God has always been faithful to His people

Each day in Israel thus far has been fast paced and packed with amazing sites; today was no different. Today was HOT! Despite the heat, we managed to hit 4 sites and even snuck in a needed coffee stop. We began the day by saying goodbye to our hotel by the Dead Sea, packed our stuff in the bus and headed to our first stop, Ein Gedi.

Ein Gedi is an incredible desert oasis located in the middle of the Negev. This is the site of David’s encounter with King Saul where David cut off a corner of the Kings robe while hiding in a cave. This story comes alive as you walk in the places David and his men would have been on the run for their lives. We learned about David’s incredible humility and his respect for God’s anointed king. We were taught from the pools of the fresh spring waters that who you worship should have an impact on how we treat others. After our morning devotional, we hiked to a beautiful waterfall, a potential site of which David and his men took refuge.

From Ein Gedi, we then set off for the site of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Qumran. At Qumran, it was incredible to see how a small Jewish sect called the Essenes, out of a deep love for the scriptures, wrote and protected these documents. It was amazing to see how God’s words were saved for us over all the years, not having been added to or anything taken away from them. The challenge in this location was to not only be hearers of God’s Word, but doers as well.

After Qumran, we finally made it north of the gigantic Dead Sea to the source of its waters, the Jordan River. Just to the north of the Dead Sea inlet lies Bethany, the site most believe to be both where Joshua led the Israelites into the promised land, as well as the site where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. It was an incredible parallel to know that this “bridge of the Jews” as it is called, is where Joshua led the people into the Biblical promised land and Jesus, the bridge for all mankind, can lead us all to the ultimate promised land.

Our last site of the day led us to Jericho, the first location conquered by Joshua after entering the promised land. Jericho also shows up in the New Testament as the site where Jesus heals Bartimaeus, a blind beggar. It is here that we learned that the faithfulness of God calls us to greater faith. Jesus was looking for this in Bartimaeus and because of his faith, was healed. Jericho was also a fascinating site in the fact that it is not considered apart of the state of Israel, but Palestine. When we entered into this Palestinian territory, it was obvious that we had left Israel as Jericho had a very unique look and feel.

Overall it was an amazing day. One of the biggest take-aways after leaving this desert region called the Negev was that God has always been faithful to His people. There are incredible beauties in this land of which we only got to experience the tip of the iceberg. I know that we are all looking forward to getting out of the desert heat as we move on to the Galilee region tomorrow. Thanks for following along, enjoy the pictures and God bless.