Rooted and Grounded

In the north of Israel, almost to the border with Lebanon, is some of the most beautiful landscape in Israel. Here one can find the head waters of the Jordan River, and some very important places in the history of the people of God.

You may not know this, but Dan is the name of one of the 12 tribes of Israel. When each of the tribes was given its portion of the promised land by lot in the Book of Joshua, the portion given to the tribe of Dan was in the south of the country. A portion of the land given to Dan bordered the coast of the Mediterranean, but unfortunately, to the south of the land given to Dan lived the Philistines, arch enemies of Israel. Because they were unable to defeat the Philistines and ended up in constant conflict with them, the Danites decided to relocate to the north to a city previously known as Laish.

Dan was part of the Northern Kingdom (Israel) when the kingdoms were divided after Solomon died. They worshiped idols including a golden calf which was located at Tel Dan.

Spring at Tel Dan

Spring at Tel Dan

Beautiful greenery and water at Tel Dan

2020 with the rains, the water flow was tremendous at Tel Dan

Head waters of the Jordan River

Snow melt from Mt Hermon (Head waters of the Jordan River)

Head waters of the Jordan River

The pictures above show you how green it is in the Spring at Tel Dan and the tremendous flow of water. This water will end up flowing in the Jordan River.

Below are photos of the site where the altar was in Dan. It was a pagan altar and not a place sanctioned by God for worship by the Israelites. The northern kingdom was ultimately destroyed by the Assyrians which God clearly stated was because of Israel’s idolatry.

Altar site at Tel Dan

Altar Site at Tel Dan

Altar remains at Tel Dan

Also at the Tel Dan Nature reserve are the remains of the ancient city of Laish and the gate of the city which is sometimes called “Abraham’s Gate” because it is believed that this is the city gate that Abraham would have come through when he was looking for Lot and his family who had been kidnapped. (See Genesis 14) That will be addressed in a future post.

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