Caesarea

Saturday 18 April
Driving Tour of the North West Region. Joppa, Caesarea, Acco.

Today is the Shabbat. The streets are empty as we drive out of the city. Orthodox Jews are walking up the middle of a normally busy multi lane street on their way to the Synagogue. This tranquility changes the further we get away from Jerusalem.

Joppa is a leisurely seaside town, with markets and café’s happening (despite Shabbat). Biblically this is the site where the prophet Jonah attempted to flee in a ship to Tarshish from his duty of preaching to the Gentiles in Assyria. Joppa is also the place where the Apostle Peter received the vision to confirm that non-Jews or Gentiles were to be grafted into the Hope of Israel. He was sent to Caesarea to baptize the first household of Gentiles. This was one of the mysteries or secrets that in other ages had been hidden from men. So as non-Jews, standing on the very site where the Christian heritage was given the green light to go to the Gentiles was a very moving experience.

Pris, Susan and Darren at Joppa

Caesarea was also a wonderful experience. It is a well-preserved ancient ruin and they have some fantastic audiovisual displays showing the various eras of construction that took place on the site. This was the very site where Peter visited and baptized Cornelius and his household, the result of the vision he had seen in Joppa! We were standing on the very site where the new era that has changed the course of history began.

The Apostle Paul also visited this city on his way to Rome as a prisoner. We saw the Hippodrome where Roman games and races occurred. We also saw the very elaborate Palace facilities, with the suggested courtroom where Paul (the apostle to the Gentiles) probably gave his testimony before King Agrippa (Acts 26). So altogether, the sites we saw today highlighted the blessing that has been extended to us all as Gentiles through the Gospel… even in far away Australia… nearly 2000 year later.

Getting a bit carried away in the Chariot Race on the Hippodrome

Simon on the ancient aqueduct supplying water to Caesarea

We also visited Akko (Biblical city of Acre) an old Crusader fortress. A mostly Arab section. The site of the jail breakout in the Exodus story of 1947. amazing labyrinth of tunnels, mosques and castles.

Anthony on the walls of Akko

The Tunnels in Akko