Our first stop was at Neot Kedumim, the Biblical Landscape Reserve in Israel. It is essentially a huge park in which people have attempted to recreate the physical setting of the Bible in all depth and detail. We were told that we would see, hear, feel, smell, and taste the Bible. Our big group broke up into two smaller groups. The guide that took my group through the park took us to show us how narrow Israel really is. From where we were standing we could literally, CLEARLY see the eastern and western boarders of Israel without binoculars.
After we looked at Israel’s eastern and western boarders, we went for a lesson on sheepherding. He had some of our group try to get about ten or twelve sheep and goats into one circle without knowing to communicate with them. We successfully completed the mission twice by using our bodies to building walls of guidance for them.
After the mission was completed, he gave us some lessons on shepherding. He said two of the Bible’s most prolific leaders were shepherds: King David and Moses. The Bible clearly puts some emphasis on shepherding.
He also told us that shepherds must be good communicators – that you can’t lead if you can’t communicate. He focused on the point, however, that shepherds must be humble, they have to SHOW the sheep where they don’t want them to go. We are to follow Jesus as sheep, blind to everything else. He said that in any group of sheep or goats there’s always a leader, an “alpha-sheep” so to speak. All the others follow this sheep without looking at anything else, so much so that if the “alpha-sheep” jumped off a cliff, they’d all just jump.
We are supposed to follow Jesus with that same narrow vision (a.k.a. “FAITH”). We are supposed to follow Him blind to everything else. This made me think about how Peter walked on the water successfully until he looked at something else. As long as he saw only Jesus he was okay.
After shepherding, we went to draw water from a cistern. Our guide said that in Israel it only rains 30 days per year, so in order to survive, they must collect that water. They dig wells in valleys which give them access to underground water, but to collect rain on the hills they build cisterns. He said that in Hebrew the word for heaven is shamayim which literally means “there water”. Heaven is looked at as water because water is the source of life. The sound of rain is life to the Israelis. Without it they cannot survive, they have no Nile River. When God called them out of Egypt they left the Nile River behind. The Nile represents people depending on the land, going to Israel where there is rain (instead of a river) means they would have to depend on God.
Now that we were expert shepherds and water drawers, we went to play with an herb. He gave us an herb to smell and taste and he told us it was hyssop. Hyssop was first mentioned in the Bible as the branches the Israelites used to put the Passover lamb blood on the door posts. It was also the thing Jesus refused as he suffered on the Cross. Hyssop is a healing agent. It is the most effective antibiotic in the world, despite all the medical advances. Hyssop can grow anywhere; it can literally grow on rocks. It’s a bush, low to the ground. We should be humble like the hyssop and have the life and healing inside of us to thrive anywhere. We ground up some hyssop with salt to take home. He recommends eating it on pita bread with olive oil.
After Neot Kedumim, we drove along the Mediterranean coast to Caesarea Maritima, the Roman capital of Israel. We saw King Herod’s palace, theater, and other neat things right on the Mediterranean coast. It was gorgeous out there!
Our final stop was the Mount of Beatitudes. After suffering from jet lag all day, this was a beautiful serene end to a very busy and very hot day. At this moment I think I finally realized, "I'm in Israel". From the mountain you can look out over the Sea of Galilee, and even though we don't know the exact spot that Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount, I felt the presence of God in a very tangible way on that mountain. I wept in gratitude for Jesus' life and sacrifice for me.
