Friday March 8, 2019

Northern Israel
I once again got up extra early to have a few minutes for morning devotions. But even doing so, I still had to hurry down to breakfast having less than 30 minutes to eat before we had to be on the bus for our trip north. I ended up having a weird breakfast that combined cheese blintzes, halvah, a sweet Israeli bread, and the national baked egg dish that had I the other day, called Shakshuka. Immediately after breakfast we left Tiberias and rode north to the Golan Heights and to the 1st century Nazareth replica village of Katzrin, arriving at 8:00 AM. We were shown how olive oil was made and an early home design. We all got to be actors in the re-enactment, playing the part of early dwellers, even wearing the appropriate middle eastern garments. We also got to share in a wonderful early morning basket of breads, dips and olives.

Pagan Worship
Friday, after the visit at Katzrin, we went on a mid-morning climb to the area of the Kingdom of Israel known as Dan. Dan became a center of pagan worship which is an affront to God. From the top of the hill you can see parts of Israel, Lebanon, and Syria.

Staying in the area of pagan worship, around noon on Friday we went to Caesarea Philippi where Jesus asked his disciples “who do people say that I am?” And Peter made the confession of faith. In earlier times it was the center of cultic worship of the god Pan at his temple. It was thought that the cave opening was the portal to Hades. Pan was portrayed as having the legs and horns of a goat and became the image that many think of for the Devil.
I stood in front of the gateway to Hades (the Gates of Hell) where many people of that era believed it was the portal to the underworld.