Nazareth, Jericho, West Bank, Jerusalem

NAZARETH—boyhood home of Jesus---angel announced to Mary the impending birth of the Christ-child here---visited the Church Of The Annunciation. Inside the church, there’s the spring of the village, where Mary would have gone to draw water for the family and surely the boy Jesus went with her often.

MEGIDO—Important strategic crossroads location which will be the sight of the great final battle before Christ’s return. (Armageddon)

BEIT SHE’AN—I Samuel 31—death of Saul—city has been excavated and much of the original structures found

From Beit She’an, we drove southward along Israel’s Highway 90, which is essentially parallel to the Jordan River (the border with Jordan). We crossed a checkpoint just south of Beit She’an into the disputed West Bank territory. In the West Bank, Highway 90 comes very close to Jordan. We could see the heavily fortified border and several Jordanian villages as we drove along. Tony shared much of history and his thoughts regarding the situation in the Middle East. It was fascinating to hear a Middle Eastern believer’s perspective of how the situation isn’t remotely black and white, and that he feels that isn’t going to be solved before the battle at the place we had visited earlier in the day.

From there, it was on to…

JERICHO—Joshua led the conquering of this city. Jesus encountered Zaccheus and Bartimaeus (Luke 18:35-Luke 19:10) here. Many remains of the city have been excavated, including a watchtower that may be 9,000 years old.

From Jericho, we headed to our hotel in Jerusalem, where we will spend the remaining nights.

I can’t even begin to describe the scene as we headed into the majestic Holy City. It was shortly before sunset. The sun’s last remaining light shone over the mountain brightly onto the buildings of the city. John had great music playing over the PA proclaiming the city. The whole scene was just breathtaking.

I was struck by much yesterday. It’s hard to even attempt to pick out one thing. Here are a few bullets:

• Nazareth wasn’t considered a great place to be from when Jesus was around. It still isn’t.

• Tony made a neat comment there about how he could picture the boy Jesus splashing the water from the spring with the other children while their mothers drew the water.
• The battle field at Armageddon is freaking huge.
• I’d seen it on television, but it’s quite different to see a 19ish-year-old girl carrying an M16 up close and personal. Sure, she was a soldier, but to me she looked like she could have been any girl in the Tucker High School Class of 2007 or so. (Military service is required for all in Israel. If I recall correctly, it starts at age 18.)
• I can’t imagine having to go through military checkpoints (manned by quite a few of the aforementioned rifle-toting young people), just to enter and leave my home city. Politics aside, it can’t be very much fun to be a rank and file Palestinian living in Jericho.
• I knew that the gospel was for everyone. I didn’t realize how geographically strategic Jesus was in going to places that were heavily Gentile-inhabited to spread his message.
• In Nazareth, a very poor town largely populated by Arab Muslims, among the graffiti we saw the following written: “TUPAC”, “JAY-Z”, and “FUCK POLICE.” Good ol’ American culture. Eazy-E would be proud, I guess. *shurg*
• Tony got on a roll at Megido as he shared about some of the geography of the area. When God called Abraham to go to another place, it was a call to trust well beyond what I ever knew, because it was a call to go outside of an area known as the “fertile crescent”—the only places where food would grow consistently and dependable fresh water could be found. In other words, Abraham ended up in a place of complete dependency on God the likes of which he would not have experienced in the “comfort” of the fertile crescent.