Day 1 in Israel






Day 1 – Caesarea Maratima, Mt. Carmel, Megiddo, Nazareth

King Herod the Great had two hobbies – killing people and building. Herod builds a coastal town from scratch to have a cove and harbor. Herod builds a harbor, jetty, his palace and a hippodrome for chariot races. This place is historically significant for Christians because the Apostle Paul was kept in prison here for two years when Governor Felix had taken over the palace. This account is found in Acts 23:23-35. We were walking in Paul’s steps.

We went up to Mt. Carmel where Elijah put the 450 prophets of Baal to the sword. You can usually see everything from Mt. Carmel, unfortunately a cloud had settled over this high point in Israel and we could not see anything. God had said that everything would be dry and wither with a famine. It is amazing to see how green and lush everything is now. After our devotion we sang, “God of the Prophets.” “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!” One of my favorite Old Testament Bible stories is Elijah upon Mt. Carmel. In any contest, God always wins!

The city of Megiddo has been destroyed and rebuilt 25 times. Megiddo is in a strategic position leading from Egypt to Persia. Israel is the bridge between Asia and Egypt. Everyone fought here for these trade routes. Everybody wanted it because you could see your enemies coming from two days away. Right now there is nothing here. However, Revelation 16:15 describes this as the place for the final battle. It is called Armageddon (or Har Megiddo).

We ended the day at Nazareth. 2,000 years ago Nazareth was a very small city in the New Testament. It isn’t even mentioned in the Old Testament. Now it is the biggest city in the valley because Christians moved here to live where Jesus lived for 27 years of his life. The Christians gave jobs to Muslims and then the Jews moved in also. We went to the 250 year-old Greek Orthodox Church built over the place where the annunciation was to have taken place – the angel Gabriel announcing to Mary that she would give birth to the Christ child. We ended our day on Mt. Precipice overlooking Nazareth in the dusk – possibly the hill where the citizens of Nazareth tried to throw Jesus over the cliff. If people did not care for Jesus, they will not care for our message, either.

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