One of our favourite places to visit in Israel is Tel Dan in the far north of Israel, right on the border with Lebanon. It’s both lush and beautiful because of the melting snow from the Hermon mountains that feed the Jordan River. It’s strategic for political and security reasons of course but it’s also incredibly significant to the Biblical record. After king Solomon died and his son Rehoboam took the throne, the nation of Israel separated into Israel the Northern Kingdom and Judah the Southern Kingdom. Israel in the north was home to 10 Jewish tribes and the first king to rule the north was Jeroboam and he was a bad king. He was worried that the people might seek reunification with their southern cousins because the Temple was situated in Judah and they needed to travel to the Temple several times a year to keep certain feasts and festivals. In order to prevent this happening he established a counterfeit religious system complete with altars, feasts, festivals and religious practices that for the most part mimicked Judaism but were really nothing more than paganism. We cannot ‘Christianise’ paganism & slap-on Biblical terms to make it acceptable to God – […]