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Israel Study Tour with Orchard Hill Reformed Church
July 14-25, 2019
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Hospitality in the desert
We can start by saying that we spent day number 2 in the desert on the hottest day of the year. Per our tour guide Mr. Ronan the Negev desert was up to 125 degrees F. Since our hike to Masada was closed we took the gondola to the top where we learned about Herod the Great, his sons, the splitting of the land, and the ultimate siege of the jews. Although Masada is not in the Bible it has extraordinary history that helps us to encapsulate the entire picture.
Masada
The summit of Masada sits 190 feet (59 m) above sea level and about 1,500 feet (470 m) above the level of the Dead Sea. The mountain itself is 1950 feet (610 m) long, 650 feet (200 m) wide, 4,250 feet (1330 m) in circumference, and encompasses 23 acres. The “Snake Path” climbs 900 feet (280 m) in elevation. From the west, the difference in height is 225 feet (70 m).
From there we headed to a place where the Bedouins live and rode camels! We had a wonderful lunch and afterwards sat around a fire to learn about the true meaning of hospitality and what it means to truly welcome strangers and be set apart as God’s people.
Our next place was in the city of Arad where we sat in a Bat’a or father’s house. It was a typical house built 3000-4000 yrs ago. Here we learned about insula which is how people lived: fathers house, which was expanded upon as the family’s sons married.
Our last part of the day we floated in the Dead Sea.
Tel Arad
Like many cities in the Holy Land, Arad was repeatedly settled because of its strategic geographical location. Though situated in an area with little rainfall, Arad was inhabited frequently in ancient times because of its position along the routes coming from the east and southeast.
Our tour guide gave us mud which has several minerals to help us reverse age. (So if you don’t recognize us upon our return this is why!) The Dead Sea is between Israel and Jordan and is approximately 32% salt which is 32x saltier than our oceans! Our bodies were completely buoyant as you can see from the pictures. Due to the amount of salt, there is no living creatures or plants.
Day 2 is a wrap!
Written by Sarah Gardner
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