Today’s verse deals with obesity. Certainly it is not a passage simply on the size of a person’s body. It is the shape of the soul. It is one verse that describes the book of Judges. God blessed Israel; the result was that Israel became obsessed with the blessing. They lived in the blessing. They turned away from the “Blessser” and devoted themselves to the blessing. He, Israel, scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
This is a significant issue at all times. We need to consider this today. Whoever we are and whatever society in which we live. When we are in difficulty we long for easier days. We pray. We plead with God. We are careful to obey His Word. But then, when the easier days come we turn our attention on enjoying the easy days rather than knowing and trusting and obeying our God.
We have this passage on this day because we will head north from Tiberias to the furthest reaches north of Israel. There is Mt. Hermon, source of the Jordan River, source of many of God’s blessings on Israel. There is the Hula Valley and the Golan Heights, both wonderful places where Israel reaps the benefits of God’s blessing in their agriculture. AND there is the idolatrous, golden calf altar and high place built by Jeroboam to keep the people of Israel from wanting to go to Jerusalem to worship God in truth. There are the gates of hell, the center of false worship at Caesarea Philippi. We will see blessing and idolatry all day long.
A few notes on our day yesterday. We had one member of the group (Joel) who needed some emergency dental work done. So we were able to find a dentist near our hotel where he spent, by his account, an hour+ in agony. (By the end of the day he was coming around.) We were able to get in a trip to Mt. Arbel where there are great views of the north end of the Sea of Galilee, our destination for the day. Then we dropped him off. He missed Magdala and Ginosaur (the Jesus Boat exhibit). Then we picked him up and went on to Kursi (the demonic pigs), Bethsaida (5 of Jesus disciples came from there), Chorizin (with Capernaum and Bethsaida, Jesus condemned them for not believing given all the signs they saw), the Mt. of Beatitudes, and Capernaum. The point being: we had perhaps shorter visits at some places but we hit all the ones on our list. Thank the Lord.
The restaurant where we had dinner had red Valentine balloons all over so we three couples were able to get our photos taken and had a nice day thanking God for the partners in life and service He has given to us. May God be praised!
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