Day 03 - Wilderness: Ein Gedi, Qumran, Bethany Beyond the Jordan, Jericho

Today we visited Ein Gedi; a sight that had an amazing story with David and King Saul. 1 Samuel 23:29 begins the story of the boy who would be king and a king who acted like a boy. Ein Gedi had everything that a man in hiding would need: caves, a freshwater spring, and plenty of food to be hunted. On our journey thus far, we have seen that God is our Rock, God is our Shepherd, God is our Stronghold, and God is our Living Water. The correlation between the Old and New Testament is uncanny and undeniable (Read Psalm 42, Psalm 63, Jeremiah 32:15, Ezekiel 47, and John 7:37).  David and Saul are a stark contrast between a great leader and a doing what is right in their own eyes leader.

Our next stop was Qumran.  This was one of my favorite sights so far.  Qumran is the pllace that a Bedouin shepherd discovered one of the oldest scrolls ever found, the Dead Sea Scrolls. The history of this place was incredible. The Essenes were thought to call the area called Qumran home. The Essenes devoted themselves to a holy living. The washed themselves in a mikvah twice a day, once in the morning and once after work. They ate together in community, they chose to live together in isolated communities and worked on studying and coping the Torah, all while living a strict adherence to what the Torah taught, and most importantly, preparing for the Messiah to arrive at any moment. It is thought that John the Baptist may have been one of the Essenes, which just adds so much more authenticity to what he was doing in the wilderness. 

Our next stop on the tour was one that made much sense, the Jordan River. If John the Baptist was an Essene, devoted himself to communal living in an isolated community, devoted himself to a strict adherence to the Torah, and was getting ready to prepare the way for the Lord, what better way to preach repentance that to go to the Jordan River and teach others the importance of tuning back to God and spiritual washing (baptism by water). 

Deuteronomy 34, the last chapter of the Torah tells of the death of Moses on Mount Nebo. From there Joshua would lead the people of Israel into the land through the Jordan river, up to Jericho and into the promised Land. Each family was instructed to take a stone and place it on their shoulders from the dry bed of the Jordan River as they crossed and would make a memorial of the stones to remember all the God had done. Joshua would use this path, Elijah and Elisha would return to this path, and now John and soon Jesus would be a part of this story as well.

Our last stops were kind of three-fold. We went to Jericho, the land that the Israelites marched around for 7 days until the walls came down. Elisha made a bad spring, good with salt in Jericho, and Jesus would be led into the wilderness in what may have been a mountain known as the Mount of Temptation, which can also be found in Jericho.

The roadway may have been winding and long, but the pieces of the puzzle seem to fit too well to go unnoticed. Today’s journey marks only one of several amazing adventures that we can see and truly begin to pour into scripture to see how awesome and amazing our God is.

In the words of Rich Mullens, “Our God is an awesome God. He reigns from Heaven above with wisdom, power and love, our God is an Awesome God!” (now tell me you didn’t just sing the words that were written).