Charlie Daniels - 2008 Soapbox Archives

2008 Soap Box Archives

Israel Trip Part Two

Day One and Two:

What made our trip so special was that we went with our pastor, Allen Jackson, not to be confused with the country singer, and a small group of Christians from our church, so as we absorbed the historical aspects of the places we visited. Our pastor also gave us the biblical and prophetic aspects.

There is so much to see in Israel, everywhere you go there are historical ruins and there are so many and they come at you fast and it's almost mind boggling when you realize that you're visiting the places of the bible, sometimes several a day and sometimes where several biblical events happened.

We flew in to Tel Aviv after nightfall and spent the first night in a hotel within walking distance of the ancient Mediterranean Port of Jaffa where Peter received a vision and was summoned to Cornelius' house in Caesarea, one of Paul's ports of call and where Jonah sailed out, only to be swallowed by a whale. The city of Jaffa sits on a high hill above the sea and is a beautiful sight to see at night when it is all lit up.

Our tour guide was a man named Ronny Simon who had been a colonel in the Israeli Army and was one of the most knowledgeable men I've ever met, part historian, part teacher, part philosopher and one who could quote from the Old Testament and the New Testament, verse and chapter, and a true Israeli patriot who really knows his stuff.

On our first full day we went to Caesarea where the ruins of the old roman city have been well preserved. The main street of the town was called a Cardo, a wide paved street which is lined with columns where the market place had been located.

The early major cities were always on or close to a major road and a good source of water.

From Caesarea it was on to Mt. Carmel where Elijah challenged the priests of Baal to call fire down from heaven to consume a sacrifice to a pagan god, and when they couldn't do it Elijah called fire down from heaven to consume his sacrifice to Jehovah.

Later that day the priests of Baal were put to death, which angered Queen Jezebel so much that she wanted Elijah's head.

From the top of Mt. Carmel you can see the plains of the Jezreel Valley where the Battle of Armageddon will be fought. It is a huge flat valley with mountains on each side, and one of the bloodiest battlefields in human history. It's a sobering thought to stand there and remember what has happened there and realize what's going to happen there in the last days.

The old site of the fortress city of Megiddo sits on a hill at one side of the valley. The elevation was manmade because of generations building on top of the ruins of others until it looks like a small mountain that rises seventy feet above the surrounding plain and occupies about ten acres.

In it's long and bloody history, Megiddo has witnessed the armed struggles of Assyrians, Canaanites, Egyptians, Greeks, Israelites, Persians, Philistines and Romans and will witness the last great battle before the return of Jesus.

In the old days when an army laid siege to a city, the people of the city had to have enough food and water to sustain them while the enemy was outside their walls. Megiddo has cisterns that stored thousands of bushels of grain and a water source, which is a hundred feet or so below the city in a cave accessible by a passageway that has been carved through solid rock.

The term Armageddon actually came from a combination of the Hebrew word for hill, which is har and the city of Megiddo, and became Armageddon in the Greek language.

We spent the night in Tiberias and let me say something about the accommodations and the food in Israel. They were both excellent. The buffets at the hotels were bountiful and varied and being the adventurous eater that I am, I must say, I acquitted myself admirably.