Meggido & the Battle of Armageddon

We rode through the valley of Meggido past the fields of wheat (which is small because of little rain this spring. Actually, Israel only gets rain from September to April. It won't rain again until September!), rows and rows of sunflowers, and olive trees, to the oldest and most significant archeological site in Israel and the Near East. It is the site of many significant battles in history because whoever held this city controlled the flow of traffic, both economic and military. And it is the location of the final battle between God and man, when Christ conquers the gathering of the armies from all nations and begins His reign.

Kay taught us through the entire book of Revelation under the shade of trees. She used people who had completed the Revelation Precept Upon Precept to help her illustrate the seal, trumpet, and bowl judgments. People were also the two witnesses, the beast, the false prophet, and the dragon (the devil). She gave us quite a visual of the flow of events in Revelation and that are sure to come to be! Then, as the pinnacle of all visual aids, she had a man as Jesus gallop in on the field in front of us on a white horse!! It was beautiful! "And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS"" (Revelation 19:11,16).

After the teaching and photo shoot of Kay on the horse, we walked the tel of Meggido. This tel dates before the time of Solomon as a Cannanite city location (it is very high, by the way). The top excavation dates 300 B.C. Then from the 10th century B.C., we saw the ruins of Ahab and Solomon's day. Solomon's gate and stables for 300 horses are still visible. Solomon's gate is stone and has four niches on each side for guards to stand. The stables were just stone floors and stone troughs. We could still see stones laid out in room configuations on the top of the tel.

Less than 100 years ago, an archeologist dug straight down into the east side of the tel supposing to find the sites of pagan worship there. Today they do not dig straight down, because the layers mix, so they excavate layer by layer. Nevertheless, making a huge cavern into the tel, this man did find many places of Canannite worship. A particular one of interest is a large circular platform where an altar would have been. It is about twenty feet in diameter with several stairs leading up to it on both sides. It is significant because this dated before the time of the twelve tribes and the establishment of God's worship in Israel.

Lastly, we had the option of walking through an ancient cistern probably dug by either Ahab or Solomon. (There is no way to tell.) They dug the cistern from a spring outside the city, camouflaged the spring on the outside and tunneled the water into the city gates. They would then make a large room to house the water, like a mega well for people to drop their buckets into. This was critical for the survival of a city especially under attach or seige from an enemy. So, down we went 63 steps through the tunnel which ended in a small pond inside the "cavern". (It smelled like a cave.) Then up we went again 70 steps to the outside of the tel. I have no idea how they carved so much rock - but they probably needed it to build all those rooms in the tel.

-- posted by Debbie.