May 2, 2010
...Going through the countryside of Israel...
We are in the bus, so that is why my handwriting is really bad.
Yesterday, we started out in Nazareth. It is mostly a Muslim town now, but in the ‘90s a group of Christian Jews started a museum and preservation site of what the village of Nazareth would have looked like at the time of Jesus. At the start of the tour, the man that led us was very scholarly and mentioned a few facts that I had never thought/heard about. The term of Jesus being ‘hung’ on the cross is incorrect, because for a person to have been hung on the cross with ropes was for lesser criminals. Jesus was nailed on the cross, which meant that he was considered a chief enemy of the government, and thus deserved the cruelest treatment.
After the Nazareth village we went to the synagogue in current day Nazareth that was built on top of the original synagogue where Jesus would have preached to his countrymen and was rejected.
…Later in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Jerusalem…
After leaving Nazareth we went to the Sea of Galilee and took a boat to the middle part of the lake. Pastor read the passage of when Peter walked on the water to Jesus. Today was beautiful, slightly on the cool side. The water was still.
We then went to Caesarea Philippi were Jesus asked the disciples who they thought He was, and Peter said, “the Christ, the Son of God.” Philippi was known for how they predominantly displayed the god and goddesses of their culture all over the city. Pan (which is where the English word Panic comes from) was the main god of Philippi. It was in this town, which was more pagan and worldlier than other cities, that Christ challenged His disciples with what they thought of Him.
We then saw the River Dan, which supplies 50% of Israel’s water. The river is in a nature reserve and is a popular place for camping with the locals.
After the Dan Reserve, our tour guide Hezzie (short for Hezekial) took us to an Israeli memorial in the Golan Height Mountains. During the ‘60s the Israelis won a huge battle in gaining more territory/protection from the Syrians. The victory was a miracle, which shows that even in our present age Israel still holds the blessing of God because they are God’s chosen.
Hezzie fought in the Six Day War, and has a strong passion for the peace of Israel. I am so thankful that he is our guide. He was a Jew who was born in Baghdad and came to Israel after it became a nation. He is not an orthodox Jew and he is not a Christian. He believes that Jesus is the Christians Messiah, but the Jewish Messiah is still yet to come.
On the way back to the Tiberius Hotel we stopped at a ridge that overlooks the Syrian border. We all seemed to fall asleep on the bus going back to the hotel. Hezzie bought us cherries on the side of the road, they were really tart. After we ate dinner at the hotel, four of us girls were taken by Hezzie to the Caprice Diamond Factory. Israel is the world’s diamond market. The show room was amazing. Afterwards we went shopping in open market next to the hotel.
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