Southern Galilee - June 26

Today we are leaving Jerusalem. George and Martha Johnson have made it home safe and sound. Deb Kielsmeier prayed for them, for Jan and Peter Nordell’s daughter, and for all of us as we head out of Jerusalem. Johnny is quite talkative this morning. He is going to be spending three solid days with us as we travel out to the region of the Galilee and stay at a resort at En Gev. Johnny is philosophizing about cars and he warns us that, “BMW is not good quality. Mercedes is good quality.” He makes mysterious remarks about computer systems. We are an enrapt audience.
After an hour and a half drive we arrive at Caesarea by the Sea. We have clearly left the Semitic culture behind. There are some statues of the human body in all its glory. What statues do have clothes are in togas. There is an abundance of fruit and produce. This is all before we even enter the amphitheater, which would never have been built by Semitic people either. We do see a statue of a man carrying a sheep behind his head like many of our pictures of the good shepherd. When did this pagan image become a Christian symbol? It calls to question the issues of faith and culture. What is the interaction between the theatre and the church?
As we sit in the amphitheater which is used for modern concerts, we have our map geek moment. We see the Sharon plain as being an empty space at this time because it is swampy and to be avoided. We trace the Costal Highway along the foot hills and then watch as it bend out to the sea, thanks to Herod the Great and his determination. The amphitheatre faces the sea which betrays Herod love for the larger world and especially his reaching for Rome. Clearly Caesarea is a Roman City because everything faces the sea. The sea in Jewish though is a fearful place full of danger and out of control. It is a place to be avoided. No Jewish person would go swimming or play in the water. The language of pre-creation chaos is always water imagery. Herod wanted to engage the world and loved the sea. Herod went as far as to build a magnificent harbor with a new technology: cement that hardens under water. The harbor was huge! It had an entrance to the North with favored the wind and avoided silt.
Herod continues his nature defying building with his palace. We walk over to the palace and sit in what would have been the praetorian or the place where the guards lived and held prisoners. Herod’s palace is built out on a natural reef and literally hangs out over the sea. To ships sailing into Caesarea’s magnificent harbor, it would appear that the palace was floating. Cindy takes us to Acts 9 where Peter in Joppa (very Semitic place) receives a vision at the same time as Cornelius in Caesarea. It is powerful to see Christianity take its first giant leap beyond Judaism. Both Peter and Cornelius are prepped by God and are ready for this powerful new way of understanding the chosen people. Jesus set this up well by interacting with many people who were outside the Jewish faith.
Then Cindy reveals that this is the place where Paul says, “I appeal to Caesar” and charts a course to Rome. We are in wonder as we realize that here is where the Gospel begins its journey to the heart of Rome and the “utter most parts of the earth.”
Cindy sets us loose to explore this amazing sight where we see the Hippodrome where sporting events would have been held. We see the ruins of other palaces and medieval shops with back alleys connecting them. As we look out on that stunning blue of the Mediterranean, we see a shrunken harbor that merely suggests the grandeur of Herod’s harbor. The heat and humidity hung heavy.
After ice cream, iced coffee, and anything else we can get cold, we load onto the bus by walking through the crusader gate and head out to see Hadrian’s Aqueduct. This magnificent structure stretches along the coast from Mount Carmel to Caesarea. It is made of kurkar and still stands magnificently. This aqueduct was used to bring water to the city, while Herod’s aqueduct, which we did not see, fed the surrounding agricultural lands. As we drive away headed toward Mount Carmel we pass the lush fields and begin to ask Johnny what does and does not grow in Israel. He kept emphasizing that everything grows here, “We have everything,” he stated, “This is the land of Jesus.”
Once up on Mount Carmel we pause for another map geek moment. It is amazing how much we can see. We locate Mt. Gilboah, Mt. Tabor and the Tel of Megiddo, which appears to control all of the Jezreel Valley.
Cindy cautions us against projecting back in time the lush agriculture we see in the Jezreel Valley. Instead, it was a swampy mess with the Kishon River able to drain it into the Mediterranean. Megiddo does connect to prime trade routes, which makes Megiddo incredibly important.
As we sit on Mount Carmel, Cindy transports us back to the clash between King Ahab and Elijah or more appropriately the contest between Baal and Yahweh for the heart of Yahweh’s people. It has been three years without rain which is Yahweh’s punishment and a way of thumbing your nose at the “storm god Baal.” Jezebel who is proselytizing the Jewish people with Baal worship is furious when she learns that Baal has been disgraced and the key leaders of the faith are dead. Elijah runs, but he runs back to Sinai, his roots, to try to rediscover who this God is and what is going on. He feels alone and as though God may have forsaken him for Good.
But God does not come in these gigantic theophanic experiences of wind, fire and earthquake. He comes in a gentle breeze and without answering Elijah’s questions sends his servant on his way to continue in obedience to God’s plan. God will continue to reach out and call back the Northern kingdom to follow him, until there is no one left to listen.
We eat lunch then load back up and head to the Tel of Megiddo. This is an ancient and powerful city which has been building structures for a very long time. We see the gate that Thutmose III walked through when Egypt took Megiddo. Thutmose said, “When you take Megiddo, you take a thousand cities.” We find Early Bronze Age sacrificial altars and temples and standing stones that all predate Abraham.
We find a huge silo which evidences the wealth of produce. Cindy reminds us that Amos confronted the rulers of the Northern kingdom to quit hoarding wealth and food. The rulers were suppose to take care of the people as equals not to act as though they were some how better and able. Amos called the women of the region “the cows of Bashan” because of their fat from hoarding. We also saw a storehouse or stables there is argument both ways. Jonna did a devotional about this being the mount of Megiddo or Armageddon. She reminded the group that there is a struggle for control between good and evil. That struggle has it’s place in our own lives and we are called on to remember in our own lives our own Megiddo’s and thank God for his presence whether the city was saved or fell to evil’s hands that the Messiah ultimately will ultimately have power in our lives.


We got on the bus and headed to the Nazareth Ridge. We took our map geek moment to pay attention to the mountains and the Jezreel Valley. Cindy led us through the journeys of Joseph and Mary across the valley and where Jesus lived out his child hood. She read the passage in Matthew where Jesus taught in the synagogue on the Isaiah passage. She pointed out the church that is built on the spot of that teaching. The heat was intense, but we hung on her every word as she pointed out Mount Tabor where Deborah and Barak conquered Sisera’s chariot-spiked army.
At the end as we processed the day with Cindy we asked many questions that she could only smile at and encourage us to study on. She did let us know that there was one other prophet out of Galilee. That was the prophet Jonah. We wondered if Jesus stood on the ridge where we stood and looked at all of his rich history around him as he learned his own place in that fabulous story.
We loaded into the bus and went to Ein Gev a Kibbutz. It is really a resort on the Galilee. The rooms are cool and spacious. The food is similar, but enough different. The Galilee is warm and beautiful with the lights of Tiberius filling the hillside opposite our rooms. We are tired tonight and full. We have traveled from ancient civilizations to thoughts of the end of the human story finishing with our eyes on our Lord. We’ll sleep well.