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Israel Familiarization Trip
January 7-17, 2015
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Exactly what we needed
Today began with word that the road to our planned sites for the day was closed due to some flash floods. As we got on the bus to pull out of the Dead Sea for the day our wonderful tour guide Ronen saw a friend of his who worked at Masada and got word that it was actually open, we just had to go in the back way.
Masada is a palace that was built by king Herod up in the mountains overlooking the Dead Sea. Many years later it is believed that a group of Zealots had fled to Masada and were holding up and not wanting to give in to the Romans. In order for the Romans to prove a point that no one should mess with them they built a siege ramp (which happened to be our way in today) and eventually broke in. Some believe that the Zealots decided to take their own lives as a last act of freedom rather than being taking captive by he Romans. Masada is truly one of those awe inspiring locations in the Holy Land, where we don’t really have any biblical accounts of it but it was definitely a part of life in the 1st century BC.
Masada
The summit of Masada sits 190 feet (59 m) above sea level and about 1,500 feet (470 m) above the level of the Dead Sea. The mountain itself is 1950 feet (610 m) long, 650 feet (200 m) wide, 4,250 feet (1330 m) in circumference, and encompasses 23 acres. The “Snake Path” climbs 900 feet (280 m) in elevation. From the west, the difference in height is 225 feet (70 m).
Our second stop today was Tel Arad. We got to check out their citadel and see what appeared to be a replica of tabernacle in the sense that they had an alter for sacrifices and even a room that appeared to be like a holy of holies.
We didn’t get to see all that we had hoped to today, but we know that God is the one leading our time and we saw exactly what we needed to.
Erik Keeling
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