Upper Galilee

Well, you have a guest blogger tonight. My wife is taking the night off and has asked me to fill in. I'm sure that I'll be as funny as she is, but I'll try.

We began our last full day around the Sea of Galilee with breakfast at the hotel. They actually had a tray of pancakes in the buffet which was a treat. The one main thing that is a big change on this trip is the drinks. They don't use a lot (or any) ice in Israel, so all of your drinks (water, cokes, etc.) contain no ice. The orange juice that I drink in the morning tastes good, but it looks weak. It is a lighter and thinner orange than what we are used to at home. But, even with no pork and the strange seasonings and no ice, the food so far has not been that bad. Yesterday morning, our bus driver, Fawzy, treated all of us with a bottle of water and an fresh apple. It was fantastic! We have also been able to try new things. Yesterday, we actually tried Ratatouille! (It's a peasant dish.) It was very good.

We headed north of the Sea of Galilee this morning. Our first stop was at the ruins of Hazor. Hazor is mentioned a number of times in the Bible. In I Kings 9, it mentions that the walls of Hazor were built by Solomon. It was so interesting to see the foundations of these walls still standing. Did I mention that they were built by Solomon??? There is also a water system similar to the one that we saw at Megiddo that was built by King Ahab (also like the one at Megiddo). The views from Hazor were amazing and helped Tabatha and I to understand the importance of the strategic position of the city. The picture is of Tabatha and I from the Hazor lookout tower.

After Hazor, we drove to Caesarea Philippi. This city was built by Herod Phillip. It is near this city that Peter confessed to Jesus (in Matthew 16) that Jesus was the Christ. While we were there, we read the scripture of this account. Those verses (as well as hundreds of others) will mean something totally different to me after this trip is over. After leaving Caesarea Philippi, we ate at a little restaurant were we were able to drink our first Coke since we arrived! As an added bonus, they had a small box set up where you could get some ice for your glass!!!

Next we headed to the ruins of Dan. Again, we were amazed. There is so much archaeological excavation work that could be done. Only a small part of Dan has been excavated. By "small part", I mean probably around 1%. But, what has been excavated is amazing. The gates of the city has been excavated and you can walk through and see the place where the city judge would sit. At the beginning of the time of the Divided Kingdom, Jeroboam set up high places and golden calves in Dan and at Bethel (I Kings 12). We were able to walk up to an on top of the "high place" at Dan. We stood on the exact spot where the Golden Calf would have been placed. It is amazing to be able to actually touch history. Finally, we were able to see one of the original gates of the city. This gate is over 4,000 years old. Abraham (yes, that Abraham) walked through this gate when he visited the city. What an amazing thing to see. The pictures below are of the "High Place" built by Jeroboam and the ancient gate of the city. (Note to all archaeologists around the world: Someone needs to dig more to see what else can be found!)

From there we drove on the Golan Heights and were able to look into the country of Syria (including the UN facility that was between us and them). We finally ended up back at the northern edge of the Sea of Galilee and saw where the Jordan River enters the Sea (picture included).

Well, I really hate to leave the Sea of Galilee area. Tabatha and I were talking after dinner and concluded that we had really only started to learn all that we could learn about this area. It is so important in the life of Jesus. All of the stories that we read will now be seen in a totally different way.

We head over into Jordan tomorrow morning and will be there for three days. We are not sure if we will have an Internet connection over there, so if you don't hear from Tabatha in the next three days, don't panic. She's still here and she is still taking pictures as quickly as she can. And eating Oreos.