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Israel Journal Day 6

March 12, 2010

Day 6: QUMRAN/ MASADA/ DEAD SEA
Today started as we boarded our bus in preparation to drive south of Jerusalem into the barren and long descent toward the desert wilderness. The wilderness by some is considered a place of solitude, a place to meet God and hear his voice, and driving by this area it is not hard to imagine.

Qumran
We were headed to the Qumran caves located at the northwest corner of the Dead Sea, where the Essenes painstakingly put the Scriptures on to scrolls and eventually placed them in clay jars and in these caves.

The Essenes were a group of people that because of the corruption of temple worship decided to begin a new community 200 BC. They desired a simple life founded on scripture which the Essenes made scrolls of. In 1947 a Bedouin shepherd boy found these scrolls which are known as the Dead Sea Scrolls in caves where the monks would spend time with God. The scrolls included a variety of writings, including some copies of almost every Old Testament Books (except Esther and Nehemiah). The scrolls do not include any Christian or New Testament texts. When Titus and his Roman legions arrived at Jericho, the Essenes hid the scrolls in nearby caves and fled. The dry desert air kept their secret for almost 2000 years.

This is cave #4 which housed scrolls that when the Romans came through probably toward Masada 66 AD they went on a slashing rampage which resulted in 15,000 fragments of leftover scroll. Hard to believe, what was their problem?

Upon the discovery of these scrolls there is an interesting story of how they were first sold to a shoemaker and then to a set of random individuals. The scrolls eventually are now housed in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel museum in Jerusalem.

This is Teresa in front of this museum which you can see is to be in the shape of a scroll end. If she looks cold it’s because she is!

Masada
The next stop is one that I have been waiting to see for over 20 years when I first learned of the story that took place in Masada in 66AD. “Masada” is a Romanized word for the Hebrew Mitzada, which means fortress. The site is an isolated plateau that overlooks the Dead Sea. It is on the eastern edge of the Judean Desert, in the southern part of the land of Israel, just a few hours drive from Jerusalem. King Herod, according to the first-century Jewish historian named Josephus, built a fortress on Masada to protect himself in case there was a revolt. Herod was appointed “king” by the Romans to govern over the Jewish people. He was extremely unpopular with the people. Decades after Herod died, there was a massive revolt among the Jewish people to free themselves from the oppressive rule of the Roman Empire. A group of Jewish fighters defeated a Roman garrison and captured Masada, which then was used for about two years as a base for some of the Jewish fighters.

These were the boulders that the Jews would have thrown down on the Romans as they made their way up to capture them. Unfortunately the Romans used Jewish slaves as the front men which then became the targets of these heavy, lethal boulders.

The revolt, sometimes called the First Jewish-Roman War, ended in 70 AD when the Romans completely destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the Temple.
We took the cable car to this fortress where this revolt took place resulting in 1000 Jews committing suicide to avoid capture from the Romans.

After all of these years of not knowing where Masada was it was discovered in 1898 by the PEF (Palestinian Exploration Federation). In Israel Masada is one of the 2 locations that every person that serves in the army visits (the other is Yad Vashem) where they tell all 18 year olds the story of Masada. Finally they have each person take the Bible in one hand and a rifle in the other and they then swear to protect their country and to provide continuity no matter what! It was a very powerful place to experience.

En-Gedi
From Masada we drove to En-Gedi, an oasis on the western shore of the Dead Sea, about 20 miles south of Qumran and 10 miles north of Masada. We had a blast at the Dead Sea which is the lowest spot on the planet at over 1200 feet below sea level. A group of us ventured into the water and before you knew it we were literally lifted to the top of the water. I never had so much buoyancy. It was a lot of fun. Some took the rich mud from this sea and caked it on their bodies for skin defoliation. One looked like a warrior!

It is also here that David hid in En-Gedi on his flight from King Saul, and it was here that David cut off a corner of Saul’s cloak.
1Sa 24:1 When Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, they told him, “Look, David is in the desert of En Gedi.”
1Sa 24:2 So Saul took three thousand select men from all Israel and went to find David and his men in the region of the rocks of the mountain goats.
1Sa 24:3 He came to the sheepfolds by the road, where there was a cave. Saul went into it to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the recesses of the cave.
1Sa 24:4 David’s men said to him, “This is the day about which the LORD said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hand, and you can do to him whatever seems appropriate to you.’ ” So David got up and quietly cut off an edge of Saul’s robe.

The battle between King Jehoshaphat and others began at Hazazon-Tamar (which is En-Gedi).
2Ch 20:1 Later the Moabites and Ammonites, along with some of the Meunites, attacked Jehoshaphat.
2Ch 20:2 Messengers arrived and reported to Jehoshaphat, “A huge army is attacking you from the other side of the Dead Sea, from the direction of Edom. Look, they are in Hazezon Tamar (that is, En Gedi).”

En-Gedi is known for its aromatic plants as mentioned in the Song of Solomon.
Songs 1:14 My beloved is like a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of En-Gedi.
Josephus wrote that the finest palm trees and balsam grew there. Excavations during the 1960s and 1970s uncovered several layers of settlement going back to King Josiah. It was destroyed in 582 BC, again in 40 BC, and again in 68 AD.

Driving through the wilderness and seeing the shepherd protecting his sheep made imagery become more real to me after seeing the caves where shepherds led their sheep. At the entry of the cave the shepherd would guard his sheep. Also, interesting is how our guide mentioned how Westerners tend to herd their animals, in the Middle East they “lead” their sheep. There is a leadership lesson in there somewhere!

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