Israel Day Six- Dedication

Day Six - Dedication

We started day six climbing Mt. Gilboa, an extended ridge on the southeast side of the Jezreel Valley. This was a strategic site for Israel as the Valley was a route from Galilee to the north and Samaria to the south. This also made it a place of many battles.  Amongst other things, this is where Hosea prophesied great blessing on Israel (Hosea 1:10-11), where the Philistines killed Saul and his sons (1 Sam. 28:4-5; 31:1-5), and Judges 7 records that Gideon camped and chose his 300 men at the spring of En Harod, which sits at the base of Mt. Gilboa (also called Mt. Gilead). It was interesting to learn some of how Gidean chose his men. He looked for men who were alert, cautious, and aware of their surroundings. The men who drank from the spring by lapping water with their hands and keeping their heads up and eyes on their surroundings make up the 300 men he chose. Fighting with just 300 men ensured God would be glorified through their impossible victory over the Midianites because it becomes unexplainable. Gideon trusted God and often lived an unexplainable life, expect for the power of God. We were challenged to live unexplainable lives for God. Trusting Him to provide, give victory, and get glory through obeying not only what He has called us to but also the way He called us to do it.

Our next stop was Beth She’an, the capitol of the Decapolis, the region occupied by the Pagans and practice of Hellenism. As we came over the hill, possibly where the Garden of Eden might have been located, it was impressive to look down on the remains at Beth She’an. Although God allotted this area to the tribe of Manasseh they could not drive out the Canannites and before the time of Christ the city was renamed Scythopolis and occupied by the Greeks.

It was interesting to learn the 5 key elements of Hellenistic society:

1.     Gymnasium- the development of body and mind

2.     Theater- the center of drama and entertainment

3.     Arena- the place of sport and entertainment

4.     Agora- the practice of upscale shopping

5.     Temples- the worship of many different so-called Gods

In Hellenism the Heroes are athletes, entertainers, thinkers, and the wealthy. Humans are the focus and “I am a God and I want it all” is the motto they live by. It was not hard to see the parallel with our own culture. An earthquake destroyed this city in 7 seconds. We reflected on loving God and not the world knowing that the things of this world will soon pass away (1 Jn. 2:15-17). How can we influence a place like this to see the true God? What is it that we have that they don’t? Our story. We must tell our story. Many people know about Christ but not many realize what it means to their life to walk in a relationship with Him. Let us show and tell with our lives and words.

 

We then traveled to Susita, another city in the Decapolis and a great example to telling of what God has done in a place of Hellenism. This is where Jesus cast out the “legion” of demons from a man, cast them into about 2000 swine, then they jumped into the Sea of Galilee and drowned (Mark 5:1-20).  

Afterwards the man who was possessed wanted to follow Jesus but Jesus did not let him go along and told him to“Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.” The man went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed’ (Mark 5:19-20).

Sometimes Jesus leaves us right were we are to influence the place we know best, even a sinful, rebellious, seemingly impossible place. Our calling is to tell those around us what great things the Lord has done and how He had mercy on us. The cool thing is Jesus returned to this place and over 4000 people followed Him around listening to His teaching (Mat. 15:32-38) and 300 years later the city became a Christian center. One of the authors of the Nicene Creed would come from here. Amazing what the faithful testimony about the great things and mercy of God can do. It’s almost unexplainable!

 

Our Last stop of the day was the Jordan River. This river connects the Dead Sea in the south to the Sea of Galilee in the North (70 mile distance but 110 miles of winding river). So many things happened along this river and in connection to it. A few things include God identified this as the eastern border of Israel (Num. 34:10-12; Ezk. 48:47:18), large bronze objects of Solomon’s temple were cast (2 Chron. 4:16-17), Elijah and Elisha crossed over the Jordan on dry ground (2 Kings 2:7-14), Joshua and the nation of Israel crossed over into Canaan on dry ground with the Ark of the Covenant (Josh 3:13-17), John the Baptist baptized here (Matthew 3:5-6; Mark 1:5; John 1:28), and this is where Jesus was baptized (Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9).

We focused on Joshua and the fact that the Priest had to trust God to stop the river after they stepped in while carrying the Ark (Josh. 3:14-17). Since all of us had already been baptized (and the water was low with a strong current) we chose to honor the Jewish custom of Mikveh and dedicated our head, heart, hands, and feet to the Lord by sprinkling water in all those places.

Mikveh is a ceremonial bath where a person immerses himself in living water to become ritually clean according to Jewish law and was done before entering the Temple or Synagogue. It is the background to Christian Baptism. For us, it was a meaningful time with God as we rededicated our whole selves to God. We want His truth in our heads to penetrate our hearts and be lived out in our hands and feet. May everything we do be done to reveal the heart and actions of our great God! 

Israel Day Five- Jesus and the Pagans

We began our day at Gamla. The Zealots were stationed here during the time of Jesus. It was a beautiful mountain range and a great hike. The first things we noticed were the Eagles. In Hebrew the eagle is called, Nesherim, and we saw “the shadow of his wings” as the Griffen Voucher flew overhead. It was a beautiful picture of the protection of God.

The Zealots were religious Jews who were extreme in the practice of devotion to God. They could be considered terrorists as they used a curved knife to kill off their Roman enemies. Although Jesus was the most zealous person in all of history He was not a Zealot. He used love and personal sacrifice rather than a knife and torture to combat His enemies.  It was a great place to learn of the love of Christ and to be inspired to live extreme lives for God.

This was also a place we saw the remains of a first century ritual bath and synagogue. We are 99% sure Jesusread and taught in what remains today. We stood in the bath, the place one washed before reading from the day’s assigned text. We saw the Moses Seat, the place the reader of the day sat. We stood on the Bema Stone, the place where Jesus would have stood as He read the assigned reading from the text. 

It was incredible to be there, to stand where Jesus stood, the read what He possibly read in the same exact place He did. It was an experience you can only have in that spot in the world and God blessed us with the experience. It was incredible! 

We spent the rest of the day at incredibly sad sites. Places of Paganism and rebellion of God. Places of sin and torture. Places of sexual immorality of the worst kind. Places of sinful and unnecessary murder sacrifices. It was a sick feeling to be there, to see the place where these things took place. However, even this evil enhances the beauty of God, the truth of Christ, and the justice of our Father.

Caesarea Philippi was in the northern part of Israel and borders Syria and Lebanon. The Paganism practiced here is called Pan worship and this was the most pagan place in all of Israel. In was in the midst of this sin referred to as the “gates of Hades” by Christ that Jesus visited this city, stood with His disciples, as asked, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:13-20).

We are all faced with this question as we stand in the place of sin. As we live in the world we must continually ask ourselves, “Who do you say Jesus is?” Who He is to you will determine how you live your life. If it doesn’t I ask you the question, “Who do you say Jesus is?” My friends, He must be more than a good thought, He must be the Christ, the Son of the Living God. This should impact our lives because it us upon this confession that Christ is building His Church. Be a builder for Christ!Our last stop was Dan, practically speaking this is the northern most city in Israel. This city was also full of Paganism. Here is where the Tribe of Dan was not satisfied with their land and compromised by setting up altars of worship to others Gods (Judges 18). To be honest, after Caesarea Philippi it was hard to take more teaching on paganism.  It made me wonder how numb I am to subtle compromises to pagan thought in our culture, it’s probably more than I realize. It made me want to study the text more practically and examine my life. I love to study for doctrine and theology but never want to compromise the practical. We have to believe right to live right but sometimes I focus more on the former. I want the practice of my life to reflect the text.

It was a heavy day in northern Galilee. 

As I stand on the text in the face of secular pagan culture and say to Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God and I will live as a builder of Your Church.” Amen?

Israel Day Four- Discipleship

Today was one of my favorite days so far on our journey through Israel. It was a busy day but we saw and learned some amazing things as we began our tour of Galilee.

We started at Mt. Arbel, one of the places Jesus probably went to for a “solitary place to pray” (Luke 6:12; Mark 1:35-39). It was an amazing hike and an awesome view. We looked over the Sea of Galilee with a beautiful and peaceful view and again saw many of the places we read about in the Bible. 

Hiking this mountain helped me to realize how much effort Jesus put into spending one-on-one time with the Father. In our hectic worlds Jesus demonstrated that we must find time to be alone with God.

We then went to Tabgha, the place where Jesus called His first disciples to follow Him (Luke 6:13-16; Mark 1:16-20). This is a place of calling people to follow Christ. This is also where he ate with the disciples after His resurrection (Luke 24:36-49). It’s a place of calling to discipleship, and a place of glorification that is to come.

From there we climbed to the place were Jesus taught what we refer to as “the sermon the mount” found in Matthew 5—7 (cf. Luke 6:17-49) - (no picture). Jesus taught many things here and one of them was how we ought to pray, often referred to as the Lord’s prayer (Mat. 5:5-15). Holly and I took some time to reflect on Jesus’ teaching and then prayed the Lord’s Prayer in the spot Jesus most likely taught His followers to do so; another amazing opportunity to see and practice the text in real life. It was one of the meaningful times Holly and I grew together as the scripture came alive to us.

We then when to Korazin and leaned about family and community living. The 1^st century church had “Insula,” a family and community living arrangement that caused them to be mutually dependant on one another. The community scripture calls us to have with one another as believers was actually built into the way they lived.  The challenge for us is to live life with Insula. We should design our lives so that we are mutually dependant on one another (Acts 2:42). This community is the way God desires for us to live.

Next we went to Capernaum, the headquarters of Jesus’ ministry (Mat. 4:13-16). Jesus performed many miracles and healings here. It is also the place where Jesus trained His disciples for ministry, both intellectually and practically. 

The question to us is, Who are you discipling? Who are you training to live their life as a servant of Christ?  As I thought through ministry and the guys I meet with I was challenged to do more and train harder. It was a real blessing to see the place where Jesus set up His ministry.

Finally, our last stop was at Bethsaida. This is where Jesus fed the 5 thousand (Luke 9:19-17), healed a blind man (Mark 8:22-26), and the town where Philip, Andrew, and Peter grew up (John 1:44). To picture them on the hills and down in the Sea let your imagination run free, it made these people real and normal. Thinking of ministry and discipleship, Jesus used regular guys from a regular place. It was their faith that made them effective!

If we want to be people of the text, people with an meaningful life for Christ we must be people who live finding time to be alone with the Father, people who are committed to following Christ, people who live in genuine and dependant community with other believers, people who are equipping others to live as disciples of Christ, and people who live trusting Jesus and His word. We learned this today in living color!

Today was a big day…a big, big day!