Jesus Trail

Two of John's disciples came to Jesus and said:

"Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?" (Or maybe, "where do you live?") Jesus said to them, "Come and you will see" (John 1:39).

We decided to take Jesus up on His offer. On Wednesday evening, May 21st, our friends Tim and Kristi Knipp along with Stacie and I took a bus from Jerusalem, north to Nazareth and spent the night there in a hostel. The purpose of our trip? Backpacking the "Jesus Trail" for a few days. The Biblical Text says Jesus moved from Nazareth to Capernaum - but if you read that one verse (Matt 4:13), don't you sometimes just wonder what would that journey may have been like? How long did it take? What did He see or who did He encounter along the way?

We purchased a very detailed map of the region (available in Hebrew only), the route we mapped out was to hike from Nazareth, north to Zippori (aka Sepphoris - the capital of the Galilee during the early years of Jesus, before it moved Tiberias...but not mentioned in the Gospels), on to Cana (John 2, and 4), then west through the Bet Netofa Valley, through the Arbel Pass approaching the Sea of Galilee and finally following the northwestern shoreline to the city of Capernaum. A total distance of about 35-40 miles.

"Whoever claims to live in Jesus must walk as Jesus walked" (1John 2:6)

This, I might add, always has been, and always will be more important than walking where Jesus walked, but being blessed with the opportunity to do both...we set out.

Stacie and I walking to Cana -
the tel is the small brown hill directly in front of us

After hiking for about 10 hours the first day, we arrived at the base of the tel and set up camp for the night there in an already harvested wheat field. Tim read the two stories of Jesus in Cana - first at the wedding banquet where He performed His first miracle turning water into wine (John 2), then just a couple chapters later Jesus again visits Cana, a city of miracles.

"Therefore He came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and was imploring Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.” The royal official *said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus *said to him, “Go; your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off."
(John 4:46-50)

The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him.

Tim, Kristi and Stacie at our campsite the second night -
a couple miles west of the Arbel Pass

Hiking through the Arbel Pass -
the most likely ancient route to the Sea of Galilee

Mount Arbel behind us

"Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He withdrew into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet:
“THE LAND OF ZEBULUN AND THE LAND OF NAPHTALI,
BY THE WAY OF THE SEA, BEYOND THE JORDAN, GALILEE OF THE GENTILES—
“THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT LIGHT,
AND THOSE WHO WERE SITTING IN THE LAND AND SHADOW OF DEATH,
UPON THEM A LIGHT DAWNED.”
(Matthew 4:12-16)

Wilderness Wanderings

Now when they set out from Kadesh, the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor. Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom, saying, “Aaron will be gathered to his people; for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the sons of Israel, because you rebelled against My command at the waters of Meribah. “Take Aaron and his son Eleazar and bring them up to Mount Hor; and strip Aaron of his garments and put them on his son Eleazar. So Aaron will be gathered to his people, and will die there.” So Moses did just as the LORD had commanded, and they went up to Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. After Moses had stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on his son Eleazar, Aaron died there on the mountain top. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. When all the congregation saw that Aaron had died, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days.

- Numbers 20:22-29

So Steve, Hayley, Stacie and I headed to the Negev in search for Mount Hor - one of the traditional sites anyway. The place was quite unique, and not exactly along the well traveled tourist sites.
We like that.

Stacie and Hayley with Mt. Hor in the background

Our car is the gray dot in the middle of the picture -
not exactly a frequently visited tourist site


Hayley, Steve and Stacie reaching the top - nice work!

Hayley and Steve walking along the flattened mountain top

Not sure what Stacie and I are doing here, but...thankful to be here

Cheese and Crackers

David vs. Goliath.

Almost everyone has heard of the story, even if they have never actually read the written account in 1Samuel 17. Every Sunday School teacher has taught the story to their class. Even sports analysts use it every once in a while to try to suck people in to a big game between a heavily favored team vs. an obvious "underdog."

It's the story of a young shepherd boy, who stumbles on to the battlefield with a sling and a stone killing a giant warrior. It's a great story, and if you hadn't heard it before, I just spoiled the end of the "movie" for you. Sorry, but you should still read the story anyway.

There is so much more history and background packed in to this story, of which I won't go in to all those details here, but there are a couple things to note. David is a shepherd boy in Bethlehem. His brothers and the rest of the Israelite army are fighting a battle against the Philistines in the Shephelah (western foothills), which is midway between Bethlehem and the Coast (where the Philistines lived). Then, in 1Sam 17:17 - Jesse, David's father, tells him to take about 22 liters of roasted grain, 10 loaves of bread and 10 cheeses to his brothers who are fighting in the Elah Valley. The distance from Bethlehem to the city of Azekah in the Elah Valley is about 17 miles.

Sometimes I wonder, What would it have been like to be bringing cheese and crackers to your brothers in the middle of a war zone? Was he nervous or just doing what his dad told him to do? Did he have a donkey or something to help carry the food? Were the cheeses different kinds? Did his feet hurt by the time he got there? Was he practicing slinging stones along the way?

Being intrigued by David's life story, which enters the biblical scene with this journey carrying cheese and crackers to his brothers, we decided to explore the Elah Valley ourselves. Now we did not follow David's footsteps entirely with a walk from Bethlehem to Azekah (partly because of political reasons) but a few of us did hike from Azekah, along a ridge above the Valley and then back through it, for a solid 5 walk. Just trying to get a better "feel" for what it would have been to walk in David's sandals.

Hayley, Ben and Steve overlooking the Elah Valley

The Elah Valley, with the Tel Socoh (brown hill) in the background

A shepherd boy with his flock we met along the way

Steve and Ben walking through the Elah Valley along wheat fields

"Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. This day the LORD will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the LORD’S and He will give you into our hands.”
- 1Samuel 17:45-47

Dinner Celebration

After completing our last final exam on May 9, a couple good friends of ours, Cyndi and Hayley, wanted to spoil us by cooking dinner for us...at our place. So on Saturday, May 10 (also Stacie's Birthday), they came over at about 4pm with bags and bags of groceries to start cooking. Stacie and I went for a walk while they took over our house for a while.

It was a great little Shabbat walk. Very quiet in the neighborhood as usual, but now that we were done studying, our minds were learning to become quiet too. The pace of the walk was slow. Like walking with a two year old, but it was just Stacie and I. After all, we really had nowhere to go and there was nothing we had to do. Very different than what we had been doing. After a life of study study study comes to a screeching halt, we almost didn't know what to do with ourselves or how to rest or be still. But our friends who were making dinner were about to help us.Back at the house, first came some fantastic hors d’oeuvres along with some white wine. The idea of this dinner was to relax, decompress, eat slowly, enjoy each other's company - have a nice long meal together. So we did. Five tasty courses - and five hours of genuine conversations later - I cannot put words to the extraordinary, completely relaxed and satisfied feeling I had. We all felt it. There is something so right about a meal that lasts longer than 23 minutes (or less).

It reminded me of a time when I was in Turkey 4 years ago. We were at a nice restaurant in a hotel and a group of us came in, we were "starving" after being out all day. They served us dinner, slowly, course by course. After I had devoured my first course I waited for what was next, then I was soon impatiently looking over my shoulder wondering where the heck the waiter was. What poor service. What IS he doing back there anyway? One of the guys, at my table, who was familiar with the culture, said "the servers here don't know what to do with the Americans who just devour their food in no time. People in Turkey often sit down for dinner for about two hours."
"Two hours! What do they do around the dinner table for two hours?" I exclaimed.
"Maybe you would get to know your wife" was his reply.

Maybe I will start to get it now.

Dinner for a couple hours. You should try it sometime.

And There Was Great Rejoicing...

"Yeah."


Well we have now officially completed our studies at JUC, and after all our hard work received the above piece of paper.

Transcripts.

What seemed quite impossible only weeks ago, is now already becoming a distant memory. Stacie and I studied, studied, and studied some more - in order for us to complete the task God called us to. Study. Finish strong. The two big comprehensive exams we had went miraculously well, the most recent one was Historical Geography. We felt pretty good, clear-minded and confident, while we were taking it all day, which was the last day of finals (May 9). We know many people were praying for us and cheering us on through the finish line. We felt them and are extremely thankful for them.

Now we have some other "studying" to do for our last few weeks here, but this time without stacks of books and not inside a classroom.

What's going on?

It's been a while since we've checked in with all that has been going on with us these busy past few weeks. Here's a few posts to update you on some of them.
Enjoy!

Remembering.

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. Different events and memorials will be taking place throughout the day, especially at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial Museum. This morning in class, our Archeology professor, before beginning with his lecture was speaking of this day adding, “It is important for us to remember so that we do not make the same mistakes in history.”

At 10am, a two-minute siren wailed nationwide as Israel commemorated the annual “Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day.” When this siren blows on this day, everything stops, including traffic - some drivers actually get out of their cars and stand to honor the 6 million victims. As soon as the siren began, Archeology class stopped, and we all stood in silence for a couple minutes.

It is important to remember.