Today’s devotional message at Beit Shean – this is a Christian church trip, recall – dealt with the evil the Devil can do, and in particular the feeling of inadequacy and discouragement that keeps us from doing things that would be beneficial or bring fulfillment to oneself or to others. Sometimes God gives a signal of His intent, as he did for Elijah on Mount Carmel (I Kings 18 v. 38). It’s not proper for us to ask God for a direct indication of His will but sometimes, the devotional message told us, it comes to us without asking. We drove past Mount Carmel, which prompted the pastor’s message.

I was on the horns of a dilemma. At Beit Shean we had an option for a standard guide-led exploration of the Greco/Roman/Byzantine ruins or to climb to the top of the tel to the site of a Roman temple, later a Christian temple. The problem: at 150 below sea level and a temperature of 102 the hike up the hill in blazing sun with no shade looked too dangerous to me. And I’m the guy who regularly climbs whatever cathedral tower or hill for the camera angle whenever the opportunity arises. I paid 5 Euros the other day to climb 180 stairs to the top of the cathedral in Munich.

So now my dilemma: am I saying “no” to the climb out of an abundance of caution or am I being tempted by the Devil to chicken out? But then my Fuji camera gave me the answer: “Approaching the Upper Temperature Limit of this Camera!” That’s all I needed. I’m not saying the message from Fujifilm was a message from God but if I wasn’t going to get the shot from the top of the hill, why take the chance of heat stroke?

I’ve got a ton of pictures to go through tonight, so I’ll just hit the high spots of each of the three sites we visited today.

Caesarea – a town on the Mediterranean halfway. Between Tel Aviv to the south and Haifa to the north, this was a town founded by Herod the Great. He named it Caesarea as a way of sucking up to the big guy back in Rome, Caesar Augustus, his boss. This town is important in Christian history for a number of reasons: Peter came here to perform the first baptism of a Gentile; Paul launched two of his voyages from Caesarea and later was held in prison here for two years before being sent to Rome for his trial and execution.

One of two written proofs of the existence of Pontius Pilot (of Mount Pelotus fame back in Lucerne) was found at Caesarea. He, incidentally, was a “spear man” and hence of a rank no greater than captain in the Roman army. He was a blood thirsty despot given Jerusalem to rule, which was of minor political importance.

The Muslims laid waste to the city as did the Crusaders. It’s a major archeological site and is now a Israeli national park.

Tel Megiddo – the site of 20 or more cities and civilizations built one on top of another over a period of from perhaps 5000 BCE to 350 BCE. Archeologists have dug down through the layers to identify the various civilizations. When one city failed another was eventually constructed on top of the ruins, creating a pile, or tel, that is about 21 meters (69 feet) above the surrounding land.

A particularly interesting feature is the well and access tunnel constructed to protect the city from enemy siege. We descended 187 steps down a pit in the ground with circular stairs that led to a tunnel some 100 meters in length, which in turn led to an underground spring. The town could access the water without going outside its protective walls, making it impossible for the enemy to cut off its water supply.

We could see the hilltop town of Nazareth in the distance.

Beit Shean – another tel structure, this one featuring a well preserved city constructed first by the Greeks, then the Romans and then the Byzantine Empire. It has the best Roman theater preserved in Israel (although the ones Judy and I saw across the river in Jordan a few years ago at Jerash equaled what we saw today). Beit Shean is also the spot mentioned in Revelations as Armageddon, the place where the battle between good and evil will occur at the end of time.

After all that, we drove north up the Jordan River to Tiberias where we checked in and had dinner. Today was a long day in the heat. Tomorrow we’re off to the north to the Golan Heights with the same early morning routine: breakfast at 7 and on the bus by 8 and more interesting biblical sites to explore.