Thursday, June 21 -- Dead Sea Field Study

Our day began and ended with two extreme lifestyles. We started with a hike up and then a hike down Massada -- Herod's palace and fortress near the Dead Sea. Born out of both his love for extravagant living and his paranoia, Massada was a spectacular escape for Herod. With two palaces, a lavish bathhouse with a cold room, a tepid room and a hot room, mosaic inlaid walls and floors, Roman style pillars and painting, plenty of room to roam and huge supply rooms for food and weapons to last a long, long time, this mountaintop destination was the epitome of luxurious living and security. Being there I could just imagine Herod inviting the whos-who of his society to come and spend a week or two with him at his southern resort. (It is ironic that this palace fortress became the last strong-hold of the zealots holding out against Roman occupation. The story of their defiance and ultimately their communal suicide rather than surrender is a sad yet intriguing story.)


We ended our day at Qumran, the community of the Essenes also along the Dead Sea further north. Qumran was a community of men who would leave everything behind (even wives and children) to withdraw from the world for spiritual purity as well as waiting for God to restore his world. Their theology wasn't sound, but it is from them that we have received the Dead Sea scrolls which were discovered in caves all around the area in 1947. Their asceticism stands in stark contrast to Herod's excess.


In between these two experiences the area of the Dead Sea came alive to us. Before lunch we floated in the Dead Sea itself. With 37% solid matter in the water, we floated without any effort. (Sadly this sea is shrinking by about 3 feet a year because of water being siphoned off of feeder rivers by both Israel and Jordan.) But the sea failed to provide a lot of refreshment on this day when the thermometer read 42 degrees celsius (which would be close to 107 farenheight). That refreshment came following another wadi walk -- this one at En Gedi. The hike through the dry canyon with the walls blocking any breeze and the sun bearing down on us was miserably hot. But we were rewarded by a freshwater pool with a beautiful waterfall fed by a powerful spring out here in the desert. This is where Saul assumed correctly that he would find David and his rebel men who had been hiding in the wilderness. I could just imagine David and his men finding relief and refreshment in the same pool I sat in. It is here that David cut off the corner of Saul's robe when David ironically was hiding in the same cave Saul entered. Whenever I read about springs of water in the desert I will think of En Gedi and the joy and relief it brought to me on this hot day. Imagine the joy and relief it brought to David and others throughout history who needed refreshing from their time in the dry and dusty wilderness. (Too bad this was also the one place I forgot to bring my camera.)


We could have used some of that refreshing for our time on the bus. Throughout this scorcher of a day our bus provided just a trickle of air conditioning. For the final leg of our trip the air conditioning went out all together. The last 45 minutes back to Jerusalem was spent in 100 degree heat inside the bus. It was cooler outside than in! In this land designed to test our faith, we passed the test of a hot summer day with little or no air conditioning.