Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him.
– Job 13:15 (NKJV)
This is choosing to trust, choosing to praise regardless of what is happening around and to us. Some friends and I were chatting today about grief, and how it is usually suppressed and hidden away quickly. An interesting topic brought to light was the fact that there are quite a few Psalms that are desperate cries, and often with no visible resolution. Today, there are not too many of our worship songs and Psalms that we know of that well and truly delve into the depth of despair that David speaks of when his son Absalom turns away from him, or his councilor and friend, Ahithophel betrays him. What happens to our praise, or worship, our trust when situations like that don’t ever resolve.
This song touched me deeply in the depths of my own despair just recently – determination to choose trust, even when. May we all continue to sing praise even when it makes no sense.
And what happened to day 5, you may ask. Shabbat happened :-). It was glorious to slow down, rest, and fellowship. I do love that part of my week!
But we keep going, and we are at the mid-point of the tour. We left Jerusalem and headed to the Galilee region, or the Kinneret, as I explained in the Galilee post here. I have pictures of the explanation of an ancient boat that was dated more than 2,000 years ago, you can walk with me on that journey (right-click on the image and open in a new tab to see the full size – you’ll be able to read the story).
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We got to sail on the Kinneret – that was special, as you will see. We started the journey with the Hatikvah, the Jewish national anthem. It means the hope, and it’s a very moving song, even if you don’t understand the words. Here you go.
Being on the water was incredible. Pictures can only barely touch the amazing experience.
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I relayed in the post mentioned above that Hillsong United recorded the song Oceans there. The boat owner played it for us, and I was undone. I can’t upload my recording due to copyright restrictions, but here’s the Hillsong version again. The boat that you see is the boat that we were on.
After that was Capernaum and seeing the Galil valley from up high. What a wonderful close to our day, seeing the Kinneret from our hotel room!
So, we left the Jerusalem hustle and bustle and headed north towards Galilee. Very quickly outside of the city, we met with the desert once again, and began passing through the Jordan River valley. We passed a checkpoint and said “Boker Tov” to nice friendly army soldier with friendly smiles and big guns. We drove by the Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) as we passed into the region. It is Israel’s single largest reservoir, and it is shrinking at an alarming rate. From living in Austin through the drought and watching the lake levels drop through the years, and just seeing the levels come up this last year, I know a place to pray for rain. Just saying. We touched on Teverya (Tiberius), where we would come back and stay, and went through Migdol, or Magdela. I remember a story or two that may have come from that area, do you?
We visited a place near the Kinneret where and ancient boat from 2000 years ago (more pictures to come, and here’s the link from Joined to HaShem with other pictures), then went a sailing on the sea, around and on which about 90% of the events of the gospels took place. The owner was a Jew who, after taking many people, Christian groups, out on his boat and hearing the message over and over, gave his life to Yeshua, and has been praising and worshipping Him in song ever since. He sang a couple of songs for us, and then he played a recording that Hillsong United did on his boat of Oceans (Where Feet May Fail). As soon as I can, I will upload it; it’s imperfect, with talking in the background, but I will tell you something: that song has always had an impact on me, the story of Peter has always had an impact on me, and listening to that song, sailing over that sea, seeing that story in my mind, and being where I am in life… there are not enough words in any language that I speak to describe the overwhelming sense that I had. I would say that was a defining moment, but I couldn’t define it for you. I kind of was there for the rest of the day. Here is their recording of that moment; again, I will post mine when I can.
The rest of the day to me was a view of beauty and history. We passed the probable places where the miracle of the loaves and fishes happened, and also the mount of the Beatitudes. We went to the temple where Yeshua probably taught. There was a “new temple” (in ruins) there, but underneath, you could see the darker volcanic stones that were from that time period where the original stood. Can you sense how awe inspired I am? As we saw the nature preserve and natural park and a view of The Galil, and heard a description of how lush and green it would be after the rainy season really began, it seemed a very touching and fitting end to our full day. And yet there is still more to come!! And there was evening, and there was morning, day 6!
And the Adventure Continues 