Why?

This week’s journal in the devotional Advent Journeys seeks to speak the words of Joseph as he travels with Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Joseph and Mary were unique individuals of character, and for this reason they were chosen by God to become parents who would be remembered and who would serve as examples for other parents across two thousand years of history.

View from the Precipice near Nazareth 

Have you ever wondered why God chose this couple and how we can emulate their parenting methods with our own children?

Kitchen at a home in Katzrin

The scripture teaches that Joseph and Mary were individuals with integrity. Each parent in their own way sought to honor God with all their hearts, minds and strength. (Deuteronomy 6:5) When Gabriel came to Mary in order to inform her that she was chosen to give birth to the one called “the Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:32), she responded by asking “How can this be since I am a virgin.” Mary wanted her faithfulness to be known by the angel, by her parents, by her community and by Joseph.

Village of Katzrin in the Galilee

Matthew 1 tells of Joseph’s concern when he found out that Mary was pregnant. He loved her, but he knew his integrity would be compromised when the community came to know Mary was with child. Joseph sought a way to end the betrothal in an extremely private manner. As he prayed and sought God’s wisdom on the matter, Gabriel visited Joseph as he had visited Mary. The heavenly being assured Joseph that Mary had done nothing wrong. And the Angel asked Joseph to complete the marriage and to adopt the child.

Village of Katzrin in the Galilee

Both parents had similar concerns and stepped out in faith to accept the child and God’s calling to become parents and teachers of a child who was well beyond them in intellect and righteousness.

Scaffolding at Katzrin

Joseph and Mary sought throughout the life of Jesus and of their other children (Matthew 13:55-56) to bring faith to their family. The holy parents taught their children the scripture at every opportunity. They stood as examples of faith through every trial (and there were many, such as the necessity of escape from Bethlehem and living as parents of faith in a foreign land). Joseph and Mary honored every Jewish tradition and honored the festivals with their family. Joseph taught Jesus the skills of his trade and Mary loved Jesus and lived her care for him to the day of his death and beyond.

Packing down a roof in Katzrin

Jesus’ parents willingly took on any hardship and sought in every way to bring their children up in the faith. Today as parents we must do the same. We must honor the Christmas season with more than presents, we must honor God by giving our children our presence to tell real story of our faith. Parents show God’s love through proper placement of priorities.

Descending the Precipice - Picture at heading

Our first trip to Israel in 2012 was a learning experience.  The land was not what we expected.  We expected a land which was similar to where we live: tree covered woodlands with rolling hills, rivers and streams, and in places green farmland.  The land was much more arid, similar to Wyoming where I lived for four years, with few trees and few rivers.

We traveled to Israel with Biblical Israel Tours led by John Delancey and Shlomo-Ben Asher who did a great job of orienting us to the land and sharing the Biblical stories connected with each place we visited.  And we visited a lot of places.

On our first trip we drove from Mt. Carmel to Megiddo, across the Jezreel Valley and up into the Galilean highlands to visit Nazareth.  We drove through the edge of the modern city of Nazareth to an overlook known as the precipice.  From this overlook we could see the locations we had visited earlier plus Mt. Tabor, Mt. Moreh, and Mt. Gilboa.  We could see recently harvested wheat and barley fields.  We could almost see from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River.

The precipice is the place Bible teachers believe Synagogue leaders took Jesus after he read from the scroll of Isaiah and announced he was the Messiah.  The leaders and people became furious and “took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff.” (Luke 4:16-30)  Because it was not the time for Jesus to die, he was able to walk through and away from the crowd.

From the top of the hill we were able to look down into the bowl where modern day, and ancient Nazareth sat.  We saw the Church of the Nativity, which is over the place where Jesus lived.  We were told how Jesus probably came out to this cliff and played with his friends.  We were given a sense of what life must have been like when Jesus was alive.

On a second trip in 2014, we saw the site of Sipporis, where Joseph probably worked as a carpenter.  We saw the beautiful mosaic floors and the ruins of this once great city.

The point is Jesus was from a common every-day family, and when the census notice was delivered, Joseph had to travel as most people did in his day: on foot.  The first part of the trip would be difficult as Joseph and his pregnant wife descended from their highlands home into the valley below.  I talk about this trip in my book Advent Journeys.

Book Ideas

   I talk to many people who ask, "where do you get your ideas for books?"
   The answer is fairly simple, from two sources: ideas come out of my heritage and also out of my curiosity.  There could be some other areas from which I have drawn ideas, but those are the starting point thus far for my books (which I have written including Advent Journeys, Spring; Connecting with God, and A Christian Passover in the Jewish Tradition.
     My most recent book began with a family tradition: Advent.  When my children were young, in order to teach them the faith (in a rather Jewish way) I came up with weekly themes, daily scripture readings and connected activities (soon to be listed at our website) which would be fun and hold interest from day to day.  Such as on Shepherds week we read Luke 2 and send Christmas cards announcing the birth of Jesus ... just as the angels announced Christ's birth long ago.
   My family followed this tradition (changing as my daughters grew older) for more than twenty-five years.  I put this tradition in writing as pamphlets for others, but when I decided to put it in book form, it did not seem to be interesting enough.   So I asked myself, what would make it interesting enough: And Advent Journeys was born.
   With this idea I could have written the standard Biblical exegesis book and described the Bible passages in my own words, related how the birth of Jesus tied into Old Testament prophecy, or told about theology or tradition ... but my curiosity led me another way.  I thought "I wonder what the trip was like from Nazareth to Bethlehem."  Simple question, or so I thought!
   There are three or four roads from Nazareth to Bethlehem.  People most often describe the road from Nazareth trough Jezreel Valley down the Jordan River and up the wadi of the Good Samaritan to Jerusalem and Bethlehem.  Many travelers took that road, especially Pharisees who wanted to avoid contact with the Samaritans.  But this road is longer and more difficult than the other two.
   An easier route is south through Megeddo Pass to the via maris then up the Beit Horon pass to Jerusalem and Bethlehem.  This route is much easier than the road through the Jordan Valley, also avoids contact with the Samaritans, and is almost never in consideration as the road Joseph and Mary traveled.  This road is also longer than the third option:
   I feel Joseph and Mary traveled almost due south, between the two other routes on the shortest route possible.  I found this route on the internet listed today as Israel route 60, in one place listed as the Joseph and Mary Highway.  I feel this route is most likely because as an adult Jesus still traveled this road on the way home (as evidenced in John 4).  So I followed this highway.
   The first problem of the route today is that it journeys through the West Bank, an area which is described as risky.  The second problem is some parts of route 60 are worse than risky and have been bulldozed in order to contain violent areas.  In spite of difficulties my curiosity told me to travel the route and see what the road was like.
   Fortunately I was able to travel the route without getting shot at or putting my life in danger through the internet. Google Maps, Facebook pages, Wikipedia information and other sources were consulted, along with books and 19th century journals (when the land was safer) to learn about the route.  And it was interesting.  Thus came into being week 2 of my latest book Advent Journeys.