(Slide of our tour bus)
This is a picture of our tour bus. It’s a Mercedes Benz and it seemed that every tour company in Israel had one just like it. The bus was very comfortable and roomy.
After spending a couple of nights at Bethlehem we traveled by this bus down to Masada.
Masada was a citadel constructed by Herod the Great in conjunction with the Romans. It sits on a mesa about 980 feet above the surrounding desert, and by the time of 70 A.D. it was a major Roman outpost in the south. When Israel rebelled against Rome, Rome pulled all of its legions together to attack and destroy Jerusalem. Every soldier – even most of those from Masada were gathered to make quick work of the Jewish capital.
Unfortunately for Rome, a number of Jews saw an opportunity in the abandoned fortress and took it over for themselves. When Jerusalem fell, Rome now had to retake their southern fortress. It took them a few weeks until they had constructed a huge ramp up to the walls of the citadel. The day after they breached the walls, the defenders committed mass suicide.
This site has become a rallying cry for many in Israel. The nation’s armed forces often meet on its heights and are retold the story of its struggle. “Masada shall not fall again” is a popular motto of the nation.
Access to the fortress is made possible by either a trolley that runs up and down the mountain or by a snaking path up its side. Our group leader said he intended to take the trolley up to Masada and then walk down that path. I said I’d join him (as did a few others in the group). About 2/3s of the way down I began to realize that this was not a wise choice. My legs hurt for the next 3 days.
From Masada we went to a beach on the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is literally a dead end for the Jordan river. It lies 1,400 feet below sea level and is known as a place filled with salt and minerals (this is a result of the water evaporation leaving these elements in substantial concentrations. There is a company there that siphons off many of those minerals to be used in skin treatments that are popular items for sale throughout Israel.
The Dead Sea is literally dead. No fish live there because it is filled with a high concentrations of salt (about 9 times more salty than the ocean). This salt content makes it so that you can literally float in its waters. So I did. The only caution they make is that you be careful not to let any of the water near your mouth or eyes. It can really mess with you if that happens.
Leaving the Dead Sea we went up the road that runs between the Mountains of Israel and the Jordan River. (At this point I took out a 3D map I had purchased that showed the contrasts of the mountains and valleys of Israel) One of the great surprises I had was discovering how big the mountains really were in Israel. Almost my entire trip to Nazareth our left side of the road was dominated by mountains that would make the Blue Ridge mountains proud.
Also, along our journey we saw farms of Date Trees and Banana farms and other fields of fruit and vegetables in abundance. Israel only imports three things in abundance – rice, pineapple and coffee. They grow just about everything else that they eat.
(Slides of the lobby, dining room at our hotel in Nazareth–The Golden Crown)
Once again, as you can see, we stayed in an elegant hotel. Great beds massage, sauna, workout room. And, once again, the food was abundant and pleasurable.
(Slides of our Taxi Trip into downtown Nazareth)
Years ago when I was young I had the opportunity to go to Europe and I found one of the greatest experiences on that trip was getting lost in every city we went to. I shared that thought with our group leader and he said “If that ever happens, we’ll leave you behind”… which pretty well indicated that getting lost would not be an acceptable adventure on this trip.
But four of us did go on an adventure on our last night in Nazareth. We rented a taxi and took it to downtown Nazareth. Cost: $10 for all of us. The trip was … interesting. The driver seemed to know everyone and drove fairly confidently through intense and insane traffic. But he got us to our destination.
We visited some shops, bought some trinkets and then went back to meet our driver… who never showed. After waiting a while we found another taxi that would take us back to our hotel for the same price. This man however drove like a madman, racing up and down alleys and boldly crossing traffic at high speeds. We got back in record time.
(Slide of the Jezreel Valley from our hotel)
You could see the Jezreel valley from the dining room AND from our bedroom balcony. It was breathtakingly beautiful.
(slide of Nazareth as it may have looked when Jesus was young).
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but His family had to flee from Herod the Great to Egypt. When Herod died… they returned to Nazareth where Joseph plied his trade as a carpenter. For the next 25 years or so, Jesus played and worked and lived in Nazareth and was forever identified (even after leaving Nazareth) as “Jesus of Nazareth”. In Mark 10:47 we read that when a blind man in Jericho heard that “Jesus of Nazareth” was there he cried out for Jesus to heal him.
Thus Nazareth was a pivotal town in the life of Christ.
ILLUS: Back in the 1990s, a Doctor in a Nazareth Hospital began to be distressed that the city of Nazareth that Jesus’ knew was quickly being buried by the present day construction. With a discovery of an ancient winepress on the hospital land Dr. Bishara developed the idea of creating a visitor’s center reflecting the village in Jesus’ day. He spoke with wealthy and well connected donors (including President Jimmy Carter) and arranged for funds to build a visitors’ center that would reflect how life might have been back then. They built a synagogue, an olive press building, a couple of houses and employed actors to represent carpenters, women making yarn, weavers of tapestries, and shepherds.
(Slide of the terraced land)
In the process of developing the land, they have uncovered an ancient terraced farm from the days of Jesus with a watch tower in one corner (just like Jesus spoke of in Matthew 21:33). Each of these terraced plots of land was farmed by different farmers. There would have been a path running down the hillside so that each farmer could reach his plot without treading on his neighbors “field”. But these terraced lands were filled with partially submerged rocks where the soil would only be a couple inches deep. There would also be thistles that would grow up along with the crop.
This was the type of farming Jesus described in his parable of the 4 soils. A farmer would have scattered his seed and some of it would have fallen on the path, some on the thin cover of soil above the rocks and others amongst thistles. But some would have fallen on good ground.
The guide at the Nazareth village noted that he had played on this land as a child and that it would be logical to assume Jesus had played there in his youth as well.
(Slides of an olive press)
As I noted earlier, one of the archeological discoveries at the Nazareth Village center was that of an olive press. As you can see in this picture, the press consisted of a huge circular bowl with a huge round rock sitting on its edge resting inside that bowl. The round rock had a beam through it that could be hooked up to a donkey (like the one in this picture). The donkey would roll the rock around the bowl and the olives would be crushed.
Then the worker would gather the crushed olives into a basket (like the one in this picture). Several of these baskets would then be stacked in a “press” where a huge beam would be weighted with various stones to press the oil out of the olives.
A lighter weight would be used for the first pressing. This would be purer (or virgin) oil that would be used in the Temple.
A second pressing would use a heavier weight to press out more and lesser quality oil from the olives. This would be the type of oil used in cooking.
A 3rd pressing – using even heavier weight – would result in the least quality of oil and this oil would be used in their lamps (I showed a lamp that was given me at the Nazareth Village). This is the type of lamp Jesus spoke of when He said we were the light of the world.
Now – quiz time: how many pressings were made of the olives in the press? 3
Do you remember the garden that Jesus prayed in before he was betrayed? The Garden of Gethsemane. Do you remember what “Gethsemane” means? Olive press.
Now, how many times did Jesus pray that night?
Three.
God does nothing by accident. Three times the olives are pressed to give oil for the light from lamps. Three times Jesus pressed himself out before God to become the Light of the World.
(Another Slide of the JEZREEL VALLEY)
Nazareth looked over the Jezreel valley. This is the valley mentioned once in Revelation as the place of Armageddon. This valley is where Gideon grew up… and where he defeated the Midianites. This is where Deborah and Barak defeated the armies of Sisera (tent peg). And where Saul defeated the Philistines in one of his battles with them (1 Sam 31). And at Mt. Gilboa where Saul took his own life in battle.
The Egyptian were victorious over King Josiah in a battle here (2 Kings 23:29).
And it’s at Mt. Carmel (at the edge of the valley) that Elijah confronted and defeated the prophets of Baal/Ashteroth. And this is also where Jezebel is killed.
(Slide of the STABLES of Megiddo)
On the edge of this great valley is where Solomon maintained the outpost of Megiddo. It was one of the places where Solomon built stables for his horses.
(MAP of SEPPHORIS in relation to Nazareth)
As Jesus grew up He probably learned the trade of carpenter from Joseph, and one of the major employers of carpenters in the area might have been from the capital of Galilee called Sepphoris. It was a thriving Roman city with great demand for builders and laborers. It was about a 50 minute walk from Nazareth (about 4 miles away).
(Slides of the City of Sepphoris – the mosaics from a house/ the Theater/ the stone Street)
This was the seat Roman power in Galilee. Wealthy people lived there and built elaborate homes with mosaic tiles for their floors like this one with a hunter theme. They also had a strong group of Jewish leaders there with their own synagogue and with northern representatives of a body of rulers like the Sanhedrin.
This picture of their theater shows the type of entertainment this city held. The acoustics were impressive. A person could stand on the stage and speak in a normal voice and still be heard in the top rows of the audience. The stage had ‘cut-outs’ along it for statues honoring city and national leaders.
This picture of one of the main roads of the city shows just how well used these streets must have been. Notice the ruts caused by carts that wore down the surface of the rocks of the street.
And, of course, in our cities we have a phenomena every spring caused by the wear and tear of winter – potholes. They had those back then too and this may have been where the term “potholes” came from because they would mend their streets by filling them with broken pot-tery and sand.
If Jesus had indeed visited this nearby metropolis, these would have been the streets He would have walked.
Slides of the area of the JORDAN Jesus would have been baptized at.
According to Mark 1:9 “Jesus went from Nazareth to the Jordan to be baptized by John”
This is regarded as the most likely spot (down by the Dead Sea) where Jesus would have been baptized by John. This site has only been opened just recently for tourists again. In a conflict with the neighboring nation of Jordan, the fields to the East of the river were mined all up and down the border between Israel and Jordan. Only recently have they cleared those mines and opened up a visitors’ center.
From these pictures you can see a number of people who have desired to be baptized in the waters Jesus was baptized in. In fact, you can buy a baptismal gown from the store at the top of the hill that says “Jordan River” to commemorate this special event (apparently you rent a “baptismal kit” for $10 or buy it for $25).
What I found intriguing were the birds I saw up in the picnic area. There were no seagulls or pelicans or pigeons… they were doves.
This baptism by John was the beginning of Jesus’ ministry (Luke 3:23) as our High Priest (High Priests were washed with water as part of their initiation into their office (Leviticus 8:6) and by the time of Jesus High Priests entered their office by being immersed in “mikvehs” (baptismal pools) in the Temple area.
(Slide of desert area in the Dead Sea region)
Immediately Jesus went into the desert for 40 days/nights (Matthew 4:1-2). This slide gives you an idea of the kind of area Jesus might have wandered through during his 40 day fast.
(Slide of a synagogue area of Jesus’ era)
“After John was imprisoned, Jesus left Nazareth for Capernaum” (Matt 4:12-13)
It appears that after Jesus was baptized He moved His ministry to the area of Capernaum and was known (in Nazareth) for doing many miracles in the city Capernaum. But by the time recorded in Luke 4 it seems He returned to Nazareth to teach in the Synagogue.
Read Luke 4:14-31
Note that after Jesus preached from Isaiah, He made it a point to say that God was going to accept the Gentiles and used the references from the ministries of Elijah and Elisha to prove His point. This so enraged the audience that they rushed Him out to nearby cliffs to throw Him over.
(Slides of the Mountain of the Precipice)
Now, no one knows exactly where this event took place, but the “official” location is called the “Mountain of the Precipice”. As you can see by these pictures, this would have been a dangerous place to fall from.
After this event, Jesus left Nazareth and apparently never returned. The majority of Jesus' ministry from that day on was centered around Capernaum and the Sea of Galilee and it was from there that Jesus chose most of His disciples.
