Hazor, Dan, and Plowshares

We started this day at Hazor, which is an exciting location. This is where archeology confirms a Biblical account. We are told that Joshua burned the city of Hazor and there is evidence to this fact. In the picture below, I am squatting next to basalt tiles that are cracked. Basalt is formed by volcanic activity and only cracks under extreme heat. This cracking is dated to the same time that Joshua is said to have burned the city. Interesting. Hazor was also an important city on the trade routes and encompassed an area of 200 acres. There were many pagan worship sites found here and there is no doubt that the destruction of those sites was complete.



We later went on to Dan, which is where the Danites settled after they were not able to control the Philistines in their allotted space. There is a powerful spring at Dan that helps feed the Jordan River. We had to hike up to the location and it was beautiful. Dan was one of the 2 sites that Jeroboam built his unauthorized temples when the Nation split in two. This temple complex had become a place of syncronistic worship. YHWH was honored with Baal. This tribe of Dan was out of its place and out of its religion. Over and over again I see how the Israelite people did not follow God as the should. They combined the religion of the land with the one true faith. I wonder what our religions of the land are. What do we combine with the true faith? Anyway food for thought.





We then went to Ceasarea Phillip, the Golan Heights, and stopped at a little place called Qazrin. There are no Biblical things that happened here. However, they had excavated and recreated the living space of the 1st Century here. Below is a plowshare that in times of battle would be beaten into a sword. The condition of your plowshare would tell others a lot about your situation. Anyway here is a picture.



I forgot to mention on my last post that we were staying on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee every night. We were able to swim in the evening when we returned from these long hot days. On this night we got to see the sunset and it was beautiful. Here is a picture of me and the sunset. I would like to say I was thinking about deep theological things, mostly I was just missing my wife.



Blessings - DC