The Last Supper the Jewish way

We stopped at a shop where they sold beautiful olive wood carvings. This one, of the last supper, gives a good impression of how they would have laid down, and how the main guest is the second person on the left.

According to the Bible, John was the first (beginning from the left), and Judas the third; both were places of honour. Peter, as the foot-washer, was at the other end of the table.

Foot-washing

Carrying the arc of the covenant.

Nativity scene

Dead sea float

The water in the dead sea is 1/3 minerals. It's very good for your skin. People with psoriasis often go to the Dead Sea for a few weeks every year.
We just played in the water.

You can not sink. You just kind of float on top of the water.

Even the mud is good for your skin, so we put it on our bodies.

Now we understood why Ben said, "Don't forget your camera's! You'll need them for black mailing later".

You can even buy the mud to use as a skin mask. They sold it in plastic sealed bags. But, the bags were actually more expensive down here then at our hotel in Jerusalem.

Qumran

This is the site of Qumran - lots of caves in the mountains. There was a community living here called the Essenes, close to the Dead Sea. They took Isaiah literally:

"In the desert prepare the way of the Lord" (Isaiah 40:3).

Lots of their pottery was found. The building below is their communal eating room

For the Essenes it was important to have living water for cleansing. They had elaborate water systems made.

Living water is water that was not carried but came directly from God

They found a water trough and quite a few Mikvaot (ritual baths).

Every day ritual cleaning would involve:

Head * may my thoughts be cleaned

Heart * may my will be cleaned

Hands * may the things I've done be cleaned

Feet * may my lifestyle be cleaned

It is interesting to note where Jesus' wounds were on the cross:

Nails - pierced through his hands and feet

Crown of Thorns - on his head

Spear - pierced his heart

The one thing that the Essenes are most famous for is the scrolls that were found around the area. There were lots of scrolls from the Hebrew Bible and also book about this community. Today, these are known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Essenes called themselves "the sons of light."

These scrolls were found quite by accident. They aren't sure exactly how they are found, but the popular story is that a shepherd boy found the scrolls while looking for some of the stray animals.

The famous cave where the fist scrolls were found.

A boy threw a rock in the cave and heard breaking pottery.
That's when the discovery of the ancient scrolls was made.

It took a while before the importance of the scrolls was discovered.
Because of the scrolls, we know that the scribes were very precise when they copied the scriptures.

En Gedi

Faith Lesson:

On a plateau, the Dead Sea on one side, and En Gedi on the other, Ben taught us another faith lesson. The salt sea looks so attractive, but it is dead. The desert looks barren but there is the spring of living water. Our culture can be like the salt sea (i.e. Hollywood, money, fame). It all looks good, but it doesn't satisfy. Our Lord is the God of the desert and he gives us living water.

Also, "The sin of the desert is to know where the water is, and how to find it, but not tell anyone".

Ibex

At En Gedi we saw Ibex right away. They are "the deer" from the psalms.

"He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights" (Psalm 18:33).

They all jumped quickly over the fence except this one. It's leg was hurt.

It was hard to see them. They are incredibly fast and can walk on very steep hills.

En Gedi, waterfall in the desert.

"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God" (Psalm 42:1).

Masada and the Zealots and Romans

From the years 66-70 A.D. rebels gathered at Masada. It was the "great revolt," and Masada became their last stronghold. This is a synagogue on Masada. It is the oldest synagogue found from that period. They found pieces of scrolls, one of them contained Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones.

The Romans came to Masada in the year 73 or 74 A.D. They came with 8000 men (the tenth legion, led by Flavious Silva) and built 8 camps and a siege wall. You can still see the camps and wall today, almost 2000 years later.

The snake path was too steep and too narrow to go up...

...So, a massive siege ramp was built. The day before the Romans came, the rebels decided that it was worse to become a slave to the Romans then it was to die. So, they drew lots (which have been found) and the men killed their families. Ten of the men, drawn by lot, killed the other men, and the last one committed suicide. When the Romans came, they found (according to Josephus, a Roman historian) 2 women and 5 children alive. These few told the soldiers what had happened.

Masada and Herod the Great

There is no record that Herod the Great ever stayed at Masada. His family did, and he ordered the massive building on Masada. The 3 different connected hanging palaces are incredible.

An inside look at the middle "hanging palace".

Model of the Roman Bathhouse. You do have to question Herod's mental capabilities. All Roman Bathhouses include a sauna, and this one was no exception. Who builds a sauna in the desert, where it is regularly above 40 degrees celcius?

Our group in the sauna.

The decorations on the walls are authentic

The floor of the sauna. They rebuilt a piece to show how the floor was on top of the pillars, and how the hot air could circulate beneath it.

As the story goes, Herod's family stayed at Masada and almost died from lack of food. As a result, enormous storage rooms were built. When Masada was excavated, they found some preserved fruits that were still edible.

Everywhere throughout the fortress of Masada you can see a black line. Everything under the black line is authentic. Above it is everything that was rebuilt. One storage room they left the way it was found.

Here is a very big cistern. There is an interesting, and very big, water system at Masada. It doesn't rain here, but it rains quite a distance from Masada. The water travels through a wadi and gets caught up in the cisterns built in the side of Masada. The people then had to carry the water from down there to the top where the people lived.

Faith Lesson:

In the wadi, down at the bottom of Masada there are trees, so you know that there is sometimes water. Jeremiah 17:7-8 says:

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."

We should be like these trees. You don't see the water but you know it is there just by looking at the trees.

Masada

Approaching Masada, a rock plateau mountain on the edge of the dead sea.

King David writes about "my rock & my Fortress". This translates as 'my masada'.

To get to the top, there are options:

If you like walking, you can take the snake path (named because of the way it zigzags up the mountain, like a snake)

That would have been a neat thing to do, but because of time constrictions we went through the air.

We started higher already, because the dead sea is 400 m below sea level - this is the lowest point on earth.

We had a beautiful view on top of Masada. Here we see the dead sea.

The land of Milk

We saw herds of goats on the Judean mountains. This is the land of milk (goats & sheep).

A shepherd on a donkey

This land looks like it doesn't support much in agriculture. Apparently sheep and goats do get food if the Shepherd leads them to the right places.

A herd of sheep and goats.

Matt 25:33

"He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left"

Sheep follow the shepherd, goats always know a "better" of "faster" way.

The sheepfold:

"Therefore Jesus said again, 'I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.' " John 10:7-9