June 17, Tuesday - Another Day...Another Mountain to climb

Another day and another mountain to climb.  John claims this is the last major hike but I’m pretty sure I’ve heard this before from him so we will just have to see.  One of the things I’d like to point out is that on these various up hill hikes that we have done, we have occasionally seen other people hiking – but they all start at the top and hike down!  I think the road to Jericho is the only time we did that (and thank goodness we did that one downhill!).

Today’s trip is up Mt. Carmel.  This is the mountain that Elijah climbed when he was challenging the faith of people who worshipped Baal.  He told them to quit trying to worship both Baal and God and that they had to choose.  This was also during a time when there had been a drought for 3 years.  So he told them to build 2 altars, put wood on it and a bull prepared for sacrifice but don’t light the wood.  Instead call on Baal to send fire and he would call on God to do the same and see which god answers.  So all day the priest of Baal called on him to send fire and nothing happened.  Elijah taunts them to call out louder because maybe Baal is busy or has gone off to relieve himself but still nothing happens.  Finally Elijah calls for people to gather around.  He pours water on the altar to God 3 times so that it covers the bull, the wood, and fills the trough around it.  Then he calls on God and fire comes down and consumes the bull, wood, and altar itself, even drying up all the water.  After this storms come and the drought ends. 

Aside from talking about what great shape Elijah was in (he climbed the mountain at least twice that day and we were all beat from the one trip up) we talked about what great faith it took to not only trust God would answer Elijah but also for Elijah to pour water on the altar.  This was after 3 years of drought and every bit of water would have been precious.  But what greater show of faith and trust in God than to give to Him first and trust He will give you what you need.  I’m reminded of how when I have lots to do one of the first things in my day I might drop is time for prayer or reading the bible.  Instead, time with God should be the main focus and He will provide a way for everything else important to get done.

Mt Carmel is actually close to the Mediterranean and from here we drove down to Caesarea.   Caesarea is another of Herod’s palaces but one which he does not use that often (being Jewish he prefers his desert palaces).  However, Pontus Pilot does like to stay here.  He always builds the biggest and nicest places which are not only ornate but engineering marvels.  Here he has a harbor which is big enough for 300 ships so he can trade directly with other countries – the largest man-made harbor in the world.  He also constructs a statue of Caesar 9 stories high (he wants to stay on the good side of Rome). 

When the city is finished he imports tons and tons of white marble from Italy and covers everything with it so that Caesarea glistens in the sun and can be seen from 5 miles out in the Mediterranean.  When the Romans come through in 70 AD Herod is just another Jew as far as they are concerned and they tear down all the marble and throw it into the water.  It still washes up onto the shore every day.  John asked the question who are we building for – ourselves or God?  All that Herod built was destroyed by man and has become just souvenirs for tourists but Jesus asks us to build up treasures in heaven by living like him.

We did have some time to look for pieces of marble and we all found some, but we only had about 15 minutes to look so we did not have enough time to find pieces for everyone we wanted to bring some back to.  So if you get a piece from someone on this trip, know that they really want to share this story with you and maybe it can be a good conversation starter about some of the faith lessons of this trip.

From here we headed back inland to Jerusalem.  Our group is a mixture of basketball players (men and women) and others here mainly for the bible study.  The basketball group, including John are staying in Bethlehem at the second hotel we stayed at.  The other 7 of us are staying in the old city of Jerusalem.  So this evening we went out to explore around a little.  They are having a Festival of Lights where they have various displays set up around the Old City.  They use different colored rope lights (like you see at Christmas time) set up to mark the white, blue, red, and green routes.  We walked along the white route and then along the red route on the way back.  It gave us a way to get a feel for the city as well as experience the crowds of people out enjoying the festival.

(NOTE: Text is complete, pictures/links to be added later.  I’m going to press ahead and get the text for the other days (I’m now 3 days behind) done as soon as possible and then go back and add pictures.)