Page 124 - Advanced Bible Geography ebook

Dan’s disobedience and refusal to repent serves as an object lesson for all of us. When a person refuses
to acknowledge sin and repent, that person’s name will not be recorded in God’s Book of Life.

Tyre and Sidon

Two coastal cities in modern-day Lebanon played a major role in
biblical history.

The two areas were originally assigned to Asher (Joshua 19:24-30)
but were never conquered by Israel. Nevertheless, there was
much interaction between the two cultures. Elijah escaped to
Zarephath near Sidon (1 Kings 17:9) during the drought he had
foretold. Jezebel, the queen who opposed Elijah, was a Sidonian
princess (1 Kings 16:31). Solomon did a robust business with these coastal communities, and the
prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos and Zechariah all spoke of the two cities. Some of them
predicted the destruction of Tyre and Sidon.

The connection between the people of Tyre and Sidon continues in New Testament times. People from
the area came to hear Jesus preach in the Galilee (Mark 3:8, Luke 6:17).

In response, Jesus visited the region himself (Matthew 15:21, Mark 7:24) and performed at least one
healing miracle there (Mark 7:25-30). Near the end of his ministry, Jesus used the faith of people from
Tyre and Sidon as a stark contrast to the doubt of those who heard him preach in Capernaum, Chorazin
and Bethsaida (Matthew 11:22).

In its prime, Tyre had been the capital of Phoenicia and a wealthy city. In addition to a harbor on the
mainland, Tyre had a fortified city on an island. In times of war, the island fortress seemed to be
impenetrable. When Alexander the Great made his military sweep across the area, he set siege to the
island for seven months and built a land bridge across the water. After Alexander conquered and
destroyed Tyre, it never regained its former glory.

Both cities had a long history of pagan worship. Ahab’s marriage to Jezebel meant that pagan worship
had completely infiltrated the northern kingdom. The prophets traced Israel’s destruction at the hand of
the Assyrians back to this intermarriage of cultures and religious beliefs.

Picture: (By Véronique Dauge - This place is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed asTyre., CC BY-SA 3.0-igo,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58157850)

Other places in Northern Israel

Nimrod’s Fortress
Nimrod fortress (Qal’at Namrud, Qal’at Subeiba), one of the largest and most impressive fortresses in
Israel. It is located on the north of the Golan heights, on a cliff high above the Banias. The frontier
fortress guarded the main road from Damascus to Tyre and Tiberias during the Crusaders period. Initially
fortified by the Crusaders, the present walls and towers were built by the Mamluks during the 13th C.

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