Geography 101 - Location, Location, Location Part 2 - Who is influencing whom?

The Via Maris (purple), King's Highway (red), and other ancient Levantine trade routes, c. 1300 BCE By Briangotts at the English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2261499

Where God placed Israel was no accident. Yet I have often wondered why God chose the land of Canaan as the place for his people. However, after the tour, I understand the strategic placement of the nation of Israel.  As far as God was concerned, he placed Israel in “the center of the nations”.  
“Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. Ezekiel 5:5

And from this I learnt a powerful lesson which I will share at the end of this blog.
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During our tour I came to understand how throughout biblical history, the land of Israel sat in an amazingly strategic position. It was the only intercontinental land bridge between the superpowers of the ancient world.  Through the length of the land of Israel ran the most important international highway of the Fertile Crescent called the Via Maris.  It was the main route between Egypt and Mesopotamia and what the Egyptians  called the Way of the Sea. The name, Way of the Sea, also appears in the bible in the prophetical passage found in Isaiah 9: 1 and the fulfillment of the prophecy in Matthew 4:15.
But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. Isaiah 9:1 (ESV)
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Any nation coming to or from Egypt, or traveling from the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Aqaba, had to go through Israel. For many years, Israel remained at the crossroads for international imperialism, war, and trade. That brings us to the significance of Tel Megiddo - the third main stop of our first full day on the Bridges for Peace tour group.

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A model of the ancient city is shown in the visitors center. This model shows the Israelite period, while the earlier periods lie below and could be raised by pressing a button. The north gate is seen in the front side. In the right-back side are the south stables (time of Solomon) and the water works.

If Caesarea Maritima was an illogical place to build, our second stop—Tel Megiddo—was the most natural place to build.  It had all four critical elements. Food came from the surrounding fertile land, water from a nearby spring, natural defence from its location as  the highest point in the area and main road access to the Via Maris.  As an ancient city, Megiddo, was once an ancient city in the Lower Galilee region of northern Israel.  It’s location dominated the Aruna Pass (Wadi Ara or Megiddo Pass) which was the entrance to one of the few passes through the Carmel Mountains. This gave those who occupied Megiddo incredible power over the Via Maris.

According to tourist Israel the city is thought to have seen more battles than any other location in the world. Fortified cities were built upon the 10 acre summit of Megiddo Hill rising 21.33 meters above the valley.
At its prime Megiddo was ruled by King Solomon in the 10th century BC and visitors can see the remains of Solomon’s Gate (photos below) and what is believed to have been his stables.

A deep trench (above photo) was cut by the archaeologists in order to explore the different layers of Tel Megiddo. There are a total of 26 distinct layers of the city - starting from the Neolithic period (8300-4500 BC) on the hill's bedrock, up to the last layer of the Persian period (586-332BC). Each layer raised the height of the ground, thus increasing the height of the Tel from period to period.  ​
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An Iron Age underground waterworks system from the 10th century is evident with a 30 meter deep shaft and 70 meter long tunnel.  This was built to protect the water supply from an army laying siege to the city. A large pit (photo LL) with 183 stairs leads down 36M to the 70M tunnel (photo LR) that connected the city to the spring under the bedrock.  See photos below.

The tunnel is inclined such that the waters would flow from the spring to the bottom of the shaft, so the water could be drawn from the top of the shaft. Photo courtesy of Biblewalks.com

During our travels in Israel, we often saw the Bünting Clover Leaf Map, also known as The World in a Cloverleaf, (German title: "Die ganze Welt in einem Kleberblat”).  It is seen in museums, on magnets, postcards, mugs - you name it.  It is a historic mappa mundi drawn by the German Protestant pastor, theologist, and cartographer Heinrich Bünting. The map was published in his book Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae (Travel through Holy Scripture) in 1581.

It is a figurative illustration, in the manner of the medieval mappa mundi format, depicting the world via a clover shape.

The shape is a symbolization of the Christian Trinity and a component at the symbolization of the German city Hanover, where Bünting was born. The city of Jerusalem is represented as the centre, surrounded by three central continents, with some more areas of the world being accordingly illustrated separately from the clover.

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Even bird migration speaks to Israel as a centre of the continents.  This photo was taken at the Hula Valley Bird Sanctuary in Upper Galilee. It is a major stopover for birds migrating along the Syrian-African Rift Valley between Africa, Europe and Asia. 
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God placed Israel at the centre of the nations.  He intended Israel to be a kingdom of priests. He told them about his intentions shortly after they had gone out of the land of Egypt.
On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.  Exodus 19:1,5-6 (ESV)

They were to take a mediatory role among the nations. However, Israel’s central position among the nations proved to be a double-edged sword. As world powers would travel through the land on the Via Maris, one of two things would occur:

• God’s people would either influence the nations for the Lord.
• The nations would influence Israel toward idolatry.

Any student of the bible knows that the latter happened.  God’s people were swayed by the very nations God intended them to influence.  Here is God’s lament about this. 
“Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. And she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries all around her; for they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you, and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules, and have not even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you, therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, even I, am against you. And I will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. And because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again. Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds. Ezekiel 5:5-10 (ESV)

​TAKEAWAY
OUR LOCATION IS NO ACCIDENT
God has placed us where we are for His sovereign, deliberate purposes. We have our own Via Maris.  Tel Megiddo and this highway remind us of our own opportunities and challenges.
We cannot even imagine what opportunities God’s providence has prepared for us today: Whom will we meet?   Where will we go?

We need to ask ourself:  Who is influencing whom?

============================================================ADDENDUM: FACTS CONCERNING MEGIDDO

• Arabic name - “Governor’s Hill”
• Guarded the Megiddo Pass
• Place of the dividing line of the Via Maris

                  a. The break to the north went to Tyre, Sidon, Baalbek and Ugarit
                  b. The road east went to Damascus

• The king was killed by Joshua - Joshua 12:21
• Given to the tribe of Manasseh - Joshua 17:11; I Chronicles 7:29
• The Canaanites retained control - Joshua 17:12; Judges 1:27
• In the Fifth Solomonic District - I Kings 4:12
• One of the three fortified cities of Solomon - I Kings 9:15
• Here Ahaziah died after being smitten by Jehu - II Kings 9:27
• Josiah killed - II Kings 23:29-30; II Chronicles 35:22-24; Zechariah 12:11
• It will serve as the main area for the gathering grounds of the allies of the Antichrist in the Campaign of Armageddon - Revelation 16:12-16