Our hotel was called the Island Luxurious Suites Hotel. With a view like this, I’d say it was appropriately named.

I hope I never forget how it felt to sleep horizontally, in a bed, after 36 hours of straight travel. I could have cried, it was so relieving.

While tossing and turning on the plane, I thought of Esau and how, in a moment of strong hunger, was willing to give up his birthright for his hunger to be sated.

In my own moment of discomfort, I wondered how much I’d be willing to give for a bed and sound sleep. If I was candid with myself, a shameful lot. It may seem like a small thing, and perhaps it was, but I found it to be a good reminder that none of us are safe from our own sinful, pleasure-seeking nature and only by keeping my eyes on Christ can I resist temptation in my weakest of moments.

I started the morning by reading my Bible on the balcony, but I wasn’t alone. Being joined by Carly was a precious moment, as is any having set aside time in the Word alongside other believers.

Our tourguide, Itai, read Psalm 128 and a devotion was given about contrasting obediences in connection with Jaffa (Jonah’s story and Peter’s) on our way to our first site: Caesarea!

It made me smile seeing all of the signs along the road in Hebrew. Though I cannot read it, I find something very satisfying about the blocking of Hebrew language.

There’s also something…pleasantly maddening in being unable to read and understand a language that a majority of the people in the surrounding area do (or maybe that’s just my itching curiosity talking).

In Caesarea, we sat in an theater built by the Romans. Beside it was Herod’s palace, in which Paul was imprisoned for two years.

Itai read from Acts while at Caesarea, but he read from the Scriptures several times throughout the day and equally quoted some from memory.

Between this and the wear on His Bible, I’d say the man is very familiar with the Word. It was a great reminder of the value of storing up the Word in my heart- for both my own recollection and for sharing with others.

I can’t blame Herod for his choice of real estate to build his palace. It was so scenic and screamed the age-old “Location, location, location!”

I took to the water and for the first time, stepped into the Mediterranean Sea. The water was blue and beautiful, scattering pieces of shells all along the sand. Imagining Paul possibly walking these very sands as a prisoner was a sobering thought.

Next stop was Mt. Carmel, where Elijah and the prophets of Baal had their infamous showdown (1 King 18:19-40).

David, Carly’s brother-in-law, read 1 Kings 18 and Dr. Alex Campbell read the devotion.

What I loved about the devo was he connected several moments throughout the Bible in which God’s people are told to choose between Jehovah and whatever other god they were tempted to worship. Moments like Elijah’s are found with Moses, Joshua, even Jesus, in which the Israelites (and us present-day) are faced with the life-altering ultimatum: choose who you will serve.

Mt. Carmel looks out over the Jezreel valley, where both the places we’d been and yet to be could be seen.

For lunch, we ate at a restaurant, which served food eaten by the Druz people who live in the area.

Filfafel and some BOMB hummus filled our bellies.

Next on the day’s schedule was Megiddo, a town which had been conquered and built on over the span of peoples and generations, spanning back to the Bronze Age.

As a way of protecting their water supply/preventing it from being cut off, they built a shaft and tunnel that made the springs accessible from their side of the gate.

If only Helm’s Deep had had such a system!

A good portion of the way down, we had to walk on these grated steps. I am not a fan of walking across grates on the street, so imagine how sweaty my palms got as I walked down several flights of these puppies, seeing the stretch of empty space underneath me.

I managed down, but not without a heavy dose of knee-weakening adrenaline coursing through my system and some mental pushing through my instincts to freeze.

Our last stop of the day was my favorite of the day (and may remain my favorite stop of the whole trip. I know I’m calling it early, but it was pretty amazing): Nazareth.

10-15 minutes from the Nazareth ruins, on which present-day Nazareth is built, is the Nazareth Village: a recreation of Jesus’ hometown.

Christine was our tour guide and she did an amazing job painting a picture of what life looked like for first-century Nazarenes. She explained several of the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled in Isaiah and Psalm, along with how the different workings of Nazarene life bled into Jesus’ parables.

We saw a replica of what tombs looked like in Jesus’ day and learned about the typical burial process in Jewish culture.

We learned about how a wine press was used while looking on at a genuine wine press found during excavation!

Did you know that the people would crush the grapes without shoes on as a way to avoid crushing the bitter seeds and thus spoiling the lot?

Some fruits and veggies could be seen along the property

There was also a replica of the synagogue, which was a lot smaller than I imagined (granted, in Jesus’ day, Nazareth only held a few hundred people). Imagining Jesus, as it is written in Luke 4, reading from Isaiah 61 in his hometown synagogue as they listened in the close space was a special moment.

Something I thought was neat was hearing how the roofs were put together back in Jesus’ day. Made with beams and reeds, layers of a mix of mud, water, ashes, lime, and straw were added to weather-proof the structure.

Imagine being the Luke 5 men digging through all of that, just so they could lower their paralyzed friend in front of Jesus!

A beautiful reminder on the wall as we ended our tour

I made my first souvenir purchase: a Hebrew-English New Covenant (what we call the New Testament) Bible!

I’m already reading out of the CJB (Complete Jewish Bible) translation for my Quiet Time, but this Bible has a set-up that’s pretty sick!

Not only is it set up to be read backwards (Matthew in the back, Revelations in the front) like the Hebrew language, but it also has the Hebrew script on the opposite page of the English translation!

We settled down in our hotel for the next three nights and had another yummy meal! Can you guess what our hotel is close to?

After dinner, a few of us pulled a couple tables together and played a game new to me: Nertz!

I enjoy a fast-paced game as much as the next person, but when a little friendly competition is thrown into the mix, I’m that much more engaged! We didn’t win, but laugher was aplenty and I savored every minute!

Today’s travels included:

– Caesarea

– Mt. Carmel

– Megiddo

– Nazareth