Back to Jerusalem

Today we headed back to Jerusalem. We have covered lots of miles today. We started out at Megiddo. Tel Megiddo is an amazing place. A tel is a man made mound that is added layer upon layer. A city would be destroyed and another city would be built upon it, over and over and over until you literally see this large hill of civilization upon civilization. At Megiddo there is a visitor center that has an amazing map of the ancient borders of Israel. It is very insightful to see how far the ancient border that God promised Israel extended. Tel Megiddo is one of the oldest digs in the world. At one point our guide showed us a Canaanite temple that seemed to pre-date Israel in the land. It is unreal how many civilizations are represented at the tel. Here you also see things from Solomon's time period. The gate of the city was so important to a city's defense system. You get a chance to see an ancient gate here and it is fascinating to know it came from the time period of King Solomon. Another interesting thing at Megiddo was a tunnel that led to the spring for the water supply. It dates all the way back to the time of King Ahab. Looking out from Megiddo you see an incredibly large valley. This is known as the Jezreel Valley. This is where we see biblical Armageddon. This valley is 70 miles long and 14 miles wide making up over 1,000 square miles. Napolean called this the greatest battleground in the world. This is the same battlefield that General Allenby of Britain turned back the Turks in 1917. This will be the staging ground of the greatest battle that will ever take place in human history. We learn from the Revelation 14:17-20 that the blood from this battle will flow as high as the horses bridle. What a reminder. Standing there reflecting on Christ returning with His church to the scene of this great battle is sobering.

Here is the ancient map of the Holy Land

Here is a description of the city gate

Scott didn't get much sleep. He had a hard time paying attention as the day got going.

Here is the outer gate

Jezreel Valley- Where the staging campaign for Armageddon starts

Underground Water supply

From Megiddo we headed over to BethShean. This is the greatest dig in all of Israel and is one of the most impressive in the world. Here you are literally walking around 21 different civilizations. We had about 40 minutes to explore here and me and Scott went to the top of the Tel. We were close to needing emergency aid. At the top of the Tel you look over all of the Roman period that has been excavated and way in the background there was a modern day Mcdonalds. It was pretty funny. I would have paid lots of sheckles for a big mac and a diet coke. I think Scott would have taken money from his 401k for a supersize diet coke at that point.

Ancient Theater

One of our guides- Amnon

Ancient Roman Road

We are so tired we can't think

We then began heading for Jerusalem. We stopped off near Jericho at a lookout point over the Judean Wilderness. This is one of my favorite places in Israel. As you look out at this point you see a wadi down in the bottom of the desert. This was the route that people would have taken from Jericho into Jerusalem. Luke's gospel records that on His way to the week of the passion Christ went to Jericho and healed blind Bartimaeus, and then called down Zaccheus from a tree and visited his home. He would have then most likely taken this route on His way towards Jerusalem. On a clear day you can see three towers from this lookout point. The towers are located on the Mount of Olives. Going through the wadi would lead you up to Bethany and then over the hill you would arrive at the Mount of Olives. Christ was heading from this point to the cross. He was going to fulfill what He came to do, to die for you and me.

Behind us is the Wadi Kelt- which was road to Jerusalem

We then finished up our drive to the hotel for a quick stop and then got back on the buses to go to a Seder meal recapturing what the Passover meal with Jesus and His disciples would have looked like.

What a day. Some amazing archaeological sites today. You know, James says that life is a vapor. I am the worlds worst at getting caught up into meaningless, temporal things. As we were making our way back to the entrance of Beth Shean today we were getting ready to exit near the old Roman theater. An older gentleman in our group reminded me of something very simple yet very profound. He pointed out that in spite of the power and authority of all these previous civilizations it was now just a bunch of ruins. His statement hit me pretty hard. What are we really living for? Every one of those previous 21 civilizations at Beth Shean contained individuals that focused more on the temporal than the eternal. Many probably saw themselves as pretty much invincible, yet now they are just one of many civilizations that lays in the rubble. The only thing that will remain are those things that are truly eternal. Everything else will just fall away and be forgotten. As I sit here tonight ready to go to bed I pray by God's grace I will live the rest of the time that God gives me on this earth for His glory and not my own. Good night from Jerusalem!