June 30, 2005
06/29 Isreal - Day Eight
On Tuesday, we drove past Mt. Gilboa where King Saul lost a famous battle in which he and his sons were killed. (1 Samuel 31) We visited Megiddo, the site mentioned in Revelation 16:16 as Armageddon. Megiddo (Armageddon) is one of the oldest places in the world with over 25 layers (cities) built on top of the other.
We had lunch in Cana of Galilee where according to John's Gospel, Jesus changed water into wine. I ran out of shekels so I walked all over Cana looking for an ATM machine. I couldn't find one in order to perform the smaller miracle of changing plastic into money. It turned out that was another blessing. Our next stop after lunch was the diamond factory in Tiberias. Les will have to wait another 35 years for her diamond from Tiberias.
The last two stops on our day's tour were Nazareth and Capernaum.
In Jesus' day Nazareth was a small village. Today, there are over 130,000 living in upper and lower Nazareth. In Jesus' day it was a quiet place to live. Today, traffic is a major problem with narrow streets and no parking. In Jesus' day Nathaniel said of him, "How can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Today people say, "How can we get out of Nazareth?"
At Capernaum we saw impressive ruins of an old synagogue dating back to the time of the Roman empire. Jesus used Capernaum as the center of his ministry returning to it time after time. Hot and humid, it nevertheless was a perfect place for ministry. Situated between two kingdoms - the kingdom of Herod Antipas on one side and Herod Philip 1 on the other - people came from north and south to pass through this strategic location.
What we found interesting is that there was nothing else in Capernaum except a beautiful church called the "Church for All Nations," a monastery, and of course, the ruins. The town of Capernaum is gone. Jesus said it would happen. Read Matthew 11:20-24. He said it would happen to Korazin and Bethsaida as well. He said they were cursed because if the miracles that were done in those three cities had been done in Tyre, Sidon and Sodom, they would have repented and believed in Jesus as Messiah. Even though they saw his miracles they still didn't believe. That's hard to believe that they didn't believe, but it happened.
As we drove around the north side of the Sea of Galilee, a small pile of ruins that once stood as the proud harbor town of Korazin served as a silent testimony of their reluctance to believe.
Posted by roger at June 30, 2005 07:19 AM