Israel trip

So happy to have Daddy home!

Max's time in Israel was incredible and life changing!  It was amazing to walk where Jesus walked, and better understand visual references He used so often when speaking to his disciples.

For those of you who are wondering, the Israel trip was NOT part of the internship!

Charlie signed up for the trip a while ago and offered to treat Max so they could have “one final adventure together”.

How could we pass up this opportunity of a lifetime?

Little did we know, however, that he would be in the midst of this internship during the Israel trip!

He was quite sad to leave the family for ten days, but excited about this opportunity.   (Fortunately, Mark let him off the hook for the papers due during these 10 days,  since Max is the intern for whom so many exceptions have been made already, and Mark was very excited for him to go to Israel. )

Was I sad that I didn’t get to go? 

Not really.  I’m not really in a traveling phase of my life right now, and don’t really like to leave my kids for very long, so I was super excited to live vicariously through them!

Why am I writing about the Israel trip and not Max?

He came back from Israel last Thursday night and left again this morning (Wednesday) with Mark and all the interns to Southern Theological Seminary where Mark is scheduled to speak.  (The interns always go on one speaking engagement with Mark during the internship).   Needless to say, he has had absolutely no time to blog, which is why I’m posting on his behalf!  I will do my best to share some details behind some of the photos.

Caesarea Maritima is a national park on the Israeli coastline, near the town of Caesarea. The ancient Caesarea Maritima city and harbor was built by Herod the Great about 25–13 BC.  He was one of the greatest architects that ever lived!

As a huge ancient history buff, Max found their time at this port, as well as Masada (also built by Herod the Great), to be pretty amazing.  Masada gets its very own post here because of all the pictures and history involved.

Caesaria Philippi, where multiple pagan gods were represented and carved into the rocks.  This is exactly the place where Jesus said, "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Matthew 16:18 (ESV) continue reading the captions of the next few pictures and you will understand the double meaning of "gates of hell".

In this drawing, you can see the temples that used to be here for the pagan gods.  Behind the temple to the left was a large hole called "the gates of hell".

Here is a close up of "the gates of hell", where they would throw human sacrifices offered to their gods

             When you are in Israel, you begin to see the visual imagery Jesus used so often when he spoke, this being one example.  Matthew 16:18 suddenly took on an entirely new layer of meaning!

From the "gates of hell", the water would flow out here, and if there was blood in the water, that meant the sacrifice wasn't accepted by the god, so they would have to offer another sacrifice.
Max said this was an uncomfortable place to be, because there seemed to still be an evil presence lingering

Standing on top of Mt Carmel overlooking the most probable location for the battle of Armageddon

Statue of Elijah, also on Mt. Carmel, where Elijah defeated the prophets of baal.

"Streams in the desert", where David hid from Saul

This is Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.  As the story goes, a boy threw a rock into one of these caves in the desert in the 1940s and heard something break.  It turned out to be a jar where the ancient texts had been hidden by the Essenes who lived in this area.  The Essenes were a sect around the time of Jesus that believed in voluntary poverty and abstinence from worldly pleasures.

At 4,000 years old, this is the oldest piece of architecture in the world, a Canaanite gate, called "the gate of three arches".  Abraham walked through this gate when he rescued Lot!

A church has been built above the apostle Peter's house, and this is part of the floor of the church, looking down into his house.

this is under the church, what is left of Peter's house

what the inside of a home looked like during the time of Jesus

A fishing boat that was found from the time of Jesus

The Garden of Gethsemane

This is at the church of the Holy Sepulchre, where many people believe Jesus was buried. 
In the year 1149 the crusaders built the great basilica over Calvary and the empty Tomb of Jesus.
The basilica is a collection of chapels clustered around the rock of Golgotha and the tomb of Jesus.   

In the 1800s, through more research, some people began to believe that this "garden tomb" was the actual location of Jesus' burial because of its exact location and layout, and where it was in relation to Golgotha, etc.

A picture of Golgotha- you can see how it looks like a skull

Here is a picture of "Skull Hill"

Of course there are many more pictures, some of which I have yet to hear about, but this post must come to an end!  Have any of you been to Israel?  Was it life-changing? Any details I didn't mention in these pictures that you would like to add?