Day Three- Gamala, Amret, Ceasarefa Phillipi

Oh friends, thank you for your encouraging comments. It makes blogging so worth it. Bless G-d for another amazing day! And Bless G-d for each of you who is reading. And finally Bless G-d because Lyndsey's (Ben's sister) water broke this afternoon (which was early in the morning there)...so our nephew is on his way :) Can't wait to get word of his arrival. Any updates on this  would be great!!

Today was an especially hot day (nothing compared to our last trip here), but it was hotter than it has been the past two days, so today was a little harder for some. But we rallied together as community and helped one another up the mountain. 

We started the day by heading to Gamala….the city of the zealots. This city is set on top of an incredibly high and steep mountain and we proceeded to climb up it to see the remains of this important Jewish civilization. The zealots were a group of people who loved G-d and loved the text. They were a people who were upset that the world of Rome was corrupting their marriages, children, and religion. The zealots were fierce people who fought till their deaths for their beliefs. We think of zealots in a negative sense most of the time, but really they were doing what they thought was biblical at the time. In Gamala we got to visit a first century synagogue, a synagogue Jesus would have taught in. We had the opportunity to reenact an entire synagogue servicewhich was really cool. For you Riverside folks, we did Mikveh, sat in chief seats, had a hazan who took the bible from the Torah closet as we danced around in joy, heard a reading of the text from the Bema, and had a word from someone in the Moses seat. It was so cool to see much of what we do in our church is centered on what Jesus would have done during his time on earth. We also talked about Jesus teaching in the synagogue in Nazareth. Very interesting stuff there. If you are interested take a look at what the parasah would have been on that day (hint end of Isaiah 60 and beginning of 61).

Gamala...means camel. This mountain was said to look like a camels back. 

RVL reenacting a traditional service in the synagogue on Gamala. 

On top of Gamala. This is where the zealots who were about to be captured by the Romans ran. About 5,000 Jews stood ontop of this very rocky and very steep mountain top. And they made  a decision at that moment that they would rather jump off this mountain and push their kids of than surrender to the Romans. I am telling you these people were sold out for G-d...they weren't bad people, they just thought it was by power that the Messiah would come, not by laying down his life. 

After leaving Gamala we headed to Amret. Amret is the site of some newly excavated ruins. Let’s just say we danced a lot at this place because it was so cool. Archeologists believe that this is the third temple that Herod built to Ceaser in the Holy Land. It sits on top of a hill over looking the Via Maris (the major trade route of Jesus’ day). RVL told the story in Luke 20 about Jesus’ disciples asking him about paying the temple tax (or more accurately translated the temple tribute). Very interesting what Jesus’ response is. He basically says, you may pay tribute, but you may never call Ceaser god. The text is so rich here…check out Jeremiah 25:5-6 and see if you can make the connection. Also at Amret we stood on the plae that would have most likely been the Damascus road…where Paul would have stood when Jesus came to him. There is also so really cool text in Paul’s commission here, check out Acts 26:12, Ezekiel 1:25, Galatians 1:13, Isaiah 49: 1-6??, Jeremiah 1:5.

One of the walls from the temple at Amret. 

Finally, we headed to Ceasaria of Phillipi which was considered the capital of Pan worship. This is the location Jesus takes his disciples to in Matthew 16:13-20 & Mark 8: 27-38. Why did he take them here? What is he doing in taking them to this really awful place full of all sorts of horrible acts of idol worship? The answer…to prepare them for what they are about to do, spread the gospel to Asia minor. That is what a good rabbi does…they prepare their talmidium. And that is why our Rabbi Jesus is one amazing Rabbi.

The day was simply amazing. We have learned so much in such a short amount of time. It is so cool to see our community wrestling with this stuff. We miss you all and are praying for you daily.

The group standing by the pan shrine in Ceasarea Phillipi. 

Isn't he cute...i think this was a self portrait. I am going to keep the camera tomorrow, so maybe we will have some pictures of people. 

Spouse Report:

Jack: Joanie is doing amazingly well. She is missing you very much though. Today at breakfast, the first words out of her mouth were I am missing my husband today. She even cried a little. I told her that I had no idea why she would cry over you, just kidding.  She is getting quite the tan too. She is wrestling with some tough stuff, but loving this experience.

Linda: Randy is quiet most of the time, but frantically taking notes. His camera isn’t working, so Brian and the rest of us are trying to take pictures for him. His hair still looks great. He had a little stumble today on the mountain, but he says he is doing fine.

Courtney: Thanks for being a loyal commenter. I have told Brian all of your comments so far. He smiles everytime I tell him you wrote and he asks what you said. Today he told me when I asked him if he had showered yet, while we were all doing laundry, he said no, but you know the best thing about me is that I look good even when I haven’t showered. He is SO full of it J He wishes you were here though.

Bill: I love watching Lee’s face as RVL talks. Her eye just light up at all the new stuff she is learning. She is such a trooper. She is running like a deer up the mountain and doing so well.

Beth: Jeff’s world is getting rocked I would say. He is asking great questions and really seeking to understand what is going on. He is always at the front right on RVL’s heels.  He too is wrestling with some tough questions, but I do believe he is loving his time here.

Tana: James is doing awesome. He asks great questions and I can see his mind swirling as he tries to understand the text in a deeper way. Physically he is doing well and hiking like a champ. And he somehow seems to always look more put together than the rest of us.

Cathi: Scott, of course, is doing amazing. We are all getting to have great conversations with him, so that is really neat.  He does miss you a lot. He said to me today, “Brooke you are wearing blue”…and I said, “so what?” He said, “Cathi always wears blue and I guess I am just looking around to see where she is and I got confused by the blue.” So he is looking for you…I think it feels a lot different not to have you along this time.

Jenni: Robert and Caleb are doing great. Robert’s knee seems to be holding strong and you know Caleb, he is just a young, lean, mean hiking machine. Robert would like you to try and call his cell phone…he can’t seem to make phone calls out and has been trying to email you, but he doesn’t know if you are getting them. So give him a call.