When Jesus travelled from Galilee to Judea, it is likely He traveled the Jordan Rift Valley. This was the easiest route (without going through Samaria) to get from Galilee to Judea.
The Jordan River flows through the valley and gives it its name, and runs from north of Lake Huleh to the Dead Sea. The valley itself is part of a larger geologic feature called the Great Rift Valley that runs 3,700 miles, from northern Syria to northeastern Africa. At the Dead Sea, the valley is the lowest place on land at more than 1,200 feet below sea level.
The climate of the Jordan Valley changes dramatically as it moves from north to south. In the north, near Lake Huleh, the valley is fertile, and plentiful rainfall allows substantial agriculture. South of the Sea of Galilee, the valley rapidly dries out and increases in temperature. Agriculture here is only possible by using the Jordan River for irrigation. Near the Dead Sea, the temperature is too high for most agricultural activity, although some palm crops are grown, like dates and bananas.
Humans have occupied the valley for thousands of years. Jericho, at the southern end of the valley, is considered by some to be the oldest inhabited city in the world. Other cities include Bethany Beyond the Jordan, Scythopolis (Beth Shean), Bethsaida, and Caesarea Philippi. John the Baptist ministered in the valley as well. As mentioned, it is also a major thoroughfare, allowing relatively easy travel from north to south. In the New Testament, Jesus traveled the valley several times, going from Galilee to Jerusalem and back, and was baptized in the Jordan River.
The Jordan River
Site Study
| Hershel Wayne House
The Jordan River is the only major waterway between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates River. It runs north to south 223 miles through the Jordan Rift Valley, from its headwaters in the foothills of Mt. Hermon, through Lake Huleh, through the Sea of Galilee, and on to where it empties into the Dead Sea. Over its course it falls 2885 feet in elevation, from 1500 ft. above sea level at its headwaters to 1385 feet below sea level at its mouth.
Due to the geography and climate of the area, the Jordan was subject to rapid fluctuations in flow during ancient times. From the Sea of Galilee south, the climate of the Jordan River Valley dries dramatically. With very little vegetation to hold excess water, heavy rains resulted in flash flooding in the canyons prevalent along the slopes of the valley. These flash floods swelled the amount of water flowing into the Jordan, and in turn the Jordan’s water level rapidly rose. Because of this, crossing the River ranged from fairly easy to very dangerous.
Although there are no major cities at the Jordan river, several important towns were located in the valley near the river, including Jericho in the south and Scythopolis (Beth Shean) further north, Bethsaida north of the Sea of Galilee, and Caesarea Philippi near one of the streams that form the headwaters of the Jordan.
Although there are few cities in the region of the Jordan River, it has been the scene of countless historical events. In the New Testament, it is the region where John the Baptist ministered, and the site of Jesus’ Baptism. Jesus undoubtedly traveled the route along the Jordan River valley between Galilee and Jerusalem.
They are not his children, because of their defect.
They are a perverse and crooked generation.
6Is this the way you repay Yahweh,
foolish and unwise people?
Isn’t he your father who has bought you?
He has made you and established you.
7Remember the days of old.
Consider the years of many generations.
Ask your father, and he will show you;
your elders, and they will tell you.
8When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
when he separated the children of men,
he set the bounds of the peoples
according to the number of the children of Israel.
9For Yahweh’s portion is his people.
Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
10He found him in a desert land,
in the waste howling wilderness.
He surrounded him.
He cared for him.
He kept him as the apple of his eye.
11As an eagle that stirs up her nest,
that flutters over her young,
he spread abroad his wings,
he took them,
he bore them on his feathers.
12Yahweh alone led him.
There was no foreign god with him.
13He made him ride on the high places of the earth.
He ate the increase of the field.
He caused him to suck honey out of the rock,
oil out of the flinty rock;
14butter from the herd, and milk from the flock,
with fat of lambs,
rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats,
with the finest of the wheat.
From the blood of the grape, you drank wine.
15But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked.
You have grown fat.
You have grown thick.
You have become sleek.
Then he abandoned God who made him,
and rejected the Rock of his salvation.
16They moved him to jealousy with strange gods.
They provoked him to anger with abominations.
17They sacrificed to demons, not God,
to gods that they didn’t know,
to new gods that came up recently,
which your fathers didn’t dread.
18Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful,
and have forgotten God who gave you birth.
19Yahweh saw and abhorred,
because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
20He said, “I will hide my face from them.
I will see what their end will be;
for they are a very perverse generation,
children in whom is no faithfulness.
21They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God.
They have provoked me to anger with their vanities.
I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people.
I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22For a fire is kindled in my anger,
that burns to the lowest Sheol,
devours the earth with its increase,
and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.
23“I will heap evils on them.
I will spend my arrows on them.
24They shall be wasted with hunger,
and devoured with burning heat
and bitter destruction.
I will send the teeth of animals on them,
with the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.
25Outside the sword will bereave,
and in the rooms,
terror on both young man and virgin,
the nursing infant with the gray-haired man.
26I said that I would scatter them afar.
I would make their memory to cease from among men;
27were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy,
lest their adversaries should judge wrongly,
lest they should say, ‘Our hand is exalted;
Yahweh has not done all this.’”
28For they are a nation void of counsel.
There is no understanding in them.
29Oh that they were wise, that they understood this,
that they would consider their latter end!
30How could one chase a thousand,
and two put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
and Yahweh had delivered them up?
31For their rock is not as our Rock,
even our enemies themselves concede.
32For their vine is of the vine of Sodom,
of the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are poison grapes.
Their clusters are bitter.
33Their wine is the poison of serpents,
the cruel venom of asps.
34“Isn’t this laid up in store with me,
sealed up among my treasures?
35Vengeance is mine, and recompense,
at the time when their foot slides,
for the day of their calamity is at hand.
Their doom rushes at them.”
36For Yahweh will judge his people,
and have compassion on his servants,
when he sees that their power is gone,
that there is no one remaining, shut up or left at large.
37He will say, “Where are their gods,
the rock in which they took refuge,
38which ate the fat of their sacrifices,
and drank the wine of their drink offering?
Let them rise up and help you!
Let them be your protection.
39“See now that I myself am he.
There is no god with me.
I kill and I make alive.
I wound and I heal.
There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.
40For I lift up my hand to heaven and declare,
as I live forever,
41if I sharpen my glittering sword,
my hand grasps it in judgment;
I will take vengeance on my adversaries,
and will repay those who hate me.
42I will make my arrows drunk with blood.
My sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives,
from the head of the leaders of the enemy.”
43Rejoice, you nations, with his people,
for he will avenge the blood of his servants.
He will take vengeance on his adversaries,
and will make atonement for his land and for his people.
44Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun. 45Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel. 46He said to them, “Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you today, which you shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law. 47For it is no vain thing for you, because it is your life, and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it.”
48Yahweh spoke to Moses that same day, saying, 49“Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is across from Jericho; and see the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel for a possession. 50Die on the mountain where you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people; 51because you trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you didn’t uphold my holiness among the children of Israel. 52For you shall see the land from a distance; but you shall not go there into the land which I give the children of Israel.”
