Who Wants To Go To The Theater?

Day 2. Today was a much better weather day than yesterday. We started off in the city of Netanya on the Mediterranean Sea with a large, all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. Then aboard our bus for the first full day of touring in Israel. Our first stop was in Caesarea, a port city built by Herod the Great in the first century BC. The theater here seats 3500. Although the theater isn't mentioned in Scripture, Caesarea is – a lot. It was the home of Cornelius, the first gentile convert to Christianity (Acts 10); the place where Paul was on trial before Felix, Festus and Agrippa (Acts 24-26), and the port from which Paul left for Rome. This is also the place where Herod Antipas was struck down for making himself out to be as God (Acts 12:20-23).

We also visited Mount Carmel and saw the place where Elijah defeated the 400 prophets of Baal and the 450 prophets of Asherah in a contest to determine whether Baal or the God of the Israelites was the true God. Read about it yourself in 1 Kings 18.

Then off to Armageddon. We visited Tel Megiddo, the crossroads of the ancient world and saw firsthand an archaeological site which has uncovered thousands of years of history. The waterworks of this city make the trip worthwhile, but there are far more lessons to learn from the site.

Finally we ended the day at Nazareth, stopping th see the place the Jewish synagogue leaders wanted to cast Jesus off the mountain for his teaching in Mark 4.