Galilee (Day One)
Today we stopped
at some big name sites. We went to
Caesarea (Maritima), Mt. Carmel, Megiddo, and Jezreel. It seems as if there is always more to see in
Israel. We have covered a lot of ground
already, but there is still so much more that we have not seen, and some we
won’t even get to see. It is baffling to
think that I had just looked over all of this implicit detail when reading the
Bible, completely unaware of the rich content that knowing the geographical
settings has to offer.
Being at Caesarea and thinking about the perspective of ancient
Israel and how they would view the Mediterranean Sea, as opposed to the hill
country and other land-locked territories was something I had never really
taken time to do before. The concept of
the sea being a place of chaos in an ancient worldview isn’t particularly new
to me, but it was quite helpful to think about the seafaring culture in the
context of the clash between the Philistines/Phoenicians and the Israelites/Judeans. It was also quite a unique experience to sit
in the reconstructed theatre facing the sea and imagine a crowd filling the
seats. It must have been quite a
magnificent atmosphere for a play. The
hippodrome was also really interesting.
I kept picturing scenes from Ben-Hur in my mind. At one point we were sitting on the remains
of a structure listening to Dr. Wright talk about the site and there was a
moment, when he mentioned Paul’s imprisonment at Caesarea. Almost immediately I realized I was sitting
in the remains of one of the rooms where they kept prisoners. Once again, I was sitting in scenery that had
witnessed some very important events take place. These field studies have had such a strong
impact on how I perceive the events recorded in the Bible.
Standing on top of
Mt. Carmel was amazing. Looking out over
the Jezreel valley and seeing Mt. Gilboa, Mt. Moreh, and Mt. Tabor off in the
distance really helped me to orient myself to the geography of the land and get
a real sense of the connectedness of the region. The history of the ancient Near East seems to
come alive in such an active area.
Empires clashed and pushed their way into this “Land Between,” kingdoms
were born and crushed, and nations were either refined or obliterated as traffic
passed through this valley. The event
that stood out the most, however, wasn’t a story of large nations going to war
with each other. The most prominent
story was the most obvious story, the story of Elijah and the prophets of
Baal. It is such an important story for
understanding the nature and character of God.
Megiddo was quite
an impressive city. I had read about the
strategic significance of Megiddo from a military standpoint, but I did not
understand how economically important it was until today. As odd as it sounds, I am beginning to see a
lot a value, and take a lot of joy, in seeing the everyday life stuff of
ancient Israel. I find the storage rooms
to be very interesting. I found myself
at the bottom of a stairwell at Caesarea today, walking out into the open light
and knowing that when I get up to the surface I will be able to look around and
see the ruins of an ancient city, but wishing that when I peek over the horizon
I might be able to catch a glimpse of what things were like back in the
day. If I could only step back in time
for an hour or so I think I would stand around staring at the architecture and
lamps and bowls, trying to understand the layout of the land and searching for
inscriptions (as I probably wouldn’t be able to get very far with the modern
pronunciation of Biblical Hebrew that I am familiar with).
Jezreel was
beautiful. I especially enjoyed looking
across the field at Shunem and thinking of the story of Elijah, the Shunemite
woman, and her son. The fields were so
fertile I couldn’t even make sense of the terrain we were standing on. It was a perfect spot to take in a sunset
after a long field study.
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