Dec 13 Dead Sea & En Gedi

Today was a day of Shabbat – the Israeli day of rest. Friday evenings at 6:30 are generally an evening to dress up in a little better clothes, have a nicer dinner complete with Shabbat wine and songs, then generally make merriment with friends and family. They are supposed to go to the synagogue on Sat AM, but we did not have the opportunity to viist one. One interesting thing is that we are on the 17th floor of our hotel and the Shabbat elevator goes up and down one floor at a time. We learned quickly to avoid that one.

Today a few of us went to En Gedi - the spot where David hid when he was on the run from Saul.. It is a spring ½ the distance from the Dead Sea floor up to the Judean hills. A rise of over 1800 ft. We drove to the park, hiked up to En Gedi spring and then we hiked up to the cave of Adullam.
There might be two places referred to as the cave of Adullam, because there is no way it could be the reference of 1 Sam 22. But it may have been the cave of 1 Sam 24.


We saw some rock hyrax, and some kind of little rock goats and I got pictures.

Our whole group was not with us so we did not have a devotion but it made me think of stronghold. Where we need places of refuge and hide outs from our oppressors. We also need Shabbat, times of refreshment and renewal – weekly. I hope I can continue to dedicate a time strictly to “other.”

Yesterday we went to Masada, interesting from an architectural point of view, not much happened there from a Christian perspective. The bravery of the holdouts there is astonishing and the work of Herod’s palace and the Roman siege is amazing. The Romans really, really wanted to root out the Jewish rebellion forces to expend all that energy.