Tour of Israel, Feb. 12th

Jordan River – Baptismal Site

This is a great view of the Jordan River...it's not as mighty a river as we had pictured it.

Joanna's left hand is now holier than your left hand.

Arbel

Sweet shot of the Arbel lookout point; you can even see some natural caves in the side of the mountain.

View from the top of Arbel; that's the Sea of Galilee in the background!

A pretty tree with a permanent pretty view.

Another awesome scenery shot from the top of Arbel; this shows the Valley of the Doves where it's likely Christ walked from Capernaum to Galilee.

Dan – The Ancient City

Ruins shown from the Old Testament city of Dan, which is where 600 people from the tribe of Dan settled in Northern Israel. This is also the city where Jeroboam later set up a golden calf in 1 Kings 12 so that people in Israel didn't have to travel to Judah (Jerusalem) to worship. Bad Jeroboam.

A real Caananite gate dating back to the time of Abraham was uncovered here. The gate was part of the city of Dan, and was built from sun-baked bricks and plaster. There is a giant tarp structure covering it for protection.

Banyas Waterfalls

These are the “Banyas Waterfalls”, which is one of three tributaries that flow into the Jordan River. One other is below (Caesarea Philippi), and the 3rd is in Syrian territory, so we cannot go see it.

Caesarea Philippi

We got lunch at a local Christian Lebanese restaurant; they served a great dish called shawarma, which was made with multiple kinds of smoked meat along with veggies in a fresh homemade pita.

Here's Joanna, enjoying hers thoroughly.

This place is called Caesarea Philippi, which was originally a Greek pagan city named Panias but overtaken by King Herod the Great and renamed. The sculptures carved out of the rock were for pagan idols to sit on display. In this city, Peter made his great confession in Matthew 16: “Thou art Christ, Son of the living God.”

An artists rendition of how the city might have looked; you can see the little idols sitting in the window sculptures.

Golan Heights

This is a picture from the Golan Heights, which is a high peak in northern Israel very near the borders of Syria and Lebanon. Although not necessarily mentioned in the Bible, it had and still has important military significance. Our guide Ronnie took us through the events of 5 or 6 wars that were fought in the fields below in the past 60 years. During many of these battles Israel was fighting against stronger Arab nations but God still brought them through victorious.

Mt. Hermon is in the distance – at 9,000 feet above sea level it's the highest point in Israel and could very well be the mountain where the transfiguration of Christ took place. Today, it's the spot where residents enjoy skiing and playing in the snow.

A Lebanese village shown from the Golan Heights.

And if you're missing us... we're not that far away from home!