Israel 2014 #6

#6 … Friday – May 2^nd  [The Cities around the Sea of Galilee]

We are staying at Ein Gev on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.  The view is incredible and full of Biblical history and again we are reminded by both the sunset and sunrise of God’s creative majesty.  The Psalmist wrote in 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” --- and we can all say Amen to that!

Yesterday at Nazareth Village, we were treated to some great insights into 1^st century life as the actors portrayed the lifestyle and habits of villagers during the lifetime of Christ.  One of my best friends posted these pictures and I thought I would share some of the things we saw.

The old shepherd showed us his sheep and goats and we learned why they would separate them, Joseph the carpenter gave us a demonstration on the correct use of 1^st century craftsmanship, and Hannah the seamstress was making yarn out of wool taken from some of the sheep.

This morning we are head up along the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee to the northern top of the Sea where we will make a day out of visiting the cities that our Lord did most of his ministry: Bethsaida, Capernaum, and Chorazin.

First – Bethsaida.  The name means, the “house of fishing.”  Bethsaida was a town just north of the Sea of Galilee.  Philip the Tetrarch, the son of Herod the Great, extensively rebuilt the town and named it “Julias” after Julia, the wife of Augustus Caesar.  When Philip died, he was buried in Bethsaida.

In this vicinity, Jesus fed the 5,000 (Luke 9:10-17), healed a blind man (Mark 8:22-26), and left Bethsaida’s shore to walk on the water.  The ruins of Bethsaida are 1 mile off the current coast of the Sea of Galilee.

It is now known that a small harbor village, right on the water, served as the port for the main city.  It was here that Philip, Andrew, and Peter (John 1:44; John 12:21) dwelt, and perhaps also James and John.

Second – Chorazin  or Korazin.  This city is about 3 miles north of Capernaum and the Sea of Galilee.  Its name meant “furnace of smoke.”  It was famous for its grain production.  This was the general setting for Jesus’ parable of the Sower.   I have really enjoyed hiking the hills here to get a “bird’s eye view of the Sea of Galilee” from the north side of the lake.  A really good website to explore more about these two cities can be found at:

 http://www.welcometohosanna.com/LIFE_OF_JESUS/027_Ministry7KorazinBethsaida.htm

Third – Capernaum.  This city was the center of Jesus’ ministry but hasn’t been inhabited for a long time now, since the Islamic conquest of the area in 747 A.D. and a massive earthquake that devastated the city. 

Once a proud fishing and merchant city on the Sea of Galilee, most of the 1,500 person city that Jesus lived and ministered in, lies unexcavated.   Capernaum was also a Roman military and tax center because of its proximity to the border and its nearness to the famed Via Maris highway.  Today its ruins are now one of the main tourist centers in Galilee.  Simon Peter maintained a home here, and it is now underneath a large church structure and is open to public viewing.

• Simple lesson from these three cities: Just being close or in proximity to the Lord doesn’t guarantee that you will “get it!”  The Lord cursed all three of these cities in (Matthew 11:20-24) because of their failure to repent of sin. 

Fourth – Church of Beattitudes.  No one knows with certainty where Jesus spoke the Sermon on the Mount and it is quite possible that it was a message that He gave many times in different ways.  However the traditional Mount of Beattitudes may well be one site where He spoke, and next to the Franciscan chapel is a hillside sloping down to the sea which forms a natural amphitheater.

This is a lovely spot to stop and read the Beattitudes while sitting on the hillside, listening to the bleating of the neighboring sheep in the background. 

The octagonal chapel is attractive if you overlook the fact that it was paid for by the Italian dictator Mussolini in 1939. 

• We should remember that the words of Christ are for us to live out and not just listen to meditate upon because of their eloquent nature.  The Lord’s brother wrote in James 1:22 “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

Fifth – Hippos.  This very likely is the place that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 5:14 “a city on a hill cannot be hidden.”  The name in Greek and Aramaic literally means ‘horse’ and has a cone shaped appearance from the water’s edge. 

The city is about 1.2 miles east of where I stayed last night, the Ein Gev Kibbutz (you can barely make out the kibbutz in front of the cone).

Viewed from above, this peak and its connecting ridge looks like a horse’s head and neck.  The top of the site is about 990 feet above the level of the Sea of Galilee, so it’s a steep climb!

Hippos belonged to the 10 city confederation called the Decapolis, a group of cities that were primarily east of the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River.  Inhabited mainly by Gentiles who practiced a Hellenized form of culture, the Jews thought the land was evil --- even to the point in believing that Beelzebub lived here (the prince of demons).  This is the country spoken of in the Lord’s parable of the Prodigal Son, when its says that the younger son went to “a far country” --- not far in distance, but far from family and God.

Hippos was destroyed by a major earthquake in 749 A.D. and has been largely uninhabited since.  It served as a key Israeli military outpost from 1948 until 1967 – and today is one of the fun architectural sites to visit, because of its wonderful view of the entire Sea of Galilee.

• It just goes to show that if we want to run from God, we don’t have far to go!  And just as a Jew can stand on the west side of the Sea of Galilee and see a boat land at Hippos, God can see where we are, where we go, and what we do.  And in spite of our sin and our running … He loves us any way.  Jeremiah 23:24 states “Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?" declares the LORD. "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" declares the LORD.”