I liked having Cile post for the first few days of our travel. I've invited another on our team to post about our third day of the trip. This is from Pastor Karen Kier. She is a pastor at Oak Grove Church of God and we have served together on Via de Cristo spiritual retreat weekends. She and her husband, Scott, have made this trip part of their 30th wedding anniversary present to each other. Here is what Pastor Karen had to say about today... - John
Day 3
Our tour guide graciously allowed a late
start (10:30 a.m.) today. Ten hours of
sleep made for much greater engagement with the experiences of day 3 J. We started our day with the bus ride to Mt.
Carmel and along the way, received an interesting and informative history
lesson about the nation of Israel and the very complicated issues involved in
the turmoil that has been a part of life in this region for so long. Our tour guide was very careful to avoid passing
judgment or proposing solutions, but it did inspire me to go back and read the
history of this area with added perspective.
Standing on Mt. Carmel we looked over the
Valley of Jezreel where so many biblical connections came to mind. It is the place where Elijah confronted Baal
worship by challenging the prophets of Baal to a contest—their god against the
God of Israel (1 Kings 18). Of course
God proved Himself to be the true God and Elijah had the prophets of Baal
seized and killed them at the brook of Kishon—which we saw from where we stood
on Mt. Carmel! I remarked to our tour
guide, Ezra, that is seemed so small.
His answer, “Well, after all, it is only a brook!” Part of this adventure for me is looking at
the epic stories of the Bible from the level of human experience—something that
is much easier to do when you’re standing right in the place where those events
unfolded!
We learned that the word Carmel is a
combination of two Hebrew words, Karem (Vinyard) and El (a name for God). God’s vineyard is an appropriate name for the
view from Mt. Carmel down across the Valley of Jezreel. We traveled through the lush, green Valley of
Jezreel to arrive at Meggido, the Hebrew name of which is Har-Magedon. It was hard for me to image that this
beautiful valley is the place of the final battle of Armageddon spoken of in
Revelation 16:16. Many battles have been
fought on that field, but none matches the scope or significance of the
ultimate battle between good and evil!
Meggido itself was amazing for so many
reasons. It has been fought over many
times in history because of its important location. The tel on which it is located is literally
made of layer upon layer of civilization as each conquering nation built on top
of the one before it. We saw original
entryways into the city, the chariot entrance, ruins of palaces, greeneries,
and stables. So many windows into the
world of powerful rulers like Kings
Solomon and Ahab! Perhaps the most
impressive feature was the waterworks, constructed during the reign of King
Ahab, which supplied Meggido with water from a spring outside the city. Two sets of workers dug, one from the spring
and one from inside the city, until the two met, creating a means for the
inhabitants of the city to have an uninterrupted water supply, even if an enemy
besieged the city. Everything in Megiddo
seemed to be very strategically planned and masterfully engineered. Looking across the valley from Megiddo, we
saw the city of Jezreel where much more of the story of Ahab and Jezebel took
place.
From Megiddo we traveled to Nazareth, now a
city of around 170,000 people. We passed
by the place on a hillside in Nazareth where an angry mob threatened to toss
Jesus off. We toured the captivating Church
of the Enunciation, close to where Mary would have received the angelic visit
that announced she would bear the Messiah.
Ezra pointed out the distance Mary would have traveled early in her
pregnancy to visit with Elizabeth and then again to go to Bethlehem at the time
of Jesus’ birth—traveling on a donkey with all the supplies needed for a trip
of 100 miles. The Church was amazingly beautiful, covered with artwork from
many different countries depicting Mary the baby Jesus. Every rendering of Mary and Jesus had the
features of the countries what sent the artwork, probably making the depiction
less accurate, but so very meaningful.
Jesus came for all people and the idea of every country having their own
vision of Jesus caused John 3:16 to ring in that glorious setting: “For God so
loved the world that he gave his one
and only Son, that whoever believes
in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
We ended the day in Cana, the place where
Jesus performed his first miracle, turning water to wine at a wedding
feast. The site is now home to a
beautiful church, built over the home in which it is strongly believed that
Jesus himself, at the request of his mother, turned the water of the
unfortunate host family into wine of the highest quality! This miracle caused the disciples to put
their faith in him, but just as important, it accomplished what Jesus did, and
still does so freely for us. He acted
with compassion, to transform what was a very difficult and anxious situation
into one where people were blessed and God was glorified.
I’m typing this from our hotel room (Kibbutz)
in Tiberius on the Sea of Galilee where we were served a delicious variety of
Mediterranean food. We’ll be going to
sleep tonight spiritually enriched, inspired and so very aware and forever
transformed by the fact that we have walked in the footsteps of our Savior.
Shalom
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