The Friends of Israel

March 13-23, 2015

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Most Magnificent

Today was so surreal. We started out our journey by going to Caesarea Maritima, where we heard a wonderful message from Jim Showers. We were able to sit in the theater that has a seating capacity of 3,500. According to Josephus, this is where the death of Herod Agrippa occurred, as recounted in Acts 12. From there we took a short walk over to the Promontory Palace, which Josephus called a "most magnificent palace" that Herod the Great built. It's a majestic sight to see it jutting out into the waters of Caesarea. Then we were able to see the aqueduct that Herod built to supply his city with water.

Caesarea Maritima

The city and harbor were built under Herod the Great during c. 22–10 BC near the site of a former Phoenician naval station known as Stratonos pyrgos (Στράτωνος πύργος).[2] It later became the provincial capital of Roman Judea, Roman Syria Palaestina and Byzantine Palaestina Prima provinces. The city was populated throughout the 1st to 6th centuries CE and became an important early center of Christianity during the Byzantine period, but was mostly abandoned following the Muslim conquest of 640. It was re-fortified by the Crusaders, and finally slighted by the Mamluks in 1265.

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We then spent the next part of the day at Mt. Carmel, where Elijah's contest took place. This also allowed us to witness the most spectacular view of the Valley of Jezreel. Words literally escaped me, it was the most breathtaking view I have ever seen.

Jezreel Valley

The spacious Jezreel Valley spreads out to the north and east from Mount Carmel, providing convenient passage for international travelers in ancient times. The fertile alluvial soil makes this the country’s breadbasket as well. The Bible speaks of the gathering of armies in this valley at the place of Armageddon.

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From there we went to Megiddo, the most famous battlefield in the world. It covers 13 acres and the battle of Armageddon will be fought near here (Rev. 16: 13-16). Then we finished our day's journey scaling down 170+ steps to the tunnel to the spring. This tunnel connected the bottom of Ahab's shaft to the spring so that Megiddo residents no longer would have to leave the city walls in order to get water from the spring.

Megiddo

From the earliest times (EB) to the earliest historical records of the area (Thutmose III) to the future (Revelation 16), Megiddo assumes a prominent role. This is largely owing to its strategic location astride the Megiddo Pass (Wadi Ara) and inside the busy Jezreel Valley.

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What a great day. We are so looking forward to tomorrow and every day after that!

– Steve

Today was a full day as we started out the day headed north to the town of Caesarea Maritime. This had been a very active port since it was first built by Herod the Great in 25B.C. At various times in its life it was a beautiful, large city with a palace, theater, hippodrome, and aqueducts. Today Caesarea is once again a thriving city on the coast with the remains of the old city of Caesarea left as a beautiful reminder of its history. We were reminded of the Scripture about Cornelius and Peter. The time when God opened up His salvation to the Gentiles. Because of God’s speaking to both Cornelius and Peter, and Peter’s obedience 2000 years ago we are now a part of the family of God. Our guide, Tito, shared his heart while talking with us in the hippodrome. He believes, and many of us agreed with him, that today is no different than it was 2000 years ago. The Roman civilization at Caesarea fell from within. The Roman’s tried to appease the people in order to keep them happy. One way that they did this was to use theater and in order to keep the people coming back they would continuously add more sex and more violence, resorting to actual rapes and killings on the stage. He compared that to what used to be acceptable in modern theaters and plays to what is now acceptable. Will we fall from within also? If we do not know our history we will make the same mistakes others before us made.

From here we went to Mount Carmel where we were able to sing in a small chapel. Beautiful voices lifting Amazing Grace up in harmony to our Lord. At Mount Carmel we were reminded of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. God miraculously showed the people that He and He alone is God, an active living prayer answering God, whose actions turned the divided hearts of His people from half-heartedly honoring both Him and Baal back to Himself. And the change of heart resulted in a change of conduct.
We are in Israel at a time when we are able to see the beauty of the countryside as everything is in bloom. Looking down from Mount Carmel we could see green fields and growing gardens all the way across the Valley of Jezreel to Nazareth and Mt. Precipice.

One more stop took us to Tel Megiddo. A Tel is a type of archeological mound, and Megiddo is one of the hills overlooking the valley where it is believed the Battle of Armageddon will be fought, the battle where Christ will return to claim His own and destroy those who do not believe. The battle where those that are bent on the destruction of His people, Israel, will themselves be destroyed. In this mound they have uncovered 25 layers of civilization, 25 cities that have been built, destroyed, razed, and then another built on top of it.

From here we drove around the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee while looking across to the Mountains of Gilead (Balm of Gilead) and the hills of Samaria (West Bank), to our next hotel where we will spend the next three nights. A beautiful hotel just off the Sea of Galilee with a beautiful sunset just for us.

And as we drift off to sleep we wonder about tomorrow as we take a boat ride out to the sea that Christ walked on and walk along the roads that Jesus walked on and taught from. Sweet dreams.

- Debbie Brown

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