Gracious Gifts

Mount Precipice

Today was an extensive day.  Yet full of amazing places, bringing life to stories from ages ago.  The first place we visited was the place where Jesus was almost thrown off of a cliff to his death for the blasphemous things He was saying that his home town thought was preposterous. It was an ENORMOUS mountain with rocks jutting out, steep cliffs all around--truly the definition of certain death, and yet Jesus got away somehow.  although the mountain is not mentioned by name, this is the most logical place (being right off of the road from Nazareth) that there would be a large possibility that people were dragged here to be cast off and then stoned.  It really constructed a reality that was scary and ultimate, from something that before had simply been words on a page.

Granary in Megido

It was our first day with our tour guide Anot and the historical knowledge that she brought to the table was pretty impactful in many areas.  Megido was an archaeological dig site that gave deeper explanations to how archaeologists work, and the difficulty of the decisions that go into deciding whether to continue to dig in order to look for older remnants of civilizations, which shows multiple layers of different centuries--or if they'll only uncover the top layer.

This site is historically known as the place of Solomon's Kingdom-- so that was a very interesting concept to explore, we saw the ruins of the gates and possibly King Solomon's private stables.  But one of the most interestingly strange things for me to see, was the field where the ultimate clash is predicted to take place on.

Megido

Anot took us to a hill where she read us the bible story from 1 Kings 1:21 where King Ahab and the desired vineyard that Naboth owned.  Jezzabel, Ahab's Queen slyly proved Naboth wrongly guilty that was paired with punishment of death.  Now that Naboth was out of the way, King Ahab could have the coveted property.
 after this innocent's  blood was shed over land, the prophet Ezekiel came to the king and said, "Have you murdered AND inherited?"  To the right of where this dreadful thing happened was the mountain where Saul commits suicide to avoid capture and Jonathan dies in battle.

After our historical stops we took a quick hiatus for some relationship building with some amazingly kind and hospitable missionaries.  The house was called Beit Baracha, or House of Blessings and boy is that ever the truth.  This gorgeous home created a beautiful solace for christian groups to stay in while on their pilgrimage.  Ted was the director of the house, and words can't describe the countenance of this man.  He was exuding joy and compassion.  His graceiousness was an innate characteristic that as we were walking onto the deck to see the beautiful nview that they had.  Dan spotted a Chofar, one of the beautifully twisted ram's horn that is blown like a bugle.  He asked a few harmless friendly questions about it mentioning how he hopes to find one before we leave the amazing country of Israel...LITERALLY 5 minutes later, Ted comes out holding the Chofar.  He tells Dan that 
wants him to have it.  I think its safe to say that every person who witnessed this gesture, was blown away.  Ted said, "It was a gift to me long ago, so please--let me give it to you now.  It was truly amazing.

 Graciously, Dan used his trumpet skills to coax out some rich notes so that Ted knew he chose the right man.

Such a story tale ending to this day:  beautiful places, beautifully kind people, and a most humble gift.

What a blessing ,and perfect transitions for the place that we are headed---The Mount of Beatitudes.