Tonight we’re going to be visiting four different “gates” in the northern section of Israel. The first of these “gates” is figurative. It is the gate to the source of the Jordan River
(Showed a slide of the Jordan)
https://gregorysmagee.wordpress.com/pictures-from-israel/01-13-jordan-river/
The Jordan River is more than 223 miles in length but, because its course is meandering, the actual distance between its source and the Dead Sea is less than 124 miles. The Jordan is the major source of water for Israel and its neighbors. The word “Jordan” means “flowing down” and it “flows down” from the region of what had once been the tribe of Dan.
(Slide of a map of Israel showing Dan in the north)
As you can see from this map, Dan is located in the north of Israel. That wasn’t originally true. Originally Dan had been allocated land just north of Judah bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. This plot of land was difficult for the tribe to control and so they migrated north to the northern area held by Naphtali. It is from this region that the River of Jordan begins.
The Jordan has three sources in the north. One is the river Ḥāṣbānī, which comes down from the southern part of Lebanon. The 2nd is the Bāniyās River which flows from Syria. And the third is the Dan River which is fed from springs which begin amongst the snow cap of Mount Hermon.
(Slides of Mt. Hermon and of the main springs found at Caesarea Philippi)
http://www.mythicistpapers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Mt.-Hermon-massif.jpg
http://www.bibleistrue.com/qna/pqna45.htm
As you can see Mt. Hermon is a majestic peak and the melting snow pack goes down through underground channels to feed the Dan River at Caesarea Philippi.
(I showed a couple of bottles of Jordan water)
These two bottles of water were collected by me on my visit. This first bottle is water from the part of the river where Jesus is believed to have been baptized. You’ll notice how muddy it appears. That’s because of two reasons: 1) as the water makes it way down to the Dead Sea it collects silt and 2) factories and farms have runoff that is carried away by the Jordan as it makes its southward. At the location where Jesus was supposedly baptized they will often check the contaminant level of the water to make sure it is safe for tourists to step in to.
This 2nd bottle of water was collected by me at the springs at what had once been Caesarea Philippi. The water is so clear and pure you could drink from this bottle… but you won’t because I won’t let you. It’s my bottle!
(Several slides showing the Dan River)
One of the most beautiful regions in the northern part of Israel is the Tel Dan Nature Reserve Israel. It has a long and beautiful nature walk that exposes you to the beautiful flora and fauna of the region as well as witnessing the rushing waters of the Dan. This beautiful path ultimately led us to one of the most ancient structures in all of Israel.
(Slide of Abraham’s Gate)
https://lukechandler.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/dan_mb_gate1.jpg
This gate was built around 1800 B.C. and was part of the ancient Canaanite city of Laish. When Abraham came to Canaan, this is the gate he entered. Notice, it is made of mud and straw, and is not wide enough for chariots. This was also in the general area where Abraham probably ambushed the armies of the Kings of the North who had kidnapped his nephew Lot and rescued his nephew and freed up the possessions they’d stolen from the cities of the South.
Notice the canopy over this structure. It’s intended to help protect this important archaeological find from the ravages of weather.
(Slide of a metal reconstruction of what Abraham’s gate may have looked like)
This small scale model sets directly in front of the gate where visitors can get an idea of how the gate may have looked in Abraham’s day. They have a small sheep and shepherd standing on the steps leading up to the gate that help give you a sense of scale.
(An Artist’s visualization of Jeroboam at his altar at Tel Dan)
Laish seems to have been the foundation on which the later city of Dan was built. King Jeroboam made this one of his defensive cities to the north and built his infamous altar on this spot. For those of you who don’t remember the story, Israel divided into two distinct nations after the death of King Solomon – Judah to the south, reigned over by King Rehoboam (Solomon’s son) and the 10 tribes of Israel to the north, with King Jeroboam as its ruler.
This unhappy division was actually a punishment for King Solomon. Solomon had many wives, and he’d fallen in love with some of them to the point where he’d begun to even worship their gods. This made God so furious that He said to Solomon:
“Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.” (I Kings 11:11-13)
Once Solomon died Rehoboam took the throne. Almost immediately, the tribes of the north pled with him to give them relief from the burdensome taxes Solomon had imposed to raise money to build the Temple. Rehoboam's older advisers told him to heed the cry of these people… but his younger friends mocked that idea and said he should prove he was truly a King by making conditions even worse for these people.
In anger, the 10 tribes of the north followed Jeroboam into rebellion and established their own kingdom. To keep the northern tribes from returning to worship at Jerusalem (and possibly re-establishing loyalty to descendants of Rehoboam) Jeroboam built two temples with pagan altars – one in Bethel (it doesn’t seem that that site has been discovered yet) and one in the north at the city of Dan. As long as his people had an alternative worship area (he reasoned correctly) they would be less likely to desire reuniting the nations.
(Slide with map showing the layout of Tel-Dan and showing where Jeroboam’s temple was)
http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-tel-dan2.jpg
As you can see from this map, Jeroboam’s pagan altar was at the North East corner of the city within the city walls.
(Slides of the temple, altar and ritualistic quarters)
https://teldan.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/templeunreconstructed1.jpg
https://teldan.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/img_2047.jpg
https://teldan.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/lishka1.jpg
These are pictures of the excavation of the temple of Jeroboam (later improved on by King Ahab). The first picture is that of the “temple” – a smaller rendition of the Temple in Jerusalem. The 2nd slide shows the altar where sacrifices would have been made. And the third shows a complex of rooms – I’ve heard speculations that these were either living quarters for the priests or places of ritualistic activities for the priests.
The Bible wrote about these priests in Dan (1 Kings 12 31): “...And he made a house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi”.
(Slide showing an artist’s conception of how the walls of Dan may have looked in Jeroboam’s day) http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-tel-dan-laish-leshem-micah-Jonathan-jeroboams-three-city-gates-inner-outer-piazza-judgment-seat-house-of-david-inscription.jpg
This is an artist’s conception of how the gates of Jeroboam’s city of Dan must have looked. Note the arrow that points to the seat of judgment (we’ll talk about that in a moment).
(Slide showing the excavation of that same wall today)
http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-tel-dan-gate-jeroboam-city-wall-israeli-judgement-seat-900bc.jpg
As you can see, the walls of the city were much higher originally. These walls were excavated and are the original stone of the walls. Walled cities were important in that day because of raiders and invading armies. The walls kept invaders at bay and helped protect the common people and their rulers.
(Slide showing the “judgment seat”)
http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-tel-dan-gate-israeli-judgement-seat-benches-cobble-stone-road.jpg
This was the “court house” of ancient Dan. This is where the judges would sit, literally in the city gates. When citizens had conflicts over legal matters they could bring their conflicts to the leading citizens of the city who would sit in judgment in places like this. The benches along the wall likely would have been where waiting defendants and plaintiffs would wait their turn to have their cases heard.
(Slides I took of the ruins. One shows a room where sentries would have stayed. Another showed an overview of the gate and its ruins)
These pictures are ones I took of the ruins of the gated area of Dan (there’s more to the city, but these are the most prominent and obvious excavations to date).
The first picture shows a room just off the gates. It’s reasonable to believe this may have been where the guards would have lived while on duty.
The 2nd picture is taken from above the ruins and gives a general lay out of where the gates were and how the walls were laid out in this small area of the city.
Up to this point, I have introduced you to 3 “gates” in our lesson.
The first “gate” (as I loosely refer to it) was the gate of the source waters of the Jordan River. The 2nd gate was the ancient gate of Laish we call “Abraham’s gate” built around 1800 B.C. and the 3rd gate would have been built around 900 B.C. by Jeroboam.
Now we go to what has often been referred to as the Gates of Hell.
The place is Caesarea Philippi, built by Philip the Tetrarch.
At this site was the Cave of Pan (or Grotto of Pan) an amazing place for many reasons:
• the waters flowed out of the cave and fed the Jordan River
• there was a bottomless pit inside that contained so much water that it could not be measured.
• The place was so striking that it impressed Alexander the Great, and the Greeks built a sanctuary there.
• The natural features not only impressed the Greeks but they believed them to be a dwelling place of the gods, and nothing produced more awe and terror than a place identified as a cave where the god Pan dwelt. (http://www.bible-history.com/biblestudy/caesarea-philippi.html)
Philip the Tetrarch rebuilt the city of ancient Paneas that had been at this site, and made it much more large and beautiful. Then he changed its name to Caesarea Philippi, to honor the Emperor Tiberius Caesar and his own name Philip. Philip made it his capital and ruled the area until 33 AD. He depicted the Shrine of Pan on his coins some of which have survived. (http://www.bible-history.com/biblestudy/caesarea-philippi.html)
(Slide of artist’s conception of Pan’s temple as well as the temple to Zeus and Nemesis)
http://www.bible-history.com/biblestudy/caesarea-philippi.html
At one time Caesarea Philippi had worship areas set up to 3 Roman gods – Pan (the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature of mountain wilds and rustic music, and a god known for sexual sensuousness), Zeus (the King of the gods) and Nemesis (the goddess of divine vengeance). But the last two worship areas (for Zeus and Nemesis) were built long after Jesus had risen from the dead. The only temple that existed at the time of Jesus was the one that honored Pan.
It was to this site that Jesus led His disciples on a 255 mile road trip from Capernaum to expose them to a “show and tell” time.
Notice the cave behind Pan's temple (on the right). We'll take a closer look at that in a little bit.
(Slides I took which were of the present day ruins of these worship areas)
As you can see, there are niches cut into the rock face. These niches would have held idols of Pan, Zeus and Nemesis (and perhaps other gods). These other pictures show the site from various angles.
Note the huge cave to the left… that was the grotto of Pan.
Jews despised this place. Pan (a half man, half goat creature that spent his time engaged in sexual activities with wood nymphs) represented sensuousness and self-indulgence. And the sacrifices offered to him at this location made it a repulsive and revolting place for them. The idea of going here would never enter the minds of good Jews. And yet, here was Jesus bringing them there to teach them one of the most important lessons of His earthly ministry.
For at least 2 centuries before Christ, sacrifices were cast into that cave as offerings to Pan. The cave at that time had no floor. The opening beneath the cave seemed to be endless – perhaps even going to the center of the earth. To the Greek and Romans, this seemed to be one of the entrances to the gates of Hades – the place of the dead.
Over the centuries, earthquakes have closed that opening in the earth and now all you can see is a shallow cave with an earthen floor. But at one time it seemed reasonable (to the people of that day) that this was the very gates of Hades… or Hell.
So now, Jesus has brought His disciples 255 miles to visit these gates. It was here that Matthew 16 tells us the story:
“He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’
Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’
And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and THE GATES OF HELL shall not prevail against it.’”
(Matthew 16:15-18)
It was at this spot that Jesus wanted to assure His followers that all of the forces of paganism could not stand against this one truth: He was the Christ, the Son of the living God. The very gates of Hell could not prevail against His kingdom and He was giving them the power to go into Satan’s very domain and rescue the perishing from death and Hades.
