Beginning in Galilee…

The first few days in Galilee:

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A)  Caesarea (Martima)

City built by King Herod the Great (the one who tried to kill baby Jesus) as a Roman port, named in honor of Augustus Caesar.  The city was a beautiful port and a quite wealthy city all the way through the Byzantine period until the Muslim invasion in the seventh century.

The Crusaders revitalized the city, but the city was completely destroyed after the Muslims took it back.

B)  Haifa

The Carmel mountains (Carmel = God’s vineyard) reach all the way to the Mediterranean Sea, at the modern port city of Haifa.

The first thing I saw in Haifa made me feel at home – corporate looking buildings with company logos such as Microsoft, Google, Intel, Yahoo, etc.  The city is very clean and beautiful and has a great view from the top of the Carmel mountains.

One who knows the Old Testament well also knows of the most famous person to this region is the Prophet Elijah, who called down fire from heaven to prove to the pagan priests who was the only true God.

Queen Jezebel wasn’t very happy with him.

C)  Tel Megiddo (Har Megiddo; Armageddon)

 

Although people think the final battle before the end of the world will happen here (as written in Revelation), the real meaning of this place is more symbolic.

Megiddo is the first break in the Carmel mountains, making it a very strategic location in the ancient world.

In Old Testament times, it was the place where King Josiah, the last good Davidic King, died young and tragically in battle.  Because of this, it became part of Jewish folklore that God would deliver his people in the final age as he didn’t do with Josiah.

D)  Akko (Acre)

Not of biblical significance, but another city on the Mediterranean of historical significance.  The Crusaders built a city here, and Napoleon was unable to defeat the Turks when he came.  Napoleon famously threw his hat over the wall saying “If I can’t make it into Akko, at least my hat will.”

NB:  The English word ‘acre’ originally means open field, which Akko essentially is, being at the mouth of the Jezreel valley.

E)  Nazareth

Dome of Basilica – shaped like a lighthouse so people can come home!

The place we’re staying is across the street from the main entrance of the Basilica of the Annunciation, where “the angel Gabriel was sent to by God to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.”

F)  Mount Tabor

 

Tabor is the mountain where Jesus was transfigured before his disciples Peter, James, and John.  His face shone like the sun and his clothes appeared dazzling white, and Moses and Elijah appeared with him.

The three disciples didn’t quite figure out that Jesus wasn’t on par with the two greatest figures from the Old Testament, so God the Father spoke from heaven reminding them that Jesus was his Beloved Son, and they should listen to him – as Moses and Elijah were!