Wednesday June 8th

Last night at sundown a holiday started to commemorate God giving the Torah to Moses, so today should be a relatively quite day due to the holiday.

The hotel in which we are staying has a Shabbat elevator.  My understanding is that “Shabbat” means sabbath.  I understand the concept of not working on the sabbath, but I'm not sure I understand the reasoning behind the shabbat elevator.  On the Shabbat elevator you don't push any buttons and it stops on only odd floors and pauses for a minute and a half at each floor.  I would think that if walking up one flight of stairs is more work, why not stop at every floor.  Apparently the minute and a half pause on each floor has something to do with using electricity.  Maybe the effects of it have to wear off.  The explanation I was given does not make much sense to me.

We started the day by driving north through the Sharon forest to Caesarea Maritima.  Caesarea Maritima was a major deep water port during biblical times, built by King Herod.  There is an ruins have amphitheater and a hippodrome which reflect how big and important of a place it was.

Caesarea Hippodrome

This is where books of Luke and Acts were written.  This is the port from which Paul left when he was sent to Rome to face charges.  It is a beautiful example of Roman architecture.

From there we went to Mount Carmel.  This is where Isaiah challenged the prophets of Baal a showdown to demonstrate to the people who is the real God of Israel (1 Kings 18).  Isaiah prayed and God accepted his offerings and proved to all the people He is the one and only God.

After this we went to Mount Megiddo.  Megiddo is where Solomon had a great fort (1 Kings 9:15).  It is also the place in Revelation 16:14-16 that speaks of the “final battle” - Armageddon.

Then we went on to Nazareth.  Nazareth is where Jesus grew up and spent most of his life.  In the city we went to the Church of the Annunciation.  This is where tradition holds that annunciation occurred to Mary, by the Angel Gabriel, about the virgin birth of Jesus.  The Basilica is built right on top of the ruins of ancient Nazareth.  Our guide told us more than any other spot in all of Israel this location is the most definite as to where Jesus actually walked.  More likely than not, as a child he ran through these streets and played in the town square.

From there we drove through Cana (the sight of Christ's first miracle of turning water in wine (John 2) to Tiberias.  Tiberias is a city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee.  We will make our home here for the next three nights.  After dinner I walk down to the Sea of Galilee just to enjoy and reflect on where I am.