Day 03 - Negev: Ein Gedi, Qumran , Lower Jordan

We started the day looking out over the dead sea with a devotion about how God’s greatness is displayed in all of creation and communicated through his word, the Bible. We then Hiked to Ein Gedi which means goat spring or rather ibex. With the temperatures being so high in Israel this week, never has the thought of a spring taken on such meaning. Standing in the cold water was life giving!

There we read the story David, when he stayed in the desert and moved from place to place, hiding from Saul and found shelter in Ein Gedi. We learned how God uses the wilderness to draw us to Him, causing us to depend on Him to sustain us. The water coming out of that dry and rocky cliff felt like a Gift from God. 

We then went to Qumran, the sight where the Dead Sea scrolls were found. We learned of the importance of this place to Israel because it’s the best evidence the Bible is true. Here they found 900 scrolls and we learned that in the scroll of Isaiah the only difference between its text and what we know at the book of Isaiah was four letters. Four letters! This was all found because a shepherd lost his goat and it reminds us that God is in charge and he ordains the time and place of everything. 

The last place we visited as we made our way to the Sea of Galilee was the Jordan River, to a place similar to where Jesus would have been baptized by John. Jordan means going down from Den. Here we read three stories from the Bible. The first came from Deuteronomy 34 when Moses saw the Jordan but didn’t cross it, handing the leadership to Joshua and a memorial of 12 stones was made as a sign of the promise God made. 

The second story came from 2 Kings 2 when Elijah and Elisha crossed over the Jordan (in a similar fashion the Moses crossing g over the Red Sea) and Elijah basses the baton to Elisha before being taken into heaven.  The third story came from Matthew 3 where Jesus is baptized in the Jordan River by John and receives the Holy Spirit. Here we learn that Jesus heads to Jericho. This is the opposite direction of the other two which shows is that Jesus it’s the one who will bring salvation. 

The most interesting part of this story came alive upon seeing the Jordan River. It wasn’t the wide Mississippi or the rushing torrent of the upper Colorado, so seeing it brought color to the stories we’re read for years in the Bible. 

Our day ended with baptisms in the Lake of Galilee. When we’re baptized, we’re proclaiming the Gospel message. It’s an outward expression of dying to self, being buried and rising to a new life in Christ. Here we celebrated with our friends an important and beautiful picture of a life dedicated to following Jesus.