Northern Israel

Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,  to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."  And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."  Luke 4:14-22 NRSV

After we packed up and left the Sea of Galilee, we climbed up to the city of Nazareth, passing through Cana (the place Jesus performed his first miracle). Unfortunately, we did not have time to stop at that Holy site or at the Church of the Annunciation (I do have a picture of the Church of the Annunciation unfortunately I don’t have one of the churches in Cana). However we ended up at the Mount of Precipice.  This is the place where following the above scripture, the people of Nazareth chased Jesus to and tried to throw him over the side, but he escaped through the crowd.

From this mountain, there is a 360 degree view of Lower Galilee and the Jezerel Valley (also known as the Valley of Armageddon).  From this place you are connected with stories of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. First of course is the childhood home of Jesus and where Mary heard from the Angel she was to give birth to Jesus.  Just to the east, almost like a suburb of Nazareth is the home town of the prophet Jonah.  Moving Clockwise from Nazareth around the 360 degrees, also in chronological order we see Mt. Tabor where the prophet Deborah took on the Canaanites in Judges 4, next is the hill of Moreh where Gideon took on the Middianites in Judges 7. The next Mountain visible is Mountain Gilboa where King Saul came to his death by running into his sword (1 Samuel 31). Finally to the West you can see Mt. Carmel where Elijah took on the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18). It is easy to imagine an elder of Nazareth sitting down with the children and pointing to these mountains and sharing the stories with them over centuries.

Please take a look at my pictures there is a link in the post before.  There are pictures of above, Tel Megiddo, Caesarea by the Sea… which is gorgeous, and a couple of pictures of Jerusalem when we arrived this evening.

Tomorrow we celebrate the nativity as we head to Bethlehem, Jericho and the schedule says Qumran… I guess we will see. Thanks for reading!