Day 17 Part B of Andy’s month-long ‘Spiritual Journey to Israel & Palestine was such a BIG day that it had to be split into two segments—visiting Timna Park in the morning just north of Eilat—and visiting Masada, King Herod’s mountaintop palace, just northwest of the southern tip of the Dead Sea. Both so grand in scale that they were hard to comprehend together in a single day!
So King Herod’s Masada is Part B of Day 17!
Oh my Masada! Don’t we all wish we had our own Masada; a mountaintop retreat close to Heaven?
What a day! From one park to another park; a drive of about 200 km due north along the not-so-far-away Jordan border. Up along the high desert of Negev with all things being high relative to the Dead Sea. The landscape turned white as we approached the lowest point on Earth, a sign of the salt that had plated out over time; time since time had begun in this part of the world.
Up Route 90 past Mount Sodom where once Sodom & Gomorrah was presumably located before God annihilated it because of its sinful lifestyle. Faces of agony appeared to be present in the rocks as I drove past with no time or desire to stop.
Time was of the essence to get to Masada and have a few hours of daylight to see it, explore it, and experience this mountain top retreat and palace of King Herod. And when I did arrive and take the gondola up to the top—WOW, what a breath-taking site! One could easily imagine an early civilization all to its own being located here. The colorful mosaics unearthed and the colorful pillars of the northern temple were quite amazing.
Oh my Masada! Don’t we all wish we had our own Masada; a mountaintop retreat close to Heaven?
Someday will we not all have our own Masada?
(Andy Reistetter; Facebook Post with 40 Pics; 1/28/19)
God’s plagues freed the Israelites after 430 years of captivity in Egypt. The Pharoah changed his mind and chased after the Israelites. God parted the waters of the Red Sea so that the Israelites could escape from the Egyptians. Water and manna was provided by God as they ventured north to the Promise Land. Here are the Biblical/Scripture references to Eilat which was called Elath in those days:
21 All the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the place of his father Amaziah. 22 He built Elath (Eilat) and restored it to Judah after the king slept with his fathers. 2 Kings 14:21-22 (NASB)
Day 18 of Andy’s month-long ‘Spiritual Journey to Israel & Palestine… Most of Day 18’s experiences have been previously shared—the glorious Sunday Morning Sunrise float in the Dead Sea—and the personal Biblical Moment of being baptized (again) in the Jordan River, this time at Qasr Al Yahud where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist—and venturing into Jericho and riding the cable cars (or locally known as the Telepherique) up to the Mount of Temptations where the devil tempted Jesus three times after he fasted 40 days and 40 nights in the desert.
So I headed north hoping I would find a church service on a Sunday morning but did not. I was drawn to Qasr Al Yahud to just sit there on the bank of the Jordan River watching surges of loaded pilgrim buses coming and then leaving. It was a tranquil site duplicated to some extent on the other side of the Jordan in Jordan which is more like a stream or creek than a river. Those on the other side were a bit more organized and sang a great deal as the baptisms took place.
Renewed I thought why not go into the oldest city in all of civilization and see what I could find. I found the Old City of Jericho where trumpets brought the walls down. I took the cable cars up to the Mount of Temptation and saw all of Jericho laid out before me. Haven’t I via my ego been so insidiously tempted by the Devil at times throughout my life only to be redeemed by my faith in Jesus Christ and the Resurrection! Maybe that is all there is to our human life, the ups and downs, the trials and tribulations and somewhere between the Alpha and the Omega we move on from the alpha ultimately making it to the Omega all too soon.
Biblical Moment No. 33 of Andy’s Spiritual Journey to Israel & Palestine is a drive-by don’t dare to stop experience of Sodom and Gomorrah. In a day that I woke up in Eilat on the Red Sea and rested my head in Neve Zohar on the Dead Sea and saw Timna Park and Masada National Park in between I did not slow down as I passed Mount Sodom. There were people there obviously taking a hike up to the top but not me! No chance I want to become a pillar of salt like Lot’s wife forever located at the base of the Dead Sea!
15 When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” 16 But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the Lord was upon him; and they brought him out, and put him outside the city. 17 When they had brought them outside, one said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away.” 
23 The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven, 25 and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
22 “Now the generation to come, your sons who rise up after you and the foreigner who comes from a distant land, when they see the plagues of the land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it, will say,23 ‘All its land is brimstone and salt, a burning waste, unsown and unproductive, and no grass grows in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and in His wrath.’ 
The Mount of Beatitudes is right there above Capernaum on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. One could sense Jesus walking up with his disciples (many disciples including the 12 Apostles) from his home with Peter in Capernaum and sharing his heartfelt essence of the good human life! The Son of God gave his Sermon on the Mount of Beatitudes early in his ministry after being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, fasting for 40 days in the desert and outlasting the devil, and being chased out of Nazareth when he declared that he indeed is the Messiah prophesized by Isaiah in the Old Testament.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
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Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either.
I leave and am heading out of town… planning to go west to my Airbnb bed near Nazareth… I see these unbelievable sunrays in the sky pointing to the east… I take theSsunrays as a God-Send… still an hour or so of daylight so I head east and follow them… though hill and valley… with the cows in the field… down the curvy road past the Mount of the Beatitudes… all the way to the Sea of Galilee and into Capernaum Jesus’ hometown after He left Nazareth… I visit Tabgha where Jesus fed 5,000 people with a seven loaves of bread and a few small fishes (Matthew 15:34)…… this was a 30-minute ride over 26 kms long… do you think I will be reading that book on the plane home? TROML Baby (an exclamation of joy)! Finished the day sneaking into Arbel Cliffs National Park at sunset before finding my bed in Cana—my Penthouse above the Palace!
PS: earlier in the trip I witnessed a 180 degree rainbow on the Sea of Galilee (video included)! How does one interpret this experience? From Ascent Synagogue to Jesus’ Miracles?… our religions are so spiritually intertwined… I was hosted by a warm & loving extended Muslim family that evening… I think all religions and spiritualties are intertwined… ALL including Baha’i, Hinduism, Buddhism, ETC., ETC…
53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. 54 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. 56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. 58 This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.” (John 6:53-58)
60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? 62 What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. 65 And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” (John 6:60-65)
Biblical Moment No. 22 of Andy’s Spiritual Journey to Israel & Palestine was a simple one, yet painful and meaningful. On the eve of Orthodox Christmas, I sat on a bench in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher reading Mark Chapter 15 in my family Bible about the Way of the Cross; Via Dolorosa; or the Stations of the Cross. Then walking the Stations backwards (the last five are in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher) and then forward returning to Calvary; Golgotha. Subsequently, never ever has life and the Lenten Season been so vivid, precious, and meaningful. Here in pictures is the experience being there and walking where Jesus walked. Where He fell three times on the Via Dolorosa in the Old City of Jerusalem. Where he was crucified, died, and was buried…
The Sentence of Death. 6 Now on the occasion of the feast he used to release to them one prisoner whom they requested. 7 A man called Barabbas was then in prison along with the rebels who had committed murder in a rebellion. 8 The crowd came forward and began to ask him to do for them as he was accustomed. 9 Pilate answered, “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” 10 For he knew that it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed him over. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead. 12 Pilate again said to them in reply, “Then what [do you want] me to do with [the man you call] the king of the Jews?” 13 They shouted again, “Crucify him.” 14 Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” They only shouted the louder, “Crucify him.” 15 So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged, handed him over to be crucified.
The Crucifixion. 22 They brought him to the place of Golgotha (which is translated Place of the Skull). 23 They gave him wine drugged with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24 Then they crucified him and divided his garments by casting lots for them to see what each should take. 25 It was nine o’clock in the morning[
The Death of Jesus. 33 At noon darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 34 And at three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 35 Some of the bystanders who heard it said, “Look, he is calling Elijah.” 36 One of them ran, soaked a sponge with wine, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to take him down.” 37 Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 When the centurion who stood facing him saw how he breathed his last he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” 40 There were also women looking on from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joses, and Salome. 41 These women had followed him when he was in Galilee and ministered to him. There were also many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem.
The Burial of Jesus. 42 When it was already evening, since it was the day of preparation, the day before the sabbath, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a distinguished member of the council, who was himself awaiting the kingdom of God, came and courageously went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 44 Pilate was amazed that he was already dead. He summoned the centurion and asked him if Jesus had already died. 45 And when he learned of it from the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. 46 Having bought a linen cloth, he took him down, wrapped him in the linen cloth and laid him in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses watched where he was laid.
