Ein Gedi, Masada, Qumran

We started the day with an encouraging devotional from Cone Underwood. He shared that when we quote John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” We should never forget verse 17, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” Cone pointed out the beauty of the word, “whosoever” and the joy we have of salvation because of what the Son of God did for us!

On our way to the Dead Sea we passed the town of Bethany the hometown of Mary, Martha and Lazarus and where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. As we continued on to the desert (where they get under 2” of rain a year) we saw Bedouin shepherds that live on the desert’s edge (the outer edges get about 8” of rain a year). It rains enough for some grazing but not enough to live there full time. We caught our first view of the Dead Sea on our right and Jericho to our left as we traveled through the ancient land of the Moabites.

Earlier on the tour we saw the snow on Mount Hermon, the highest peak in Israel (over 7000 feet about sea level). Today we went down to the lowest place on the entire earth, the Dead Sea, over 1300 feet below sea level. The variety of landscape in such a small country (about the size of the state of New Jersey) is awe-inspiring. On our descent we saw oases in the desert. We tried to spot ibex (a desert-dwelling goat found in the Middle East) along the cliffs. We saw date palm farms rising up out of the desert landscape. This is made possible by drip irrigation, which was invented in Israel in the 1930s and now used all over the world.

We entered En Gedi on our way to Masada. En Gedi is where David hid from Saul (1 Samuel 23-24).

Masada was built in 30 BC by Herod. It was built to be used as a fortress in dangerous times and also as a place of luxury. He built fortresses along his escape route too. There are signs Herod spent time here because there is evidence that lettuce imported from Spain was preset. Why is that important? It’s because Herod was an insomniac and he believed it helped him sleep. He made sure it was everywhere he traveled and lived.

When Herod died, Masada became a Roman fortress. After major changes in AD 66 the Jewish people began rebelling against Rome. Several years later, the Jewish people took Masada from the Roman garrison inside the wall by a night attack. Why did they come here? They knew a large supply of food and weapons were stored here and could help them in their fight. Almost 1000 people were able to flee to Masada after the Romans squashed the rebellions in Galilee and Judea. To give context, this happened three years after the Temple was destroyed in AD 70. Rome sent around 6000 soldiers to destroy these people on top of Masada.

As we walked through this incredible fortress, we saw massive storerooms. There were date seeds found here and in 2005 they were able to grow dates from the 2,000 year old seed pods! Read about it here.

Tito showed us an ancient oil lamp from this period. We explored the palace area, the water system, and the synagogue, which was originally used by the Romans as stables according to scholars. Amazingly, archaeologists found a scroll with the Ezekiel prophecy of the dry bones where God promises He will restore the Jewish people to its land again. Tito showed us the ingenious bath houses and the open pools. There were channels they used from the mountains to fill the gigantic cisterns with water. The Romans had orchards, animals, cheese, and all kind of other foods.

When looking down from Masada you can see some ruins of the ramp that Rome built up to the top. The ramp was built by slaves, probably prisoners of war and most likely Jewish. But once the ramp was built, by the time the soldiers broke through, there were only two women and five children alive. The zealots had killed themselves so they would not be tortured, raped, and paraded through Rome as prisoners.

Rome wanted to destroy the Jewish people yet by God’s grace they are still here, just as He promised. Steve Herzig mentioned that only God can fully destroy something He has made. Now the Israeli people say of Masada, “Never Again!” Tito told of his own experience being in the Israel Defense Force (IDF) and having their ceremony where he took his oath of allegiance to Israel on top of Masada. The soldiers were told to shout together, “Masada will not fall again!” Rome is no more but Israel has a whole new group of enemies. The IDF soldiers were given their Bible to remind them of their values and then their rifle to defend the country they love.

A couple in the group saw Bruno, the freeloading ibex (see below, picture by Tito) that visits Masada. We traveled back down and visited the famous Ahava factory store. These are cosmetic products made with the Dead Sea minerals.

Our next stop was the Qumran Caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. We watched an informative video about the Essenes and the caves. We walked through the museum, then through the ruins and had a great view of one of the fourteen caves before traveling on to the Dead Sea.

We ended the afternoon taking a dip, or we should say a float in the Dead Sea! A third of the Dead Sea water is mineral. It was a bonding experience to say the least as you’ll see in the pictures below. On our way out a few us saw a jackal (similar to a wolf). After a full and fantastic day, we headed back to the hotel for dinner. A few of us went up to Ben Yehuda Street after dinner. Can’t believe tomorrow is our last day of touring!