To reach a port we must set sail –
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Sail, not tie at anchor
Sail, not drift.
Before the tribe of Dan settled in the city of Dan, they had a tribal allotment like the other eleven tribes of Israel. Their allotment was in a small stretch along the Mediterranean and inland, west of Jerusalem. This is where they were supposed to settle.
I’ve been in the inland part of their territory on past trips, but today I’m in Joppa, one city allocated to Dan (Joshua 19:46) that’s on the coast. Dan, however, had difficulty controlling the coast because of their enemies, the Philistines. Instead, they were confined to the foothills to the east.
Ancient Israel didn’t have a good, natural harbor. Despite the small size of the port, Joppa has remained on the map for thousands of years. It is mentioned several times in the Bible, with its greatest significance in being the closest harbor to Jerusalem. Cedars were floated from Lebanon down the coast to Joppa where they were picked up and brought over land to Jerusalem to build both temples (2 Chronicles 2:16, Ezra 3:7). Joppa is also where the prophet Jonah found a ship to sail to Tarshish (Jonah 1:3). Much later, Peter went to Joppa where he raised a woman named Tabitha from the dead (Acts 9:38-43) and later had a vision of a sheet being lowered from heaven of unclean animals, which urged him to meet with God-fearing Gentiles in Caesarea (Acts 10).
Outside the Bible, Joppa entered history when Egypt ruled the land. The Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III conquered it around 1440 BC. It was an administrative headquarters under Rameses II around 1200 BC. Alexander the Great stationed troops here. It was captured by the Arabs in 636 and the Crusaders in 1099. After a couple centuries of being in ruins after the Crusades, it was captured by the Ottomans in 1515. Napoleon conquered it in 1799
Today, Joppa has been engulfed by the modern city of Tel Aviv. It’s been a fun first stop to wander around (attested by my 19,000 tracked steps today). But like the early Dannites, our journey doesn’t end here….
