The Districts of Palestine

[00:00:00] According to John and chapter four from verse one. [00:00:06] When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself baptized not but his disciples, he left Judea and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs pass through Samaria. So he cometh to a city of Samaria called Sychar near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. And Jacob's well was there. [00:00:43] Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the 6th hour. [00:00:52] There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. [00:00:56] Jesus saith unto her, give me to drink. [00:01:00] For his disciples were gone away into the city to buy food. [00:01:05] The samaritan woman therefore saith unto him, how is it that thou, being a jew, askest drink of me, who am a samaritan woman? [00:01:16] For Jews have no dealings with samaritan. [00:01:20] Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living water. [00:01:35] The woman saith unto him, sir, thou hast nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank thereof himself and his son, sons and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life. [00:02:09] The woman saith unto him, sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come all the way hither to draw. [00:02:19] Jesus saith unto her, go call thy husband and come hither. [00:02:25] The woman answered and said unto him, I have no husband. [00:02:30] Jesus saith unto her, thou saidst, well, I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands. And he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. This hast thou said truly. The woman saith unto him, sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. [00:02:52] Our fathers worshipped in this mountain. [00:02:56] And ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said unto her, woman, believe me, the hour cometh when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father. [00:03:11] Ye worship that which ye know not. We worship that which we know. For salvation is from the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father. In spirit and truth, for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers. God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh he that is called Christ. When he is come, he will declare unto us all things. [00:03:49] Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. [00:03:55] And upon this came his disciples. And they marvelled that he was speaking with a woman. Yet no man said, whatsoever seekest thou, or why speakest thou with her? So the woman left her water pot and went away into the city and saith to the people, come see a man who told me all things that ever I did. Can this be the Christ? [00:04:18] They went out of the city and were coming to him. [00:04:24] Verse 39 and from that city many of the Samaritans believed on him because of the word of the woman who testified. He told me all things that ever I did. So when the Samaritans came unto him, they besought him to abide with them. And he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his word. And they said to the woman, now we believe not because of thy speaking, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this is indeed the savior of the world. [00:05:04] Now this evening I am going to take the really Palestine and its districts. [00:05:18] The best way to explain it. We need to say something, I think, before we go any further about the history of Palestine itself during these 400 years. How did the Palestine of Zerubbabel and Ezra and Nehemiah's day become the Palestine of Christ's day? What exactly happened between those two points during these 400 years? How was it changed? What really is the, not only the history behind it, but how did the administrative districts come into being of the Lord's day and the local character and differences evolve. Now there were a lot of, of differences between the districts which you have probably noted already in a superficial reading on the word of God. You know, all of you, that Jews and Samaritans didn't get on. I think most of you know that the Galileans were despised. But why? What was behind it? How come these differences? For instance, why was the Lord Jesus sent by Pilate to Herod? Why was that? Why did he try to get rid of him by sort of sending him off to Herod? What lies behind all these things that we read and we superficially note but don't always or generally don't understand? [00:07:02] Well, now, that's our subject this evening. It's rather involved and I'm just trusting that the Lord will help me to be a simple possible, and that you may receive as much as it is possible to receive. [00:07:17] When the Jews returned to Judah in 536 BC, they controlled a very small area indeed, more or less the tribal area of Judah. When they actually returned, if you can see on this map, this little dark pink section was literally all that the Jews, when the remnant returned, that's all that they controlled, just literally, more or less the area of the old tribe of Judah. That was all that they were able to rebuild and bring back under control. [00:08:09] That was, of course, within the persian empire. [00:08:13] Zerubbabel was made the governor over them at that time. And of course, later on there were other governors too, appointed by the persian empire over this area, this little area, that deep pink part. On that first small map, over that area they were granted home rule. And that's literally all that they had rule over. [00:08:42] Then there was from that point a gradual expansion southwards and eastwards, so that you can see here, this paler pink section here. They began to expand gradually through the persian era and controlled more and more. And at the same time they began to settle in jewish communities all through the Palestine era. Everywhere you see one of these pink dots, it is a jewish community. One or two of those places were completely jewish towns or villages or cities. Generally speaking, it was a very prosperous, well established jewish community in a gentile setting. That's gradually that happened, and right the way through the persian era, and it continued right through the greek era as well. [00:09:46] During the maccabean period, that is roughly, and approximately the second century before Christ, there was a taking over in a glorious era, small epoch, as it were of time, a taking over of all the territory originally owned and possessed by Israel. Now that's one of the great periods of jewish history. And here you got it. Here they began there, the deep pink, the Maccabees in 142. And then they extended their control over the whole of this area, first in the paler pink and then over the purple, until they more or less controlled the whole of the country that originally they possessed in the days of Joshua. Now that really was rather wonderful. And it's one of the highlights of the, of the history of the people of God. Although in actual fact we have not got it within the scripture, it happened within these 400 so called silent years. In 64 BC, Pompey conquered Syria and he made it an imperial province directly responsible to the emperor. Now, when we speak of Syria, we are really speaking of this area right over here, this whole area here. He took that conquered it in 64 BC and then marched on Judah proper. And in 63 BC the next year, he took Jerusalem and then he annexed Judah, or Judea, as it was coming to be known. He annexed it to the imperial province of Syria and made it part of the roman empire. Thus the actual province of Syria, the imperial roman province of Syria, took in the whole of Cilicia, where Tarsus, where Paul was born, was situated right round here, and came right away down here, back to more or less where Gezer is now situated. That was the imperial province of Syria. It was a border province. I have tried my hardest to obtain a map showing the roman empire at the birth of the Lord Jesus. We've scarred the whole of London and we haven't got one. Not even Stanford has got such a thing. It's incredible that no one has a map of, of the roman empire in the times of Augustus. Never mind. I wanted to show you the whole of it on a map so that you could see straight away the various provinces and see this province of Syria. Because from the Bible, we tend to think that Palestine was all important, as if it was the focal point. Whereas when you see the whole map, you see that in actual fact, it was a very small part, politically speaking, not divinely speaking, of the world. [00:13:08] The Syrian, this imperial province, this province of Syria, was a border province on the eastern boundary of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire didn't go beyond the syrian province. That's where it ended. And on the south and south east, that is, down here, it was bounded by the Nabateans. I'll explain those in one moment. And on the east, it was bounded by the Parthians. Now, the Romans had friendly relations with the king of Nabatea, and because of that, they didn't fear them, but they were always suspicious, as they were of other provinces, of a possible rebellion. [00:13:59] But they were very afraid of the Parthians. They looked upon the Parthians as barbarians and they were afraid all the time that these hordes from the steppes of Russia would pour down upon the roman empire and destroy it. Now, that is why Syria became an imperial province and not a senatorial province. If you can remember one of our previous studies, roman administration was rather interesting. It divided the whole empire into two kinds of provinces, senatorial and imperial. The senatorial provinces were normally peaceful, secure provinces and they were responsible to the roman senate. But the imperial provinces provinces were those where there was possibility of rebellion or unrest or trouble or border provinces, and they were directly responsible to the emperor himself. They were almost as it were his personal possessions. Now, Syria, in which Palestine is included, was an imperial province. The Romans were so afraid of the Parthians that they decided to make it an imperial province responsible to the emperor personally. [00:15:26] In the days of Herod the Great, that is, 37 bc to four bc, Palestine was given home rule within the imperial province of Syria. Herod, you remember we talked about the last Bible study we had when he built that magnificent temple. He was a wicked old man, known to everyone as a wicked old man. But nevertheless, he built the magnificent temple which actually outshone Solomon's in its glory. Now, he was on very friendly and good terms with the roman emperor, particularly. He sent his sons to Rome, or two of his sons he sent to Rome to be educated. And on the whole, he had a very good relationship with the emperor. So he was given, he was granted permission to rule Palestine and he ruled it under the watch fly of the governor of Syria. Now again, we can't be too technical. I think it'll bore everyone's stiff. But in scripture you will find there are proconsuls and procurators. In the old authorized version, they were nearly all lumped together under the term governor. But in actual fact, the scripture makes a difference between proconsul and procurator. A procurator was the governor of an imperial province. A proconsul was the governor of a senatorial province. Now, a legate was also a governor of an imperial province. And the difference, as far as we can make out, was this. A procurator had mercenaries, like the congolese mercenaries and others bought soldiers, soldiers who were bought, as it were, simply to do dirty work. [00:17:27] And the procurator normally had mercenaries working under him, and a legate had actual roman soldiers working under him. Now, the governor of Syria was a legate. He had roman soldiers under his control, men that could be trusted. Whereas the procurator, later we shall discover, of Judea Pontius Pilate and that Lot had under him only mercenaries. Now, maybe that will in a moment explain a little more. [00:18:00] The territory that Herod the Great ruled within this province of Syria in the roman empire had expanded northeastwards and shrunk in the south. So there is the period, the extent of the territory governed in the Maccabean period by the people of God. But in the time of Herod the Great, it had shrunk in the south, but it extended northeastwards. Here, this dark pink patch is all that Herod the Great rule within the syrian province in the Roman Empire. Now, at Herod's death, there was very much dissension in what remained of his family. I have been asked not to go into the details of what he did with his Family. But very little remained of his Family. When he had finished with them. [00:19:00] He had his beloved wife strangled, one of his beloved wives strangled. I'm not going into the details the way he did it. And two of his sons murdered, another one assassinated and quite a lot of other simply wiped out all kinds of people, close relatives who he thought in any way could be a threat to his position. [00:19:29] Even so, in spite of the fact that he wiped out a very large portion of his family in a kind of consistent and perpetual bloodbath. When he did finally die, what remained of his family were hopelessly divided as to what they were going to get of his possessions. The emperor AugUStus stepped in and settled it personally by splitting up Palestine into three definite sections. [00:20:04] He gave Samaria, he gave Samaria, Judah or Judea and northern eye Jumia. This whole pink portion he gave to Archelaus. [00:20:25] This portion Galilee. And this portion in green here, Perea he gave to Herod Antipas the second. Another one of Herod's many sons who had miraculously abide. And then he gave this great brown patch here to Philip. So this was called the tetrarchy of Philip. Herod Antipas ruled over Galilee and Perea and Archelaus ruled over this portion here, Samaria, Judea and northern Idumea. [00:21:05] When serious charges were made against Archelaus to the emperor Augustus by a delegation of Jews and Samaritans who for once sunk their differences and went to Rome together, so unhappy were they about what was happening. [00:21:30] Augustus deposed ArCheLaus in six year six after the birth of Christ. [00:21:41] The emperor then made Samaria, Judea and northern Idumea. That is this whole pink portion of the map. He made it into a subject imperial province subordinate to the province of Syria, but in an imperial province on its own. And he appointed a procurator who made his residence and seat of administration Caesarea. Now this is very important to us because when we come to the New Testament we find this procurator is the all powerful maN. And this HeRod that you read about not at the birth of Jesus but later is in fact this Herod who rules these two terrorists. Nothing to do with this at all. The procurator, procurator, the governor was the one who ruled Judea. This was called Judea although it included Samaria, northern Idumea as well as Judah. It was called together the roman imperial province of Judea. Hella. Steve I hope that is all a bit involved, I know, but perhaps as we go on it will seem a little simpler. Caesarea, as I have said, was made the administrative capital of this new roman province. [00:23:11] It was a beautiful and attractive place, thoroughly hellenized. The horror of all good Jews. All good jews felt that only that kind of thing could happen in Samaria anyway and felt it was best on the whole to avoid Caesarea. That's why poor old Peter had the Lord had to show him a vision three times on the top of the roof before he would go there. You remember when the Holy Spirit fell upon. It was Caesarea that the Holy spirit fell upon the gentiles. They met in here, the very capital of this imperial province. Not only did the Holy Spirit fall upon the 120 on the day of Pentecost at Jerusalem, but later he fell upon them in Samaria and then he fell upon them in Caesarea. A completely GEntile crowd meeting together and listening to Peter. Now this Caesarea was a thoroughly hellenized place. It had a magnificent royal palace that originally belonged to Herod but which the roman procurator took over and made the roman residence and sort of seat of government for the whole area. Now again, if you cast your mind back into scripture, do you remember the time when Paul got into trouble in the temple? And you remember that the chief captain of the guard sent down and rescued him and then he was taken to the Sanhedrin. And when he caused that to setting Sadducee against Pharisee, the chief captain of the guards sent the officers in again to stop him from being torn limb from limb, got him out, got him into the fortress of Antonio and kept him there. And then because they heard that there was a plot to murder him, he sent him to the governor where not at Jerusalem. He sent him to the governor Felix at Caesarea. [00:25:04] And so Paul was taken to Caesarea. And that's one of the great times. When Paul preached before Felix and then later Festus and then finally King Agrippa and Bellus. It was all in Caesarea within the great royal palace. There Caesarea also had a man made harbour. All these things made Caesar Caesarea a very attractive and interesting place. [00:25:35] The roman procurator or governor of Judea only went up to Jerusalem at feasts and when he was needed. And when he did go, he went and stayed at Herod the great's palace in Jerusalem. Now that explains why at the Passover when the Jews got the Lord Jesus they took him to Pilate. He was actually there. He was there because it was a feast, because festivals were normally things that the roman government and administration were very frightened of. They used to even send the soldiers up and down on the outer court of the Gentiles of the temple to watch in feasts and holy days because they knew that the feelings of the people ran high. And that's when all the trouble came. Often there was rebellion, often there was rioting and so on. So maybe that explains a little bit of the background there. [00:26:33] This province of Judea was always under the watchful eye of the governor of Syria. [00:26:43] Thus Pontius Pilate was, we know, the fifth in line of the roman procurators of Judea. There were only five when Pontius, Pontius Pilate was the fifth of the roman procurators and he was under his senior, the governor of Syria. Now, this we know to be a fact, and it may interest some of you that in the year 36 AD, some years after the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, the governor of Syria, Vitellus, sent Pontius Pilate under guard to Rome to stand trial on a charge of unfair dealings with the Samaritans. And in fact, we don't know what happened to Pilate because the christian tradition is that he became a christian on his way to Rome. That's the christian tradition, that Pilate ended up a christian before he fell into disgrace and had to retire altogether from public life. But the fact remains that the roman procurator was evidently subordinate to the governor of Syria. Although it was an imperial province, Judea, it was evidently not exactly on the same standing as the bigger one that it had originally been in. When Judea became a province, Geza and the district around it were detached and made part of Syria. Now, I can't tell you why. I've looked and looked and looked to try and find why that is so on this map, you can't see it, but in actual fact, the whole of this area here was detached. [00:28:38] You remember, Geza, you remember when the ethiopian unit was on the road here down back to Ethiopia. Philip was told to join him on the desert road near Gezer. And he did. You remember how he was converted and baptized on that road? Well, for some unknown reason, this portion was detached from here and governed by the governor of Syria. I can't tell you why. If anyone can enlighten me, I should be most interested indeed. Thus, Palestine was split up into a number of regions, either directly under the syrian governor or the judean governor. And it would seem that the governor of Syria had overall military supervision and responsibility these districts are. Here's a list of them. First, Samaria, Judea. [00:29:37] Northern IJUMEA, called JUDEA. [00:29:43] The second, the tetrarchy of Philip. That's this portion up here. [00:29:51] The third, the decapolis. The DECAPOLIS. I'll explain that in a moment. And the fourth, Galilee and pariah. [00:30:03] Now, I don't know whether you found that a bit boring, but perhaps we shall find it now a little more interesting as we look at the actual regions themselves. First of all, let's look at Samaria, Judea and northern Ajuma. This, as we have said, constituted the imperial province of Judea with the capital at Caesarea. Now we'll. First, we'll think of Judea. I'm not going to say much about Judea because I think most of us know more about Judea than anything else. [00:30:39] The Judeans felt, naturally, that they were the people. They were the people. As far as the judeans were concerned. There was no one else like a Judean. They were the sort of city folk. They were the folk of the capital, Jerusalem. In their eyes, the capital, though not in the Roman empire's eyes. They were the cultured people, the refined people, the spiritually elite people living at the center and the heart of everything that God had ever done. At all times. [00:31:18] They HAD. They were living in an area which had witnessed all the great movings of God. They felt gallant. [00:31:26] Perea should never have settled on that side of the Jordan anyway. A judea is the place where God really met people. Judea is the place where we have most of the tombs of the patriarchs. Judea is the place where God chose that his dwelling place should be built and where we are to worship him and sacrifice to him and meet with him. Here, they say, was the real center of the true priesthood of God. This is where the covenants were made. JUDEA. It is everything. They felt that they were living in the area where historically, there had always been the least decline, the least deterioration and the least backsliding, and had always witnessed the greatest revivals. Now, that was the way the judeans viewed everything. THEy said, all poor, poor people in the north, SAMARIA and galilee, from the very beginning, they had trouble up there. They never saw the revivals. We said, look at the revival of JehoshAphat. Look at the revival of Hezekiah. Look at the revival of Josiah. All these were in Judea. Look at the revival with Zerubbabel and Ezra and Nehemiah. All down where we are, you know, not up there. [00:32:48] A lot up there who got their own temple and their own ideas and their own priesthood and all the rest of it. That was the atmosphere of Judea, as we would imagine in Judea. [00:33:03] Here we would, there we would find, or we found the least gentile and greek influence and the most jewish influence. They were the jewish Jews and you didn't find much in the way of real gentile influence. [00:33:22] Now, what about Ijumea? [00:33:25] Perhaps you've never heard of Ijumea. Well, if you turn in your Bible to mark chapter three and verse eight, you will find Ijumir is mentioned and it says, and from Jerusalem and from Idumea and beyond the Jordan and about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude. What is Idumea? [00:33:51] Now this is very interesting because Idumea had now become part of Judea, in a sense, linked together. [00:33:59] Idumea were the old Edomites who had settled in southern Judah or Judea, as they were pushed out of their of Edom proper by the Nabateans. [00:34:17] Now, the Nabateans were the descendants of Ishmael and are our modern Arabs. [00:34:25] The Edomites were the descendants of Esau. And although in many ways they had sort of come together and linked together, the Nabateans had become the stronger of the two, had moved up from where they used to be down here. Their capital was over this way in Petra. Petra, they'd been pushed out by the Nabateans, who taken over in May Petra, their capital, and the Edomites had been pushed into southern Judah. [00:34:57] They came to be called the Idumeans. The Greeks called them the Idumeans. Now, the Idumeans were the horror of all good Jews. They never forgot Esau and they never forgot the cruelty of the Edomites. Now, this has a very much, very much in the way, very much to say to us in our study of the New Testament. Because you see in the maccabean period, one gentleman that we shall look at another week who was very concerned for conversion, compelled the Ijumians to be circumcised. [00:35:38] And therefore he had on his hands thousands of edomite Jews, or if you like, judaized Edomites. [00:35:51] They became an unholy mixture, Edomite and jewish, jewish and Edomite, because they'd been compelled to be circumcised and compelled more or less to come into the fold in the maccabean period. [00:36:05] Either they were going to be driven out like in the good old days of Joshua, or they became Jews. So thousands of them became Jews only to save their skin and stayed within the realm rather than fall back into the nabatean region. [00:36:24] As I've said, the Nabateans were the descendants of Ishmael. Now, this gentleman, Herod the Great, had, listen, an idumean father and a nabatean mother, which of course, made him very popular with the Pharisees. [00:36:42] You see, you can begin to understand why the Pharisees were so strong on Defilement. Now, you and I tend to think of the Pharisees as sanctimonious hypocrites, but, you know, my dear friends, they're very much like a lot of evangelicals. [00:36:59] You see, it's just the kind of reaction which in one way is right, though the spirit may be wrong. When you see unsaved people coming right into church membership, when you see unsaved people taking on the things of God and acting and conducting themselves as if they were Christians, when you know very well they haven't got a saving experience of the Lord Jesus, your heart is high, you see, that's wrong. We must withdraw from that. We want the purity of the flock of God. We want to see the purity of the church. You see, that was the Pharisees a whole concern. That's why they were originally called the Hasidim, the pious ones. They were the godly, pure, holy remnant within the people who felt that somehow all this mixture, this mixed multitude, they felt that all along it had been the mixed multitude that had caused the trouble. It was the mixed multitude that came out of Egypt. It was the mixed multitude that continually caused trouble in the land in the days of Joshua, because they didn't drive out all the inhabitants. And now they've got the Edomites right in their midst and they'd even got, think of it, a king who was building the temple, whose father was Idumean and mother Nabotean, the lord preserve us. They thought, what are we going to do when we've got the temple, the sanctuary of God being built by descendants of Ishmael and a descendant of Esau? Can it be right now? The Pharisees said, well, we must accept it. This is a judgment of God upon his. But the Essenes, they said, we certainly will not accept it. This shows that the temple is altogether wrong and the whole system is wrong. And they drew right out altogether into little communities out in the desert, where they sought to worship the Lord and study the word of God and wait for the coming of the Messiah. Now perhaps you begin to understand a little bit more. You understand why Herod was looked upon by all good Jews with horror. And you can understand why, the Pharisees were very careful about who they had to tea. That was quite wrong. But their point was they didn't want to be defiled by this mixed multitude all around them. Now we come to Samaria. Though you can understand why the Judeans, the real Judeans, felt so very superior on their south. To the south, they had Ijumeans who were supposed to be Jews, but weren't, although they were circumcised and seemed to be behaving themselves like Jews. And on the other hand, they had the Samaritans. [00:39:33] Well, now, the Samaritans. What can we say about the Samaritans? [00:39:38] Samaria first appears in the Old Testament record as the name of a city called Samaria. It was the capital of the old northern kingdom when the people of God were split into Judah and Benjamin in the south and the other TEn tribes in the north. Samaria was the capital of that kingdom. And the Jews of Judah never forgot that SAmaria became a dirty word. From that day onwards. When Israel fell in 721 BC and Samaria was taken, most of the upper classes were deported by the Assyrians to other parts of the empire. This was their policy, to break resistance. And likewise, non jewish people were deported from gentile areas and settled in Israel. This was their twofold way of smashing up resistance in the empire. Take away a nation, scatter it over the whole face of the empire, and bring in many other nations and settle them there. So there's one great mixture. [00:40:51] Thus there grew up in Israel, or Samaria, a mixed population, with a kind of worship, recognizing Jehovah as absolutely supreme, the one true God, and at the same time recognizing other gods and other rights, so that they were quite prepared to have high places, worshipping local gods and deities and have fertility rights, with all its immorality, all under the name of the true worship of the living God of Israel. [00:41:29] Now, that's why the people in Judah looked upon the folk in Samaria with absolute horror. If you turn to two kings, you have it actually recorded. Two kings. Chapter 17, verse 24. [00:41:49] And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon from Cuthah, from Abar, from Hamath, Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel. And they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities thereof. And. And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there that they feared not the Lord. Therefore, the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying the nations which thou hast carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria know not the law of the God of the land. Therefore he hath sent lions among them. And behold, they slayed him because they know not the Lord, the God of the land. [00:42:25] Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, carry thither one of the priests whom he brought from, and let them go and dwell there and let him teach them the law, the God of the land. So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the lord. Howbeit every nation made gods of their own and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made. Every nation in the cities wherein they dwelt. And then it goes through a list of them. Verse 32. Do so. They feared the Lord and made unto them from among themselves priests of the high priest. High place. Now mark it. They made priests from among themselves who sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places. They feared the Lord and served their own gods. Now, that's how this godly old writer put it. They feared the Lord and served their own gods. After the manner of the nations from among whom they'd been carried away. There was the mixture they of feared the Lord Jehovah but served their own gods. [00:43:30] This was the beginning of the trouble when the remnant, the true godly remnant, returned from exile to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem. These Samaritans were a constant source of trouble. Do you remember Sanballat? He was a samaritan. [00:43:46] Well, he went up and said straight away, let's help you. Well, of course, the godly remnant said, we don't want your help. You're compromised. You're corrupted. You're going to bring in other gods. We can't have you. We can't touch you. This was the cause of all the trouble. You remember the days if you read the book of Nehemiah, how the Samaritans continually stopped them from building by sending reports back to the assyrian government about what was happening in Jerusalem. There was constant trouble from the Samaritans. The Jews never forgot. [00:44:20] They had a temple on Mount Gerizim. They had an apostate priesthood set up by themselves with no relationship to the true one in Jerusalem. They had their own false sacrificial system. They tried to copy almost the temple at Jerusalem, but they built it in another place. And they had everything there. They possessed the law, the first five books of the Bible of the Old Testament. But not the prophets. They didn't think much of the prophets, but they did recognize the law. [00:44:53] At the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, when the Jews resisted to death his attempts to corrupt the temple, the Samaritans compromised fully and dedicated their temple to Zeus. [00:45:14] Now you can begin to understand why the Jew looked upon the Samaritans with such horror. Herod the great favorite seat was Samaria, which he largely rebuilt as a hellenistic city with a beautiful temple crowning the hill above it, dedicated to Augustus. [00:45:37] All this did not make for harmony between jew and Samaritan. The real point of the controversy between them, however, was not just these things. They all added up very much to it. But the real point of controversy was the temple. The thing that the Jews felt was the fundamental mistake of the Samaritans was not that they built another house of God, but that God said clearly that he would only have one place in the whole land in which he would be known and could be heard and could be worshipped. And that place was Jerusalem. [00:46:19] Now, that explains to you why the woman of Samaria said, our fathers say that we should worship at Mount Gerizim, but ye say that ye ought to worship at Jerusalem. See, she knew exactly the history of her people. In other words, she was talking about the temple there. She knew the real point of controversy between jew and Samaritan. It was this question of the temple. And she brought that up with the Lord Jesus trying to deflect him from the point of her five husbands. [00:46:46] In theological talk by New Testament times, the Samaritan had six basic articles of belief. Now, listen to them very carefully, because then you'll understand just how near they were to the jew. The first was one God, only one God. They'd forgotten all about those other gods. By New Testament times, they believed in the one invisible one God. The second, Moses, the prophet. [00:47:16] The third, the law of God. The first five books of the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, numbers and deuteronomy. The fourth, Mount Gerizim, as the place appointed by God for worship and sacrifice. That was the point of trouble. The fifth, the day of judgment. All jews believed in that anyway. The Samaritans believed in the coming day of judgment. And the 6th, the coming prophet and restorer. In other words, the MEssiah. [00:47:46] The bitterness between JEW and Samaritan grew in intensity through many incidents. Till in the days of Christ, there was no intercourse at all between JEw and Samaritan jews, if they could help it, would not even travel through Samaria. Instead, they took this road here from Galilee. They came down here and on this eastern side of the JORdan. They came down here across the river Jordan to Jericho and then up to Jerusalem. Rather than come the direct way through Samaria, they'd go all this way round. All jews did it on the all jewish road rather than go through Samaria. So strong was the feeling of antagonism between JEW and Samaritan. [00:48:41] It's therefore interesting to note the Lord's attitude to them. For instance, we have the story of the goods, the parable of the good Samaritan. You see, the Lord must have antagonized a lot of people by telling the story and putting the Samaritan in such a good light. He was. The priest went by and the Levite went by, but it was the good samaritan who did something. [00:49:02] And then we had the story of the samaritan woman at the well that the Lord spoke with. And she was converted. And through her, a whole lot of people came to know the Lord. It's the first known instance where people said, he is the savior of the world. Even as far as we know, only John the Baptist had seen it. Not even his own disciples had seen it up to that point. It was the Samaritans who said, this is indeed the savior of the world. And then you remember the ten lepers who got healed, one returned to give thanks. That one who returned was a sacrifice Samaritan. [00:49:38] And the Lord pointed that out. He said he was a Samaritan. [00:49:43] It's rather interesting that the lord's attitude to the Samaritan was such a kind and loving one. It's also very noteworthy, the very real response to the gospel that there was amongst the Samaritans, not only did they respond to the lord and ask him to stay, and it was there that the Lord said, look, the fields are white already unto harvest. Pray ye therefore, the lord of the harvest, that he send forth reapers. It was over the Samaritans that he said. But later on, you remember, after the day of Pentecost, a tremendous revival broke out in Samaria. [00:50:17] And the poor old apostles in Jerusalem got so worried about the thing that they decided they better send out two men to inspect it, just to see that it was the. I mean, you see, the jew couldn't under. Couldn't believe that Samaritan, anything real could happen or genuine could happen. You know, there was such a mixed up crowd, so compromised. So they sent two of them down, two of the apostles to investigate. And when they laid hands on the Samaritans, well, you know, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they were so amazed to see it. The folk from Jerusalem. All they could say was that the Lord is saving the Samaritans as well as the Jews. Remember what the Lord said when he was going tarry. Wait till the Holy Spirit shall come upon you, shall be clothed with power from and high. Then you shall be witness unto me in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the world. There we are, Samaria. Now, the second area is the tetrarchy of Philip. [00:51:17] We've dealt now with this imperial province of Judea. Samaria, Judea, old Najuma. Now the tetrarchy of Philip. This is the tetrarchy of Philip. This area here. Now, what is this tetrarchy of Philip? This region northeast of the Lake of Galilee was made up of at least five districts and was ruled by Philip, the most just and conscientious of Herod's sons. Under the syrian governor, it was essentially the area known as BaShan in the Old Testament. The whole area was prevailingly gentile. Philip built Caesarea Philippi. Caesarea philippi means simply Philip caesarea. To distinguish it from this CAesaRea, he built this very beautiful city, Caesarea Philippi, a completely hellenistic city in the most beautiful surroundings. [00:52:17] Now, again, that's quite interesting. He also rebuilt Bethsaida. Bethsaida is the place we know a lot of in scripture here. [00:52:30] Bethsaida just means house of fishes, place of fishing. And he rebuilt it and extended it as his capital for the tetrarchy, the whole area. Now again, that's very, very interesting because you know, Philip the apostle, he was born in Bethsaida. For, you see, we've got it in the scripture. If you turn to mark chapter six. [00:52:56] Mark chapter six, verse 45. We read this. There are a number of times we find the Lord here in the tetrarchy of Philip. Straightway constrained his disciples to enter into the boat and to go before him unto the other side to Bethsaida, while he himself sent the multitude away. Chapter eight, verse 22. [00:53:20] They come unto Bethsaida and they bring to him a blind man and beseech him to touch him. And he took hold of the blind man by the hand and brought him out of the village. That's Bethsaida again. And then verse 27. [00:53:36] And Jesus went forth and his disciples into the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way, he asked his disciples, saying unto them, who do men say that I am now? It was near Caesarea Philippi that Peter made his great confession, thou art the Christ the son of the living God. And the Lord Jesus said to him, just at that point in the tetrarchy of Philip, flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you, but my father which is in heaven, upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Then if you turn to John, chapter twelve and verse 21, we read this. [00:54:18] These therefore came to Philip, who was of Bethsaida, of Galilee, of the lake of Galilee, that is Bethsaida. Now there is one other very interesting thing. I'm not going to go into it now. There is controversy as to whether Peter, Peter the apostle and his brother Andrew were born in Bethsaida, because it says in one place that they were of the same city as Philip. [00:54:42] But in another place it tells us that Simon's wife's mother, his mother in law, when they were in her house where she was healed, it was in Capernaum. [00:54:55] So there's always been great discussion as to whether Peter and Andrew were actually born in the tetrapy of Philip or whether they were true Galileans. [00:55:07] Certainly Bethsaida was one of the big fishing places around the lake of Galilee. Well, now, that's the tetrarchy of Philip. Now some of you might be wondering, what is a tetrarchy? Well, a tetrarch was the name given to a man who was a ruler of a part of a province of one of the roman oriental provinces in Asia Minor, or met area. If he ruled part of it, he was called a tetrarch. So in the scripture, Herod is called the tetrarch, the one who ruled Galilee and Perea, and also Philip is called the tetrarch to. It's the tetrarchy of Philip. Now what is the decapolis? [00:55:50] That's this thing, this area here, what is the decapolis? [00:55:56] Well now, the decapolis is very simple. It means literally ten cities. It's the greek word ten. Deca, polis cities, ten cities. And was the name given to a federation of Hellenistic Cities. This League of Gentile type cities came under roman protection. After Pompey took Syria, the Decapolis was incorporated into the province of Syria. It was a loose federation, numbering actually probably many more than ten cities. And some of its cities weren't even in the area of Decapolis. Damascus was one of its cities and there are a number of others scattered around that are nothing to do, not actually within the area of the Decapolis. They were cities bound together by common bonds of culture, defense. [00:56:48] Probably they banded together to try and resist jewish influence. More than anything, because these were truly hellenistic cities. They weren't even semitic in any way. They were jewish and hellenistic in every way. [00:57:04] The decabolist covered the old area of Manasseh and was the most gentile of all the districts of Palestine. Now, it is very interesting that Jews tried as far as possible to keep out of Decapolis. And even the Lord himself didn't go a lot deep. But if you turn to Mark, you will find one instance when he did mark 520, and he went his way and began to publish into how great things Jesus had done for him. And all men marveled. Now, do you remember who that man was? That was the man who was unclothed and mad, possessed by a legion of demons in the tombs. Sometimes it's called the Gadarenes. Sometimes it's called the Girga seasons. Both these places, Gadara is here. [00:58:00] Gadarenes you see there. And Geraza is here. Geddes and Gergesa is here. So those are the three possibilities. We don't know which he was talking of. It would seem, because of the herd of swine going into the sea, that it would be on the lake of Galilean, that side of Gadara. There, you've got it again. Now you will remember that Lord could do no great things in that area because of what the unbelief of the people, the hellenistic attitude, that somehow stopped the people's real faith in the living God. He was unable to do so much. There. If you look at chapter seven, mark 731, again he went out from the borders of Tyre and came through Sidon into the Sea of Galilee, through the midst of the borders of DeCapolis. I wonder if you've ever noticed this. Decapolis. And then again, Matthew, chapter four. Turn back to Matthew, chapter four, verse 25. [00:59:05] And there followed him great multitudes from Galilee and Decapolis in Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the jorth. Well, there we are. That's the third area, the Decapolis mentioned in the word of God. Quite a lot. Now, the last area this evening I want to deal with is Galilee and Perea. Here are again the two areas. Galilee, the green there and this here, divided by the land territory of the DeCAPOlis. [00:59:39] These two districts were governed by Herod Antipas, who appears to us a number of times in the gospels. And he is always called the Tetrarch, Herod. King Herod is Herod the Great, who died just after the birth of Jesus Christ. [00:59:59] They were. These two districts were not in the province. They were not in the province of Judea, but were in the province of Syria. Although granted home rule under Herod, rulers of a part of a roman province, I've said, were called Tetra. And that's why Herod is called Herod the Tetrarch. If you look, we needn't look at it, but if you look at it, you'll see mark 14 one, you'll see Herod's call. Herod the Tetrarch, Luke 319, Herod the Tetrarch. But I do want you to look at Luke 23 and verse six and seven. [01:00:38] When Pilate heard, he asked whether the man were a galilean. That's Jesus. And when he knew that he was of Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him unto Herod, who himself also was at Jerusalem in those days. Now, Herod the Tetrarch and Pontius Pilate, the procurator of Judea, were on very bad terms. But after this little tete a tete, they became firm, close friends till Pilate was sent to Rome. That's rather interesting, isn't it? [01:01:13] Now do you understand why Pilate sent Jesus to Herod? Because the Lord Jesus was not a judean. So Pilate. Ah, my escaping thought. I can get out of it now, he said, of course, Galilean has nothing to do with us here. I have no right, as roman procurator of Judea to try this man. Send him to Herod. [01:01:33] When the Lord Jesus was sent to Herod, Herod was very, very careful about him. He knew that he ruled Galilee and he knew that the Lord's real support was in Galilee. And he knew that if he had anything to do with the crucifixion of Jesus, the Galileans would have murdered him. [01:01:51] So he very, very quietly sent him back to Pontius Pilate. And that's how, where, in fact, the story goes on from there. It's an amazing story once you begin to understand all the political undertones of it. It was this Herod, Herod the tetrarch, who executed John the Baptist. He was so taken by Salome's dancing that he asked her what she would like. And although he was a weak man and thought that John the Baptist was a good man, when Salome said she wanted her mother pushed her and she said she'd like John the Baptist's head on platter, he executed John the Baptist there and then and was known throughout as the murderer of John the Baptist. It was this Herod that the Lord Jesus referred to as rather beautifully, that fox. [01:02:42] Remember, go and tell that fox Herod you'll find that if you want to look it up in Luke 13 verse, verse 32. Now what is Paria? [01:02:57] Because in actual fact this term the word doesn't appear in the New Testament, which is most remarkable. It is not Berea, by the way, that's in Greece. This is Paria. [01:03:07] This area corresponded approximately to the old Gilead of the Old Testament. And although attractive, a very attractive region of upland, it was more thinly populated than Galilee. And elsewhere through its territory ran the all jewish road from Jerusalem to Galilee. This is it, you see the old territory of Gilead. And in the New Testament it is referred to again and again and again. But it is never called pariah. It is always called beyond the Jordan. Now have you ever thought that beyond the Jordan just meant anywhere beyond the Jordan? It doesn't. Beyond the Jordan always referred to this area of Perea. If you turn just to three instances. Matthew 425, Matthew 425. [01:04:05] And there followed him great marches from Galilee to Capolis and Jerusalem, Judah and from beyond the Jordan. That's pariah. Then if you will, turn to John one first chapter of John, John 128. These things were done in Bethany, beyond the Jordan where John was baptizing Bethany of Peria. And then not the other Bethany we know. And then John ten and verse 40. [01:04:35] And he went away again beyond the Jordan into the place where John was at the first baptized. And there he abode. That's Perea. Now lastly we come to Galilee. [01:04:48] Galilee means ring or circle or circuit. And hence it came to mean region. That's all it means. Galilee just simply means region or area, circuit. [01:05:02] It comprised the old tribal area of Naphtali, Zebulun, Asher and Issachar. [01:05:11] It was divided into Upper Galilee and Lower Galilee. And the rabbis even found the third one that they called Tiberius because they disliked Tiberius so much. Tiberius was a completely greek hellenistic city and therefore they said there's Upper Galilee, Lower Galilee and Tiberius, or what side some have called middle Galilee. Upper Galilee is mostly over 3000ft and in one place it rises to 3900ft. [01:05:46] And here in this part of Upper Galilee, all up here is the really magnificent wild scenery that you sometimes see. If you look here later in this atlas, you'll see one or two photos of it, wild and remote. Now Judeans always thought of the whole of Galilee like that because it was there that the robbers used to go into the marshlands and moors of Upper Galilee just to hide away from anyone, because it was thought that there you got the greatest chance of getting away from people. Lower Galilee, on the other hand, there was nothing above 2000ft and it dropped at the lake of Galilee to below sea level. And it was beautiful, fertile country, nothing like what most of you imagine Palestine to be. It was very rarely ever desert in Galilee. Therefore we can say that Galilee is essentially upland area. Its fertility was renowned. Now I could read you if we had time, portion after portion, both from the rabbis and from other books like Dean Stanley or Edersheim or Edersham or others who have written waxing eloquent about lower Galilee. Oh, absolutely tremendous. And the rabbis used to say about the renowned fertility and beauty Galilee, that if anyone wants to be rich, let him go north. [01:07:27] If anyone wishes to be wise, let him go south. Which is rather a nasty kind of way of putting it. But what they really meant was if you want to make a fortune, go up to Galilee where there's fertile land and where there are plenty. They used to say it's easier to, to create a forest in Galilee than to raise a child in Judea, was another saying of the rabbis. Lower Galilee was a district of wooded hills, olive orchards and vineyards. [01:08:03] In the spring, the hills were simply ablaze with flowers and every valley was covered with grain. Now I am going to read just a little portion, only a paragraph from this book, which is not the kind of book that waxes eloquent. It's called the Geography of the Bible. It was only published more recently and it is not like one of some of the old, good old victorian edwardian books that are so delightful to read. Nevertheless, even this gentleman, Bailik, cannot help himself when he comes to Galilee. And this is what he says when we are told that Jesus went about all Galilee. It is lower Galilee and the shores of late Tiberius that is meant. It is therefore against this background that we must picture him as he went from village to village to village among the wooded hills. He would have skirted the fertile basins rich with grain, taking perhaps a little over an hour to walk the full length of the largest of them and have climbed up through the olives and vineyards which clothed the slope. Even in the long summer, when the brilliant thistles took the place of flowers among the rocks and the stubble had gone from the fields, it would not have been a barren landscape, for the trees and shrubs must still have been many. As he trudged the dusty footpaths that cut across the hills, he would have met the farmers with their laden donkeys, taking grapes and vegetables to sell in Zephyrus or the lakeside towns, using the cool hours of the grey and very early dawns to make their journey. Sometimes he would have used the great trade routes which led from the lake shores to the south or the west and would have passed the long trains of pack animals which carried the grain or the rich fruits of Damascus. And sometimes he would have turned aside along a narrow track to a little village such indeed as Nazareth was now here. Of course, it's the much more technical book than the others. And even he has to wax a little eloquent when it comes to Galilee, just because Galilee was so beautiful. In Galilee we find Gilboa, little Hermon, Mount Tabor, Mount Carmel, the plain of Jezreel, the plain of Gennesaret. All these were in Galilee, whilst the snow covered Mount Hermon, rising to 9300ft, dominated every part of Galilee seen always on a clear day, rising right up above the mists with its snow covered top. In the distance here in Galilee were Capernaum, Tiberius, Khorazin, Magdala, Nazareth, Cana Nave. All these places that should immediately bring to memory things. The widow of Nain's son, the wedding at Cana of Galilee, the birth of the life of the Lord Jesus Carpenter at Nazareth. All these things immediately they remind us of different ones. Herod Antipas, Herod the Tetrarch built Tiberius as his capital. [01:11:17] It was very hellenistic and was shunned by all loyal jews. Thus, sometimes the lake of Galilee was called the Sea of Tiberias. Here is Tiberius, the capital of Galilee and Perea. But most jews tried to keep out of it because they felt that it was a sin and a blot on the landscape. Nazareth lies. Nazareth itself lies in a high valley among the southerly hills of the Lebanon range. [01:11:47] Its valley floor is 1200ft on three sides. Steep hills rise up on the west, rising to 1600ft. All the main roads, main trade routes passed near Nazareth. And Nazareth had a very bad name. We're not always quite sure why it's got such a bad name. But even Nathaniel, in whom there was no guile when he said, he said, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Now you would expect that of a Judean. But do you know where Nathaniel came from? Nathaniel came from Cana, which is only next to Nazareth. [01:12:35] So it is quite clear that even Galileans weren't too keen on Nazareth for some reason. Nazareth had a bad name with people. [01:12:47] It would seem that temperamentally, Galileans were more latin than their judean counterparts. They were supposed to be. And all the rabbis say this of them. They were supposed to be more rebellious, more high spirited, more quarrelsome, more hot blooded than the Judeans. Josephus on the other hand, tells us that they were hardworking, manly people. [01:13:16] They were certainly much more practical than the Judean. And it is a known fact that the Phariseeism never got very far in Galilee because it was too theoretical. [01:13:31] Now, the Galileans spoke with a very definite provincial accent, rather like. Now, I'm not being rude, but rather like a Yorkshire one or a Lancashire one, only quite different. I mean, the point was that we all know anyone who comes from Lancashire or Yorkshire. Immediately we hear that, we go, oh, well, they're from the north. The Galilean had an absolutely pronounced action. And in fact, it was. It was the butt of all kinds of jokes and witticisms everywhere. The reason being that the Galleons found it very hard to. They found themselves unable to say gutturals. [01:14:09] Now, many english people can't say cockney, for instance, can't say loch. He said, locke, he can't speak any German because he had to say Kirke instead of Kirche because he can't get those guttles. Well, the Galilean couldn't do it. Just couldn't do it. He was completely incapable of saying. Therefore, it didn't matter where you came from, Galilee, your speech immediately gave the game away. You were a Galilean. Now, that is why, if you look into scripture, you read in mark 14, mark 14 and verse 70, we read this, but Peter again denied it. And after a little while, again, they that stood by said to Peter of a truth, thou art one of them, for thou art a Galileo. Now, if you turn to matthew 26, back to Matthew 26 and verse 73, we have it even more, an even more detailed account. Listen. And after a little while, they that stood by came and said to Peter of a truth, thou art also one of them, for thy speech maketh thee known. [01:15:25] Now, if you turn to acts chapter two, you have another very interesting little point. Acts chapter two, the day of Pentecost, verse seven. Acts two, verse seven. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying, behold, are not all these that speak Galileans? [01:15:46] You see, a Galilean just couldn't, couldn't hide the fact. Everyone immediately said, galilean, just like a Scotsman. I could tell a Scotsman all over the world. At least we can. I mean, Britishers can. We only have to listen. We say, oh, my word of Scotsman, you just cannot hide the fact. On top of that, they not only had a very definitely provincial accent but they dressed in a provincial way. This also made them rather amusing to the more refined Judeans. [01:16:21] So, in fact, to the more urbane and refined Judeans, the Galileans were countrified. They were country bumpkins. They were the simpletons of the north. They were the sort of lower class people, rustics, that sort of come out of the country with their accent and their dress and so on. Added to all that was the isolation of Galilee, cut off from Judea by Samaria, surrounded by the Gentiles and hellenistic cities and Decapolis and elsewhere. It was even called Galilee of the Gentiles. Isaiah called it Galilee of the nations. But the other translation is Galilee of the Gentiles. That was the word that all Jews referred to Galilee as. Galilee of the Gentiles. That's the way they thought of it. Gentile incursions, gentile influence, made it suspect and despised in judean eyes. The rabbis used to say this. Judea is grain, Galilee is straw, and beyond is charged. [01:17:31] This is the way Galilee was despised. So if you turn John 146 quickly, we won't be any too long. John 146. [01:17:43] Daniel said, can any good thing come out of Israel? Out of Nazareth? Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? And he ought to know as a lad, he must have fought and walked to Nazareth and seen it. Whether this is just the jealousy of two towns side by side, I don't know. But he said, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? And then if you turn to John seven, same gospel. John seven, verse 41, we read this. [01:18:17] Others said, this is the Christ. But some said, what doth Christ come out of Galilee? The Messiah out of Galilee. Judeans would have died at the very thought of it. And then again, verse 52. They answered and said unto him, art thou also of Galilee? That was the rudest thing they could have possibly said to Nicodemus, art thou also of Galilee? Search and see that out of Galilee Ariseth no prophet. [01:18:44] Yet it was here in Galilee that the messiah was to live and work. [01:18:51] Now, it is a remarkable fact that the main part of Christ's life was spent in Nazareth. 30 years of it, 30 years of his 33 years will live down in Nazareth as a carpenter. [01:19:10] And I have often said, oh, I would give anything to be able somehow to take a peep into the Lord's daily life in those 30 years. Well, of course, 20 years of it would have been work at day, rise, sunrise to sunset, hard work, molding wood. Whenever I look at Bill or one of the boys preparing a piece of wood, I think, can you imagine it? God did that for 30 years. He worked on wood. For 30 years. He turned out broom handles and ploughs and spoons and ladles and buckets and all kinds of things. The main part of God, the sons earth life was spent as a carpenter in this village of Nazareth, living the old routine, life that had been lived for generations, living the life that was common to all the people around him. It is amazing to think of the Lord like that and to think of him tonight on the throne as one who knows all about the humdrum of life, who knows all about the irritation of life. Some of us have got the idea of the Lord rightly and completely and wholly removed from normal life. He knows all about it. I think he knows a good deal more than most of us. He never shirked a job, he never bypassed any problem. Everything he took in his stride. 30 years at a carpenter's bench, I say 30 years, 20 years at least at the carpenter's bench, right through apprenticeship, right through into adulthood. All those years spent, and I would love to know what the people in the village and around thought of his work. What was it thought? The things the Lord turned out, the things Christ. Do you know that when he was dead, people were still using his buckets, they were still plowing fields with his ploughs, they were still sweeping yards with his brooms, all kinds of things that they were cooking with his utensils. All of he was gone. People had got the very things God the salad made incredible Galilee, 30 years of his life, of his earth. And also it was here that was the main center of his ministry. The main center of his ministry was Capernaum. And if you look through the gospels, you will find, if you trace it through, you will find that the major part of his ministry was actually in Capernaum. Most of his miracles. The main part of his actual ministry, the main center of his ministry was component. The main part of his ministry was exercised on the shores or the area north and west of Lake, of the Lake of Galilee. Most of his closest disciples were galilean. [01:22:02] It's another very interesting thing. [01:22:05] Peter, Andrew, James, John, they're all Galileans. [01:22:12] Matthew was the customs officer, the custom man. [01:22:17] He sat at the receipt of toll in Capernaum. It's wonderful to think of it like that. There he was one day at the receipt, at the toll, taking the tax, and the Lord just said to him, rise up and follow me. And he just got up and left and followed the law. He was the tax gatherer or the toll collector or whatever you like to call it, Capernaum. Nathanael came from Cana and it was Cana where the first miracle that he ever performed took place, the turning of the water into wine. And the second, when the centurion came all the way up from Capernaum, all the way up to Cana, he travelled, that centurion to plead with the Lord Jesus to do something for his son. And the Lord Jesus said, it's done. I've not seen such faith in Israel. And the man said, lord, you don't need to come down to Capernaum. Just say the word and it's done. And the Lord said, it's done. And he went back. And when he got back, all that way back to Capernaum, he found at the exact moment the Lord had said, it's done. It had happened, his son was completely healed. All these things. And then, of course, we read of Mary Magdalene. Who is Mary Magdalene? Magdalene's not a surname. Magdalene means Mary of Magdala. Here it is. It was a very interesting place indeed. It was a place known for its shops and for its wool industry. [01:23:41] In fact, Magdala means city of dais and it was also known for its wickedness. So Mary Magdalene lived up to it, to the reputation of Magdalen. She was called Mary of Magdala. She became one of the closest, the Lord's disciples. Well, now, isn't that all amazing? And so I think we've run over our time, but I think we can only end by reading these words. Here in despised, Galilee, was where the Lord spent the major part of his life. And the major part of his ministry was exercised here. In this part, despised by others, was where arose this great light upon people who sat in darkness. If you read Isaiah nine, it's so glorious because it speaks of thou, Galilee, of the nations and the light that rose upon the darkness that shrouded everything. It was there in despised, Galilee that the Messiah actually appeared. But the scripture I would like to end with is, for behold your calling, brethren. Not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame the things that are wise. And God chose the weak things of the world that he might put to shame the things that are strong and the base things of the world. Did God choose, yea, things that are despised, things that are lost that he might bring to naught, kings that are, that no flesh should glory before God. [01:25:25] Shall we pray now, Lord Jesus, there have been so many facts and figures tonight. But we do praise thee that thou art able to write them on our heart and from them. Lord to instruct us and teach us in thy ways. We thank thee, Lord, that this can all become really invaluable background material to our reading and study of thy word. Make it so, we pray, beloved Lord, and make us people who, Lord, how sensitive to thyself when we think, Lord, how few eyes ever look toward Galilee. How few ever thought that anything would happen in Galilee. O that we might be people sensitive to thy spirit. And, Lord, who somehow in touch with thee are aware of what thou art doing and we ask it in thy name. Amen.