Caesarea/Mt. Carmel/Nazareth (Galilee Day 1)

Friends,

We just returned from a 4 day field study in Galilee not too long ago. This region is where Jesus spent over 80% of his time ministering to people. I'm going to give you a summary of each day, God-willing. So without further ado, here is day one.

We began our four-day field study at Caesarea by the sea. We discussed how our theme for this trip is Galilee of the Gentiles. The theme of Galilee of the gentiles originates in Isaiah 9:1. We started our day off by reading this verse. Dr. Wright made the observation that when we encounter stories in the Biblical text we realize that people living in the hill country tend to avoid the coast. This avoidance of the sea most likely originates from the Canaanites. The Canaanite gods usually represented different elements of nature; some were controllable and caring, others were uncontrollable and chaotic. In the Canaanite culture the god of the sea was the god of uncontrollable chaos and death. We see this theme in a significant number of passages from the biblical text. This theme is seen when the Israelites cross the Red Sea and later on when Joshua leads the Israelites across the Jordan river. It is also seen in the story of the prophet Jonah, who goes out to the chaotic sea to avoid the one true God. In addition, Revelation 21 mentions that when the Messiah returns there will be no more sea (Rev. 21:1) alluding to the fact that there will be no more chaos when the Messiah returns. Although the central image of the sea in the biblical text is an image of chaos, there is still something attractive and mysterious about the sea.

After studying what sea represented to the writers of the scriptures we moved on to discuss what motivated Herod the Great to build a seaport in this location. At first glance it seems that there is no good reason to build a port here. There is no natural harbor and there are swamps behind and to the east of the location. In addition there are no decent land routes anywhere near the location. But as we realized at Masada, none of these factors is enough to deter Herod when he has his mind set on building at a particular location. It appears Herod built a port here not only because he had the ability to, but also because it gave him land in the middle of the levant. If he built his main port at Joppa, he would have problems controlling Galilee; if he built it at Ptolemais, he would have trouble with Jerusalem. This location would allow him access to both the northern and southern regions of the Levant.

Later on in our visit we moved to the ruins of what was most likely the prison where the apostle Paul was kept before he was sent to Rome. We read the story in Acts 10 of Cornelius, a roman soldier who lived in Caesarea. Cornelius had a vision of God and sent for the apostle Peter, who later baptized him in the name of Jesus Christ. That story has always been quite a moving story for me, and I never knew anything about the location where it took place. Now that I have a picture of the location to place with the story the text is even more meaningful to me.

After our visit to Caesarea we proceeded to the top of Mt. Carmel and studied the story of Elijah and the Baal prophets. Mt. Carmel is a place that is very near and dear to my heart for several reasons. The main reason is that this is the first place I was ever taken to in Israel. This site was my very first exposure to the land of the text, and it will always be special to me for that reason. This site also has special significance to me because of its close association with the story of Elijah and the Baal prophets. Elijah is such a passionate follower of God, and the first person to have disciples. His disciple Elisha prays for double the passion of Elijah, and according to the Talmud Elisha ends up performing double the miracles of Elijah. I believe the stories of Elijah and Elisha need to be studied by anyone who wishes to become a disciple.

We ended our day on a ridge overlooking Nazareth. The ridge we sat atop is remembered by church tradition as the ridge where the people of Nazareth attempted to stone Jesus. Sitting atop this ridge, watching the sunset, was the perfect way to end our first day in Galilee of the Gentiles.

I'm slowly but surely uploading the 400+ pictures I took on our trip, so be patient and continue to check back at http://photos.yahoo.com/robkol2

Thanks!

Rob Kol