June 13, 2026

Perhaps you recognize the name of Thutmose III of Egypt, the pharaoh whom Yours Truly identifies as the pharaoh of the oppression and from whom Moses fled in Exodus 2:15. Well, this is not that story, but one even so that impacts biblical history, for in 1457 B.C. while Moses is enjoying quiet married life in Midian as a shepherd, ten years before he’ll be surprised by a burning bush in the wilderness that would lead to his returning to Egypt to lead the Israelites into freedom, Thutmose III is marching toward a fortress town in Canaan called Megiddo.

Thutmose wanted to expand his kingdom, but Megiddo stood in his way—literally. Located strategically at an important pass through the Mount Carmel range, if Megiddo fell, then the Egyptians could control the key highway that runs past Megiddo, known as the “Way of the Sea,” over which armies and caravans have traveled since the dawn of time between the continents of Europe and Asia and the continent of Africa.

Conquering Megiddo would lead to extraordinary wealth and power, so much so that when Thutmose III’s generals hesitated to issue the command for their soldiers to enter the narrow and dangerous route through this mountainous terrain, the biblical pharaoh famously charged them with these words, “The capture of Megiddo is like the capture of one thousand cities.” So they braved the march, they besieged the city, and the city fell, thus dramatically reducing any threat of serious resistance to their newly-acquired rule from any of the people living in the valley and the surrounding region.

From the heights of Megiddo the victors looked out in awe on the strikingly beautiful flatland to the northeast, known today as the Jezreel Valley. Shaped like an arrowhead this valley has arguably witnessed more battles than any other place on earth. Napoleon once quipped, “All the armies of the world could maneuver on this plain,” for whoever controlled this broad, strategically-located valley controlled one of the greatest and most powerful intersections in the world.

Today Megiddo is a tel, a small hill or mound that has built up over centuries and that when excavated will reveal layer upon layer of past civilizations at that location. In fact twenty-six layers of ancient civilization have been identified, dating from ancient times until shortly before the New Testament era when the site was surprisingly abandoned and never rebuilt. Different groups of Canaanites held Megiddo as far back as 3000 B.C., then the Egyptians, of course, followed by other famous names and peoples, including General Joshua (under whom the land was assigned to the tribe of Manasseh which would ultimately fail to hold it), David, Solomon, Ahab, Omri and the Assyrians. One of my favorite writers, archaeologist James Murphy-O’Connor, has called Megiddo “the royal box in one of the great theaters of history,” adding that “from time immemorial armies have surged from the surrounding valleys to play their parts on the flat stage of the Jezreel Valley.”

Perhaps you know Tel Megiddo by its other name, Har Megiddo, meaning “the hill of Megiddo,” which when translated into the Greek language, transforms into Armageddon. Anticipating the final battle to end all battles, Revelation 16:14, 16 states that “the kings of the earth and of the whole world [will] gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty … and they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.”

Megiddo’s history is ultimately a story about the future of the world. The word Megiddo has been variously translated as “the hill of troops” or “the place of slaughter,” a meaning that foreshadows a terrible time when the armies of the world will come against God’s people and be defeated. Even so, come, Lord Jesus, for we know you alone can bring peace to the world.

-Daniel McCabe

Trivia (Find the answer below)

Life in the Land:: Ten Fun Facts about Camels

1. Jesus mentioned camels—actually, twice! You probably remember this one. “I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matt. 19:24). But did you remember this quote, describing the scribes and Pharisees? “Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!” (Matt. 23.24).

2. There is no evidence that riding camels hurts them. You as the rider might be a little sore the next day, but they are just fine.

3. A camel can walk up to 60 miles per day, 20 miles comfortably with a full load, can carry around 1300 pounds of cargo, can survive for ten days without water and can tolerate temperatures over one hundred degrees.

4. Camel milk and camel cheese are gaining popularity in Israel for their low-fat health benefits.

5. Camel meat is not considered kosher because camels do not have fully split hooves.

6. On your next visit to Israel, you can pay $5-10 for a five-minute camel ride, supervised by Bedouin handlers. Camels are often equipped with two-seat saddles so that you can ride with a friend.

7. Most domesticated camels in Israel are one-humped Dromedaries, not the two-humped Bactrian variety

8. I wouldn’t recommend feeding them by hand because they have a powerful bite. But they do love dates as a snack. Oh, and watch out, they sometimes spit when annoyed and you definitely won’t like the smell.

9. Camels aren’t typically wild or free-roaming in Israel, but you won’t travel very far down Highway 1 on your way from Jerusalem to Jericho before seeing Bedouin camps and camels.

10. Camels are surprisingly intelligent. They recognize their handlers, remember people, and can be trained for specific routes.

-Daniel McCabe

Scripture Study:: Three Bold Claims, part 2

Last time I shared three bold claims with the third being that much of the Old Testament hasn’t happened yet. Let me offer an example from Zechariah 8:1-8, one of many that I could give. Here God makes the following promises to the nation of Israel at a time when they had begun to return to their land from exile.

“And the word of the LORD of hosts came, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath. Thus says the LORD: I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts, the holy mountain. Thus says the LORD of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. Thus says the LORD of hosts: If it is marvelous in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous in my sight, declares the LORD of hosts? Thus says the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country, and I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness.’”

Now, as the people began returning to Israel from exile in Babylon and Persia, no doubt there would have been a lot of excitement. “God is at work! Something great is happening! He’s told us through the prophets that he would regather us!” No doubt they would have begun to think, “We’re being regathered!” And so they started to rebuild the temple and eventually the city. Of course, there was a lot of buzz, “Is this our promised Golden Age? Is this the blessed age of the kingdom to come?” For sure, their regathering from exile was the beginning of that promised time, and the years to follow would create the potential for those days to be fully realized if they had simply received Jesus as their king. A lot of what you read in these verses from Zechariah did actually happen. I’m quite sure that there were old men and women living there and boys and girls playing in the streets. But this passage and many other prophetic passages speak of a time when the norm would be peace and prosperity. Zechariah also said that they would live as God’s people in faithfulness and righteousness and that Jerusalem would even be called the faithful city, but there’s so much in Zechariah that has not happened yet, especially in light of the prophecy’s emphasis on “forever.” For example, Zechariah 8:20-23 reads, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the LORD and to seek the LORD of hosts; I myself am going.’ Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD. Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”

This is just one example from the Old Testament in which the prophets speak of a Glorious Age for Jerusalem (Zion) when God is with His people, Israel, when they are living with Him as His people in faithfulness and righteousness and when the rest of the nations of the world are flocking to Jerusalem to seek the one true God. If we look back in history, we can see individual examples of this when people have gone to Jerusalem from other countries. Certainly too there have been faithful people in Jerusalem living for God in righteousness and faithfulness, but they are only individual cases on a limited basis, yet these verses speak more about a comprehensive national renewal of zeal for the Lord like no other time in history and in such a way that the glory of God will reach out to all the nations of the world.

If you look back in history, this hasn’t yet been the case. Therefore, when we see unfulfilled promises like this in the Old Testament, we must decide how to understand them. One option is that perhaps God has no intention of fulfilling them. Maybe He’s no longer interested in doing so. A lot of people think this way in light of Israel’s rejection of Jesus. In this view God is done with Israel as a nation. He’s no longer interested in fulfilling these prophecies. But I think we should reject this option, for it puts us in the awkward position of having to decide which promises God will fulfill and which ones He won’t.

A second option would be to read these prophecies with the mindset that if any one of these prophecies has not happened yet, then we should expect that one day it will. I think this is the correct option.

But there is a third option. Perhaps God plans to keep His promises, but in a different or unexpected way. Perhaps we are safe to spiritualize them, meaning that they simply teach us that God will treat us kindly if we honor Him.

Finally there is this. We can look back on all the prophecies that have thus far been fulfilled and say, “Wow, they’ve been fulfilled precisely as described by the prophets,” so why wouldn’t this be true of all the remaining prophecies too? This leads me to conclude that Zechariah 8 hasn’t happened yet and that we await its fulfillment in the future.

In summary much of the Old Testament hasn’t happened yet, thus we must not think of the Old Testament as something from the past and the New Testament for the present. The Bible is one unified corpus, and as we look through its pages, both Old and New Testament, we can look forward to a time when ALL God’s promises will come true.

-Adam Keim

The Heel Bones of Yehohanan, part 1

Archaeology

Roman crucifixion is arguably one of the most brutal and painful forms of execution ever invented by men, yet, according to the accounts of first-century historians, Rome systematically sentenced thousands of men to death by crucifixion, including our Savior, Jesus. Loss of blood, muscle spasms, and exhaustion greatly contributed to the death of crucified men, but asphyxiation was the pivotal cause of death, for breathing became incredibly difficult as the hours passed, especially when those crucified could no longer muster the energy to pull up with their arms or push up with their legs in order to fill their lungs with air.

We know too from historians that the condemned were either tied or nailed to wooden crossbeams and uprights, but until 1968 no physical evidence had ever been found of Roman crucifixion. In that year construction workers uncovered an ancient tomb in a neighborhood in northeast Jerusalem, and inside they found an ossuary (a bone box) inscribed with the name Yehohanan, the son of Hagakol.

A young Greek archaeologist named Vassilios Tzaferis oversaw the excavation of the tomb, and in 1985 he wrote a detailed article about his findings. He determined that Yehohanan was in his mid to late twenties when he died and approximately 5’ 6” tall (an average height for people in that part of the world at that time) with a slender build and lean muscles. His bones showed no evidence of nutritional deficiency or disease and no serious injuries prior to his crucifixion, but outside of a noticeable cleft palate, which he might have successfully hidden by a beard, Yehohan had a pleasant face.

His short life and tragic ending, however, have provided enormous insight into the manner in which men were crucified during the time of Jesus. We’ll look at this in next week’s post.

-Daniel McCabe

Answer to the Trivia

B. 11

Sandwiched between Guernsey at #10 and the Isle of Man at #12.

The Cayman Islands came in at #1.