up with the Sea of Galilee below us, a good way to wake up. Now yesterday we were told the sunrises over the Golan Heights were amazing, especially with the light sparkling over the Sea. Getting excited? I was! So at 6:20 I wake up, get dressed, run downstairs to see this;

A cloudy morning. This was as good as it got. Rats. So much for that. So after breakfast we board the bus and head north. 

On the bus ride we saw a few cool sights. First was being able to see Mt Tabor. This is where Jesus became transfigured, dressed in dazzling white, standing with Moses and Elijah. Sorry it's blurry, it's a fast bus, but very cool to see (above this city, whose name I do not know).

Next we head further north to the ancient city of Tel Dan.

Now Dan is the most northern area of Israel, and is practically the most remote. While it belonged to Israel, the Israelites here were usually the ones causing trouble. We saw clear evidence of that going in, but first we beheld the raw beauty of this land.

It's green, and ragged, and wild. And it's water everywhere up here. And the water, what water. We would walk on creek beds with water just gushing all around us and under us. A land flowing with milk and honey? Well, water is the milk and honey of a desert certainly. I wish I could communicate the sounds of the volumes of water just flowing and dabbling down the creekbeds into the river. See, this is one of the main sources for the Jordan River, so was important when Israel invaded this Canaanite country. 

This led us to this, the cultic site of worship here in Dan. Here's the thing though, this isn't Canaanite (non-Hebrew) worship, this was built by the Hebrews! Say what?! Well Dan had a rivalry with the lower tribes and Jerusalem and didn't want to worship that far, so they built their own cultic worship sites, including golden calves (see 1 Kings 12). Let's say that didn't go over well. A sad reminder that heresy can be found even within. Here it is

Now the more recent history, Israel fought hard to take this land from Lebanon (and won) in the 6 Day War in June of 1967. The trenches and the mounts of the heavy gun turrets are still here. Like school kids us guys went through the trenches using the word "cool" over and over.

See the background on that picture above? That's Lebanon. That plus Jordan within sight on our pilgrimage. Then things got more interesting; and older.

This is the Canaanite Gate of the Three Arches, built 1800-1700 BC. This was the original entrance to this site in an older time of the city of Dan. This is pre-Israel, and it's made of mud bricks. Incredible it's still here. Now stay with me because this is important; Genesis 14:14 talks about Abram (before he was "renamed" Abraham) taking 318 trained men to the city of Dan. Cool, right. Well, 318 is a random number (not the dramatic or symbolic numbers the Bible is full of), and the dating is the time of Abram. Therefore, Abraham WALKED through that gate! See those steps, Abraham STOOD THERE! Abraham sites are almost non-existent, and here is one! Dude! This is where is all started!

We continued around the site here at Dan and see the entrance gate to Dan for

Israelite times. Check out the number of stones, the sheer number. These guys didn't slouch about security. 

Now when you would enter the gate, there would be a throne for the king or judge to sit and rule over commerce (business takes place at the city gate). The remains of the throne are still here. And of course Rev James Howell was sitting there. We all had a great laugh.

 I should note the weather up here was COLD. It's dropped 15 degrees since yesterday, and the wind was blowing 15-20 mph. So when the bus showed up, we jumped on!

This brought us further into the Golan Heights. This brought us to Caesarea Phillipi, another place where Jesus did his ministry! Now is this another synogogue? 

No. A person's home? No. It's a Greek cultic worship site to the god Pan.

Why?! It's debatable, but we know that Jesus really didn't care where he preached and taught, so long as where people were at and where the place is familiar. Cultic worship was common back then. Jesus never shied from teaching in public places, guess we shouldn't either. Well, this is the place Peter told Jesus that he was the Messiah (Mark 8). We also had a time of worship and prayer there led by Rev James Howell. I took notes, it was that good, and that raw. There were also these really cool groundhog looking critters climbing up and down the cliffs. There might be one in this picture; call it a Where's Waldo for critters picture!  ;)

Next we took a brief stop to Banion Falls, a wonderful, intense waterfall, whose water comes from the melting of snows from Mt Hermon. Psalm 42 was likely written here. Did you catch that? This is the inspirational site of one of our Psalms! Read it (or skim it at least) and find out why!

My friend Drew thought the cliffs of this deep canyon were worth a climb. He does that a lot, such a delightful guy!

After our time here we boarded the bus to head to the Durze community of Majda Sheam. This is about as far north as you can go. This is a Muslim community, and it's an offshoot from the main denominations (Sunni and Shite). They have some quirks in their belief system too; reincarnation is part of it. They also wear mostly black with white headdresses. This is a fairly isolated community; Israel leaves them alone, and they prefer that.

Lots of farming here. Now what do you need for good farming in a rocky/mountainous area;

Yup, it's a John Deere! I counted 10 as we rode through the large town. We had an amazing lunch here at a lovely mom and pop restaurant. I had a labne; think of it as a giant quesadilla; made of an extremely large thin flatbread (bigger than a pizza by size) with a firm white kind of yogurt with a sauce made with hissop. Extremely filling, and the best dang lunch I've had on this trip! (Also the most reasonably priced by far).

After our amazing lunch we headed toward a place you have heard about often; Syria. Now I have you attention; no we didn't enter the country of Syria, we stayed in Israel, but we did go to the lookout point. This is the seize-fire point. To the north in this picture you are looking at Syria; 

You turn around 180 degrees up the mountain and you see where the Israeli army keeps an eye on Syria as Syria is doing the same;

In between is our group and the UN observers who smartly stayed in their vehicle because it was bloody cold!

Did we feel like we were in danger, you may ask? Nah, though it was interesting. We were mainly cold!

After that we had one more site to visit; Magdala. What's that? It's a town by the Sea of Galilee, which is where Mary Magdalene is from.

Now it's mainly in ruins but for a few shops, but there is one exception. Check this story out; a group of Catholic brothers wanted to build a church to honor women of the Bible and the women of today, and what better site than Magdala. Now the site had been excavated somewhat, and while I am not sure who owned the land originally it was given, they were told to take care of the ruins there when the church was built. When they received ownership of the site they found there were more ancient sites present! 

Included was a synogogue with Greek mosaic floors dating to 29 AD;

and ritual baths in the ancient town for cleansing rituals;

Now the inside of the church is what got me. There are these beautiful mosiac images of the life of Christ as he interacted with women and the known disciples; 

and the main sanctuary has an altar made like a 1st century fishing vessel (sorry it's so dark);

After that we returned to Tiberius for evening prayer and supper. Now after supper is when I started to write this blog, but found myself drawn to conversation with my amazing colleagues, and it was midnight before we called it a night. So I'm writing this on the bus on the next day, going through Nazareth as I type. I can't wait to show you that too! Till then, God Bless!

(Back at the ancient Israelite gate of the city of Dan. This was a home built against the city wall. I could get used to it, but I could use a roof)