3 days on the edge of my seat

At the last minute we were invited to join the pastor's and leader's conference happening this week. A team of pastors and teachers from the States were coming, and Pete, Trac and I agreed we wouldn't miss this opportunity to hear some teaching in English, no matter what the topic.

I guess I expected to hear a lot about building and increasing the local church, encouraging people, how to counsel with wisdom, etc etc. What I heard was something I've been learning about just very recently, and I had so many questions that were answered!

The Harrisons and I were very privileged to go out for dinner with Tom and Nelson, (left and right) - we had them all to ourselves for several hours.



These men have studied the Bible extensively, but never been to a Theological seminary; Tom is linguistically gifted (which is an understatement) and can understand meaning from the original Greek and Hebrew texts that gets lost in translation into English.

From Tom and Nelson I learned to 'dig' into the Scriptures- when I come across something that doesn't make sense, the answer can be found in another part of the Bible.
Here is an example:

John 7:52
The Pharisees (Jewish religious leaders) want to arrest Jesus. They were upset when their guards didn't bring Jesus to them, and they said "check into it, you'll see for yourself that no prophet comes from Galilee."
That was their reasoning for why Jesus couldn't be a prophet, let alone the Messiah.
Well- is it true? Can a prophet not come from Galilee? Because Jesus did.
Did Jesus give us a hint to the answer?

Check out Matthew 16:4
The Pharisees are testing Jesus- they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.
Jesus replies that a wicked generation asks for a sign; the only sign that will be given them is the sign of Jonah.

What's the sign of Jonah? Many people say that in the way that Jonah was kept in the belly of the fish for 3 days, so Jesus would stay in the belly of the earth for 3 days, then he'd rise from death. But what if there's more in Jesus' oblique answer?
Where's Jonah from?

2 Kings 14:25 tells us that Jonah is from Gath-Hepher. The other place this town is mentioned in Bible is Joshua 19:10-13, where it tells us that Gath-Hepher is in the region of Zebulun.
So... where's Zebulun?
Isaiah 9:1- Zebulun is in - wait for it- Galilee!

And the question is solved. Jonah came from Galilee, the Pharisees didn't know what they were talking about, and God shows us his wisdom and love by spreading the answer to our question across the centuries between Joshua and Jesus.

In teaching us this, Nelson could add his own experience. He's visited the area of Galilee several times. He's been to Nain, where the widow's son was raised, and he's been to Nazereth, the hometown of Jesus. Gath-Hepher is right between these two towns, 10 minutes walking distance from Nazereth. Jesus would have known the town Gath-Hepher from his childhood.

Do you understand what all of this means?
I'm so excited by the possibilities.