We started our day with Mass in the Duc in Altum Church at our hotel for the Feast of the Holy Trinity. Then we headed north to Tel Dan Nature Reserve in the Golan Heights. The Dan Stream, which is a headwater of the Jordan River, runs through here. This is the site of many events in the Old Testament. If you’re interested in more details, see here. Abraham’s Gate is the entrance to the ancient city, and is 4,000 years old. Kevin taught from Genesis 12:1-9. This is an ‘A’ site.
Next we went to Caesarea Philippi, aka Banias, where Peter made his famous confession (“you are the Christ the son of the living God”), and Jesus gave him the name ‘Rock’ (which is ‘Petros’ in Greek, and ‘Peter’ in English), and established him as the leader of the Church (“you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it”). There was a large rock cliff behind Peter where this event occurred, with a shrine to the god Pan at the top of the cliff. In the face of the cliff was a cave out of which flowed a spring. The people there considered the cave to be the ‘gates to the netherworld’. Every time I read that passage I’ll remember standing where it happened! Kevin taught from Matthew 16:13-20.
Our next stop was the Druze village of Mas’ada, where we had lunch. Then we stopped at the base of Mt. Hermon, where Kevin taught from Matthew 17 on the Transfiguration of our Lord. He also taught from Zechariah 14:16 (because of Peter’s comment on the Jewish Feast of Booths). This is a ‘B’ site. There are two possible locations for where the Transfiguration occurred: on Mt. Hermon, or on Mt. Tabor (which we saw yesterday from the Mt. Precipice viewpoint). We don’t have any pictures from here.
Then we traveled to Tel Faher, in the northern Golan, which is not a religious site, but rather a historical site documenting the Six Day War in Israel. Ikey told the story of the Six Day War. If you’re interested, you can read more about Tel Faher here. There are no pictures from this site.
Next we went to Bethsaida in the Jordan River Park. Bethsaida was home to seven of the twelve apostles. Jesus cured a blind man in Bethsaida. You can read more about Bethsaida here. Kevin taught from John 6:1-15 on the feeding of the 5,000. This is a ‘B’ site because we’re not sure the miracle happened in Bethsaida. I didn’t include any pictures from here (we just have pictures of informational signs).
What a day! Caesarea Philippi was the most memorable stop of the day for me.
