These are the first few days of my Galilee trip. Although we have not gotten to Galilee yet, we have visited some fantastic sites including Aphek/Antipatris, Caesarea, Mt Carmel, Megiddo, the Harod Spring, Jezreel, and Nazareth.
Caesarea is amazing. Here we are standing in front of a Roman theater. Although theater had been reconstructed, goes it is in the original location. This theater was where Herod Agrippa I was struck down by God in Acts 12. Josephus also records the event, supporting it's truth. Paul was also brought before Felix at Caesarea, testimony to Felix and Festus, great grandchildren of Herod the Great, Herod Agrippa II and Bernice.
Mt Carmel is the most famous location of the same showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal in I Kings 18. The story famously that Elijah challenged the 450 prophets, and in their God Baal. They each set up an altar to their god. The prophets of Baal did all they could to get Baal's attention, to the point of, where he gave his cutting themselves. When Baal did not and before the answer, Elijah mocked them. Then, Elijah told the people to pour four jars of water on the altar, three times, until the altar was
soaked in water. Then he prayed to God who sent down fire from heaven. Elijah then had the people slay the prophets of Baal, thus proving who was the one true God.
John and Zach
Sandy and I
Our final stop of the day 2 was Nazareth. Jesus grew up in Nazareth, and at the time it had a population of probably 300 people, today it is a large Arab Israeli city. There are two churches commemorating the life of Jesus here. The Greek Orthodox have a church over the town's spring, assuming Mary was drawing water from the spring when Gabriel came to her. The Catholic's church is where they believe Mary's home might have been. Of course it is unknown who is right, or both could be wrong, not sure it matters. Here I am, sitting in a gorgeous hotel, while Jesus lived and walked, probably right below its foundations. And later in his life, was rejected Luke 4, by his own people.
I guess this is supposed to be Mary's home.
The Catholic church of the Annunciation.
The Greek Church, that has no name?
Natural spring in Nazareth
Kimberly Glass and I, on a hill overlooking Nazareth
Last Wednesday we took a field trip to the region of Samaria. We visited the Old Testament city of Aphek, which was the New Testament City of Aphek. The site is a national park, and although it was just another bunch of ruins (see a lot of those =) it was really pretty. Kind of a solemn spot. I Samuel records a battle between the Philistines and Israel, and the Philistines killed 30,000 Israelites, and they took the ark of the Covenant, which they later regretted.
Our second stop was at Shiloh. The Tabernacle rested at Shiloh after the conquest of Joshua. It was where Hannah asked God for a child in I Samuel, and God gave her Samuel.
We stopped at Shechem, a very important Old Testament city. Although we had to overlook Shechem from Mt Gerezim, because of the political situation, we still got a great view. At Shechem is where God promised Abraham the land, and later God fulfilled that same promise by giving the land into the hands of the Israelites during the time of Joshua. Behind Heather and I is the possible location of Jacob's well. This well is where Jesus met the Samaritan woman and proclaimed his deity. For some reason I really enjoyed this spot overlooking the city. For Jesus to talk to the Samaritan woman truly was a loving act. Because it wasn't bad enough that she was a Samaritan, but worse, an adulterer. His humanity is clearly seen because I see a real place, that he really lived, but His deity is even clearer, because no man would've done such a thing, offering her living water.
Probably the highlight of the day was our visit to the vineyard. We reenacted the Benjamites stealing the dancing ladies, and carrying them off to be their wives. Bill filmed it, and it can be seen on the Ibex websitehttp://www.ibexsemester.com/ . As you can see, John caught his wife =)
