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Israel Study Tour with Neighborhood Church
June 18-30, 2016
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Living Water
“We’re still in the desert!” Ronen shouted as we boarded the bus for our third day out and about in Israel. There were a few chuckles on the bus as some of our minds immediately went to the Ancient Israelites in the desert, wandering 40 years before making it to the Promised Land. I can only imagine the groans from the Israelites, as Moses too might have begun his day with, “Well, we’re still in the desert!”
“But,” continued Ronen, “we are on our way to living water. Mayim chayim!”
“Mayim chayim!” we shouted back to Ronen.
With barely a fraction of the same experience as the Israelites in the desert, we too were looking forward to living water. In the heat that each day brings, all one can think of is being in the presence of flowing, living (and if possible cold) water. So, we set out for Ein Gedi for our first taste of living water.
Ein Gedi is an oasis and national park in Israel. Scholars believe David and his men hid from Saul along the caves of the Ein Gedi mountainside (1 Samuel 24). It is also here that we came to find David’s Spring. Despite the desert, there was water flowing as a waterfall over the rocks, collecting into a shallow pool below.
“Jesus is living water. Don’t take just a little of Jesus, take a whole lot,” I shouted after reading a portion of John 4 aloud. One by one we approached the beautiful spring to be soaked in its coolness. With a shudder, and a gasp at how refreshing it was, we felt life breathed into our hot, tired, and sore bodies.
Mayim chayim.
Ein Gedi
En Gedi is the largest oasis along the western shore of the Dead Sea. The springs here have allowed nearly continuous inhabitation of the site since the Chalcolithic period. The area was allotted to the tribe of Judah, and was famous in the time of Solomon (Josh 15:62). Today the Israeli kibbutz of En Gedi sits along the southern bank of the Nahal Arugot.
As we left the beautiful Ein Gedi Park, we went on to Qumran, where we learned about the incredible discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls with Old Testament texts reaching back to 1st century BC. The Essenes, as they were called, preserved countless texts from the Hebrew Bible minus Esther and Nehemiah. Also included in the excavations throughout the years are texts that were not found in the Hebrew Bible at all (ask Rabbi Google about The War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness if you are curious). The most frequent copied texts found were Isaiah and Deuteronomy, exemplifying the Essenes deep commitment to living according to the law, waiting in expectation for the Messiah to come.
As we left Qumran, we stopped by the Jordan River, where Jesus was baptized. It seemed fitting to go to the Jordan before we ourselves went to the Sea of Galilee. It’s at the Sea of Galilee that we too partook in our own baptisms. Watching members of our community disappear beneath the soft waves of the water only to emerge again was a breathtaking experience.
Qumran
10 miles south of Jericho, Qumran was on a “dead-end street” and provided a perfect location for the isolationist sect of the Essenes to live.
The site was excavated by Catholic priest Roland deVaux from 1953-56. More recent excavations of the site have taken place under the direction of Hanan Eshel.
We are thirsty, and so we drink water every minute of the day. And yet, we are thirsty once more. But there is another water. A living water that does not run dry. A living water that will quench the deepest parts of our being, bringing us from death to life.
Mayim chayim. Don’t take just a little, take a whole lot.
Bryan Muirhead
Connections Pastor
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