How do you say, “Fasten your seat belts” in Hebrew? The thirty-six members of the Christadelphian tour of Israel still can’t say it but they sure heard it many times. With these Hebrew words, later repeated in English ringing in their ears their El Al Israel Airline jet roared down the runway at JFK International Airport in New York and rose steeply into the evening sky headed for London and Tel Aviv.
The plane was full of Jewish worshipers going to their homeland for the pass-over and these orthodox Jews entertained us as they strode up and down the isle speaking Hebrew and putting on and taking off their little black boxes which they fasten to their arms and foreheads. We were reminded of the words of Paul who said that they have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. Jesus denounced the Pharisees who he said “make broad their phylacteries.” Phylacteries are strips of parchment on which are written four passages of Scripture, Exodus 13:210, 11-17, Deut. 6:4-9 and 13-23. These are put in cases of black calfskin and bound on the forehead and the arm in obedience to the Jews understanding of Exodus 13:16. The Pharisees made their phylacteries broader than the other Jews as a badge of distinction. As we watched these Jews in the plane we realized that human nature has not changed one bit since the days of Jesus and while we do not wear phylacteries to show how pious we are, we too must be on our guard not o do our works to be seen of men. Jesus instructs us that when we pray that we should not pray standing in the corner of the street as the hypocrites of his day did but when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”
Our El Al flight was smooth and uneventful. The food was good, especially for those who like bagles and lox. We touched down in Tel Aviv and were immediately cleared through immigration and whisked off to our hotel. With David we said, “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, 0 Jerusalem.” Our feet were walking on the very land promised by God to Abraham and they would soon be standing within the gates of Jerusalem!
Our first day of touring the land began by going to Joppa from whence Jonah set sail to flee from God who had told him to go to Nineveh. Joppa is mentioned in Joshua 19:46 as one of the cities belonging to the tribe of Dan. Walking the narrow streets to the home, according to tradition, of Simon the tanner, our minds raced back in history to Peter praying on his roof at noon time. From the roof top on which we now stood we could view the beautiful bay which was a familiar sight to Peter. Peter was told by God to go to Caesarea to teach the truth to Cornelius. We followed in Peter’s steps leaving Joppa and heading north as Peter would have done. Our bus took us through the Sharon Valley along the sea coast to ancient Caesarea a distance of 38 miles. We traveled this in a short time but Peter made the journey one step at a time. Our journey to the Kingdom is still made just one step at a time despite the rapid transportation that is now available to us. If we will just follow in the steps of Peter our destination is assured. Along the way we saw the Roman aqueduct used to transport water to Caesarea from Mount Carmel. En many ways their civilization was well advanced and it was the soft life that their accomplishments made possible that eventually led to their down fall. The ruins at Caesarea were interesting and we wondered where Cornelius lived in this beautiful setting. Sadly we viewed the ruins of the old prison where Paul was kept by the Romans. Two hundred soldiers, 70 horsemen and two hundred spear men had accompanied Paul in the middle of the night as he was taken from Jerusalem on his way to Caesarea. How wonderfully God protects His own, the whole Roman armies are at His disposal when He so desires it The angel of the Lord still encamps round about them that fear Him The Christadelphians who stood in the amphitheater where the Romans slaughtered more than 100,000 Jews felt truly blessed in being allowed to visit the land which is the apple of God’s eye and where He will soon do great things Paul could say that “our light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” We felt very humble as we contemplated what he went through for his Lord and surely each of us should feel as Paul when he said “I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me” Touring the land is a wonderful experience and Bro Gil Riley agreed with Bro Bill Kennedy when he said “being here is just wonderful ” We were all glad that Bro and Sis Walter Higham had come up with the idea to have a tour of the Holy Land for Christadelphians from North America Sis Marguerite Higham who had spent countless hours planning the itinerary, making and remaking reservations, could now look at the happy faces of Christadelphians viewing the ruins of the Caesarea that Paul and Peter knew so well and feel that all her work had been worth It At this point we were still missing one member of our party, Sis Irene Layne, who had to be left behind in New York because of Passport difficulties Fortunately we had a joyous reunion to look forward to that evening when Sis Layne joined us in Haifa after getting everything straightened out From then on we were a happy band of 36 pilgrims traveling from Dan to Beersheba in the “land which the LORD thy God careth for the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One