Journey To Israel - Part 2

Our first tour day in Israel would start with an early rise, packing luggage into the bus and eating breakfast prior to 8am. The first day for me was probably the hardest mentally trying to adjust to being rushed through one site  to another and not having time to savor the moment. That was especially hard for those who had never been and had the sense they would never be back. For those physically challenged it was even worse since it took longer to get from one place to another. However, it is just something that could not be avoided and we had to accept in order to see all that we wanted to see. Grace conquered.

Our first stop was Caesarea which was built by Herod, but the residence of many of the Governors of Israel including Pontius Pilate and Festus.  They lived in this elaborately built place by the Mediterranean Sea and only went to Jerusalem about 3 times a year. This is where Paul came before Festus and appealed to Caesar(Acts 25). When we were there 20 years ago the theater was all that was there. Now there are acres of new discoveries.

While walking the area where the chariots would have raced and where the Olympics were held, a deep revelation of how the spilling of human blood was an over powering desire of satan and his kingdom of darkness.  Pilar, our guide, explained that the VIP seats were located where the chariots turned the curve which was the place the most blood was spattered. The word says "the life is in the blood". In mankind that life is the breath of God, Genesis 2:7, so no wonder satan hates it so. He especially hates those who are heirs of the kingdom of God. Satan hates anything or anyone God has claimed as his own. That is why there has been such a constant battle over Israel, especially Jerusalem, and his chosen people.

The second thing that I realized here was the fact that Israel is sitting on a large fault line and has had major earthquakes in the past. I knew there was an earthquake at the time of the Lord's death and graves were opened, but I somehow thought that was a supernatural event and not something that had occurred in the natural before. Revelation talks about the great city being divided by an earthquake and still it never dawned on me. We saw in Caesarea the first evidence of many major earthquakes and volcanic rocks that we would see all along our trip. A portion of this area is now under the sea from breaking off during an earthquake.

The third thing we got a hint of as we were ending our tour in Caesarea.  Pilar stopped and showed us a plaque that had a picture of a church built in the 6th century on the site of the ruins of Herod's temple. It was built in memory of a Christian martyr. She told us to look at it good and she would remind us in Jerusalem.

The next stop was on Mt Carmel where Elijah and the priest of baal took on a challenge as to who served the real God(1 Kings 18). As you stand on the top of Mt Carmel you look over the Jezreel Valley where the last big battle will occur as told about in Revelation.

Time for lunch! I had my first introduction to falafels which is made out of chickpeas. I was a little leary but quickly became hooked.  Of course it is all the good things you add to the falafel that makes it so wonderful.

After lunch we would visit the ruins of Megiddo which is mentioned in the old testiment from Joshua to Zechariah. From there we traveled to Nazareth. As I was passing through the town my thoughts went to the fact that it was Purim and remembered the young Messianic Jewish boy, son of a pastor, who received a bomb in a Purim basket left at their door steps several years ago.  I found out later that he was from Nazareth.

We went to the Village of Nazareth which is set up to give you an idea of what it was like in Jesus' day. Our guide was a young American girl who came over to volunteer because she had been there as a visitor the year before and wanted to be a part of teaching about Jesus in his home town.

I think the most impressive moment at the Village of Nazareth was sitting in the synagogue. It was like the synagogue that Jesus would have sat and as Luke 4 reads "And he stood up to read. 17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21 and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." 22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked. 23 Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself ! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.' " 24 "I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed--only Naaman the Syrian." 28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way."

He went back to the place he had lived for nearly 30 years and they did not recognize their time of visitation and turned on Him to the point of trying to kill him.  He never returned to his home, how sad that is to me. They rejected him because they could not see beyond the fact that he was the son of Joseph, the carpenter.

The day was coming to a close and we came to Tiberias to stay for the next two nights on the edge of the Galilee.