Day Four In the Promise Land
Our adventure today took us an hour north of the Sea of Galilee to an area known as the Golan Heights. Our hotel in Tiberias sits right on the shore of the Sea of Galilee which is 685 feet below sea level. We made the hour long drive to Tel Dan which sits approximately at 3500 feet above sea level. It is a pretty steep climb in a short amount of time, thus the name Golan Heights. When we arrived at Dan we made our entrance through the ancient Israelite Gate. We made our way through the site of this ancient city to an area know as the High Place. There we saw an alter for sacrifice and the Bema Seat sitting just above it. God’s Word tells us this city was infamous for its idolatry. When King Solomon died the kingdom of Israel split into two nations. The two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin fell under the leadership of Rehoboam. King Jeroboam took control of the remaining ten northern tribes. To solidify his kingdom he prevented his people from offering sacrifices in Jerusalem, and created worship places of his own. In 1 Kings 12:28 – 30 we read, “So the king consulted, and made two golden calves, and he said to them, ‘It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.’ He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan.” Dan sits at the very northern tip of Israel, and as I have already pointed out, it is a fairly steep climb to get there. It would have been easier to make the down hill trip to Jerusalem, but idolatrous Jeroboam was having none of that. He demanded worship be done his way to sustain his temporary personal kingdom. That is never a good idea. Better to worship God His way, in the way He prescribes, for the glory of His eternal kingdom!
After viewing the High Place we continued down the path to view an ancient gate known as the Canaanite Gate. See the photo that is above. This gate was found under the remains of Jeroboam’s Dan. It dates from the time of Abraham, and the doorway is an arch that is one of the oldest known arches discovered in the world. The gate is about 5000 years old! From Dan we headed west to the very northern tip of the Golan Heights and peered across the border into Syria. You can clearly see the border line. Just across the border line is a bombed out city that is now abandoned. Further into Syria you can see the new city the Syrians are now forced to inhabit. We then headed south back to the Sea of Galilee for a boat ride. The wind kicked up while we were eating lunch on the shore, and the water became very choppy with white caps in very little time. It brought back memories of Jesus and the disciples crossing this lake in a boat when we read in Mark 4:37, “And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up.” Jesus is not too concerned as he remains fast asleep in the boat. But the disciples were freaking out, and said, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing.” We see the power of Jesus response in verse 39, “And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Hush, be still.’ And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.” By the time we were pulling back into the harbor the wind had died down for us also, and the water had become much calmer. We made our way to a traditional baptismal site on the Jordan River in perfect weather. There several members of our party were baptized. Some of them were baptized for the very first time. Others just wanted to reconfirm their love for the Lord and experience baptism in the Jordan River. Thanks be to God for another glorious day in the Promise Land. God Bless =)