Road Trips to Northern Israel and the Mediterranean Sea

 I am writing this blog at 6:00 in the morning and the sunrise over the Sea of Galilee is in the later stages.  To be wearing shorts and a t-shirt this early in the morning and having light is something that I am not use to.  It also gets dark quite early - 5:00 - which means we need to take advantage of the light and start the day earlier than some would want!  In Saskatchewan, when it is warm out, we have sun til pass 10am, this sunset before supper plays tricks on my mind.

Monday started with a trip to the Northern edge of Israel where we saw the ancient city of the tribe of Dan.  A famous high place is there where the Northern Kingdom worshiped God and the gods of the lands around them.  There is water all around the nature reserve with some springs that flow with great speed.  The forrest is lush and beautiful.  At the edge of the park is a lookout where you can see towns of Lebanon and the trenches that Israeli soldiers used in 1948 to fight their war.  Modern day trenches right beside ancient walls that date to the time of Abraham.  Israel is the place to see history.

Abraham's Gate - Abraham went through this gate to rescue Lot!

The next stop was the ancient site of Caesarea Philippi, one of my favourite places.  It is where Jesus asked the disciples who they thought he was, and Peter answers the question with the Messiah.  Jesus says "upon this rock I will build MY church and the gates of hades will not overcome it".  We see the rock that Jesus may have used as the object lesson and a spot in the rock where occult worship happened and may of referred to the gates of hades.  I always find it powerful that Jesus brought the disciples to this spot, where pagan worship happened all around, to give the vision for HIS church.  Two thousand years later, His church is here giving tremendous strength to the declaration Christ made.

The park also had a waterfall that was great to see and a view of the Herman Mountain Range to the North.  From that spot, we could see a Fortress on a mountain top.  And we thought, why not go check out Nimrod's Fortress!  So we drove up a mountain and played around on the mountain top fortress made in the Middle Ages by the Amyyubids and Mamluks after the Muslims had conquered the Holy Land from the European Crusaders.  There are over 4000 years of history in this land to see and touch!  We had fun exploring the massive fortress and checking out the views from the mountain top!

When we made it back to our home at the Sea of Galilee, everyone was starving and we went out for falafel and shawarma pitas.  So much to see, do, taste, hear, touch and love.

The next road trip was to the magnificent Roman city of Caesarea along the Mediterranean coast.  We dipped our feet into the ocean water, walked along the beach, taking in the sites of an ancient hippodrome and a large Roman theatre that is still in existence today!  This was the city that Paul was taken prisoner before being sent to Rome.  It is also famous for the first gentile, Cornelius, hearing the good news from Peter and his whole family was baptized.  We then went to see the large aqueduct that brought fresh water to Caesarea.  The Romans lived well!!

The next stop was Mount Carmel, the site where fire came down from heaven to start Elijah's altar to Yahweh.  There is a famous statue at the site commemorating the event and a beautiful view of the Jezreel Valley.  This stretch of precious farmland stretches from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River and is where many wars have been fought.  After viewing the sites (while ChristyAnn was having a great chat with the second group of Brazilians she met today), we sat down and had a study from 1 Kings 18.  The place was crowded when we came, but then everyone left, and we had the place to ourselves.  The group appreciated the time to connect, reflect and let it all soak in.

Next stop was Megiddo, an ancient city that is now a world heritage site.  Many archeologists have come to this site as 30 layers of civilization can be found at this spot.  It is also known to be where Armageddon will take place (another war in the Jezreel Valley).  We enjoyed seeing the video explaining the site and strolling around on ancient history.  We saw stables that Solomon made to keep his chariot horses, and a large water system that included walking through a 50 meter tunnel.  Then we went to the gift shop and people purchased different items - Jacob got a Hebrew-English Bible.

After driving back, we again were starving and went out for falafel and shawarma pitas.  So much to see, do, taste, hear, touch and love.