This morning we had a 6:00 AM wakeup call to get breakfast and head out for our first day of touring the Holy Land. We started at Caesarea, built by Herod the Great for Rome. By embracing pagan gods, he won the support and confidence of Rome Much of the city has disappeared, but you can still see the palace, the coliseum and the theater (that’s Sandy standing near the front of the theater where Herod Agrippa made a speech and was struck dead – see Acts 12:19-22). We then made a quick stop to see the aqueduct that carried water for 10 miles from springs by Mt Carmel to Caesarea.
We drove to the top of Mt Carmel where Elijah had it out with the 850 prophets of Baal (see the statue!). Our guide is doing a great job of “putting the text into context” as he describes the biblical setting before, during and after viewing each site. This mountaintop also provides a great view of the Jezreel Valley, long thought to be the site where Armageddon will occur.
We next drove to Nazareth, where Jesus grew up; the town is NOTHING like it was in His day. Now, it has a population of about 100,000; a combination of Arab Muslims and Arab Christians. Most of the Jews have move to Nazareth Illite, a small city of very nice condominiums on a hill just outside Nazareth. While here, we visited a recreation of what Nazareth might have looked like when Jesus was growing up, to include dwellings (two houses and a synagogue), crafts (a weaver and a carpenter) and some agriculture (wine and olive presses).
Finally we drove into Tiberias, on the south shore of the Sea of Galilee where we had dinner and spent some time along the shore realizing “this is the same sea where Jesus was!”Shalom!
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