I apologize for the delay in reporting. We have not had access to the internet. We are now in Jerusalem and I broke down and paid the tourist trap price for internet access. We are already in awe of Jerusalem, but I will report on that later. The posts below are from the previous two days. Miles is much better - praise God! I look forward to sharing more later.
Friday night, 8/29. Tonight we are reporting from the town of Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. We are in a hotel room with a view of the lake. A number of us went swimming in the lake. The water was fairly warm, probably in the low 80s.
We started the day with a good breakfast, then headed out to Caesarea, which is north of Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean. Several new people joined us for the Israel only portion of the tour, including a couple with an 8 month old baby.
Caesarea was built by Herod. He built his palace out into the sea using sunken concrete. This is the same palace where Paul was under house arrest for two years after being arrested in Jerusalem. In Caesarea he appealed to Caesar. Caesarea is also where Peter entered Cornelius’s home and shared the gospel with Gentiles for the first time. Caesarea was also home of Phillip, one of the original seven deacons, and the same Phillip who shared Christ with the Samaritans and the Ethiopian eunuch on the road to Gaza. Paul stopped in Caesarea and stayed with Phillip before he went to Jerusalem for the last time and was arrested. We read several of these stories while in Caesarea.
We traveled to Mt. Carmel, where Elijah confronted the prophets of Bael and God poured down fire from heaven. The road to Mt. Carmel goes through a very green area of Israel, with vineyards, orchards, olive groves and pine trees. The east side of Mt. Carmel drops off fairly steeply in the Jesreel Valley – also known as the valley of Armageddon (the valley of the Mt. (“Har”) of Megiddo). This valley is primarily rich farmland. The Kishon brook runs along the main highway. Elijah slew the priests of Bael by the Kishon brook down in the valley.
From the top of Mt. Carmel, on a clear day you can look west and see the Mediterranean (Caesarea) and look east and see back of Nazareth on the far side of the valley. To the south (right), is the Tel of Meggido. Meggido sits along the main highway, which has been in that location for at least 3,000 years. By controlling the road and securing payment for safe passage, Meggido became a wealthy town. We went to the top of the Tel and then climbed down into a deep well. The builders of the town dug the well and connected it with a tunnel to a secret spring outside the town so that they would have plenty of water in the event of a siege.
It is kind of surreal to look across this rich valley and imagine it some day filled with blood and corpses at the battle of Armageddon, as described in Revelation 16.
After Mt. Carmel and before traveling to Meggido, we stopped at a Druze restaurant for lunch. The food was similar to Persian food.
We next traveled past Mt. Hazor/Tazor – the Mt. of Transfiguration. That small mountain is a sister mountain to Nazareth and is probably only 3-5 mile walk from the top of Nazareth. Mt. Hazor is a perfectly shaped mound, covered with trees. The only building we saw on it was a monastery at the top.
We wound around Mt. Hazor and past the front side of Nazareth to the road that leads down the hill to the Sea of Galilee. Galilee is probably 15 miles east (and slightly south) from Nazareth. The valley in which the lake sits is very pleasant. It is fairly green on the west side (the approach from Nazareth). We wound down into Tiberias, which was built in 18 A.D. Our Israeli tour guide kind of scoffed that Tiberias is never mentioned in the Bible, even though Jesus had to go through it many times.
We took photos around Galilee. Tomorrow, we will leave by 7:30 a.m. to go to the Mt. of Beatitudes. Mark Driscoll will be sharing a message with us there from the Sermon on the Mount. We are thankful this will be in the morning, instead of when the temperature has climbed past 100. We will also take a cruise on the lake and visit what is left of Capernaum and the other ancient towns along the lake and go to the Jordan River for baptisms. We are scheduled to eat St. Peter’s fish for lunch.
As I look at the bustling tourist trade around the lake and the remnants of a crusader’s fort, mosques, run-down hotels, tourist shops and other enterprise that dominate the Tiberias area, I can’t help but think this was not what Jesus had in mind when he ministered on these shores. So many people come here and learn about Jesus but never know Jesus, and certainly never know him as Lord and Messiah.
Miles seems stronger every day. God is truly to be praised and glorified. This is probably the first day that we felt relatively caught up on sleep and on a normal schedule. Miles was very tired this evening and went to sleep very early.
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