Last night we stayed in a hotel in Tel Aviv.  Our hotel was a stones throw from the enormous Mediterranean Sea.  We had some problems as the luggage carriers were on strike.  Apparently, when no one removes bags from an airplane they go to Istanbul.  So, we had to return this morning and wait amidst the sea of other travels for our bags to arrive.

UNEXPECTED SIGHT OF INTEREST:
While driving on a toll-road between our stops at the seaport of Caesarea Augusta and Tel Megiddo, our tour guide stopped along the side of the road.  The area in which we were driving was called the necropolis (city of the dead), what we would think of as a cemetery.  The area of tombs had been all but covered through centuries of occupation and rebuilding.  However, a few years back, when they were blasting to build this toll-road, they came across various tombs dating from the time of Jesus (2nd Temple era).  The above picture shows a tomb which had a disk-shaped stone rolled over the entrance.  What appears to be two other entrances to the right are actually coves or niches within the tomb where bodies were placed, but in this case two of them were exposed by the explosions to create the road.  The picture of me is from inside the tomb, crouching in front of a different niche at the back of the grave. 

The practice of burial during Second Temple Judaism often involved a body being wrapped and left in the tomb for three years while it decomposed.  After this deterioration period, the family would return, collect the bones, and place them in a stone box (ossuary) to be buried. 

This was in interesting site to view as it so closely parallels the biblical description of Jesus’ three-day entombment.

Tonight our hotel is on the north side of the Sea of Galilee.  It was dark when we arrived, but I can see the lights of the sizeable city Tiberius across lake to the south.  Tomorrow we are heading out in a boat onto the Sea of Galilee early in the morning so I’d better get to bed.  I’m realizing all the more how significant it was that God chose this location to place His people in order that they could impact literally the entire known world.  What a responsibility!