JORDAN VALLEY

the Mediterranean Sea bordered in the north and west by Europe in the south by Africa and in the east by Turkey Syria and Palestine the country where Jesus Christ lived a journey down the valley of the River Jordan may help us to understand more clearly some of the things Christ said and did north of the Jordan Valley stands Mount Hermon here our journey begins we travel southwards to thousands of death we continue south through Lake hula we reach the Sea of Galilee on the north shore of which mist on the map we are going to start near the foot of Mont huh let us set off here about thirty miles from the Seacoast is Mount Hermon where the jordan rises and where it is said the disciples saw Christ tread before them in a vision from the snows that kept the mountain peaks throughout most of the year many small streams flowed on through the foothills to the plain we first see the Jordan proper at the springs of death its small streams gathered into one main course to the surrounding fertile lands 3,000 years ago came the Hebrew tribe of Dan having been driven from their own country by the hostile Philistines from then the river makes its way swiftly to the south as a pleasant rippling stream through a beautiful landscape almost English in appearance we meet the Shepherd taking his sheep to new pastures he still leads them as did shepherds in biblical days the animals learn to trust and follow him this countryside is typical today a modern road bridge crosses the river the cattle Wade out into the water to drink while the herdsmen sit lazily on the bank in the hot Sun watching that nun strays too far away the farmer is tilling his field much as his forefathers did of old with the ox and the s yoked together plough Christ used such scenes in teaching simple folk shepherds herdsmen and farmers jesus knew their daily problems a carpenter himself he had made ploughs and yolks for their oxen he talked to the farm on putting his hand to the plow and of the sower planting seed in the ground sometimes the soil was good more often shallow and stony seven miles south of Dan the river widens our through swamp lands rife with malaria into the shallow lake hula this Lake is not mentioned in the Bible but it is possible that ancient manuscripts were made from papyrus reeds which grew around the lakeside yeah cattle and sheep are led to the still waters to drink and here the women come down to fill their water pots and carry them back to their reed huts using crude rafts the men who live at the Lakeside pump their way across the water and collect bundles of reeds to bring ashore in the hot Sun the reed soon dry and are then split by the head of the household and the children using primitive handlooms the woman's skillfully weave the spit Reed's into matting years of practice enable the weavers to pass the reeds over and under the wharf at great speed though this method of weaving is thousands of years old in principle it is the same as that used in modern machinery the matting is used for walls of huts for floors and for beds when Christ said to the sick man arise and take up thy bed he referred to such a mat at the south end lake hula narrows the waters of the Jordan flowing through ten miles of country to the Sea of Galilee on this stretch feet until it is 700 feet below sea level here we still find the people tilling the soil but the farmer uses more modern aids clumsy wooden tools have been replaced by steel farm implements and the slowly prodding ox and ass have given way to the more agile mule leaving the river and taking to the road we come to the north end of the sea of galilee this is a very interesting part of our journey for here christ began his ministry by this lakeside he often walked with his disciples and taught the crowds here traditionally he said the multitudes with loaves and fishes that a boy brought with him near the lake stands the Mount of Beatitudes where Christ preached his great Sermon on the Mount to the north is all that remains of the ancient town of Capernaum in Christ's day a flourishing lakeside port where he discovered Matthew collecting taxes and called him to be a disciple in more recent times the monks have reconstructed the ancient synagogue in which Christ preached it was originally built by a Centurion of the Roman garrison notice the Roman influence in the general construction the sculptured stonework of the pillars and the five pointed star of david' the symbol of the Jewish religion around this part of the lake the wind often sweeps down suddenly from the northern hills and very quickly the peaceful waters become stormy but the storms depart as quickly as they come leaving the waters Placid and peaceful again we recall how Christ's disciples were afraid of being wrecked in one of these sudden storms but he awoke from his sleep in their boat and stilled the troubled waters here also he taught and healed the sick today the fishermen still carry on their work as their forefathers did in the time of Christ fishing from their boats and near the shore using the ancient throw net which is carefully folded so that it opens out as it flies through the air casting the nets requires great skill often these men toil for hours without making a single catch but like fishermen the world over they have great patience by means of weights round the edges the nets trap fish on the lake bottom the fishermen eagerly inspect their catch they place the fish in net bags which hang from their waists on the lakeshore we again find Shepherds minding their sheep as did David the shepherd boy who became king of Israel when the grass has been eaten away they lead the flocks to new pastures normal was easy to find in the summer time leaving the northern end of the lake and travelling south we come to Tiberias the largest town in the whole of the Jordan Valley and the only remaining one which flourished in the time of Christ it was built by Herod Antipas the elder son of Herod the Great in honor of Tiberius Caesar the Roman ruler it was looked on by the Jews in Christ's day as a heathen City and therefore to be avoided no mention is made of it in the New Testament the remains of the Roman aqueducts that supplied water to the town 2,000 years ago can still be seen we look through its historic arches at the present time modern Tiberius is higher up on the hillside the old Arab part lies by the lake today Tiberius is a busy little town of flat-topped houses with its domed mosque rising above the surrounding buildings in the marketplace the traders set out their wares and bug in four hours while the country people bring their farm produce to be sold and buy clothing materials pots pans and other goods to take back to their farms here they gossip for the town's people and gather news of the outside world the marketplace was always a favorite Center even at the time of Christ there are some hypocritical Pharisees came to say long prayers in public to impress the people with their holiness we pause now for a moment to see how far we've traveled and where the rest of our journey lies the Jordan flows out of the Sea of Galilee continues south and with Jericho and Jerusalem to the west enters the Dead Sea from Galilee to the Dead Sea is about 65 miles direct but the river meanders so that it traverses at least two hundred miles let us take off our journey again the Jordan leaves the Sea of Galilee has a much wider river very different from the rippling stream that emerged from the springs of Dan travelers stopped at the Riverside to water their camels and to rest the ever-present herdsmen with their flocks make their way along the road always in search of fresh pastures the sheep and goats are mingled together just as they must have been in the time of Christ for he referred to the separating of the sheep from the goats at the day of judgement in the surrounding country we find fertile agricultural land farmed on large scale modern lines the grain is reaped by a big combine harvester which cuts the corn Thresh's it and begs it as it moves along casting out the bales of straw as it goes while a single man of the wheel guides its powerful caterpillar track compare this with the Reapers in a neighboring farm still using the ancient sickle as they did thousands of years ago when Ruth the woman from Moab gleaned the ears of the corn which the Reapers left behind about eight miles south of Galilee the Jordan is joined by its main tributary the yarmulke which enters through a steep and rugged Gorge where the two rivers flow together the waters have been dammed making a large shallow lake which controls the flow of water from York to Jericho the Jordan is almost inaccessible by Road but from overhead we see the great bends in the river and the malarial swamps with an unhealthy tangled-up I the valley is almost deserted beyond the swamps on each side our wastes of arid land ridged by the winter rains and rising to barren mountains this is the true wilderness so often mentioned in the Bible almost uninhabited and bare haunted by scorpions lizards and snakes and ruled by the Blazing Sun through this type of country the early Hebrews passed on their way from Egypt to Palestine only brigands and bandits lived here hiding out amongst the mountains and descending to plunder unprotected travelers Christ referred in his parable of the Good Samaritan to a traveler who was robbed and beaten on a journey from Jerusalem to Jericho this is actually part of the Jerusalem Jericho Road today it can be used by Moses the traffic is moving up the hill in the direction of Jerusalem Jericho stands five miles from the Jordan at the foot of the mountains of Judea all that remains of the city around whose walls Joshua and the Israelites army marched is the mound of Tel Salta here the trumpeters marching around the walls sounded a fanfare the walls collapsed the army entered and massacred the people archeologists have found traces of the flattened walls and other destruction of the city by fire Jericho gets its water from the walled pools of Elijah fed by Springs flowing from the earth here Elijah the Prophet is said to have healed the bitter water miraculously so that the people of Jericho could drink in safety water their cattle and irrigate the soil these waters still flow through the town in roadside channels in Jericho Christ gave blind bartimaeus his sight and secures the unpopular chief tax collector climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus over the heads of the crowd these barren mountains may be where Christ resisted the temptations of the devil after Faust in the wilderness leaving Jericho we first crossed the stretch of arid land that borders the valley and then returned to the Jordan across the river lie the plains of Moab where Joshua camped before leading the Israelite army to the capture of Jericho in this area John the Baptist began his ministry baptizing the people in the narrow and sluggish waters of the river this is the shrine built by Christians to commemorate the baptism of Christ the Jordan now drags its way through the last few miles of its course to the Dead Sea 1,300 feet below sea level the Dead Sea is completely landlocked evaporation in the hot Sun causes its level to remain constant the water of this sea contains 10 times as much salt as that of other seas and oceans of the world it is becoming more saline every day as the Jordan posite the salt poisons the soil all vegetation in the area is stunted and punched it is a wilderness no fish could live in the Dead Sea this is the region where the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah stood until they were destroyed I some terrible catastrophe according to the Old Testament story Lot's wife fleeing from the doomed cities looked back at the destruction of her home and was turned into a pillar of salt today the salt is reclaimed from the sea and manufactured into chemicals and fertilizers it is shoveled into trucks for removal to the factory where it is treated and transformed from the salts which poisoned the earth into others which make the earth fertile Ezekiel the Prophet looked forward to the day when the waters would be healed and the countryside fertile again for thousands of years from Mount Hermon through Lake Houla Sea of Galilee town village plane and wilderness the River Jordan has poured its waters into the see during a final look at the southern end of the Jordan Valley we recall that the region of our journey saw the birth of Christian civilization