A SAD CITY

I'm feeling a little melancholy tonight, not sad, just melancholy. Maybe it's just because I'm tired or maybe because my Israel adventure is coming to an end or I'm just longing to be home. Whatever the source of my mood the following is the story of a sad city, the ancient city of Beth Shan where we visited today. In the Scriptures we first hear about Beth Shan as one of the Canaanite cities that was never driven out of the land when Israel came to take possession of the promised land (Judges 1:27). Beth Shan was eventually conquered, but not by Israel, but by the persistent enemy of Saul and David, those nasty Philistines. In 1 Samuel 31 the Philistines eventually got the best of Saul and his son, Jonathan. It says that “the Israelites fled before them, and many fell slain on Mount Gilboa” (1 Sam. 31:1). By the way Mount Gilboa is easily seen as you drive around the Jezreel Valley like we have been doing in our bus. The Philistines first killed Jonathan. Then, it says that the Philistine archers “wounded [Saul] critically” (1 Sam. 31:3). Saul took his own life, and his body was found the next day by the Philistine aggressors. Here it gets gory... the Philistines cut off Saul's head, stripped off his armor, and they hung his naked dead body from the wall of Beth Shan. Fortunately some brave Israelites rescued the bodies during the night and buried the bones.



When David heard what had happened he sang a sad song: “David took up this lament concerning Saul and his son, Jonathan....” (2 Samuel 1:17). He sings of “how the mighty have fallen” and his love for Jonathan (2 Sam. 1:19-27). He ordered that all of the men of Judah be taught this lament.
Israel's geography is filled with peaks and valleys, up down and around every corner there is peak or valley. And that's real life too isn't it? There are peaks and valleys to living and we have to travel through both. Times of sadness come to all of us. Loss and grief are part of what it means to live. We don't deny it. We don't hide from it. Just read through the Psalms, and observe all of the peaks and the valleys of emotions that the psalmists struggled with. They are filled with lament. Sure there is a lot of praise in the psalms, but there is also a lot of sad songs, lamentations. This morning I read Psalm 130 which begins, “Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; O Lord, hear my voice, Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy” (Psalm 31:1,2). But we're always urged to move on through the valley, to put our hope in the God of the valley: “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning” (Psalm 130:5,6). I don't know if you are in a peak or a valley today, but God is God of both.



As I was taking pictures at Beth Shan I noticed that high on the peak above the ruins of Beth Shan stands a tree, a lonely tree high on the hill. Look real closely in the middle of this picture and you will see it. And I was reminded that there was a man who hung on a tree. His name was Jesus. All who trust in his death on that cross overcome the wages of sin, namely death, eternal sadness and judgment: “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared” (Psalm 130:3,4). In the midst of my peak and valleys this is where I look. What else do we have?

Paul McCartney sang, "Hey Jude, Don't make it bad, take a sad song and make it better. Remember to let her into your heart, then you can start to make it better." If you read the rest of the lyrics to "Hey Jude" it's really not such a bad song (musically or lyrically speaking) about the importance of letting people into your life. And that's good advice. Unfortunately I will always associate this song with playing high school football because in my junior year of high school this was one of the songs that was always played in the locker room while we were putting on our pads. So, this song doesn't make me sad. It just makes my adrenaline start jumping and pumping.

Anyway, there's a better song I'm thinking about that goes more to the point:


On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
the emblem of suffering and shame;
and I love that old cross where the dearest and best
for a world of lost sinners was slain.
So I'll cherish the old rugged cross,
till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
and exchange it some day for a crown.

SEA OF GALILEE

We took a ride on a boat out on the Sea of Galilee. I hesitate to call it a "Sea" anymore because it's more like a "Lake", much smaller than it looks on pictures of Israel. The body of water is only about 7 miles across east to west and 13 miles north to south. It was very moving to sit on the water where Jesus and his disciples had so many encounters together, to think that while some of the shoreline has changed the mountains and valleys are virtually unchanged. When the water is low during drought years you can actually find the ancient harbors. For example, we know that Capernaum was a heavy duty fishing village. Right next to Capernaum is Tagba, known for the 7 springs that come into the Sea of Galiliee providing an ideal place for Peter, Andrew, James, and John to do their fishing.

Last night we sat and watched the sun set over the mountains on the west side of the Sea of Galilee. Then as it turned dark the lights in Tiberias began to shine like a "city set on a hill." About 9 p.m. we sat in the dark by starlight and watched the F-15 jets make their run up to the Golan Heights border with Syria. Their green flashing lights were hard to miss with the eyes. The sonic boom was hard to miss with your ears. Israel is such a small country that we could see them in the sky all the way northup to the border, twenty miles away or so, and then they did a looping turn back south. A great night.

CAPERNAUM

PICTURES FROM CAPERNAUM TOP TO BOTTOM:

1. Peter's house where one of the earliest Christian churches met for worship;

2. The foundations of a synagogue where Jesus spoke;

3.an ancient Olive Press used to make olive oil.

"Then [Jesus] went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath began to teach the people. They were amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority. In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, "Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!" "Be quiet!" Jesus said sternly. "Come out of him!" Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him. All the people were amazed and said to each other, "What is this teaching? With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!" And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area" (Luke 4:31-37).

We were in Capernaum today, pretty awesome to be right there on the shore of Galilee where the fishing boats docked, our Lord Jesus taught, and Peter was used by the Lord to help give birth to the Christian church.

THE ROCK

I'm having a hard time loading pictures on this internet connection, so this post is totally verbal. We're at a hostel on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, somewhere near where the guy was running around crazy, and Jesus cast the demons into a herd of pigs. I still haven't seen any pigs here, although one of the guys who has traveled to Israel said that there is one herd of pigs. But, the building has to be kept up on stilts because you can't have pigs touching the holy land of Israel (apparently this is really true and we will see it in a day or two). That's what happens when your religion becomes rule based. I was trying to take a picture on Saturday afternoon and I was rebuked by some Jewish guys playing basketball that I shouldn't be taking pictures on the Sabbath. When I asked why they said "Because the rabbis said so." They were familiar with college and pro basketball so I asked them a couple of questions about Adam Haluska (former Iowa Hawkeye BB player from Carrol, Iowa) and they knew some about him as he plays for an Israeli professional team.

I took a dip in the Sea of Galilee late this afternoon which was nice after hiking all day. We were up in Galilee at Caesarea Philippi today. Caesarea Philippi was named by Herod Philip (one of the sons of Herod the Great) to honor Caesar (and himself). This is an area with powerful springs that bring wtaer out of the cliffs and ultimately into the Jordan River. This city is northeast of the place called Caesarea, so don't confuse the two. One of the remnants at Caesarea Philippi is an ancient cave/shrine structure to honor the Greek god Pan, a god of the woods who chased nymphs around trees. Woo hoo! He was a raw nature god: wild, sexy, earthy. There was a cave at the back of the shrine that some people believe was associated with the Greek idea of hell. So, with all of this in mind think of what happened when Jesus brought his disciples to Caesarea Phlippi.

It was here that Jesus asked his disciples, “Who to people say that the Son of Man is?”. Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Then Jesus said, “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Mt. 16:13-16). There are several interpretations of what Jesus meant by “the rock”, but I heard a new one today. It could be that Jesus was standing near this shrine to Pan, far away from Jerusalem, in the heart of paganism, and he was saying, “You see this rock mountain symbolizing the power of hell. Well, there is a more powerful rock, the rock of the gospel, and this rock is so powerful that hell can not stand against it. In fact, your mission is to storm the gates of hell, to see people transformed to live their lives for King Jesus and his kingdom.” So, all we know for sure about the context is that this important conversation took place in Caesarea Philippi, that there are big rocks there, and that rocks are certainly used in Scripture to refer to the strength, power, and stability of life in Jesus' kingdom. Remember Jesus parable about the wise man building his house on the stable rock rather than on the shifting sand? “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Mt. 7:24). And that's what it's all about.

HIDDEN TUNNELS

Last Monday night we had a special opportunity to go underground through the tunnels that run parallel to the entire western edge of the Temple Mount. Typically, when we talk about the western wall we are specifically referring to portion of the wall toward the southern end of the Temple Mount. This section of the wall has a large plaza associated with it that is open to the sky above. This is where we have gone numerous times to watch the prayer services of the Jews. But, during the last twenty years there is another portion of the wall that has been uncovered. People call it the Western Wall Tunnels or the Rabbinic Tunnels.

The original excavators literally dug under the city of Jerusalem, underneath houses and businesses to reveal the entire length of the western wall. The excavators were faced with complicated engineering problems, such as maintaining the stability of the structures above them. The original explorers, back in the 1800s describe swimming through the cisterns with a candle to light the way. The modern excavators had to divert the sewage from the houses above them, which on occasion flushed down unexpectedly into the tunnels, which was serving as a general sewage system in many places. After much delicate and difficult work they they found enormous carved stones that are still preserved. There were also remains of the Herodian road which ran alongside the Temple Moun and ancient cisterns that originally were used as water sources. One spot along the wall is not completed. Some scholar speculate that this happened when Herod the Great died and the project was no longer funded, so the workers just picked up their tools and went home.

The biggest stone in the Western Wall is often called the Western Stone. I couldn't fit the whole stone into the picture, but if you look closely at the big stone on top of the smaller stones you can see it in the picture ("smaller stones" is a relative term since the stones on the bottom row weigh several tons apiece themselves). It is one of the heaviest objects ever lifted by human beings without powered machinery. Listen to this: the stone is about the size of a bus, around 40 feet long and about 12 feet wide. They estimate the weight at 570 tons! Think about this. The empty weight of the first 747-400 is about 200 tons, and its maximum takeoff weight (with luggage, people, and fuel) is about 450 tons. They have no idea how this stone was moved into place!!

People did not like the archaeologists digging under their homes, and they had all sorts of fears about their homes and businesses collapsing. One tragedy that has set the course for this site happened on September 24,1996. Prime Minister Netanyah ordered that a new exit be cut through from the Struthion Pool area to the Via Dolorosa nearby. Yasser Arafat commented on the event, alleging the real aim was to make the Temple Mount collapse. This sparked riots in which around 80 people were killed. Normally there is a soldier located at this exit to protect people when they exit the tunnels in the Muslim quarter. Since our tour took place at 10 pm when it was dark and at a time more prone to radical Palestinians harassing people who exit the tunnels we had to retrace our steps and go out the entrance.

There is still excavating and exploration going on with these walls, and new discoveries and insights into the Temple Mount area are being made. It was cool to be down under the city of Jerusalem so late at night, but I didn't get to sleep until about 12:30 pm that night and our bus left Jerusalem at 7 am the next morning so the first day on the road was a killer, and there are no coffee shops out in the desert. So, we just had to tough it out until we finally found a place to grab a Coke at lunch time.

TOMB RAIDERS

Since I am mentioned in the following post by my friend Norm Langston (pastor from Portland, Oregon and also wifeless on the trip) I am just going to copy his post here. By the way, it's easier to tell people that I'm from "near Des Moines" than to say I'm from Adel, Iowa. That's particularly true for the natives here in Jerusalem who have not even heard of Iowa (I have to tell them I'm from "near Chicago!"). The pictures are my own, and my pictures are probably not going to exactly match Norm's commentary below. The point is that there is a round disk rolled back from the tomb and there is an empty bench in the tomb which should remind you of someone else's tomb who turned out to be a whole lot more important than Herod. Anyway, Norm has a blog at NormLangston.blogspot.com in which he is commenting on his version of the trip. And I borrowed his title for this entry too because it was so good. So, with full credit given to Norm, here is what he wrote,

"We had a free afternoon on Monday. Tom, a pastor from Des Moines, and I hiked across the Hinnom Valley with the goal of finding the tomb of Herod's family. Although Herod was buried at the Herodium, his family was not. We were interested because this is one of the few intact 1st Century tombs in Israel. Especially unusual is the fact that this tomb has a large stone that was rolled across its entrance to keep out scavengers. In this picture, can you see the top of the stone to the left of the entry arch?Allow me to make a suggestion: if you ever go "tomb exploring," take a flashlight. Since we expected this tomb to be sealed, we didn't. However, two pastors couldn't let a little darkness deter us, could we? So we climbed down the stairs, bent down to explore the first chamber, and got down as far as we had to--even on all fours--to grope our way through the other three chambers. Another interesting thing about this tomb is that it--like most Jewish tombs of this era--was designed to be used by multiple people. After a body was fully-decayed, the bones were placed in an ostuary, and the tomb was ready for the next corpse(s).There are two reasons our exploration was important to me. First, everything about this tomb corresponds well with what the New Testament reports about Jesus' death. It was good to see that with my own eyes.Second, it reminded me that many people have been buried in a tomb like this. Only one came out alive. Isn't that reason enough to want to get to know him better."

Norm didn't mention that we did solve the "flashlight problem." After a couple of pictures we figured out that we could put our digital cameras on the "Examine picture" mode, and there was enough light coming from the picture to see our way around the tomb if you held the camera within a couple feet from any object you were trying to look at.

SHAVUOT

Picture: At the western wall a few days ago

Today is a special holiday in Israel called Shavuot. The holiday began last evening and continues today. Friday is also the main day of prayer for Muslims. Consequently the old city has been packed with people and cars are parked wherever people can find a space. People are parking in alleys and on the sides of the hill wherever they can find a spot. There are also Jewish and Muslim pilgrims coming and going every which way. We went down to the Western Wall for a while last night to watch what was going on. We were a little bit late, so some of the crowd had already gone home. But I was able to go up to the front of the western wall and then turn north for a couple of hundred yards where the wall extends underneath the old city. The area under the old city is a combination library/community congregational meeting center. I am assuming that most of the books were copies of the Talmud, the historical rabbinic commentary on the Old Testament. One congregation was having a meeting in this underground area, so we tried not to disturb them. The men were singing a song together. Others were praying in their characteristic bob up and down kind of praying that many of them do. One person told me that they pray like that to keep their focus, so that their minds don't wander. That makes sense, but I haven't talked to a Jewish person about it yet. Some of my friends went down at 4 am this morning for a special worship time that the Jews hold at the western wall. My friends said that the whole area was packed with people and they had to stand way far at the back, about 200 yards away from the front area where the wall is located. Another friend said that he heard several rabbis from the United States at the ceremony. And that makes sense as Shavuot is one of the great gathering festivals of the Jews. You and I know this festival as The Feast of Pentecost. It was on this day nearly two thousand years ago that Peter preached a message of repentance and salvation (Acts 2), possibly on the steps just south of the temple mount (where I was standing the other day). Over 3000 new believers in Jesus the Messiah were added to the church that day, an influx from multiple nations of peoples who were in attendance at Shavuot. So, this is a very important holy day for us as Christians as well. The following press release comes from the government of Israel:

"Shavuot [Pentecost], one of Judaism's three pilgrimage festivals (along with Passover and Sukkot or Feast of Tabernacles), will take place this year between sunset on Thursday, May 28, and sunset on Friday, May 29. The Government Press Office (GPO) would like to offer the following as a brief summary: Shavuot marks the giving of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy; Judaism's most basic Scripture) at Mt. Sinai, seven weeks after the exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt. Indeed, Shavuot literally means "weeks" and is celebrated exactly seven weeks after the first day of Passover, which marks the exodus itself. The celebration of Shavuot is specified in Exodus 34:22 and Deuteronomy 16:10. On Thursday night, May 28, after festive evening prayers and a festive meal, many people will follow the custom of staying awake all night and studying religious texts, and then saying morning prayers at the earliest permitted time-thus expressing the enthusiasm of the Jewish people to receive the Torah. Most synagogues and yeshivot [religious schools] will organize special classes and lectures throughout the night of Shavuot. In Jerusalem, there is a widespread custom of going to the Western Wall-which will be exceptionally crowded-for Shavuot morning (Friday) prayers, often accompanied by dancing and singing.

The Shavuot morning prayers are marked by special hymns and scriptural readings, including the Book of Ruth. Special memorial prayers for the departed are also said. Some communities maintain the custom of decorating their synagogues with green plants and flowers. This is in keeping with two traditions: that Mt. Sinai was a green mountain and that Shavuot is a day of judgment for fruit trees. On Shavuot, it is also customary to eat dairy dishes; there are many explanations for this custom.

In ancient times, Shavuot marked the end of the barley harvest, and the beginning of the wheat harvest. Jewish farmers brought their first fruits to the Temple in Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 26:1-11), where special offerings were brought (Numbers 28:26-31). In honor of Shavuot's status as the "Day of First Fruits" and the "Harvest Festival" (as it is referred to in Numbers 28:26 and Exodus 23:16, respectively), many kibbutzim and moshavim [collective settlements] also organize special celebrations revolving around these themes, including ceremonies in which new produce from the kibbutz or moshav is highlighted. (The Government Press Office, May 26, 2009)

And here is a modern version of the holiday (remember that there is a large segment of Israel that is more secular in orientation).....

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