There’s just something about being at the Sea of Galilee. Its mentioned by name 71 times in the Scriptures. The Messiah, the Savior of the World, Jesus as most of us know Him (Yeshua, His Hebrew Name) walked countless miles along those shores and around those surrounding hills.
29 After Yeshua left there, He went along the Sea of Galilee. Then He went up on a mountainside and was sitting there. 30 And large crowds came to Him, bringing with them the lame, blind, disabled, mute, and many others. And they laid them at His feet, and He healed them. 31 So the crowd marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the disabled made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel. (Matthew 15:29-31)
It’s hard for us to even really imagine that scene, isn’t it? Picture someone you’ve known to be disabled in some way, being completely restored by this Man, Yeshua. His Name literally means “Yehovah Saves”…the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; when they said His Name they were proclaiming the Salvation of God who had come in human form. It’s overwhelming to even think about. Standing on these shores 2,000 years ago these things really happened. And even 2,700 years ago the prophet, Isaiah, spoke these words that Yeshua fulfilled right there on the shore of the Sea of Galilee:
4 Say to those with anxious heart “Be strong, have no fear! ”Behold, your God! Vengeance is coming! God’s recompense—it is coming! Then He will save you.5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.6 Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing. For water will burst forth in the desert and streams in the wilderness. (Isaiah 35:4-6)
After Yeshua was raised from the dead, He walked with a couple of the disciples on the Road to Emmaus talking with them, saying, “Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them the things written about Himself in all the Scriptures.” It makes you wonder if those verses in Isaiah were ones He listed when telling them all the ways the Scriptures told ahead of time who He was…the ones that came to fruition on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.