Joppa / Tel Aviv, Thurs., 4/3/08

We arrived in Tel Aviv in the early afternoon and easily got through customs and picked up our luggage. After much going back and forth, everyone ended up on the right bus to take them to the right hotel. But first, before we could settle into the hotel we got an extra last minute excursion. The city of Joppa was merged with Tel Aviv a few years ago.

Joppa has two distinct claims to fame within Scripture. In Jonah 1:2-3, after God tells Jonah to go preach to the people of Nineveh, Jonah heads to Joppa to catch a boat to Tarshish. I’m sure we all know the story from there. In our pictures you can see a statue of a great fish that stands in the old city commemorating Jonah’s story.


The second story is in Acts 9:40-43. Peter prayed to God to bring Tabitha back to life. The Lord heard his prayer and Tabitha “opened her eyes, and seeing Peters she sat up.” The news spread all over the town of Joppa and “Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.” We saw his home as it still stands today. We weren’t able to go in it as it is structurally unsound. Perhaps someday it will be renovated and converted to a tourist site.



Jimmy and I in the old city of Joppa


View down one of the streets in Joppa.


View of Tel Aviv from the old city of Joppa


The view out our hotel window - The sunset on the Mediterranean