The journey continues...

This morning we traveled up the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, through territory that Israel claimed from Syria in the six-day war in 1967. During the first century AD (Jesus’ time), this area was Gentile and known as the Decapolis, or ten-cities. Remember the miracle of Jesus casting out demons into pigs that ran off a cliff? We drove past the tombs where the demon-possessed man lived and saw some nearby cliffs!

We continued on to Capernaum and our guide gave an excellent background and history of why Jesus grew up in Capernaum: the prophecy in Isaiah; being along the trade route between the Mediterranean and Arabia; having close proximity of Jews, Romans, Gentiles, Samaritans, etc. We were able to TOUCH the stones from the synagogue in Capernaum that dates to the 1st century, WALK THROUGH the same synagogue (partially reconstructed), VIEW Peter’s house, and we took time to PRAY and thank God for all He has done!

Leaving Capernaum, we observed many hills and valleys in the area that could have been suitable grounds for teaching (the sermon on the mount at the Mount of Beatitudes, feeding of the 5,000+ at Tabgha), and more.

We drove to the northern border of Israel, where the tribe of Dan moved to, and saw many of the ruins that have been discovered there: the city gate, the courtyard, the altar and standing stones, etc. This made parts of the bible about Dan and Jeroboam and sitting at the gate and high places and idol worship come alive!

We next drove to Caesarea Philippi (Banias) referred to in Matthew 16:13-19 and had a short, but powerful, bible study on the passage. We were able to walk around the headwaters of the Jordan River at see where statues of the pagan idols were placed for worship, including one, I kid you not, for the “dancing goats!”

We visited a town along the western shore and viewed the “Jesus boat” that was discovered in the late 1980’s – a wooden fishing boat that dates to the first century AD.

One of the most moving things was our boat ride on a wooden boat from that town to Tiberias… an hour long boat ride, with some and praise and worship songs, some wind and minor waves, across the same body of water that the disciples fished from, that Jesus and the disciples travelled across, and that JESUS AND PETER WALKED ON!