Day 5

We started this day at Belvore. Belvore was the remains of a crusader fortress. Looking down into the moat and walking around the once massive walls with intentional slots for arrows made me think of Lord of the Rings. This was a well-fortified fortress on the top of a mountain. There was a huge water cistern that had once served those living here. Ironically there was a vulture perched a short distance from the building. I couldn’t help but think of the death and destruction that accompanied the crusaders. The history of the crusades is not an area of my expertise, but as a lover of peace, it seems so wrong that killing would occur in the name of Christ. But all the ‘little kids’ agreed it would be a great place for a paintball battle.

Our next stop was Beit Shean. Again it was amazing to think how old this city was. This was the city where Saul and his sons were hung on the wall after they were killed. This city had been rebuilt over 20 times and became the capital of Decapolis. In the 4th and 5th century the city grew to its glory of about 40,000 and housed a mixed population of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. It was very influenced by Rome, housing a theatre, bathhouse that included a fridgedarium, a thriving market area, hippodrome and even public bathrooms (where of course we had to take a picture with appropriate reading material).

As we sat in the impressive theater, Aaron relayed a dream he had the night before. He was sitting in a big church with lots of performances going on- magicians, performers; almost a cirque de sole feel. An actress comes to his seat and whispers in his ear- “You have to play your part”. He replies “What??” Again she says, “You have to play your part.” As he starts to rise out of his seat the dream ends.

I have grown up basically in church settings and have often heard the term hypocrite. It’s become a churchy term. But when Jesus used this word, it was used in the theatre. It was the word that we today would use for actor: A person that loves applause, a person that pretends to be someone else. Matthew 6:1-18 talks about the need to do things for God and not for show, not to gain applause or get credit in the eyes of others. Matthew 23 harshly judges those that do not practice what they preach. An ongoing challenge of the church as we try to reach out, try to be relevant, trying to bring people in; are we putting on a show or glorifying God? Who is truly our audience? In the movie Gladiator there is the much-quoted line “Are you not entertained?” If our purpose is for the audience of One how would that change our service? How would it change my own worship? Even when I am singing on the worship team at church, how difficult it is to focus simply on Christ rather than how the music sounds or if my vocals are blending or if anyone in the congregation seems to be enjoying it. I know the pure heart singing for God is more blessed than perfect harmony, but also harder to obtain and sustain.

As we walked around the ruins and up onto the hilltop, it was hot, hot and dry. Almost all of the ruins we visited were hot and dry. The once filled cisterns were empty, the once filled pools and bathhouses dry. The absence of water reinforced the knowledge that this city was dead. The landscape of Israel definitely reinforced and gave new clarity to the idea of Jesus being the living water. Water that is so taken for granted here in Georgia, must be used wisely there. You can tell from the aquaducts and cisterns that water availability was incorporated into the city plans. Anywhere you find a natural spring, this barren dusty land becomes green and lush, a transformation. We visited Harod’s spring next.

Harod’s spring is the location for the story of Gideon. The closer you got to the spring, the more greenery, the more plants and flowers appeared. With large trees nearby there was much needed shade and coolness. As we looked at Judges 6, once again Israel is wandering from God. They are scattered in the mountains, threshing wheat in a winepress because they are in hiding. God speaks to Gideon and calls him “mighty warrior”. Gideon say basically- “who me? not me?”. Gideon sees what he is, but God sees what he will be. Isn’t it cool to think that God doesn’t look at us and see what we see? Makes me wonder what nickname he has for me. God then tells him to (v.25) tear down your father’s alter to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole. So Gideon sneaks about at night and does what God asks. Before God can use Gideon in even bigger ways, he has to take a stand and call God God and deny the false gods. When he is discovered his father defends him saying “Baal can defend himself”. In Chapter 7 we find Gideon now camped with 32,000 men about to wage war with the Midianites. There are 135,000 Midianites giving about 1 Israelite to every 4 Midianites- but God says to Gideon you have too many men. When given the option to leave, Gideon is left with 10,000, now it’s about 1 to 14, but God says to Gideon it is still too many. He gives a test of drinking at the spring, those who lap like dogs are sent home, those that used their hands are kept. 300 were left, 1 Israelite to 450 Midianites. It seems like pretty impossible odds. I think sometimes God wants to put us in a position that we cannot take the credit ourselves. This would have to be God’s intervention for it to be successful. I find it interesting that “harod” means fear. I wonder if those 300 felt fearful knowing they were about to face 135,000. Gideon sneaks down to the enemy camp and hears how they are having nightmares about Israel winning. Gideon comes back and praises God. He praises God even before the actual victory because he knows the victory will come through God. It reminds me that I should be more vigilant in praising God for both past victories and those to come.

We were able to end the afternoon swimming in a beautiful series of natural pools connected by waterfalls. The water was refreshing and the surroundings gorgeous. It looked like a scene out of movie, blue water, trees around the sloping hills, even the lifeguard was a former Olympic diver and did a couple of dives for us. I felt relaxed and refreshed as we boarded the bus and headed toward Jerusalem.