Zechariah wrote:
"Thus saith the Lord of hosts; It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities: And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts: I will go also. Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord."
And thus we left the Sea of Galiliee and went with all speed to Jerusalem, stopping along the way at Beth Shaen, Jericho, the Sycamore Tree, and other waypoints.
As we proceed south from Tiberias, we pass through the Jordan valley, essentially along the Jordan river as it flows south from the Sea of Galilee. The valley is fertile and the farmers are eaking from the land, grains, fruits and vegatables, making the most of very limited water. On the other side of the river Jordan is the country of Jordan. Our first stop was at Beth Shean, a large tel (archeological dig) near Mt. Gilboa. On a mountain top near the remains of the old city is where the last days of Saul played out, his early victory over the Philistines followed by is defeat at the hands of the Philistines
Here our group hikes across the top of the Beth Shaen ruins towards the stairs, off in the distance, that lead to the top of the hill. This is where Saul met his fate as the Isrealites lost an important battle to the Philistines. (I Chron. 10).
This is where the little radio receivers we have been carrying come in handy. Those stairs looked formidible, so I stayed up at the park entrance where there was shade and a coffee shop. I sat comfortably drinking a cappaccino, watching my tour mates climb the mountain and listening to the tour guide explain over his radio the story of Saul and the significance of this area to the unfoldment of the New Testament. I love to travel.
In Luke 19 we read of Zacchaeus who climbed a sycamore tree to be able to see Jesus as he came by. Here is the actual tree.
...a beautiful 2,000 year old tree, in the Jordan valley not far from Jericho.
With many of these interesting sites, the true story of what archeologists have really found and how they most rationally intepret their finds makes harmonizing their conclusions with the Biblical accounts a bit tricky. Many of the books of the Old Testament were written by prophets who had an agenda....convince the people that there is only one God and that God saves us when we listen to God (probably through the voice of the prophets) and follow the mandates of the deuteroromic laws and the moral teachings of the prophets. This means that much of the Old Testament may have been written up to 1,000 years following the purported events in the Biblical account and embellished, or even invented, to make a point.
For example, continuing our journey to Jerusalem, we passed by Jericho. a recent archeologist dug deep into the location of the old city and discovered up to 23 layers of construction, different cultures, different eras, different architecture, different pots. A lot of science went into dating the finds and from her data, she concluded that at the time of Joshua, there was no wall around Jericho. WHAT? No wall? What about the parading around the wall with the trumpets? (Josh. 7, 7). Probably an attempt to make a point by embellishing a story.
After pondering the problem of Jericho and stopping to look at some Herodian construction (his home and an aquaduct) we headed for lunch and some shopping at a glass store and then on to Jerusalem. As we entered the city from the top of the French Hill, we could see a huge modern and growing city of 700,000 people. We also saw the golden dome of the Dome of the Rock that looms over the old city as a beacon. That will be our project for tomorrow.
