Pilgrims' Progress

As this little band of pilgrims has traversed the land of Israel we have collected experiences and memories that will last our life times.

I'm not sure how to put succinctly what I have felt and observed during our travels, suffice to say that the last couple of weeks have been full of providential happenings, interesting experiences and challenges.  It has been an absolute privilege to be here and one I will never stop giving thanks for.  

This promised land of His chosen people is such a mix of climates, topography, cultures and history that it is difficult to describe it all in a few short sentences so I'll simply list the places we've visited and a couple of comments.

Caesarea

After picking up a hire car we intended to drive north through Hebron to stop at Haifa.  We ended up in Nazareth....  Jerusalem traffic is crazy, to put it mildly, and after receiving some confusing instructions for getting the road out to Hebron we decided to use Google maps.  However, it seems that not even the Google cars are game enough to tackle the West Bank to take happy snaps for the satellite GPS, therefore we could not route through to Hebron on our way to Haifa as intended.  So obediently we followed Miss Google Maps up the coast and stopped at Caesarea.

Rich in biblical history it was time well spent to explore the ruins of Herod's palace, stadium and buildings.  There is even a building that is recorded as the place most probable that Paul was judged before being sent to Rome.  You could easily picture the disciples and Yeshua walking through the region here.

It was Dad's intention to go to Haifa to view the Ba'hai temple and gardens (obviously to call down fire as Elijah did) but there was no room at the inn and after a stressful time trying to locate a hotel we ended up perchance having to go to Nazareth.

Nazareth

Nazareth is a large mainly Arab city and it can be a nightmare to navigate but Dad successfully got us to our accommodation in time for an evening meal, although not before getting lost while being sent to park the car....funny story we'll tell you when we get home!

Apart from visiting the well where Mary drew water (yes, there really is a well that the Catholic church would have you believe this and there are flocks of the faithful queuing up to view up and then go to the church for a mass of some sorts), there is a recreation of what part of the village of Nazareth would have looked like in Yeshua's day.  Providentially when we went there the next morning we had the owner, Daniel (pictured) take us around personally and explain the various facets of the development and artifacts.  I didn't think I would enjoy this as much as I did and I think without Daniel's personal attention we would have missed out on the beautiful explanations of the oil press.  Daniel is a messianic Jew who sought out the Messiah for himself and his testimony is quite moving and we appreciated this meeting, which we would have missed out on had we gone to Haifa as intended.  (this is  a theme, so stay tuned!)

Tibereas

From Nazareth we headed north to Galilee.  It was advised that we get accommodation at a nearby kibbutz, which is something I really wanted to do to avoid staying in a busy city, however once again our plans were thwarted; well mine anyway.  It was decided to just head to Tibereas and pop into any motel as it was getting late in the afternoon and it was coming into Shabbat.  You must remember that everything comes to a grinding halt on Shabbat and so getting our accommodation and evening meal sorted quickly was of a priority.  Hotel after hotel were fully booked, mainly because it seems to be the custom of many Jews to take the family to a motel for a day or two over Shabbat.

Unfortunately customer service in Israel is a secondary consideration and therefore we found it difficult to get front desk people to serve or answer any queries.  Finally Dad pushed the point at a motel and secured us accommodation.  Hot, tired and frustrated we roll our suitcases in and gratefully grab our keys.

How can I describe how humbling this experience was?  We discovered that these hotels provide dinner as well and as we rocked up to the dining room it was full and humming with activity.  Sitting and observing the families it was obvious that most of these people were observant Jews of various flavours.  Each family took a small bottle of grape juice and bread, the father read the prayer and blessing and the juice and bread were shared around the table.  The young man behind us saw us respectfully watching them and brought a glass of juice for us to also share in the blessing, which was quite touching for us all.

After the evening meal some of these families gathered in the lounge area for a night of music and fun, which we hung around for a little while to view, only going up to our rooms once the music and dancing got a bit loud for our sensitive western ears.

It was so interesting to be part of this Shabbat experience because it was reminiscent of our times together at Hebron and something which I believe YHVH wanted us to see.  Once again, we would have missed out had I been able to secure accommodation at the nearby kibbutz.

The next morning we went along to a messianic gathering and thoroughly enjoyed worshipping together with brothers and sisters in Yeshua our Messiah.  The praise time was a beautiful offering and the Ruach HaKodesh reminded me how pleasing these times are to YHVH; times of interaction and the exchange of wisdom and healing between the Creator and the created.

However, despite gathering on the sabbath and keeping the feasts the congregation had a distinctive christian flavour, which was disappointing.

Caperneum / Sea of Galilee

Tibereas is a modern city on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.  To call it a sea is a stretch of the imagination and it's more the size of a largish lake but being here, the place that is mentioned so many times in the gospels, was quite surreal.

We joined a tour on a boat early in the morning and knew it was our boat (www.seaofgalileeworshipboats.com) because we heard "behold He comes, riding on the clouds, shining like the sun, as the trumpet sounds, so lift your voice, it's the year of Jubilee and out of Zion's hill salvation comes" rolling across the water.  I feared this boat company might be a bit tacky but I really enjoyed Daniel's (yes, another Daniel) style and obvious love of praising the Messiah Yeshua.  His testimony was also one of  a Jew seeking out this Messiah who was called Yeshua and his spirit was quite humble.

BUT (and yes, it's a big BUT), there was another group on the boat with us and one of them was a 'pastor' who was given a few minutes to read a scripture to his group and unfortunately this bloke decided to be self-indulgent and wasted a big portion of time pretending to be a charismatic preacher.  Dad, along with a few others, called for this guy to be shut up....probably before he was about to be thrown overboard!

I thoroughly enjoyed this experience, despite the turkey who needed to test out his ability to walk on the water, and spent the time picturing Yeshua coming across his future apostles fishing and mending their nets, and then crisscrossing this lake to minister to the masses.  You have a clear view from one side to the other so it was easy to imagine Yeshua and the disciples crossing to the other side for some respite, only to find that the crowds had hot footed it around the shoreline to seek Him out.

We still hadn't managed to put our feet in the water so later on we set off to find a suitable place for a paddle, something which became quite a task.  But more on that tomorrow because my battery (literal and euphamistic) is about to go flat so part 2 of Pilgrims' Progress to follow.....