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Israel Study Tour - The Forge (Pine Cove)
March 1-13, 2020
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Real faith and real opportunities
The Bible is not just full of characters but of people. “Being in the text” has opened my eyes that these characters we grew up reading about were real life human beings. They laughed, worked, cried, smiled, had anxiety, all like we do. The places and people we read about are real. They had real faith and real opportunities to show their faith.
We started off our day at Capernaum, “the town of Jesus.” How cool is it that Jesus lived and did day to day life, just like us? But being fully divine as well as fully human makes him just a tad different from us. While in Capernaum we studied the different miracles that he performed: healing the leper (Matthew 8:1-4) and the Roman Centurion’s servant (Matthew 8:5-13). Because of these miracles people followed Jesus, always looking for the next big extravagant event he could do. They sought Him not for who He was, the Messiah and Savior of the world, but for what He could do and the immediate provisions He could give them. The people didn’t have eyes to see. How often do we not have eyes to see? How often do we treat Jesus as a spiritual vending machine while we run to worldly things to give us what we think will be long term satisfaction? He is the living water and the only thing that will truly give us satisfaction.
Capernaum
Jesus made Capernaum his home during the years of his ministry: “Leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum” (Matt 4:13).
Peter, Andrew, James and John were fishermen living in the village. Matthew the tax collector also dwelt here.
Capernaum is one of the three cities cursed by Jesus for its lack of faith.
After Capernaum we took a trek up a green and flower covered hillside. We opened our Bibles up to Matthew 5-7 and Chris started our teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. What a section of scripture. It is weighty but so rich. In it, Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God is here and available to all who believe! Its not just a list of guidelines and rules, but inner qualities that the Lord can work in and through us, as we become more like him. One way to find out how to become more like Him is through prayer. “The Word of God and prayer are the stems on which godliness grows.” How awesome it was to sit on the potential spot where Jesus gave this sermon and pray that the Lord would make my heart like His!
Mount of Beatitudes
The so-called “Sermon on the Mount” is recorded in Matthew 5-7 and Luke 6. The alleged discrepancy between Matthew’s version being on a hill and Luke’s being on a level place is easily reconciled with observation of many level places on the Galilean hillsides. Scripture gives no indication of the exact location of this event, but the Byzantines built a church to commemorate it at the bottom of the hill. Some of Napoleon’s men placed it on the nearby Arbel mountain.
The Sea of Galilee. The view out of our hotel window. We’ve been staying here for the past 5 days. We’ve been reading about how Jesus and His disciples “crossed the sea” or “went to the other side of the lake.” We stood on a dock and a boat came up. Jared and Ronan told us to climb aboard and we set sail. We set sail on the Sea of Galilee, the same and only Sea of Galilee that Jesus went to. How cool! We studied the story in Mark 4 where Jesus calms the storm. Jesus is asleep on the boat as He and His disciples are sailing to the other side. A huge storm starts to toss the boat and scare the disciples. They think that since Jesus isn’t doing anything and that He doesn’t care about them. But as we learned earlier this week, Jesus can and Jesus cares! In their fear they look for someone or something to give them peace. How often do I think that Jesus or God doesn’t care because they aren’t acting to fix a situation the way I think it should be done?
We finished our day in Susita, also known as Hippos, on the west side of the Sea of Galilee. Here Mark 5 came to life. The story of the demon possessed man approaching Jesus. The demons are cast out and sent into pigs, which run down the hill into the water. The man begs Jesus to let him stay and follow him but is told no. "Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you." So he went home to Susita in the Decapolis, which was the region of pagan gentiles. He had faith in Jesus and obeyed His command to tell His story. Because of his story, 4,000 people followed Jesus for three days with no food or water. With the people who heard his story, Jesus performed a miracle to feed them all. We also learned that the very place and ruins we were sitting in were the ruins of a church. A church in Susita? Crazy! Even crazier, there were 5 churches in the city of Susita! Because one man had an opportunity for faith and obedience and he took it. We also have that opportunity. We also have the chance to step out in faith and obedience and share the story of what the Lord has done in our lives.
Susita
Hippos (Ancient Greek: Ἵππος, "horse")[1] is an archaeological site in Israel, located on a hill overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Between the 3rd century BC and the 7th century AD, Hippos was the site of a Greco-Roman city,[2] which then declined under Muslim rule and was abandoned after an earthquake in 749. Besides the fortified city itself, Hippos controlled two port facilities on the lake and an area of the surrounding countryside. Hippos was part of the Decapolis, or Ten Cities, a region in Roman Jordan, Syria and Israel that were culturally tied more closely to Greece and Rome than to the Semitic ethnoi around.
Established as Antioch of Hippos (Ἀντιόχεια τοῦ Ἵππου) by Seleucid settlers, the city is named after the Greek language word for horse, Hippos, and a common name of Seleucid monarchs, Antiochus. In the 3rd-century Mosaic of Rehob, the site is known by its Aramaic name, Sussita (Hebrew: סוסיתא), a word meaning "horse" in the feminine gender, while the Arabic name, Qal'at al-Hisn, has been used by the country's Arab inhabitants, meaning, "Fortress of the Horse/Stallion". Other names include the alternate spelling Hippus and the Latinized version of the Greek name: Hippum. The precise reason why the city received this name is unknown.
I am so thankful for the Living Water that satisfies my thirst more than anything in this world ever could. I’m thankful that He cares for me in ways I could never imagine, even if I don’t see it.
Jenny Cockerham
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