Tuesday, April 19
Well, its our 2
nd to last day of touring
Israel and today was the day we headed back into
the wilderness….heading down to Ein Gedi, Masada and the Dead Sea where we were
just on Saturday when we went to
Qumran. The desert!
We also did a short stop at
Jericho,
will explain why so short later.
Before I get into the update, as of Jerusalem news services today, 21 people were
injured, it has been deemed a terrorist attack, but its unclear if it was done
against the bus company by a disgruntled employee or against the Israeli
government and people. The type of bomb
and materials used are in line with a terrorist bomb. Also, this Friday, begins the Jewish
tradition of Passover, along with the Greek Orthodox celebration of Easter I
think…lol. All we know is that this
upcoming week is a very volatile time anticipated by many…we leave Thursday
morning prior to all the recognized events.
Please continue to pray for peace in this region..many different
factions with different beliefs and different expectations. Palestine’s
are not allowed into Israeli controlled area unless pre-approved due to the
religious significance of this upcoming week. Will explain more later this
unusual living climate in Israel.
Also, I have one correction to make to my post from the
Sunday. I mentioned that Jesus was
tempted at the Southwestern wall of the Temple Mount…oops..wrong
location…He was tempted at Jericho
and we saw the supposed area of this event.
My bad on the misinformation.
So today, we started out a little bit earlier as we were
heading down to the desert, down South, about a 60-70 mile drive. Also, we were told it was going to be
hot…real hot. At some point today while at the Dead Sea, it was 100 degrees
+…but unlike Hawaii
where humidity is what gets you, here in
the wilderness, its like oven heat.
Thank God we had some winds at Masada.
Our first stop was at the Ein Gedi, where David fled to when
King Saul was chasing him. 1st Samuel 24, the story is told of David
hiding in the caves and King Saul going into one of these caves to relieve
himself (use bathroom), and not knowing that David was hiding in there. The story goes that David’s men wanted to
kill King Saul there as it was the most opportune time…yet, David did not do so
as he was honoring the relationship of this being his king…and not wanting to
do something that was not honorable. As
Saul exited the cave and David followed him out and called out to him and when
Saul realized it was David and what he had not done, kill him as he could’ve,
King Saul recognized how righteous David was.
Ein Gedi means spring of the wild goats. We saw a bunch of Ibek goats,
bountiful in this area Pretty cool to
see another area of where the Bible was lived out 3000+ years ago.
Our next stop was Masada. What an amazing sight to see. This fortress built by King Herod was built
on a mount that stands almost 1500 feet high (a 150 floor building, Hawaii’s
tallest building is the First Hawaiian Bank building at about 400 feet), it is
2100 feet long and 1150 feet wide.
Using a football field as a
measurement, its 5 football fields high, 7 football fields long and almost 4
football fields wide…massive.
Masada was built by King Herod on this huge mountain plateau
in the 30 BCE era, took him 7 years…remember, he also built Caesarea in 12
years back in those days. Imagine the
resources, tools and knowledge to build these type of structures…let alone this
one in the middle of the desert on a huge hilltop..it is a sight to see. It faces the Dead Sea and Mount Moab to the
East and Jerusalem is north west from here and the only access to it back then
was from the north was through 2 valleys..it was not easily reachable. Masada was
used by the Romans as a place to relax and get away. However in 66 CE, 30 years after Christ died,
a group of Jewish rebels, the Sicarii took over the Roman garrison that was
stationed there. The Sicarii, deemed by
Josephus, the 1st century Jewish Roman historian was an extremist
Jewish splinter group who fled Jerusalem before
and after the destruction of the Second
Temple (Temple of the Mount) in 70 CE. In 73 CE, the Romans decided to flex their
muscle and still show that they were in charge in this far fetched area some
100 years after it being built. The
battle of Masada was one of many
challenges…due to the height and protection of the fortress, the Romans built a
375 foot ramp to drive a battering ramp uphill to break down the entry
door..seeing this ramp and how steep it was and how much danger they would be
in trying to attack this unreal structure was so breathtaking. This mountain top was a city within itself.
Roman baths, workout area, houses on different levels, different living
communities, water wells with a water system that was built into the
mountainside that capture rain water (which happened very few times in the
year) using the slopes of the mountain and an intricate ducting system that
caught the rainfall via mountain side caves built into water sheds..it was nuts
to see this. Anyway, this ramp was built
and the Sicarri knew the inevitable would happen and once the Romans were able
to siege the door, they decided to take a break and complete the attack the
next day. However, when they entered the
compound the next day, all 960 occupants or so, with the exception of 2 women
and a few kids, had killed themselves.
The introductory video that we saw showed us that these people would
have rather died as free people than live to be slaves for an oppressed
government. So they had each man kill
their own families, wives and kids, then each other and the last solider fell
on his own sword…they would rather die as free people, than live as
slaves..sounded almost William Wallace like (Braveheart reference-FREEDOM!!)…a
movie was made on this starting Peter O’toole back in the 70’s but it had to do
more with the romance of the Roman Commander and a woman who lived in the
fortress. It was nuts once again to see
history played out in front of my eyes, nothing biblical other than the major
players during this time, King Herod, the Roman army and the Jewish settlers.
The views and historical significance was unreal. People today visiting the Masada
actually are able to hike the hill, we took a cable car up the mountain. We saw a group of people, kind of young, like
20s, the fastest person made it up in like 30 mins…the last person in their
group was about 50mins. When we went to
catch our cable cart up, we met a lady, the only one in her group who wanted to
try and walk up and only got to a 1/3 up and came back down..she was not in
that good of shape to begin with…but at least she tried..heading down I saw a
family with a young boy, maybe 7 or 8 walking up and he did not look to
happy. It’s a trek..way steeper than
Koko Head and way hot. However, today we did have winds. Our guide Hill-El mentioned earlier that
temps get up to like 100+ a lot but in the stone structures at night it gets
pretty cold. He also said that at this
height the wind that blows off the Dead Sea
from the east up to the mountains, like trade winds, occurred a lot to cool
this mountaintop quite well. However
today, the wind was coming from the North blowing down from the mountains and I
pointed that out to him and he said he has never felt that in all his visits
and wasn’t sure why..I knew why, the Kanaka’s brought the wind..lol. Anyway this was an amazing place to see. Earlier, we sat down and he shared his own
personal struggle with the rebels of Masada
killing themselves, actually committing suicide..but our group jointly said
there was only 1 suicide the last warrior who killed himself..he disagreed with
that and said it was all suicide, and a discussion started but was set
aside..the point he was trying to make was that he was able to reconcile what
occurred on the mountain because of a writing of a biblical scripture found in
the synagogue on this fortress. Ezekiel
37:11-14 was found written on a parchment paper. It is the dry bones scripture. To paraphrase,
their bones have been dried up (about to die) and they have no hope, and have
been cut off. However, the prophet Ezekiel told the people he was talking to
(maybe this sect of people who left Jerusalem,
not sure, but whoever wrote this had heard this prophecy before or read it and
wrote it again here) and the Lord will put His Spirit within them and come to
life.
What I got out of it based on what we heard and saw..was
that the life God would give these people was in death, and not in
slavery. That in dying they would be
free from oppression and strife…not to kill themselves cause there was no hope,
like most people do today, but because it was better for them to die as free
people then live as slaves. Jesus died
for us so we could have life…that’s a paradox.
We learned in Men’s Fraternity awhile back the paradox principal – die
to live..if we do not die to the flesh of our slavery, our own issues our own
struggles, than we cannot live freely in Christ. This was an amazing place to see, but more
importantly for me, it was a reminder of what I was reminded of yesterday, I
must decrease so He can increase. I must
bury my flesh daily, my selfish desires and put others first. Thank you Lord for this amazing
creation.
We left just at about 11:30 when it was getting really hot,
we had been there from about 9 and people where still coming..good luck to them
as it was hot. We headed back to Qumran to have lunch in an a/c dining hall, feasting on
chicken schwarma and chicken falafel.
Our typical lunch..lol
Our next stop was the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea
played a huge geographical role in biblical times. It is in the middle of all that occurred
during Jesus time. Jordan to the East and Israel to the
West. Lebanon
and Syria to the North, and Egypt and Sinai
to the Southwest. It is also one of the
world’s saltiest body of water at 34% salinity (2011 stat). Even though called a sea, it is a lake. It is also 1407 feet below sea level. The earth’s lowest elevation on land. At its deepest, the sea floor is about a 1000
feet. It was a place of refuge for King David and a spa for King Herod...lol. It currently produces and sells huge amount
of skin products across the world.
People like us, flock there to try and see what it feels like. It is a known fact that no species can
survive in the water. The water itself
and by itself cannot be used for crops, there are desalination attempts to make
this waster usable. However in recent
years, the shoreline is receding quite a bit and is causing the major issues
with the topography of the newly created seashore. Apparently when fresh water (rain) hits the
new seashore, it causes the salt laid area to soften and has caused rifts and
more destruction of the area around the seashore. We saw pockets of areas that have sinkholes
around the shore. We also saw a resort
spa out there that in the past catered to tourist via spas and products..in the
past our guide Hill-El said the people would check in for their treatments and
jump in the sea right outside this building.
Now the customers have to take a shuttle down to the shore’s end about a
good 500 feet walk…natures erosion in full effect. This stop was more for fun than for
educational, but it turned out to be both.
It was now over a 100 degrees here in the desert and the walk down from
our drop off was a good ¼ mile…we were told to bring extra clothes and shampoo
and soap. We were given special
instructions on how to enter the water and what to do and not do..the salinity
of the water is not dangerous, you won’t die from it but it will sting. So as you walk in, its like walking into Ala
Moana beach..a few little rocks, then sand, then the gooey stuff…then you sit
down in the water and sit back..and boom..floating with no effort..the pictures
posted show the fun we had…even if you tried to sink yourself you would be
unable to…but here is the kicker, us big guys carry a lot of dense weight and
we got some big guys on our trip…when trying to stand up, you have to get your
feet under you as fast as you can to anchor yourself and then situp all at one
time..if not your arms are wailing in the water and splashing the water on your
face, in your eyes, in your mouth..and if you go to fast, you can do a face
plant into the water..it is pretty funny..seeing some of us trying to do
this..now as for the water..wow..it is something unusal..very oily, very salty..a
density to it that is hard to explain. I got some on my lip and in my mouth a
little bit and uggh..what a horrible taste…it does feel good..almost like a
very liquid lotion on your body..but gooey..it was pretty cool. We spent about
30mins in the water, laughing and enjoying ourselves and had to take multiple
showers to wash off the salt deposit on our body. One of our ladies had a crust of white salt
on her face when she came out. This was
a fun time for us all.
Our last stop back was Jericho. This is a Palestinian controlled region of Israel and once
again, Hill-El being and Israeli Jew could not enter in with us. And this
visit, like our Bethlehem
visit was very unsettleing..it was 3rd world like, rundown
buildings, buildings partially completed or done but not used…lots of stores
and vendors..we noticed we were the only huge tour bus in the place and none of
us were comfortable with leaving the bus.
But we were able to stop at the Tree of Zacchaeus, a sycamore tree. This is where in the bible, Luke 19:1-10, we
are told about this chief tax collector, a descendant of Abraham, who was an
example of Jesus personal, earthly mission to bring salvation to the lost. Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem and crowds were gathering and
because Zacchaeus was short, he decided to climb this tree to see Jesus. Jesus saw him and called out his name to
come down and visit his house. The crowd
was shocked and bothered by this…why would Jesus a Jew, sit with a tax
collector sinner. But that was Jesus…seeking the lost and preaching, teaching
and healing One of our group, Jim did a
great job on sharing his devotion, the 5 F’s – faith, family, friends, fitness
(physical and mental) and finances..in that order. And we like Zacchaeus, are sinners saved by
the grace of Jesus Christ. Amen..great job Jim!!!
So not getting out of the bus and making sure we spent as
little time as possible, we headed up to the Mount of Temptation, where Jesus
came out of desert after His 40 day fast as described in Matthew 4. As historians cannot exactly pinpoint the
exact location, this has been the place memorialized by a Catholic church. There was a camel ride and multiple vendors
waiting on a tourist to visit, but as shared earlier, there was an apprehension
on exiting the bus due to what we experienced and saw in Bethlehem
the other day (also Palestine
controlled) and what just occurred the day before. Rightly or wrongly, and even we could sense
it in the way Hatem was driving, pretty quickly and without Hill-El being with
us..we felt it better to remain cautious and safe today. With that said, Hatem sped out of Jericho..our entire time
there was less than 30 mins. But once
again, to see with my own eyes 2 significant places of the bible, continues to
bring so much context for me. We headed
back to our hotel for some rest before dinner.
One of the questions and things that most of us have been
trying to get a handle on, and for all of us, when we travel, you kind of want
to get your bearings. But especially in Israel, where we hear about the West Bank, Gaza, Palestinian controlled/administered, Israel
controlled, etc..its hard to understand the whole land issue here. So Hill-El had some time and for about 30
minutes he went through the whole land issue with us – Israel land 101. In short, it all started after World War 1,
when Britain and France were
designated territories to oversee and split up between the 2 countries to
govern. Then it continued on to after
World War II where the Jewish people around the world in the European region
were getting displaced (refugees) and had no home land. An accord was agreed to this current land
area in between Egypt and Syria that 2
groups of people, Jewish and Arabs would have land rights to. According to history land talks were held and
the Jewish group agreed to the land divide and the Arabs said no to
everything. So the ruling body at that
time came up with their own map and in 1949 the official state of Israel was
declared with this land mass and in on-going negotiations and wars over the
last 60+ years, the Arab community, now called Palestinian (formerly the PLO)
were given 3 regions in the land area known as Israel..and all 3 areas are not
connected together by anything other than borders and lines. The Golan Heights
area are split and governed by both the Syrian and Israeli governments. The West Bank area (on the Jordan River West
bank, kind of like the middle of the map of Israel and the Gaza strip are
controlled by the Palestinian government and the rest is by Israel. Places like Bethlehem,
right outside of Jerusalem is a good example,
its in Israel, the state
country but considered a Palestinian controlled area…Jericho and much more. It’s all about the land and who controls
it…it’s totally confusing but also understandable..it’s all about the land and
the land is the main factor causing this dispute. So like this land issue, it also exists in
communities. The Temple
Mount is considered in Israel land, but the actual Temple Mount
is overseen by Palestinian Muslims. In Bethlehem you have Arab
Muslims and Arab Christians..it’s nuts trying to totally understand it but it
is a reality. I am totally now
interested in studying this more and understanding it more. So after this Israel Land course for dummies
was done, and so blessed by Hill-El, went up to the room to pass out and get ready for dinner. Kind of funny, when I took a shower before
dinner, I had a layer of salt, almost invisible to wash off, I could feel
it..and I am a bit sunburned and my lips and face fill chapped from that
dunk.
We had a great dinner, our last one as a whole group, cause
we lose Jim and Ann form North Carolina on
Wednesday as they head to Paris
for a few days. Time is winding down and
the ohana we have made has been unreal.
My take away from today…goes back to the land issue. In America,
we identify with who we are based on our race…White, Black, Hispanic, Asian,
etc…but in Hawaii,
where we are a melting pot, we all mixed up people, so we don’t delineate as
much..however we kind of do when we do Haole and locals…but in recent years
with the influx of more of the Asian people and South Pacific (Koreans,
Thailand,Vietnam, Micronesians etc) we are beginning to mirror the mainland
USA..just a little bit..but more now than ever before. However in the Middle
East, people identify themselves as a religion not a
race..Muslims, Jewish, Christians, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Cathloic,
etc..from all different race and colors…and it all goes back to the land…who
has it and who controls it. With land
comes power, money, government etc…this I can totally relate to..in Hawaii, it’s all about
the land and whose agenda is being advanced..and its not for religious
reasons…its who can get the control of the money and the land…this might not be
a popular statement but back in the late 90’s there were 2 very vocal and
confrontational people in Hawaii, yelling and protesting for lands for the
Hawaiians, Sovereign government for the Hawaiians…I mean they were out there,
extremist even to the point..not physical but just verbal…for the last 2
decades they have been real quiet…why? 1 got a school built for it, a college
facility and gets paid and benefits from it..the other got free land on Homestead and consults
for local companies needing Hawaiian issues resolved..they got theirs..they got
their money, land and control for themselves, not for the betterment of the
people…this is so similar but not as big as what is going on in the Middle East..it’s all about the land. And it causes, chaos, fear, turmoil, strife,
unrest, hurts, pains..all things of the enemy and Satan wins when we are not
unified as a race..the human race. All
these religions can agree that God created us..there is no science in it....so
if God created all of us than we are important and valuable by Him…but then
unlike Jesus, who came to unify all people to the Father, the other religions
want us to perform to gain whatever it is that is to be gained. Christianity, true Christianity is rooted in
a relationship with the Father for eternity, not based on what we do or don’t
do, but what He did. It’s not about the
land grab, the governmental control or the money..its about the
relationship. We all have more in common
than we do different, but then we let the differences dictate what we do and
who we are. Jesus looked upon the crowd
with compassion and fed the lost, healed the lost, created a relationship with
the Father for the lost…wow!!
Lord, please help us to see Your will and way in our lives,
in our communities, in the Middle East, in Israel,
in the USA, in Hawaii, around Your
world. Lord, we repent for our actions
of greed, selfishness, hurts, etc. Lord,
help us to love You and love others.
Lord have Your way in me, do Your work, help me to see what and who You
want me to influence, to love, to forgive, to share Your love. Lord have Your way in me. Amen!!
It’s about 6:30am Wednesday morning. Today is our last full day in Israel as we
head to the airport tomorrow. Totally
blessed by this all. Today, we will be
visiting the House of Caiaphas, the Upper Room and the Garden of Tomb. Hopefully we will be able to see the Holocaust Museum…also shopping is on tap..and I am
not looking forward to that..lol…
Thank you all for your prayers and love and support. No new news on the bus bombing this morning
but continue to pray for this region.
Pictures of the day attached..sorry still in reverse order..lol.
Love you all and God bless!!
