Four Counrties, One Day, and High Tensions

            Today I saw four counties; Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. However, we could only stay in the one we were already in, Israel. We started the day at Hazor, which is one of the largest sites that we went to, over 200 acres. As we drove from the Sea of Galiee up to Hazor, we had to cross the Jordan River a few times. One of these time brought us within a few hundred feet of the Israeli Jordanian border. Excavation is still in progress and it is expected that many important discoveries will be found in the next few years. While were here, we mapped out Joshua’s conquest of Hazor as described in Joshua and I was actually able to see the military strategy that he employed, because we had been to all the places that the text listed. I could see the thought process behind this event. It was pretty awesome to see how these few verses that I would have usually just skimmed over now had an extra layer of meaning. It has been awesome to have these extra little layers added to passages all over the Bible. I am very thankful for this knowledge I am gaining, it is allowing be to see things in the Bible that I would have just skipped over before.

            After Hazor we headed up to Dan, the northern most point of ancient Israel. We were able to walk around in a nature preserve here and it was so green and full of life. If you had dropped me here, I would have no idea of where in the world I was; I could have guessed anywhere, and I probably would not have guessed Israel. Dan has the largest springs in the entire Middle East, and it is here that the headwaters if the Jordan River can be found. From the remains of a Northern Kingdom temple, we could see the Israeli Lebanese border.  This border was distinct in the nearest town, where half of the town was in Israel, and the other half was in Lebanon, with just a line of trees down the middle of the town signifying the border.  We passed an excavation site where a few years ago JUC students were digging just as tank fire from Israeli and Lebanese forces started to fly overhead. It is so crazy to see be on a site that is still somewhat disputed and very recently was the site of armed conflict.

We then went to Caesarea Philippi the site of an ancient pagan temple and Roman era ruins. Here we were able to hike for a bit through the trees along the Jordan River until we reached a waterfall. Because today was Pentecost, we read the first two chapters of Acts, and compared how we would tell the gospel to how Peter did. It was interesting to see Peters focus on the Jesus’ fulfillment of scripture, and how most of us focused on our own salvation through Jesus. It was also interesting to see the emphasis of the Triune God in Peter’s explanation, and the lacking of the Holy Spirit in most of our explanations.

Our last stop was the top of a volcano in the Golan Heights. From here we could see the Syrian border, maybe a mile or two away. This is still disputed land and in between the countries, there is a town whose buildings are still there, but whose inhabitants were forced to leave. It is strange to be in a country whose neighbors do not want them there, whose neighbors have fought, very recently, against them, and whose neighbors do not recognize them as a country. These mixed feelings were escalated by the signs that were right off the side of the road for most of our drive, warning civilians about mine fields and tank paths.