Israel Trip – Day 1

Monday, May 10th

We finally made it to Israel!  After staying up pretty much all night at the airport, flying all day and night, and then arriving in Tel Aviv in the morning, we were very tired.

The Tel Aviv airport was well designed with beautiful stone inside and a fountain that would rain water down from the ceiling into a pool.

On the Road Again…

From the airport, we hopped on a charter bus owned by Ron (our driver) and headed up to the city of Tiberias on the shore of the Galilee.  To stay hydrated throughout the trip, Ron had a cooler as part of the bus that we could take a bottle of water from for a dollar.

It was quite hazy in the country and was mid 70′s Fahrenheit at 7am.  We headed North on the Freeway which was very well kept.  It takes about 5 hours to drive the entire length of the country.  Our drive to Tiberias was between 1 and two hours if I remember right.

Dina was our Israeli tour guide.  I’m not sure if it’s by law or just good practice, but we had two tour guides, Dina, who is a licensed tour guide who is Jewish and Bro. Marshall who is from the States and gave us a lot of the spiritual insights.

We passed a lot of Arabic villages noted by the minarets which are to be the tallest structures in the town by Muslim custom.

The land really is multi-cultural.  Muslims, Jews, and Christians were on our flight to Israel.  Many service groups were on their way.  It was great–a different group of people compared to a flight to Vegas.

We saw one of the large separation walls along the freeway that separates Palestinian/Arab territory from the Jewish sector.  Our guide liked that the fact that the wall has reduced certain crimes, according to her, by 90%.  Palestinians are not forced to live in those sectors, but those who were living there now have to go through security checks to get out.

Along the drive, we noted pomegranate trees as well as lots and lots of olive trees.  The olive trees are everywhere!

We had our handy-dandy Flip video camera with us. The video camera was handy to pull out and take some quick video, but since it’s so small, it can be shaky at times.

Driving up to the Galilee area we passed through the Jezreel valley which very green and cultivated with farms.  If you picture a dessert place, it’s not northern Israel; it’s beautiful with flowers along the roads and fields of crops.

Our guide Dina explained a lot on our bus ride but kept asking if we wanted to hear more because we looked so tired.

I took notes like a madman because I wanted to capture everything and thought that after a long plane ride back, things would get pretty fuzzy.  We had a wonderful leather journal to take notes in.

The City of Tiberias (Anyone Remember Captain James T. Kirk’s middle name, anyone?)

Dina stated that Tiberias was established around 6 AD by Herod Antipas and was named after Emperor Tiberias.  Jews started to live in the city in 200 AD.

We arrived at our Hotel, the Leonardo Plaza which had a great view of the Sea of Galilee (which is actually a lake, not a sea).

After arriving and a quick break, we headed out at 10AM to drive further North to Tel Dan see 1 Kings 11-12.

Tel Dan and the Golan Heights

At Tel Dan, there were ancient Canaanite walls that pre-date the Jewish settlements of the Bible.

We saw lots of stone throughout our drive and learned that “carpenter” which is what Joseph was called can actually be translated Stone Mason or builder which makes more sense because there’s a lot of rocks, and not all that many trees around that time.  Jesus used a lot of metaphors regarding stone and building, not so much about wood or carpentry.

On our drive, I noted that there were lots of doves in the country (we’ll come back to that further in the trip).

An interesting fact is that 93% of the land is owned by the Israeli government and is leased back to the people in 99-year leases.  That way the government can protect from a foreign entity buying up all the land.

We got off the bus at a biological preserve at the headwaters to the Jordan River.

The spring there is called Dan’s Spring. We saw fig trees and leaves there, and I was surprised how big the leaves were.

We learned about the crossing of the River Jordan of the children of Israel and the significance of walking between the two parts of the river as it relates to the cutting of covenants and sacrifices in ancient days.  The children of Israel probably crossed in a different area (Bethbara = House of Place of Crossing where Jesus may have also been baptized), but the lessons were very poignant.

We say a replica of the altar (well, the frame of the altar at least) placed at Dan in the place and among the ruins where it would have stood.  The altar was huge.

Sacrifice would be burnt upon the altar.  Because of a political rift in the country anciently, an altar was set up in Dan so the people in the North wouldn’t have to go to the Southern Country of Israel to the temple.

We stood by the ancient Canaanite walls.  The spies initially sent into the land of Canaan by the Israelites were concerned very much about the walls around the cities.  But the physical wall weren’t so much a problem as the mental wall the spies couldn’t overcome.  As was shown in Jericho far to the South, the physical walls were never the problem.

The Golan Heights area was the area we were pretty much in and could see areas that our guide pointed out that had been problematic in current day military operations.

Caesarea Philippi, Whom do men say that I am?

We then drove to Caesarea Philippi (which is not the Caesarea Maritima on the shore).  The Bible Dictionary Maps Section has a picture of this place and is a likely candidate for the location where Jesus asked his disciples, “Whom do men say that I am?”

We learned that the Romans had some pretty big temples right in the spot that would make the area look quite different than the present day.  The temple there was called the Temple of Pan (I thought it would make our kids think of Peter Pan).

Bethsaida and the 2,000 Year Old Street

We then drove to Bethsaida (remember this is all part of the first day, and we’d have wonderful spiritual lessons at each stop).

The ancient ruins of the city are near the Galilee, but quite a bit up above the shore.  A Wikipedia article suggests that the waters were much higher back then.

There, we walked across a two thousand year old street there.

Peter’s house is identified by many as in Capernaum, so some believe that there might have been two Bethsaidas, one close or included in Capernaum (see Wikipedia Bethsaida http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethsaida).

The miracle of the feeding of the multitude may have taken place at the Bethsaida we visited.

In Bethsaida of Galilee is where Philip, Andrew, and Peter dwelt.

The ancient ruins of the city are near the Galilee, but quite a bit up above.  A Wikipedia article suggest that the waters were much higher back then.

There, we walked across a 2 thousand year old street there.  Peter’s house is identified by many as in Capernaum, so some believe that there might have been two Bethsaidas, one close or included in Capernaum (see Wikipedia Bethsaida http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethsaida).

The miracle of the feeding of the multitude may have taken place at the Bethsaida we visited.

In Bethsaida of Galilee is where Philip, Andrew, and Peter dwelt.

On the Shore of the Sea Where Jesus Walked…

Winding down our first day (remember we really hadn’t been able to sleep since the night of May 7th and it’s now May 10th), we headed to Tabga along the shore of the Lake,…er…Sea of Galilee.  There was a beautiful garden there and church called the Primacy of Peter.  This is the traditional area where Jesus told Peter to “Feed my sheep.”

We got to take our shoes off there and wade out into the Sea of Galilee.

Back on the bus, we drove by Magdala, Mary of Magdalene’s home town.

Back in Tiberias…

When back at the hotel, we checked the weather and it said the high for the day was 102 degrees Fahrenheit.

We were blasted a bit by the East Wind there, a very hot wind.  Wow!  What a day!

To read about the other days in our trip, click below:

The Airport
Israel – Day 1
Israel – Day 2
Israel – Day 3
Israel – Day 4
Israel – Day 5
Israel – Day 6
Israel – Day 7