Ruminations on Israel: STRUGGLE

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Monday night we were on a desert oasis; a taste of Bedouin life. We slept in a low hut and had bonfire outside in the evening;  a worship service, and a soul-searching time.  My little declaration was that it was time to leave what is comfortable and familiar; to stop living as though I believed lies I know to be false.  I went to bed pondering that and I woke up before sunrise again; expecting a glorious sight.  I wasn't disappointed in that, but what surprised me were the sounds.  I took a short video, just because that was the only way I could capture the amazing sounds of dawn on the oasis.

You'll want the sound on with the volume up to hear it all.

What sounds like cats is actually the screeching of peacocks.

 The word that I pulled from the pocket of my backpack for the day was 'Struggle'.

And the first major event of the day was...a camel ride.

The struggle was real, y'all.   But I did it.  And if given the opportunity to do it again...I can say, no, thanks, I've already got that t-shirt.  It actually wasn't so terrible, but the saddle irritated some issues in my hip and I'm being honest when I say it hurt a bit.  And I felt sorry for the camels.

The next event of the day was a tour of Masada.  Folks have asked me what my favorite site was; I honestly can't answer that question but I can definitely say I learned the most at Masada.  I only had a vague notion of a battle that happened there...and for some reason I thought it involved the Maccabees.  Wrong, wrong.  It was the last stand of Israel before the Romans, and when Masada fell, Israel was no more...until 1948.   From the plateau, the remains of the siege wall, the siege ramp and the Roman encampments are still visible.  As we toured, I was completely taken with what was the obvious futility of their resistance, along with their determination to maintain their honor and their autonomy.   The struggle was not to defeat Rome; the struggle was to maintain their integrity and their identity even though, short of a miracle, they were doomed.  The miracle did not come, they were not delivered, but they died under their own terms...not the torture, abuse, and enslavement of the Romans.  The synagogue at Masada is one of the places the young modern Israelis, having completed their training for their mandatory military service, take their oaths of loyalty...which, according to our guide, Tisha, includes the declaration that 'Masada shall not fall again!'

The Israeli flag at Masada
The Dead Sea is in the distance

From the struggle of Masada to the struggle at En Gedi...this is a name I knew well from 1 Samuel. 

It is right by the Dead Sea; not far at all, really, from Masada. In fact, there are some with the opinion that 'the stronghold' mentioned in 2 Samuel was, in fact, an encampment on the plateau of Masada.  but it could have been  the cave at En Gedi, as there was a spring there. The cave is closed up now, but Tisha told us that it was a vast cave and could easily have held 300 or so men...which was David's fighting force.  It was the place that David cut a bit of Saul's robe off while Saul was ...occupied...in the cave.

We were not able to go up to the cave; the tourist business was booming that day and there was a long line of folks ...and it was HOT.  So we went to an overlook instead.   This is the picture taken with the disposable camera for the day...and it makes the spring look farther away from us than it actually was. I could easily imagine David standing there, waiving his bit of fabric,   hollering to Saul that he had no intention of harming him.  David was conscience stricken just from cutting a piece of this clothing.

The last desert stop was, once more, just a short trip up the road to Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found  The verse that came to my  mind there was It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.  (Prov. 25:2, NIV 84).  The story of the Dead Sea Scrolls is amazing; no one knows where the scrolls came from or who put them in the caves, or why.  There are several theories.  But the truth is that Qumran...the Dead Sea area...is about the only place on earth the scrolls could  have been left 2000 years ago and still be even somewhat intact today.   And what we have is amazing...copies of the Scriptures from the time of Jesus, proving that the scripture that He read is fundamentally the same...and 'fundamentally' meaning only rare and minor spelling variations...as the texts that we have today.

Cave 4 at Qumran, where by far the most manuscripts

and fragments have been found.

As we returned to the bus for the ride across the mountains, I pondered what I had seen that day in light of the word 'Struggle'...and what  occurred to me the most was the concept of honor in the struggle.  The Judeans at Masada, David at En Gedi, and the mysterious folks who went to such trouble to hide so many manuscripts to keep them from falling into unscrupulous hands and being lost.  The story of Masada that now inspires a nation, the determination of David to never lay a hand on the Lord's anointed one, and the execution of the plan that preserved for us confirmation of our scriptures.  Struggle has a purpose...even if we don't see it for years and years...and years.

Maybe even riding a stubborn camel has its purpose...such as training to leave the comfort zone.