We are still on day two of our Israel Trip: Nazareth. Yes, I’m really just writing about day two! Seriously, this trip was a trip of a lifetime and one that I’m still trying to process 9 months later. Please be patient with me.

As a reminder, Nazareth was the village where Jesus grew up as a child after He was born in Bethlehem and lived in Egypt for a bit. Nazareth was a small village and most people from there were thought of by others as “nothing”. Let’s start with the Bible when Jesus returned to Nazareth and went to the synagogue.

The hill they would have climbed from Nazareth to the Mt. of Precipice

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked. Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.'” “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed–only Naaman the Syrian.” All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. — Luke 4:16-30 NIV

Jesus had grown up in Nazareth, so he knew all the hills, cliffs, and town very well. He knew places to go so they could not throw him off the cliff. This was the culture of the day when you did not keep the Jewish law; you were thrown off of a cliff. If the fall didn’t kill you, you were then stoned to death. The Romans crucified you for breaking their laws and the Jewish culture threw you off a cliff. Jesus knew what to expect and this type of reaction was not a complete blindside. Even in the scripture quoted above from Luke’s account, Jesus is telling the people that they won’t accept Him.

 

Here’s what I thought was interesting from this point of the journey. You have the town of Nazareth in the background (as seen in the main picture of this post), and you have the cliff where they were going to throw Him. As you stand on the cliff, you have three other main sights in your view: Mt. Tabor (one of the possible sites of the transfiguration), the Jezreel Valley (the valley of Armaggedon), and Mt. Carmel (where Elijah taught Elisha and where Elijah challenged and killed the prophets of Baal.

In case you’ve missed the fact, in the backyard of Nazareth is the place where multiple battles took place in the Old Testament. It would be like those of us in America growing up with a Civil War battlefield in our backyard, except we would have to pretend there were multiple wars and not just one. The book of Revelation talks about the final battle occurring in this very valley.

Jesus grew up where the final battle on earth will occur. He was not distant from the tales of wars and chaos. Neither are we. We face many battles in our “backyards”. What battles do you have in your past? Or, are you still fighting battles today? Just like Jesus knew to expect to be thrown off the cliff, we must expect the be attacked as we live out our lives for God. Satan does not want to be defeated, but God has the final word. We have the playbook, the Bible, and we have already won the war! Don’t forget this victory in your present-day battle.

When you face your battles, do as Jesus did: Walked right through the crowd and went on his way. Have faith and carry on, fellow warrior! The battle belongs to God!

© 2015 Susan M. Sims