Day 25

Day 25: Sephoris, Meggido, Bet She’arim, Chroizim

Hey everyone!

You know how in Day 10 I told you about how the complaining monster took over our group? Well, now the exhaustion monster has affected our group. We all were so tired today as we were traveling around that we had to cancel two of the areas we were going to visit because we just didn’t have the strength to go.

We ended up going to Har Meggido, which (if you are familiar with Bible stuff) is the place of the final battle. Can you hear the English word we derive from Har Meggido? It is Armageddon. It was fascinating standing at the same place so many battles have been fought throughout history. It’s no wonder why God choose this place as the symbol for the battle to end all battles at the end of time.

We also traveled to Sephoris, the place near Nazareth where Jesus may have gone with Joseph to work (because Nazareth was a very small village and most likely could not support the income needed for Joseph’s family). I could go into the whole story of interpretive history about Jesus and Joseph if you guys want me to, but I figured it would just bore you. If you want me to make a post on it, just tell me below in the comments and I will make one.

We also visited Bet She’arim, the necropolis of deceased Jews. We explored the catacombs, which was a blast. Afterwards we visited Chorozim, which was another part of the Evangelical Triangle (along with Bethsaida and Calpernium). It was in this Evangelical Triangle that Jesus did the majority of his teaching and miracles (or “power acts”, as our professor calls them).

After that, we had to quit. We were all exhausted and needed rest. We had not slowed down and had a break since Egypt when we had the morning off to ourselves to sleep in. Through Jordan, we had to wake up at seven every morning and go do something. There was a lot of travel and a lot of seeing stuff. There was virtually no rest time. In Israel, we would work from six in the morning to noon, do pottery reading in the afternoon, and attend a lecture at night. Averaging five hours of sleep each night for two weeks while performing manual labor is never a good idea.

It is very important in your life to have a Sabbath. By that I don’t mean a Sunday or Saturday when you go to church, I mean a day of the week you can just sit down and relax. We are designed to relax once a week. Even God took a day out of His week to rest. Who are we to think we are better than God?

This trip has shown me that we really need days of rest. Going constantly nonstop is wearing on me. If I am getting wore out, I can’t imagine how those people feel who go out and party at night and have hangovers the next day. (I would sympathize with them, but they did make the choice to go out the night before, knowing they would have to wake up at seven the next day.) Oh well, I'm glad they had fun. It's just not my idea of fun.

Just remember, no matter where you are or what your personality is, you need your rest. And I am not talking about a few hours at the end of the day; you need a day off, a full day, where you can fully rest.

What about you? What do you do to rest on your Sabbath day?

Following His Call,

Adam 

Exodus 20:8