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

On our fifth day of traveling our journey was filled with variety. To start our day we drove up to Katzrin in the Golan Heights, where we had a cultural experience. We put on some robes, head coverings, and spent some of our morning learning about what it would have been like to live in Israel 2,000 years ago. Though we’ve learned quite a bit about the olive press and other ancient farming and harvesting, today we got to spend time doing the work ourselves. Several of us had the opportunity to crush olives with the great stone and grind wheat kernels like they would have long ago. We even cooked unleavened bread over the fire! During our cultural experience we also got to enter an ancient house that has been reconstructed with full walls, a roof, and household tools. While 50 of us crammed into the home we read Matthew 5: 14-16, which is about a lamp on a lampstand, and Mark 2: 1-12, which is about a paralytic being lowered through the roof of a home. 

After these adventures we visited an olive oil factory that was also in Katzrin. Heading northeast we came to the border of Israel and the Golan heights where we could see into Syria. Then we drove west toward Caesarea Philippi and on the way we passed by Mount Bental and learned more about Israel’s conflict with its neighbors. In Caesarea Philippi, we learned about Jesus’s claims to authority. Jesus did a lot of ministry in this region. There were many temples and areas for idol worship, including the temple of Zeus, Pan, and Artemis. A nearby cave was known to the locals as the gates of hell. It is here where Jesus asks in Matthew 16,  “Who do people say the son of man is?” and “Who do you say that I am?” When Peter responds saying that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus says, “you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Jesus claimed deity and authority, surrounded by other gods and the gate to hell. He is greater than all these things. He is the Messiah, God incarnate. 

Our last stop of the day was Tel Dan, which was the second Tel Dan that we visited on this trip. Apparently, they moved because of conflict with the Philistines. This is the location where Jeroboam had one of his golden calves placed so the Israelites wouldn’t travel to Jerusalem, thus leaving the northern tribes.

Jackson