Israel, Day 3

After an amazing breakfast of fresh fruit, granola, yogurt, spinach egg souffle, fresh bread, rich coffee... (it was amazing) we left the Dead Sea and went to Masada. Masada was one of Herod's eight palace fortresses that stood just off the sea on a plateau about 400 meters above the sea. It was completely inaccessible to enemy armies and was an engineering marvel. Here, in the middle of the desert, Herod managed to bring water up to the top, fill 70,000 cubic meters of water cisterns, farm enough food to feed thousands of troops, maintain two extravagant bath houses (with heated and cool water) and remain completely isolated from everything around him. It is believed that he could have stayed there with over 1000 people for about 10 years without anyone descending or ascending. After Herod's death the fortress remained relatively vacant until 70 AD when Zealots escaping the invasion of Jerusalem ran to Masada to take a stand. In 73 AD the Romans built a ramp up the side of the plateau and forced the massacre and eventual defeat of the Zealots. In many ways, this was the last stand of Israel until 1948 when the nation was reconstituted by the United Nations. The pictures are good but they really don't do it justice.
After Masada we went to Bet Guvrin. This was a Jewish community where the people lived nearly entirely underground in vast caverns carved into the foothills of Judea. These were really amazing and fun to climb around in. We also were introduced to a "Kharat" tree. This is the tree that produces a substitute chocolate from its pods and the beans/seeds inside are the standard from where we get the measurements for diamonds, the carat!
From there we went to the valley of Elah where David fought Goliath. We crossed the creek that runs down through that valley, from which David pulled his five smooth stones. We read the story from 1 Samuel 17 and tried to envision how that battle was set up. We had some great discussion about the Goliaths of ministry and faith in God.
We finished the day by Bet Shamesh. This is the valley where Samson harassed the Philistines and where the Ark of the Covenant traveled on its return to Jerusalem.
These areas are fairly built up and it's difficult to envision the stories while trains and cars pass before our eyes.
Nonetheless, we really enjoyed pulling out our Bibles and reading about these events.

My favorite parts of today were Masada and the valley of Elah. I kept thinking about Elijah and how much he enjoys that story of David and Goliath. I can't wait to show him the pictures and retell the story from where I stood.

Grace!
Pete