Ein Gedi and Qumran

This morning we said goodbye to the evaporation pools outside our window and left for Ein Gedi, which means “the spring of the little goat.” We didn’t see any little goats, but loved the rock hyraxes and ibexes by the side of the path as it led from the lower waterfall to beautiful upper waterfalls surrounded by ferns and moss.

Pastor Mike spoke about how Saul hunted David at Ein Gedi, fearing that David would oust him as king of Israel. David came upon Saul as he went into one of the caves to relieve himself and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. He confronted Saul and pointed out that if he had wanted to harm Saul he could have done it, but he didn’t want to harm Saul. Almost immediately David regretted that he had cut off the corner of Saul’s robe. Mike’s moral of the story -- we need to be overly gracious to those who are not merciful to us. Also, we all have times in the desert and need to look to God for help.

We headed toward Qumran and the Sea of Galilee and Pastor Mike contrasted the Dead Sea with the Sea of Galilee. Both receive fresh water from the Jordan River, but the Sea of Galilee gives off water while the Dead Sea keeps all the water to itself. In the same way, we are blessed to know God and if we share Him with others we are blessed too, but if we hoard God’s Word we will become spiritually stagnant and dead.

Bedouins grazing their goats found the Dead Sea Scrolls in eleven caves in Qumran. It was originally thought that the people who left them were the Essenes described by Josephus. In the last 10 months it has become clear that the people who left them were not the Essenes, because new documents were found stating that these people permitted women to study the Bible, give testimony, and be community leaders; however, the Essenes had no women. The importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls is that they give the lie to those who say that the Bible was a recent fabrication by Jews and Christians. After the Second Jewish Revolt from 132 to 135 A.D., Emperor Hadrian outlawed the Bible and the Jews lost their Bible. The oldest Bible known before finding the Dead Sea Scrolls was from the 11th century. But the Dead Sea Scrolls are much older -- scholars date them from 200 B.C. to 100 A.D.

We followed the Jordan River north past the West Bank into Israel, where the checkpoint guards carrying guns came onto our bus to be sure we weren’t smuggling in terrorists, reminding us that Israel is surrounded by hostile neighbors and needs our prayers.

Our amazing day ended as the sun set on the Sea of Galilee, where Pastor Mike baptized four of us in the beautiful sea where Jesus walked and sailed.

--Jeanne Williams