Beauty of Caesarea

a view of Psalm 104

Overlooking Nazareth

Sea of Galilee

Day 8 Sunday

Sabbath is over and we are on the road again. Today was a lovely day from so many perspectives, not the least that we spent most of it by water and cool breezes. 🙂

First stop was Caesarea, the Roman city built by Herod the Great. The things he accomplished in building and designing cities, amphitheaters, temples is mind boggling and nothing more so than the beauty and location of Caesarea right on the Mediterranean Sea.

After a stop at a delightful, “modern” Israeli town of Zichron Ya’acov for lunch (which included mint lemonade … I have fallen in love with mint tea and all things mint here … and sachlav, a warm milky drink made with toasted coconut, almonds and cinnamon). We continued on to Mt. Carmel, where Elijah fought the priests of Baal, then Mt. Precipice in Nazareth where they took Jesus after he read from the scroll of Isaiah in his hometown synagogue, and finally to Mt. Arbel where we overlooked a huge portion of the Sea of Galilee including Capernaum and Tiberius where we will be staying for 3 nights.

The views from each of these points were breath-taking! You were able to see areas and far off ridges of distant countries and really get a feel for the land, the trade routes, the geography. Then Aaron would read from the Psalms and the specific passages of the famous stories that occurred at these spots and the stories came alive!

We have a lovely little “flat” hotel room with a small balcony and a view of the Sea of Galilee. We ate dinner right at the shore of the Sea of Galilee, a variety of Lebanese dishes but David and I both had fresh fish, just caught. Good food, good friends, good conversation.

Another amazing day in Israel.

Personal Reflections: At the top of Mt. Carmel we read Psalm 104 and looked out at the amazing lush agricultural area of northern Israel. Seeing what the psalmist saw as he wrote those words. We also talked about Elijah and his mountaintop experience that led to a huge depression. Elijah running away to Be’er Sheva and then Mt. Horeb … it is quite a distance. How far we will run to get away from our problems! our disappointments! Still, God goes with us. He never leaves us nor forsakes us. Even when we are running from Him! He provides for us and goes with us.