Day 05 - Galilee: Katzrin, Mount Bental, Caesarea Philippi, Tel Dan

Today we went back in time. We visited a place called Katzrin and got dressed up in first -century clothes. We learned what it would have been like to live in Jesus’ time. It was incredible to work the olive press and see how olive oil in made. We also go to go into a house and see how a lamp could not give light if it was under a bowl but give light to everyone in the house when it’s placed on it’s stand.  The house also had an upper room, and some were able to go up and see what that was like too.

The Golan Heights is the region in Israel that connects borders to Syria and Lebanon. While we were traveling, we pulled over to a place that allowed us to see the border of Israel where it connects to Syria. This was a very sobering experience, because we were able to hear artillery going off in Syria.  The country is at war with itself and has been fighting for the last nine years. While is it impossible to take sides in a conflict that is not our own, there are people, human beings, with their lives in turmoil because of war. It was a good reminder of Jesus’s words, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” We may not want to take sides, but we have opportunities to be neighborly to all and help where we can.

The next stop was in Caesarea Philippi. This was the ancient world “Las Vegas”. When the Greeks brought Hellenism to the region of Israel, many of the gods of the Greeks were also brought into the area. Caesarea Philippi was an area that was devoted to Pan, the god of nature. It was a beautiful place, with tons of agriculture. In our small walk, we found figs, berries, grapes, and tons of herbs that were naturally occurring in the region. There was also a spring that came down from Mt. Hermon, the tallest mountain in Israel. When the spring would dry up, the pagans would try and appease their god by having orgies and sacrifice, sometimes human, to make the spring begin to flow again. When nothing happened, they believed that Hades opened and swallowed their sacrifice, and they would try again. Listen to Jesus’ words in Matthew 16:13-20, “Who do people say I am?” The answer was some say John the Baptist, or Elijah or another one of the prophets. Again, Jesus asked, “Who do you say I am?” When Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of God,” Jesus then told them that the gates of Hell could not stand against what it is that he would build. Two years ago, in the covid pandemic, archeologists found a church built on that sight from the Byzantine empire dating back to 300AD. They took it literally that Jesus would build his church right there and we were one of the first groups to see what was unearthed. It was INCREDIBLE.

The last place that we visited was the old ruins of Dan. Dan was a tribe of Israel that was instructed to take the land that God delivered for them from the Mediterranean to the East but didn’t do what God instructed them to do. Instead, they did what was right in their own eyes. You can read about them in Judges 18:29 and 1 Kings 12:29-30. When Assyria came again the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the Danites were the first tribe to be slaughtered. They were also cut off from the promise of inheritance in the book of Revelation 7:5-8 being replaced by Joseph instead. That was very humbling and made me think a great deal about my life and call. I never want to be right in my own eyes and stand against what the Lord would call me to.