Tina Huber
Reflection Day 9
January 13, 2012
Masada/Dead Sea
The day started off lovely. An overcast day but no rain for our hike up Masada. Masada is best known for its last stand against the Roman army. A commune was formed out at this fortress that used to belong to Herod the Great. Oh, Herod and his many homes! This one over looks the Dead Sea. It had a swimming pool on top of it and a georgous view. Herod loved extravagance and linked it to how he wanted to be viewed by the world. Wether you are approaching Masada, or standing on top of it overlooking the valley, you can tell Herod was making a statement. This group that took its last stand here benefited from Herod excessiveness. The palace had store rooms full of food and plenty of water sources too. This community could live years in comfort and had even started to cultivate some land on top of this huge rock. The Romans, however, were masters at buildning seige ramps. We hiked up this siege ramp to get to the top. I can barely carry the extra weight of my back pack! I can’t imagine trying to roll anything up this ramp with enough force to break down the wall. The walls were built with wood reinforcements so everytime they would hit the wall with their ramming cart it just made it stronger. It didn’t take the Romans long to think they would just burn it down. Josephus was cited a few times as a historical reference. It was offered that Josephus was an exagerator in his writing. He did this to give a positive view of Jewish people, that they were a worthy adversary, to his Roman audiance. I know nothing of Josephus except that he was a historian and is sited a lot, even in this class, so he has to have some credibility in his recall of events. Archeology findings and some of his writings didn’t add up at this site. There is always two sides of a story and two perspectives. I don’t think we can claim to know exactly what happened here. Only that it was tragic. This group chose to commit mass murder and then suicide over letting the Romans take them captive. Over 900 were killed and only 2 women and 5 children survived. They survived by hiding in a cistern from the men who decided they should all die. It is a very sad event in the history of this country. I was so looking forward to En Gedi when we left Masada. I often associate En Gedi as a time of rest. We were going to hike there but the canyon was closed due to flash flooding. I would go to a desert on the one day there is flash flooding! We kept hearing "it nevers rain at the dead sea." We had to skip this site and went to the Dead Sea just across the road. Let me set the scene. It is cold and rainy outside. Maybe a high of 50 degrees and super windy. We decide this is our one chance to get in the Dead Sea and put on our swimsuits. I kept thinking, “what in the heck am I doing?” I was SO cold and the sea didn’t look pleasant! We hurried down to the “beach”... I put that in quotations because it consisted of hard large rocks and jagged mineral stone. This wall of mineral stone wasn’t exposed last year. The Dead Sea is literally dying. The country needs every bit of water that drains into this sea, so it is evaporating approximately 1 meter every year. It was very difficult to get over the mineral wall and into the water because the waves were crashing in. I tried to time it just right so the wave would carry me away from the wall. My timing worked but a wave smacked me in the face and I was blinded. The ocean is three percent salt and the Dead Sea is something like thirty percent. The sea also makes you boyant which is a very weird feeling. This feeling, along with the waves and being blinded, left me feeling very scared and vulnerable. I then did a very stupid thing and tried to wipe the salt from my eyes with my hand. That just left me with more salt. I was in some severe pain. I clenched my eyes shut as hard as I could over and over to try to get some vision. I could feel the waves carrying me towards the hard mineral wall. I was about 10 feet from the wall when I was able to open my eyes long enough to orient myself. One of the guys from our group was getting out onto shore so I yelled for him to help me out of the water. It wasn’t until the wounded started showing up in the changing room, that I realized he had saved me from some serious injuries. At least half of our group got smacked into the salt wall as they tried to get out of the Dead Sea. Our changing room was like a Red Cross station after a disaster. Thankfully, most were minor abrasions, but there was about 5 or 6 that had pretty significant cuts to bandage. That I continue to monitor We were all a little shaken. Remember, I started this story with the thoughts, “what the heck am I doing?” Sometimes it is smart to listen to that cautious voice. Yesterday the voice was telling me I COULDN’T do something, today the voice was saying I SHOULDN’T do something. There is a big difference! I will be more in tune the rest of this trip with the latter of the two! Our last stop was in Qumran. This is where the famous Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. We were able to view the “Library” cave from the landing. This is where most of the maunscripts were found. What’s the big deal about finding all these scrolls? They prove that the preservation techinique for our Bible is accurate. We have the same Old Testament that Jesus would quote. Mark and I were just teaching our Sunday School class about this. This very question came up. How can we trust that the bible has remained accurate all this time? We mentioned the Dead Sea Scrolls to them and now I have some more insights to share. God is so good!
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