Greetings from Jerusalem!

Greetings from Jerusalem! We arrived here early this evening and will begin our tour of the city tomorrow morning.

We began this morning in Beth She’an. This was a Roman city, part of the Decapolis mentioned in scripture. This was was complete with a community gym, pool, steam room and shopping center! It was very interesting learning about the technology of the time and how these operated in the first century. Located very close to Jewish villages, there would have been a great temptation to look over the hill and see the luxury that this Roman city had and covet it. A Jew might have thought that Yahweh wasn’t enough. We need more gods, like the Romans, in order to live like them. Marshall led us in a great time of reflection as we meditated on the thought, “is God enough?” We can often want the comfortable and easy life, but God does not always call us to live that way. We need to focus on living for Him and not our selfish desires. Our desire should be God!

Then we made our way to the Spring of Harod. This is the spring that Gideon drank from in his story from Judges 6-8. We reflected on the patience and faithfulness of God in the story of Gideon. Not to mention the incredible sites around! The natural spring had very clear water and beautiful flowers around.

After this we made our way back to the Dead Sea to Qumran. This is the place that the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Even though we had just seen the mountains a few days ago, it was still breathtaking. We looked at different caves along the mountains where fragments of the scrolls were found. The discovery of these scrolls can help us grow our faith in the Word of God.

We cannot wait for tomorrow morning to begin our journey in Jerusalem. Talk you to you soon!