We visited Mt Carmel, where Elijah challenged 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah to prove that Israel’s God was the true God. He called down fire out of heaven to consume his sacrifice, the stone altar, the wood, and even the water in the trench around the altar. Then Elijah killed all of the prophets of Baal with the sword. We visited the general area, but no one knows the exact spot where the confrontation took place.

It’s an amazing story. Even if you already know it, it’s worth going back and reading again. It’s in I Kings 18:17-40. This statue of Elijah slaying a prophet of Baal commemorates Elijah’s victory. This is a great Old Testament example of God doing “exceedingly abundantly beyond” all we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20).

This statue commemorates the event showing Elijah slaying one of Baal’s prophets.

Israel is tiny. The whole country would fit inside Lake Michigan. It is younger than I am. Yes, I was seven years old when Israel became a nation. Yet this tiny country is the continual focus of world affairs.

The history of the land and the Jewish people goes back four thousand years. I have been reading about it in the Bible since I was a small child, and hearing about it in the news for almost as long. Although I always found the land fascinating, I never expected to set foot on it personally until my niece Nancy Knox Long invited me to join a group she was going with from Orlando, Florida, led by scientist Grady McMurtry.

As we visited various sites, we learned about their significance from a topographical, geological, archaeological, historical, and Biblical perspective. In future posts I will share some of what I learned. At times we walked where Jesus once walked, and saw places where He visited. We saw the tomb where He was buried and from which he arose.

One of the most significant comments we heard, which summarized our entire experience, was spoken by our tour guide at the tomb. “This is a very important place. A very important event took place here. But this is only rock. We are not here to worship and glorify rock. We worship and glorify Jesus Christ.”

In May I went on a study tour of Israel with my niece, Nancy Long. On our first day there we visited Nazareth, the town where Jesus grew up. We sat in a synagogue like the one where He read from the scroll of Isaiah: “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Then He told the people, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

But instead of joyfully receiving this news, the people became angry. “Who is this?” they asked. “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?” They drove Him out of town and tried to throw him over this cliff where Nancy is standing. The whole story is in Luke 4:16-31.

Because He had grown up among them, they could not believe He was who He claimed to be. But in truth He was not the carpenter’s son, but the Son of God. That he would humble Himself to become a human being, going through the process of gestation, birth, and growing up just like all the rest of us absolutely boggles my mind. He (God) “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7) so He could identify with our humanity and all its weaknesses. His humanity was so complete; He seemed so ordinary. No wonder the people in His hometown couldn’t recognize Him as anyone else but the carpenter’s son.

I’m glad I know He wasn’t just a great teacher, a good man, but that He was, and is, the Son of God, and that He is my Savior.