ISRAEL TRIP - JOURNAL
November 24 - December 5, 2007
Page 2 of 5 - Days 4 and 5
Day 4, 11/27 Tuesday -
Tel Dan, Banias
(Caesearea Philippi), Golan Heights, Mt. Ben Tal /Nada Avital
We checked into the hotel on the Sea of Galilee while it was dark, but
in the morning we could see the water. It’s a small
lake, 7 miles by 12 miles. The hotel, the Tulip Inn on the Sea of
Galilee is like individual cottages, each with it’s own outdoor patio
at the door. We started the
day with another huge 7am Israeli breakfast and on the
bus at 8am.and we were off to Tel Dan.
We had a wonderful time of
worship together in the bus.
There are three major valleys in Israel, all three are geological plate
lines, the Dead Sea, the Sea of Gaililee and the Hula Valley. The
Jordan Rivers comes from Mt. Herman. There is now snow on Mt.
Herman that is next year’s water supply in Jerusalem.
We had our first siting of the Jordan River and we crossed over it and
went along the edge of the Golan
Heights on the border of Syria.
TEL DAN
We went to where the tribe and city
of Dan was, as well as the gate of King Ahab from 600 BC.
Tel means a stack of archeological remains or a “hill”. Since water
sources are so few, it meant that they often built one city on top of
the remains of the last, so it’s not unusual for one site to have Old
Testament, New Testament, Jewish, Cultic, Roman, Byzantine, and
Crusaders archeology all on top of each other in one area.
We went
to the start of the River Dan, where it comes up through the ground,
and it joins together with two other streams to become the Jordan
River. At the source of the river is an ancient cultic altar and
not far from there is an altar where the tribe of Dan brought with them
practices of Egypt, and the did things that were an abomination to God,
including sacrificing pigs on the altar and showing their feet which
was a sign of homosexuality.
They have also recently discovered and unburied the triple arched gates
of a city that dates back to Abraham days, a Canaanite city. As Abraham
started out his journey. he would have walked through the gates of that
city. The bricks are made of mud and the birds started to tunnel in and
destroy them so the Israeli’s are making new mud bricks to cover the
outside to protect it from the birds.
BANIAS/ CAESAREA PHILIPPI
From there we went to Banias which is the site
of another spring that is the source of the Jordan River. It was the
site of the very evil
worship of the Greek god Pan was held. There was a cave where the water
came out from under Mt. Herman and there was a waterfall that came out
of the Cave. The water was so deep in the cave they could not find the
bottom. Young virgin girls were bound hand and foot at this place and
thrown into the cave opening as a sacrifice to Pan. The area became
known as “the gates of hell” because of the combination of the
bottomless opening going to the center of the earth and the evil that
was done there.
This place is also Caesarea Philippi which is
where Phillip, Herod’s son had a palace. Jesus specifically walked two
or three days journey up to the place and asked the disciples, who do
you say that I am? and it is where Jesus said, I will build my church
and “the gates of hell: will not prevail against it.
It is hard to imagine that two of the three sources of the Jordan River
are places of cultic worship.
At lunch time we ate falafels at the restaurant near the site with the
sound of rushing streams all around us.
MT BEN TAL or NADA AVITAL
Then we went on to the bunker at Mount Ben Tal or Nada Avital.
Everything
has so much history, that it all has multiple names! As we crossed into
the Golan Heights, there were many signs by the sides of the road
telling of mines in the fields left over from war.
When we arrived, a bus full of 11th grade students from a religious
girls school in Ashkalon also arrived on a school trip. They were
exuberantly singing and dancing songs of peace and life. We went up to
the top of the mountain looking towards the snow on Mt. Hermon to the
left and the disputed region of the Golan Heights and into Syria to the
right. There is a huge bunker area from previous battles with Syria.
Tom explained that the reason why the Golan Heights is so contested is
because it is high and if Syria has possession of it, they have a
clear shot all the way to Tel Aviv. Tom told a story of one battle the
Syrians had possession of the bunker at the top of the mountain and the
only way the Israeli’s got it back was to strap grenades on the dogs of
the dog patrol and the patrols sacrificed their dogs for the control of
the bunker. 14 dogs got medals of honor and their handlers were
retired. They had given their best friends.
PRAYER WHILE ANNAPOLIS MEETING WAS
STARTING
We prayed for the will of God for Israel and the Border at 4pm, at the
exact time that there were politicians of the world were starting their
meetings in Annapolis in the US. We prayed and interceded and declared
prophetically over the region. We asked for the Lord to release angelic
host. We were 35 miles from Damascus in Syria. It was just beyond a
hill, so we couldn’t actually see it, but probably we were looking down
on the road where Saul was struck down by the Lord and the scales were
put on his eyes. We prayed for the gathering angels and harvest and
mercy on the people of the region to know the Lord.
DIVINE APPOINTMENT WITH DAUGHTERS OF
ZION
The school girls came back from the top where they had been meeting.
The teacher at the school asked Barbara, "Are you religious Christians
from America?" And Barbara said yes. As we were praying, the girls
started to sing and dance again and the teacher started to quiet them
out of respect for our prayers and Barbara said, "No, let them sing!
This is good!" So they took off again in energetic song and dance and
we
joined them again.
We sang and dance and laughed with the girls for a long time. It
totally switched the time from travail and intercession to dancing
together, daughters of Zion with women from America while politicians
met in Annapolis about some of the very land that we are dancing on. We
laughed and laughed and did all kinds of dances together. The girls
just kept the dances and the songs changing. It was a stunning,
wonderful, God ordained moment in time that was beyond what we could
have ever dreamed and certainly never could have orchestrated. Tom and
Barbara said that they had never seen anything like it. Tom and Barbara
had dropped their plans for the rest of the afternoon and just went
with God’s agenda. The girls had pursued us!
Some of the girls wanted us to visit them and they talked to Tom and
then to Barbara and Barbara says don’t we need the principal to ask us?
Do you girls run the school? And the leader said, yes, we are the
mafia. Like Tony Soprano. Well, that hit me so funny – so completely
out of the blue – such a clash of cultures that this young religious
Jewish girl, modest with this naivete that was so beguiling would say
that they were like the mafia on a HBO program from the US, I laughed
loud.. I felt like my brain did a tilt when she said it, I was so
shocked. Well, that caught them totally off guard and they surrounded
me and they wanted to laugh all the way back down the hill. One blond
girl said, let’s laugh, grabbed my arm and she’d say 1-2-3 – so we’d
laugh; Well, I’m releasing the Holy Ghost on them. The one blond girl
was getting totally shnockered. She could barely stand.
We laughed, sang, and danced all the way down the hill to the parking
lot where the buses were. Suddenly, I find that I’m alone and
totally surrounded by at least twelve young ladies and the number is
growing! We’re talking about everything! What they like to do, what
they’re going to do when they grow up, what music they like. Todd comes
and joins me and I say this is my husband, and they all Ooooh!
Finally we get onto our buses that were parked are side by side – but
something very big in the Spirit happened. It was a God ordained
appointment of spiritual warfare like I have never experienced in my
life.
Barbara shared that the Jews used to just disregard Christians and she
said now there has been a shift and now the Israeli’s are realizing
that their last friends are the Christians. It’s redeeming the damage
that still has hung in the air since the time of the Crusaders.
The surprising thing to me is how my laugh is used by God. They
surrounded me twice and we laughed and talked. It was like what
happened in India. It is amazing to me. Barbara had me share about it
during the evening meeting after supper and she had me impart laughter
and the place went into uproar.
EARLY AND LATTER RAIN
During the afternoon Tom shared that they had their first rain. And he
asked us to pray for good weather, so that God would choose what ‘good’
weather was for them. There is NO rain from Pentecost to the Feast of
Tabernacles, and that is why the water offering at the feast of
tabernacle is such a dear offering. He said that when rain falls
after Pentecost it is called “the latter rain” and if it rains before
Succoth it is called “the early rain.” And they have had both this last
year!
Day 5 Wednesday 11/28
- On the Sea of
Galilee, Capernaum, Port of Peter’s boats, Peter’s House, Baptism in
the Jordan
From our motel, we drove a couple of minutes to our next stop, the boat
dock where we
caught our boat named “Faith” and met our captain Daniel Carmel. We had
worship with our musician/sea captain in the middle ot the sea of
Galilee and a devotion time. Many of us were in tears at different
times as the realization of where we were sunk in. Our one hour boat
trip turned into two hours and as we pulled up and docked we were
dancing to “amen, amen’. Even the workers on the boat were laughing at
our joy and dance. We were so far behind schedule, Tom was yelling at
us "Get out of the Boat!"
LOAVES AND FISHES
We went to seven springs, which is the traditional site of where Jesus
fed the 5000. The location straddles two valleys and produces a “Y”
shaped valley where 15-20,000 people could sit and hear a single voice.
From oral tradition, people have come to worship there since the 2nd
century and the mosaic floor with the loaves and fishes in the church
floor dates from the 5th century. The basilica mimics the temple of
Jerusalem.
BOAT PORT
Then we went to the authentic port on the Galilee where Peter docked
his boats and where Jesus met them and made them breakfast. Peter was a
rich man, having 30 fishing boats each with a 5 man crew on each boat,
150 employees. As a symbol of Jesus asking Peter ‘Do you love me’ there
are three stones in the shape of hearts by the entranceway.
While Barbara was sharing, a row of birds came through, 1000’s of birds
in a row, they kept flying by the whole time that she was sharing and
they didn’t stop flying by, low over the water until she was done. It
was like the harvest coming in. Later we found out that Tom saw on the
news that night that 10,000 migrating birds came through flying on
their way to Africa.
CAPERNAUM
We went up the road to the village site of Capernaum, which is now a
monastery. Peter’s house was the second most important house in the
village. It ws 2nd from the synogogue and beside the sea. (There is a
church that is built over the top of it.) According to Tom, it sat
beside
the house of Jarius and the road between the two houses was about 3
feet across. The alley between the two houses is possibly “the road”
where the woman with the
issue of blood was.. It is deducted from scriptural and historical
information that there 300 people crammed into Peter’s. The roof
that the 4 friend’s took apart was about 12 to 18 inches thick, sticks
and brush, crammed with mud. A typical home in the day had 5 types of
rooms: food prep, storage,
guest chamber, open courtyard, and sleeping room.
We visited the remains of the synogogue that was built in the 4th
century from the remains of the 1st century synogogue which had been in
the same location. There was also an olive press near the site.
Then we were off to the Jordan River just as the river leaves the
Galilee. At sundown we were baptized by Barbara in the freezing cold
water.
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