Day 06 - Ein Gedi & Qumran

Devotion

“God writes his Word on your heart not in your heart…” Libby starts out the days devotion. The words fall into your heart when your heart is softened to receive them. Daily devotion to God. We recite Shema. These words center us, focus us, get us ready for the walking together as a group

Ein Gedi 

“Everybody goes strangely quiet,” Rod says about five minutes before we get off the bus at Ein Gedi. And for good reason, the past two days in particular have been very challenging spiritually, mentally, and physically. When the bus stops, we go. No primping, no dottling, it’s go time. And it’s worth every step. 

Ein Gedi is a beautiful oasis in the harsh desert. A constant reminder that God is a merciful God and a loving God. Water in the desert! The living water flows through the canyon. We are called to be living water as Jesus followers. At Ein Gedi that message is crystal clear. The desert is hot, dry, and thirsty just like our modern world. 

1 Corinthians 10:1-4 “For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.”

John 7:37 “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.”

As a group we walked together, sweat together, cared for one another together in Christ and through His strength. We are to be the living water in the thirsty world. The lessons we are learning here are deep and profound. 

We reached the waterfall in the middle of the desert and we were renewed. 

Qumran

As we made our next and final trek through the desert at Qumran, some with soggy shoes and blistered feet, others wondering whether a vertical march more suited to sheep and goats than sun dazzled Americans was going to be our undoing, we ponder the lives of the Essenes who made God’s word a priority so much so that they are known in modern times for the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls which they wrote and kept safe in these mountain caves that they might one day be discovered and used as a powerful evidence that our scriptures are accurate and trustworthy. 

This separatist group sacrificed the comfort and stability of their homes and cities in order to set their hands and hearts to the preservation of the scriptures and a holy life which entailed dedicated observation of mikveh, a purification ritual where men and women submerse themselves in water. 

As we stood atop the mountain and walked through the ruins scattered with these bathing constructs, we were reminded of the peace and joy that can be ours when we make repentance a part of our lives, not as a punishment or shameful process but as our privilege, reorienting ourselves to our birthright as sons and daughters of God.

Michael McKinnon