Celebrations and a BIG Question

This group seems to like to celebrate and is prepared to do so.  Paulette has a card for almost anything along.  Yesterday we celebrated Curtis Fisher’s birthday.  Today, we celebrated Tom and Suzanne Mall’s 23rd wedding anniversary.  And we also celebrated the whole group being together for the first time ever, and getting our tour underway with our first day’s journey in the land.

We left Tel Aviv and headed north to the port city of Caesarea.  It was here that Peter shared the Gospel with Cornelius and his family and they became the first Gentile Christians.  Paul traveled in and out of this port, and was also imprisoned here for a couple years before being sent to Rome.  He gave a witness before Felix, Festus and King Agrippa.  He showed great diversity and reverence in how he witnessed to them.  We walked along the hippodrome to the crusader fortress, seeing the area of the stand where Paul probably stood to give his defense.  We ended our tour here by looking at the gate of the crusader fortress.  Its architecture is amazing, as was its efficiency in stopping enemies.

On our way out of town we stopped to take a look at the aqueduct Herod used to bring fresh water to the city,  He built it to carry water to this very large city from mountain springs 15 miles away.  It was another amazing example of his building prowess.

Elijah and Mount Carmel was next.  Here is where the BIG question came in.  “How long will you waver between two opinions?  If Baal is god worship him.   If the Lord is God, then worship Him.”.  The sacrifice was prepared, God won, and the people worshipped.  Elijah then prayed that rain would fall.  By his command they were suffering a severe drought for the past three and a half years.  And as his servant looked, a small cloud formed over the Mediterranean Sea, and rain fell.  We can pray like that too.

The northern chariot city of Megiddo and its 7000 plus years of existence next drew our attention.  Solomon stationed horses here. That was against what God had said.  The final battle of history will be fought in the valley below. (Armageddon is really Har Megiddo).  Two kings died here (Joram and Ahaziah). The most impressive thing on the site was the water system dug by King Ahab.  We all walked it and they locked the doors behind us. (They were shutting down early for Shabbat)

Our final stop was Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth.  While we were not able to walk to the ancient synagogue, we went to the Precipice and told the story of what happened in the synagogue and how they brought Jesus here to throw Him over the cliff for blasphemy.  Mt. Tabor, Nain, Gideon Spring, the mountain of Moreh, all of which are sites of major Biblical stories could all be seen from this one location.  It was a wow.

Our home for the next three nights is Nof Ginosar.  Time for some rest after a long day.




















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