By Dr. Randall Smith
Courtesy of Christian Travel Study Programs, Ltd.
Jaffa is the oldest and perhaps most famous of the ports along the Israel?s coast. From Jaffa port, the Bible records that the prophet Jonah set sail for Tarshish, running away when the Lord commanded him to preach in the wicked city of Nineveh. When a storm threatened to wreck the ship the sailors threw Jonah into the water. He was swallowed by a whale, and remained there for three days and three nights. [2 Jonah 1:1-3:1].
Jaffa?s port is like no other in the world, for twice it hosted shipments of wood for temples built in Jerusalem. King Hiram of Tyre sent wood for the First Temple on a raft to Jaffa. “?we will cut all the logs from Lebanon that you need and will float them in rafts by sea down to Joppa. You can then take them up to Jerusalem.” And when wood was needed for the Second Temple it, too, arrived by way of Jaffa. “Then they gave money to the masons and carpenters, and gave food and drink and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so that they would bring cedar logs by sea from Lebanon to Joppa, as authorized by Cyrus king of Persia” [Ezra 3:7].
Later, the New Testament records that Simon Peter was in Jaffa to heal Tabitha the seamstress [Acts 9]. Standing on the roof at Simon the Tanner?s house he had a vision in which the Lord commanded him to eat foods that were “unclean” (not kosher) foods, [Acts 10: 9-16]. After three attempts to show unclean food to Peter, the Apostle understood that God was trying to get him to change his view of people as unclean (Acts 10:38) not to get him to eat the food. Today, visitors frequent a lovely open plaza. A museum of the city?s eventful part is below the plaza. Beside it is St. Peter?s Church, a gold and orange building erected in the 18th century over earlier chapels and Crusader ruins.
© Christian Travel Study Programs, Ltd.
