Galilee Day 2: Hazor, Dan, Caesarea Philippi, Golan

The thoughts from this day are a bit scattered.. bear with me.

All the sites that we visited today were very beautiful, in terms of the view as well as the local plant life. Because Hazor is in the north, yet still close to the Sea of Galilee, it’s view all around is very green. The waters at Dan rushing downhill are in such contrast to the dryness of Arad and the Negev. It is so lush that it is no wonder Dan, when they lost the land allotted to them, wanted it for their own and so conquered the city.
Caesarea Phillippi has yet another impressive water flow. I could probably hike any one of those places everyday if I had the chance, just to sit in the hills, hear the water rushing, and rest in the enjoyment of God’s wonderful creation. Seeing the sheer amount of water flowing, it is obvious why people call Dan “the garden of Eden.” It’s funny that bodies of water are seen as a terrible and scary thing, because they also bring life to the earth. The fresh water springs and rivers can flow so fiercely, and make anyone fearful of being thrust in, and yet at the same time they evoke thoughts of God’s blessing and his sustenance.
The location of Hazor gives it a good location for protecting the Jezreel Valley from the North, and Dan from the south. Yet it is not a good location if you want to protect the Jezreel Valley from southern invasions. Joshua, when he came into the land, took Jericho, then Ai and Gibeon and started heading north, toward the Jezreel Valley, to get to Hazor. The king of Hazor does something that I do not see as smart at all. He calls all the kings of the cities that are around the edge of the Jezreel Valley and they come together in the north, NW even of Hazor. Now, if all he wanted to do was to protect Hazor itself, then this action may make sense, were he trying to trick Joshua and blindside him from Merom. He probably did not want to leave all the armies in the Valley at their own sites, to get picked off one by one, but by moving them all completely out of the valley, wouldn’t he have left them all wide open to be conquered? Of course this did not matter, Joshua was warned by the Lord and ended up destroying Hazor anyway.
Because Dan was farther north than Hazor, it acted as a warning site for Hazor when there were invaders from the North, as there were many times. This city is also significant because of the two gates that were found here—one of the Canaanite period and one that was Israelite—as well as the inscription that mentions the “house of David” which implies a large view of David’s kingdom (if you know the minimalist/literalist argument). The Canaanite gate is the first arch known in the Levant, although some would debate that.
Caesarea Philippi is a thoroughly hellenized town as evidenced by it’s name which is called after Philip, the great grandson of Herod the Great. It is ironic that Jesus therefore chooses to wait until he gets to this place to talk about his church. From a Jewish perspective, one would think that the Messiah would emphasize the people of God being made up by the Jews. Jesus does just the opposite, however, when he goes outside of the Jewish comfort zone, into a Greek area to talk about building His church. This statement has been very controversial in the Church, with the proposition that Jesus was talking about Peter when he says he will build his church on “this rock.”
The northern tip of Israel in the Golan is a beautiful yet strange place. Seeing the “no man’s land” in between Israel and Syria was kind of eerie. I remember talking to my brother about the same space between North and South Korea, and his experience approaching that land. It is a strange and fearful thing to be in the face of conflict, especially on the national level.