Tel Megiddo: Guardian Of The Valley of Armageddon

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What ancient biblical city is believed to have witnessed more battles than any other location in the world?

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It's none other than the city of Megiddo. The ruins of Megiddo was our third stop on the first day of our tour of Israel.

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We had just left Mount Carmel, drove a few miles down the road, and stopped at Megiddo to eat lunch and afterwards we walked up the hill to hear a lesson from Dean and Dale.

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Stick around after the bible lesson and I'll tell you a little bit more about what a tell is and also show you some of the sights and scenery from the top of the ancient city of Megiddo.

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So the reason that we want to eventually go up to the top is because you will have a spectacular view of the valley of Armageddon or the

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Jezreel valley and so it's very similar to the view that we saw at the top of Mount Carmel but we want you to see that plus you will also get a much better view of this altar this dark dark

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Canaanite I mean dark by pagan altar that's over here that's 6 ,000 years old and I want to here's what

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I want to do I want to share with you the outline that's on page 38.

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I want to share with you that outline and then I'm going to ask Willie to read a scripture verse for us out of Revelation 16 and then

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I want Dale to share a teaching that by the way some of you may not know

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Dale is an incredible teacher and he teaches a little tiny Sunday school class in our church that has 150 people in it and so he's a tremendous teacher so I've asked him if he would just share with us some thoughts but let me share with you this outline and the way this outline is constructed it will help you to go back look in your

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Bible mark these things and say I was there I know what this place looks like so look at it

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Megiddo literally means the place of troops and remember this was a major fortification in fact if you will see that we're going to talk about it here in just a moment it was one of Solomon's three fortified cities but look at it there are at least 19 layers but the number you want to write in there is 26 there have been as many some archaeologists say as many as 26 layers of civilization that have been built here what is a tale anybody remember a man -made mountain how was it made one city leveled build another on top leveled build another on top like grandma's layer biscuits just one layer after another and so it became a mount or a mountain because it is a man -made mountain of civilizations and you will see a couple of other examples of tells

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Tel Aviv you will see some other examples of tales that haven't even been excavated yet but they are man -made mountains all right so look at the outline let me share this with you very quickly and then

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I want to have a reading and then Dale to share with us how can we describe

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Megiddo this will give you an outline first of all it was a place of darkness a place of darkness again during the

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Canaanite period this pagan altar that we see over here to your right my left it was used for both animal and later children sacrifice and there's the reference you can mark in your bible in numbers 33 secondly we can also describe this area as an area of defense of defense

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Megiddo was one of king Solomon's three fortified cities along with Hatsor and Gezer Hatsor to the north we will go right by Hatsor when we go up to the north

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Gezer to the south so Megiddo was here in the middle and it was one of his fortified cities by the way

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Deuteronomy 17 16 the lord expressly forbade Israel from multiplying horses and chariots and depending on their own strength rather than depending upon him and so this was a direct disobedience to the lord's command as Solomon amassed all of these chariot cities and the horses we see the stables we'll see the stables appear all around where the horses were kept all right so it was a place of defense thirdly it was also a place of defeat of defeat you see the scripture references there numerous wars battles conflicts took place at Megiddo both biblical and non -biblical and so even in world war one there was a major battle that was fought here with general

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Allenby of the British troops he came in to Megiddo and defeated the

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Turks here and they called him the lord of Armageddon and so again you know you see the the position of this place in terms of its strategic value all right and then here's the fourth thing it also according to the word of God will be a place of destiny why do we say that well there is a reference that I want you to hear and then

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I want Dale to give us a teaching and an exclamation or explanation rather about the whole word

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Armageddon all right Willie where are you at come over here brother so they can hear you and if you would read for us come over here on this side read for us

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Revelation 16 13 through 16 and then Dale's going to share some things and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and his name was called the word of God and the armies which were in heaven my mind right now

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I'm in 19 I'm sorry all right no problem that sounded good too yeah okay and I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth out of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet for they are the spirits of devils working miracles which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to battle of that great day of God Almighty behold

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I come as a thief blessed is he that watches and keepeth his garments least he walk naked and they see his shame and he gather them together into a place called in the

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Hebrew tongue Armageddon all right another Dale it's found on that brother it's good

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I like being okay are you can you hear fine okay

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I want you to zero in on what Willie said about the term

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Armageddon he said it's explained in the Hebrew in other words for us to okay for us to can you hear me for us to understand that word it means we have to go to the

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Hebrew language to understand that you with me one thing that I like to or that we like to talk about about the word

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Armageddon it is universal completely it's the it's the only time he read

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Willie read that's the only time you will see that term in the Bible is in Revelation 16 16 but you can go to China they may say chicken with a different word in China than what we use but if you go to China they will pronounce

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Armageddon Armageddon anywhere in the world that term is pronounced Armageddon but we just heard go to the

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Hebrew to understand it okay now let me let me give you another illustration before we get too deep into it and then we'll have some some people come up and share some scripture with us a good scholar once said that our