The view of the Jezreel Valley from the summit of Mount Carmel is spectacular. Elijah and the prophets of Baal would have had such a view just before fire came down from heaven (1 Kings 18). The city of Jokneam just below might have brought back memories of "Jokneam in Carmel," the home of one of the kings defeated in the conquest of Joshua (Joshua 12:22).

From the ridge just above Jesus' hometown, the valley of Jezreel spreads out from east to west. To the left, Barak fielded his army of 10,000 Israelite soldiers to face Sisera and the Canaanites. The fields that day were awash with mud and blood (Judges 4-5). To the south, a law-breaking lady living in Endor was surprised one night first to see Saul and then to see Samuel (1 Samuel 28). Jesus too would raise someone from the dead on the northern slope of the Hill of Moreh (Luke 7:10-17).

If Gideon had been 1,000 feet up, he would have seen even more clearly the terrifying hordes of the Midianites who came "like swarms of locusts" and camped "in the valley near the hill of Moreh" (Judges 6:5; 7:2). God used one who was like a "loaf of barley...tumbling into the Midianite camp" to glorify himself as the Warrior of Israel (Judges 7:2, 13). To the north, Jesus might have pointed and quoted, "Tabor and Hermon sing for joy at your name" (Psalm 89:12).

For centuries Israel longed for a king. The years of the judges were known as the "days Israel had no king; everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25). Alas, things did not go much better under the nation's first king, and the "glory of Israel" was slain on Mount Gilboa, an utter failure both spiritually and militarily (1 Samuel 31-2 Samuel 1). At the western tip of Mount Gilboa, Jezreel was home to the vineyard of Naboth (1 Kings 21). After Queen Jezebel engineered Naboth's death, she was thrown from a window to be trampled by horses and eaten by dogs (2 Kings 9:30-37).

The Harod Valley lies between Jezreel and Beth Shean, and it was the route that Jehu traveled as he drove his chariot "like a madman" from Ramoth Gilead (2 Kings 9:20). According to one writer, Jesus is "the greater Jehu," and he is talking about more than his driving skills. Whether or not Jesus recalled that story with his disciples, it does seem likely that this was the place where Jesus healed the 10 lepers, only one of whom returned to offer thanksgiving (Luke 17:11-19).

Megiddo was just a mound of ruins in Jesus' day, but the memories of bloodshed no doubt remained. Two of Jesus' kingly ancestors, after all, died at Megiddo, including the righteous Josiah (2 Kings 9:27; 23:29). If Jesus and his disciples could have dug through the dirt they would have seen ancient stables and silos, temples and a tunnel. In John's vision of the revelation of Jesus, he foresaw the day when kings would again gather at Armageddon to destroy Israel (Rev 16:16).