Israel - Day 8

We spent our day today down around the Dead Sea.  We started out at Masada, Herod's fortress where, in 66 A.D., Jewish rebels took their own lives rather than surrender to slavery under the Roman legions.  After a long seige, the Romans had built a ramp almost to the top, so I thought we would be able to take the bus pretty close to the ruins.  WRONG!  We had to ride a cable car up to the top.

Anyone who knows me and my Scriptural aversion to heights, (There is spiritual wickedness in high places) :0) knows that this wasn't an easy climb for me.  There are now distinct markings in the support pole of the cable car where I gripped it on the way up and on the way down.

I did make it to the top however, and it was definitely worth it.  The view of the Dead Sea and the Judaean Desert  from atop Masada is amazing.  I also enjoyed seeing how elaborate Herod's palaces on top of the mountain were.  There were ruins of a bath house and sauna similar to the ones that we saw at Beit She'an.  However, this one had been restored a little more fully so that we could see how it actually worked when in use. (See the picture below)

The water would run under the floor and through a passage under a furnace outside that heated it to steaming.  The vapor would travel up through the holes in the tile on the walls and fill the room with steam.  It was really a very elaborate system.

All of today's locations were in the middle of the Judaean Desert, a dry and desolate wilderness.  That made our next stop all the more amazing.  Tali told us that we would have a "short 20 minute hike, up to En-Gedi."  This turned into an adventure as we climbed up the side of a mountain to a beautiful, lush green oasis. It was, as we would say in the Ozarks, "at the head of the holler," and a world away from the desolation that we had just come from. 

En-Gedi is where David hid in a cave and cut off the hem of Saul's garment rather than kill him when Saul was pursuing him through the wilderness.  There were caves all around and it was easy to see why David would have hidden here.  As we headed down, we could see the Dead Sea through the rift of the valley.  From a distance it looks very much like the Galilee.  From here, there is very little indication that it is bitter, caustic and lifeless.

As we left En-Gedi, we saw a beautiful specimen of an ibex, standing on his hind legs and eating fruit from a tree.  I'm sure Chelsea's boss, Jim J., who is a big game hunter, would love to have this one stuffed and standing in his office.

Our next stop was Qumran, where in 1947, a shepherd boy, looking for a lost sheep tossed a rock into a cave and heard it make a hollow echoing sound as it hit a clay pot.  Upon investigation, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered that confirmed the preservation of God's Word throughout the centuries.

The Essenes were a monastic community that had fled to the desert to escape the corruption of Jewish life in Jerusalem.  Some people believe that John the Baptist was at least heavily influenced by their teachings.  There are many similarities between his message and the writings of the Essenes that we saw at Qumran.  They called for a life of purity and the pursuit of an intimate, inward relationship with God.  It may be time for a few Christians to start a movement aimed at purifying our lives so that the Holy Spirit can work in and through us without the restraints that our inward sins of pride, unforgiveness, and bitterness place upon Him.

We ended our day with a dip in the Dead Sea.  Water flows into the Dead Sea from several sources, but since it has no outlet, it evaporates, leaving a heavy concentration of salts and minerals.  It is 33% saltier than any other body of water on earth and as a result, when you wade out into it, you float on top of the water.  It is a surreal experience.  There are some pretty good spiritual applications here, but it is late and so I will leave them to your own study and personal devotions. 

Tomorrow is our last day here. We go to the Via Delarosa, Gordon's Garden tomb, the Southern Steps of the Temple, and Antonio's Fortress.  Then we head to Tel Aviv, where we board our flight home.  Pray for us.  It will be a long and grueling day.

I can't wait to get home and see how God uses the lessons that He has taught me here.  It really has been a wonderful trip, one that I will never forget.

Our bus driver, Abi, told me a joke today.  He said a preacher and a bus driver both died and went to heaven.  When the bus driver received his reward, he was given one of the highest places.  When the preacher was given his reward, he found himself just below the bus driver.  He thought that this was unfair, so he complained to Saint Peter.  The Apostle explained, "Whenever you would preach, everyone went to sleep, but when the bus driver drove, everyone was praying."  Abi's jokes are corny enough to qualify him as a Baptist preacher.