Galilee: Day 1

The first day we were in Galilee, we stopped at Caesarea, Mt. Carmel, Megiddo, and the Nazareth Ridge. Here are some of my thoughts from the day:
The sea is such a complex place. To us who love to live at the beach, the sea is a beautiful thing. Because of this, I failed to realize how differently the Israelites viewed it. The Biblical stories dealing with the sea such as Creation, the flood and Jonah gave them a history with bodies of water that created a mindset of fear and disdain for the sea. This mindset seems to me to be, not irrational, but a little bit “overboard”, if I can use that term. I know that people have died by drowning in the ocean and lakes and pools, but still, we continue to enjoy the thrill of the water. We (being the “gentile” world”) have even created specifically water-oriented activities, like water skiing and surfing that are more risky than just being in a boat. The Israelites, though, grew up with such a negative outlook on the sea not only because of what it has been known to do, but because those events are also such a vital part of their history and heritage.
Knowing this, the story of Peter’s vision at Joppa in Acts chapter ten takes on much more meaning and importance. Because Caesarea was a very mixed site in terms of cultures clashing, Peter seemed to want to keep his distance, by stopping in Joppa. Caesarea saw many ships come in to port with gentile people from other countries. As a Jew with the newly introduced Christian beliefs, Peter still would have held a bias against the sea as well as the gentiles, especially Romans who then occupied the land. The vision that he sees is always in our English translation called a “sheet” but in reality the Greek word used in the text is the same word for “sail” as on a ship. This gives the vision a much deeper overtone as it could have looked like and brought to mind the ships that would have come in not far away at Caesarea, where he traveled soon thereafter to see Cornelius.
Caesarea was a huge place that carries a lot of significance. I liked how you could see the mixture of all the cultures coming together there, especially because it is the place where Christianity opened its doors to the gentiles. I also really enjoyed being at Megiddo. I liked looking out and being able to see the whole region, since it is stuck out into the Jezreel Valley. Seeing all the mountains and the passes helped me to see open the region is and how everything is interconnected through the Jezreel Valley
Mt. Carmel is an impressive mountain, and even more so looking at the range from Megiddo. So many times we see things that God has done or attributes that he claims for himself, which were also attributed to other gods of the pagans. Mainly he takes the characteristics of Ba’al like his strength, and fertility. Usually we see this as God saying that he is like Ba’al but greater, and superseding, in a sense, Ba’al’s person. While I think that this is partially true, because God relates to people using the culture that they are already in so that they can fully understand, it’s really awesome to see Him in a different light as well. The story of Elijah and the prophets of Ba’al gives us another glimpse of God’s character that is unlike Ba’al, and is something greater than Ba’al can claim. The fact that Elijah complains to God after he had just won the challenge over Ba’al begs the question of what went wrong that he was so upset. That has never made sense to me in the past. He comes from such a great victory, only to whine that he is the only one left. God then tells him only to go out onto the cliff. After a great wind and an earthquake and a fire, all things in which Ba’al was generally seen, God passes by in the thinnest silence as if to say that He is more than just a stronger, louder Ba’al. Yahweh cannot be put into a box and defined like other "gods" can.