In the Land of Milk and Honey: Nov 2, 2007

Land of Honey

The promised land is a land flowing with milk and honey.

Flowing means that there will be lots. But a land of milk is different from a land of honey.

A land of honey is where the farmer lives.

A land of milk is where the shepherd lives.

Galilee is part of the land of honey, very fertile.

Bouganvilia

Pomegranates

Figs

Bananas in different coloured bags. This is so that they will ripen more evenly and in stages.

Strelitzia in the Galilee hotel garden.

Sabbath

We had a Sabbath meal, it tasted good.

Faith Lesson:

Ben did a Sabbath teaching (Leviticus 23) with all the elements explained. The light, the fruit of the vine, the Challah and the blessings. It's on video and that's good, because our hard drive (brain) was full. The Challah is bread braided in three parts the parts are representing the Creator, Redeemer and Comforter.

A boat ride

We took a ride on a replica of a first century boat (albeit quite a bit larger) on the Sea of Galilee

We sang both National Anthems - Canadian & Israeli

I knew the Israeli anthem in Dutch

Stone sinker (for fishing nets)

Demonstration of first century fishing

Getting ready

Casting the net

Fishing Demonstration

Mount Tabor

Devon made a picture from Olga and me.

Music and dance. It was a beautiful way to end a full day program

Tabgha

In Tabgha, on the sea of Galilee, they remember the miraculous feeding with the loves and the fishes.

Reading from the gospels: the people looked like sheep without a shepherd, he told them to sit down, lots of green grass in the area (close to Tiberius), He broke bread and set it before the people, twelve baskets of leftovers.

Faith Lesson (taught by Ben):

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

[Jesus shepherding and providing]

He makes me lie down in green pastures,

[had the men sit down and there was much grass in that place (John 6:10)]

he leads me beside quiet waters,

[lake of Galilee]

he restores my soul.

He guides me in paths of righteousness

for his name's sake.

Even though I walk

through the valley of the shadow of death,

[Tiberius in the valley – Roman garrison stationed there]

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me

[feeds the five thousand bread and fish]

in the presence of my enemies.

[Roman occupation]

You anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

[12 baskets of leftovers]

Surely goodness and love will follow me

all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD

forever.

Jesus is our shepherd

Fish for lunch

The fish was ugly, but tasted good.

St. Peter's fish. This was the kind of fish from the story in Matt 17. In this account the fish had swallowed a coin, which Peter used to pay the temple tax for Jesus and himself. The temple tax was required for all males over the age of 20. This gives you a different idea of how old the disciples would have been (only Jesus and Peter had to pay).

These dates were big and tasted very good.

The coffee was a different story. I didn't finish it.

Caves in the hillside of mount Tabor. The families of the zealots would hide in these caves. When Herod the Great came to Galilee he killed most of them by smoking them out and dropping them to the bottom.

Capernaum

Faith Lesson:

Dvora talked about things that happened in Capernaum:

Jesus healed a lame man who was brought to him by four of the man's friends.
Peter's mother in law was healed.
Jairus daughter rose from the dead.
A women who had been bleeding for 12 years was healed. People who were bleeding were "untouchable".

In the Jewish setting, girls have their Bat Mitzva at 12 years of age.
Two women were healed in one day, one was physically dead (Jairus' 12-year-old daughter) the other spiritually dead (woman bleeding for 12 years).

This stone has an inscription:
"Alpheus the son of Zebidah the son of John made this column. May it be for him a blessing."

It is from the fifth century, and gives proof that those names were still around hundreds of years after Jesus' disciples James and John lived there.

The people of Capernaum were not poor.

A Gethsemane or oil press. The crushed olives would have been put in bags made from grasses(see Nazareth olive oil) . They would then be put underneath the big stone. The oil would go into the basin in front.

The big industry in Capernaum was olives. The crushers were made of basalt. It makes a good grinding stone because it doesn't get smaller during grinding. If you would make a mill stone out of limestone you would have stone dust in your food all the time.

This is very likely the ruin of the apostle Peter's house, where a Messianic church met. They believe it to be Messianic because early sources say that there were no Christians in Capernaum. A Christian was a gentile. Someone who was Messianic was a Jew who believed Yeshua (Jesus) was their Messiah.

The houses were built out of black basalt. They were small houses for multiple families around a courtyard. These houses are called insulas.

The synagogue is white on a black base. The limestone (white) was most likely rebuilt on top of the old synagogue. The base is likely from the synagogue that was there in Jesus' time. It has a great room beside it for study of the Torah.

Caesarea Philippi

Listening to our Faith-Lesson.

Faith Lesson:

Jesus and the disciples stopped in Caesarea Phillipi on the way to a high mountain (Mt. Hermon) where they saw Jesus transfigured. How did they know it was Moses and Elijah? Who did they expect as the Prophets of Succoth?

Caesarea Phillipi was a very pagan place. This was where the fertility shepherd god Pan was worshiped. It must have been an impressive sight. It was a huge temple. The hollow niches in the wall were where the statues of the god were.

Water came out of the cave (out of the rock) behind the temple . This water is a source of the Jordan river.

The rock at Ceasarea Phillipi was used for the worship of the shepherd god Pan.

It was a fertility cult, and the god would go to "sleep" in the winter. In the spring it would be brought back to life with offerings and sacrifices (including human). This cave was known as the "Gates of Hades".

Jesus went here with his disciples. It was here that Jesus asked, "Who do people say that I am?"

Simon Peter answered... "You are the Christ, the son of the living God."

Jesus replied..."you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it".

People have tried to explain what "the rock" could have been. It could have been Peter, or what Peter said; or, it could have been this rock, used for pagan worship.

Bird Migrations in the Galilee

Thousands of migrating birds come through Israel - especially through the Hula Valley.

Mount of Beatitudes

Jo started with a moment of "Stika" (36 seconds of quietness), to hear God's spirit ("Ruach"). He told us that Jesus came to heal our upside-down world. He came to make it right again.

Ben told us that Beatitude means blessing ("brucha").

In the Jewish world there is a blessing for everything. For example, Jesus chose his disciples and they followed him. A blessing in that situation would be, "May you be covered by the dust of your Rabbi's feet"

Dvora told us about all all of the "other" cities in the area - the ones that we've never heard of. The reason we don't know about them is because Jesus didn't go there.

On holy sites we were to wear long sleeves (shoulders had to be covered).

Our guide told us about an experiment that she had done.

They had a group of school children spread out over the entire hillside. A boy was reading from a book near the water's edge. Even the kids who were farthest away could hear him clearly because of the way the hills are shaped. The hills here are like a natural amphitheatre.