Day 08 - Nazareth, Megiddo, Mount Carmel, & Caesarea Maritima

Happy Monday!

Today we had our last morning devotional by the Sea of Galilee and then departed to make our way toward Jerusalem. We made many stops today and saw some incredible sights.

NAZARETH

Our first stop was in the town of Nazareth, the hometown of Jesus. We went to the top of Mount Precipice where we found ourselves overlooking the Valley of Tsulot, the northeast part of the Jezreel Valley. Yehuda pointed out all of the towns and mountains we could see from this vantage point, as well as the battles that occurred in this region (Judges 4-5 and 7:1-2). Terry next spoke of the story in Luke 4. Jesus is in a synagogue in Nazareth reading from the scroll of Isaiah 61:1-2. After this reading, Jesus stated that the fulfillment of that prophecy happened with His reading. Jesus claimed that He was the Messiah. This infuriated the crowd. They were so angry that they planned to throw Him off the very cliff where we sat.

Luke 4:28-30

"When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away."

Jesus knew what their reaction would be and yet He spoke truth. Terry reminded us that as Christians our message, who we are, and what we stand for will offend people. Nonetheless, that does not mean we’ve done something wrong. If we are doing things to be loved by others our faith will be shattered. When we surrender to Christ, something in our life is going to die. Our driving force to be like Jesus should be the driving factor in doing good deeds and helping others. The scripture shapes us and creates that outward response.

John 15

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bearfruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”

Galatians 5:6

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”

“If Jesus never offends you, then you’re probably making Him into a Jesus of your own imagination.” – Tim Keller

We don’t get to make a Jesus of our own design.

MEGIDDO

Our second stop of the day was at Tel Megiddo, an archaeological dig with 32 levels of civilizations. The location of this city was ideal for trade/commerce as it was on the main route from Mesopotamia to Egypt. This allowed the King to control the taxes in that area and amass wealth. Their elevated city allowed them to see enemies approaching, and the valley below provided a great spot for Ahab to march his sizeable army.

In Hebrew, “har megiddo” translates to Armageddon, which is referenced in the book of Revelation as the sight of the final, great battle. In Revelation 16, we see the seven bowls of God’s wrath. Angels of the Lord are pouring out the wrath of God on non-believers. It was surreal to stare down to the place where this epic battle will take place while Terry read about it from Revelation.

Revelation 16:16

“And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.”

Reading through these scriptures, this battle sounds intense. The good news is that God is fighting this battle for us. He is the one that will make final judgements and He is the one that will defeat evil and darkness. Terry reminded us that “the future does not hinge on whether or not we defeat evil in the world. All of our battles are fought by God.” All that is required of us if our faith.

Ephesians 6:12

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

We serve a just God. The battle is the Lord’s; rest assured that injustice will not go unpunished. Our charge is to speak truth in love and have faith that this cause is already won.

*For those that are confused about or unfamiliar with the book of Revelation, I would highly encourage you to watch Terry Feix’s video series on the book of Revelation at https://crossings.church/media/teachings/revelation

MOUNT CARMEL

At Mount Carmel we hiked until we were looking down into a beautiful valley where the story of          1 Kings 16 – 18 took place. In around 850 B.C., Ahab was king and in a strategic alliance married Jezebel. She influenced him to start worshipping Baal (god of thunder/rain/fertility) and built altars to him and Asherah (fertility goddess). Jezebel also ordered for the priests and prophets to be killed. Ahab and Jezebel were turning people away from God. According to 1 Kings 16:33, “Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.” Elijah, a prophet, was bemoaning the fact that the priests and prophets were either dying or turning from God. God ordered Elijah to tell Ahab that it would not rain until Elijah said so. For three years it did not rain causing famine and death. The people were upset that Baal was not sending rain and Ahab blamed Elijah and sought to kill him. Per God’s request, Elijah confronts Ahab and told him (in 1 Kings 18:18) he was the cause of their drought “because [he] abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals.”

Elijah proposed that they all meet on Mount Carmel with Ahab bringing all of his prophets. And so they did. Ahab built an altar to Baal, sacrificed a bull and called on Baal to light the fire. Ahab and his people called on Baal for hours with no response. Elijah then built an altar of 12 stones, one for each tribe of Israel, and sacrificed a bull. He built a trench around the altar and proceeded to pour so many buckets of water on the altar and wood that it was soaking wet. Then he called on God and fire rained from the sky and roasted everything completely and dried up the water. Only upon seeing this miracle did Ahab’s people finally call on Yahweh.

Terry encouraged us to think about speaking out and quoted this poem by Martin Neimoller, which was written in responses to the Christians unwilling to speak out about the treatment of Jewish people during the Holocaust.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

All it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing. It is our job to tell the good news and God will sort out the rest. Our faith is very personal, but it should never be private. And therein lies our challenge. We are all called to be Elijah. Where is the line where you will speak out?

CAESAREA MARITIMA

Our final stop of the day was Caesarea Maritima, yet another wonder built by Herod the Great. It took 12 years to construct this city, which included a major port that allowed him to control trade. This city was incredible and included a theatron, an amphitheater, a freshwater pool that was built on top of the Mediterranean Sea (an engineering feat), and a hippodrome, among other things. Once again we witnessed how brilliant, paranoid, and egomaniacal Herod the Great was. When construction of the city and port was complete, Herod hosted the Olympics to celebrate.

Sitting in the hippodrome, we learned that it was not only a place to hold chariot races, but that it was also where many Christians were publicly executed in a most brutal manner. In fact, the arena (sand) on the floor was there to help soak up the blood of the fallen Christians, the blood of our spiritual ancestors. The disciples and our spiritual ancestors walked the hard road that they did to set an example for you and me. What will our response be?

Do we trust that the gospel can change the hearts of people? Do we believe that God will fight the battle? Are we willing to speak the truth in our culture?

Like Elijah, do we have the courage of our faith? 

We drove to Jerusalem and settled into our hotels. Tomorrow another adventure awaits!

We also wanted to say a big thank you to those who are following along and praying for our trip. It means so much to all of us!