Passover to Pentecost – Galilee and the Mountain Week 3 Day 3
The disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. Matthew 28: 16 (NIV)
Part of the message of angels to the women on Easter morning was “tell My disciples to go to Galilee.” Jesus in talking to the women repeated those instructions to them. These verses are in Matthew and Mark, John and Matthew actually place them in Galilee, but why Galilee? There was one particular mountain in Galilee where Jesus wanted them to meet with Him, why?
The Book of Matthew may hold the answers. In Chapter 4 he quotes a verse from Isaiah 9 about Galilee, this verse just adds to the rich prophecies from Jacob and Moses about the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali. Their lands help to make up the area around the Sea of Galilee.
In Matthew 28 there seemed to be urgency in the reminders to leave Jerusalem and go to Galilee. I think that Jesus knew Jerusalem was not a healthy place for them to be. Them going to a place of relative safety mirrors when Father God had Moses change routes out of Egypt (Exodus 13:17). After all, this was home territory for them and there were still disciples in the area. (For more see Galilee.)
Mount Tabor may have been the mountain they were called to go too. It may have been where Jesus was transfigured. It is in the area where Zebulun, Naphtali, and Issachar’s territories come together. It has a place in the stories of Deborah and Barak, and Gideon; plus it is mentioned in Psalms 89, Jeremiah 46, and Hosea 5. Tabor, the city, was a Levitical city, but the Tabor in the story of Saul and the donkeys was a plain in Benjamin. So this mountain would have been a great place to give the Great Commission so that “people living in darkness could see the light.”
∞ Jesus, thank You that You look out for us, and send us out to the nations.
Mark's Bible Study 