Israel-in-Depth with Rod VanSolkema

March 1-13, 2019

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Like a tree planted by the water

We began our beautiful sunny day with a prayer to our Lord and Savior, Deut. 6:4, “Here, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself” first we pray it in Hebrew and then English. This is something we have been doing each morning before we begin and end our days.

We then journeyed to Engedi Park hiking to a waterfall and small pool of water “Wadi David” opening with Scripture, 1 Samuel 23:29, “David then went to live in the strongholds of Engedi”. This is where King David fled to hide from King Saul. I Samuel 24:1, “After Saul returned from fighting the Philistines, he was told that David had gone into the wilderness of En-gedi”. What?!?! This is where we were standing? I was imagining King David being in this oasis that the Lord provided for him. What a place that the Lord provided!!!!! It was so amazing, “a man after God’s own heart” was provided this place as a refuge. After Pastor Rod spoke in depth about this place, he opened up a time for our group to be able to share some “deserts” that they had experienced and had seen the Lord provide. It was a great time of sharing from our hearts and building a strong sense of “community” among our group.

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.

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We then continued our long and windy hike to the “Wadi Arugot”, another refreshing Oasis in the Engedi Park that the Jewish people love to hike to for the opportunity to enjoy God’s provision for them. Clean, cold and refresh water in the desert! But before we get to this Wadi, Pastor Rod pointed out a Bush that produces a type of fruit that looks a lot like a Grapefruit. This fruit is known as “Sodom’s Apple”. Why this name????? When you touch this fruit, it immediately falls apart into a puff of poisonous matter. Rod illustrated for us that this is like our lives, we see what’s on the outside; however, what’s on the inside really matters. Have we really examined what is really in our hearts? Jeremiah 17:5-9, “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and who heart turns away from the Lord. For he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, land of salt without inhabitant. Blessed is the man who trust in the Lord and whose trust IS the Lord. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit. The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? Very thought provoking!!! We look at the outside where God looks at the Heart! Moving on to the Wadi where many were refreshed by the cool refreshing water after a long hike down. Then we hiked back and was met by one of our guides, Guy, who was awaiting all of us with a refreshing “Popsicle”! What a thoughtful and much needed treat.

Leaving there, we went to lunch then we have one more surprise in store. This next place was call, “Qumran”. So, you may be asking yourself, “what’s so special about Qumran”? Well, let me share …… this place was where a group of Sadducee Priests came because the City of Jerusalem had become a “Hellenistic Society”. Highly influences by the Greek Culture. They left Jerusalem and came to this place in the wilderness to live with their families, giving up everything; wealth, status, position/uniform and comfort. They had been watching the Temple in Jerusalem become a “show place” and wanted to make sure the Word of God was preserved. Wow, this sounds SO familiar to today and the church – “a show place”! Anyway, this group of Sadducee Priests (also known as the Essenes) and their families wanted to make sure to meditate on the Torah and some of the other writings, filling themselves with the Word of God. Two things drove them, 1) Desert is where God is and no longer in the temple, and 2) that their forefathers had been in this place and it was holy. While they were there, they lived in tents giving up all the luxuries they had while living in Jerusalem. What was unique to this community was that they were known for living in Kubutz, Sons of Light, Poor in Spirit and the Way. They also came up with replacing the sacrificing a lamb for atonement with using Bread and Wine.

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.

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Also, an interesting fact, while they lived in Qumran it sits just above where the Jorden River meets up with the Dead Sea. This is most likely where John the Baptist baptized our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!!!! As we continued our discussion, Rod and Libby shared with us that this is where some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. A shepherd boy discovering 2 of them in a clay pot while he was looking for his sheep. He threw a rock up into one of the caverns and heard the breaking of this pot. Once he took the sheep back home, he returned to find these scrolls and took them home. There’s a lot more to the story to the journey of these particular scrolls; however, its way too much to blog. At this point, I’ve been a bit to wordy with this blog as it is, sorry!

There has been SO much to try to take in with these full day opportunities to really open and study God’s Word and actually walk where His word took place. So many feelings and thoughts go through our minds and hearts – lots of emotion!!! The questions we ask ourselves daily are, why am I here and just how, Lord, how do we walk this through in our everyday lives. May God receive all the glory and honor for this day, March 6, 2019, that we had the privilege of walking where HIStory took place.


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