Today we head out for our first
day in the Desert, and went to some of my favorite places En
Gedi, and Qumran. I did not get the full Video of En Gedi so I will do my best
to recount the teaching from there. So here we go, turn up your speakers and
open your minds and hearts.
En Gedi
En Gedi is an oasis in the
desert of Judah. As we entered the national park and made our way along the
path the sound of running water became evident. The springs in En Gedi have
allowed for the area to be inhabited for over 5,000 years and consists of two
wadi's (canyons) and four fresh water springs. The springs are fed by water
that falls in the Judah mountains and becomes part of underground rivers that
follow the water tables. Solomon compared the beauty of his wife to the henna
blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi in Song of Solomon 1:14.
David fled to En Gedi when Saul was pursuing him in about 1,000 BC
1 Samuel 23:24-24:22
"24 So
they set out and went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the
Desert of Maon, in the Arabah south of Jeshimon. 25 Saul
and his men began the search, and when David was told about it, he went down to
the rock and stayed in the Desert of Maon. When Saul heard this, he went into
the Desert of Maon in pursuit of David. 26 Saul
was going along one side of the mountain, and David and his men were on the
other side, hurrying to get away from Saul. As Saul and his forces were closing
in on David and his men to capture them,27 a
messenger came to Saul, saying, “Come quickly! The Philistines are raiding the
land.”28 Then Saul broke off his pursuit of
David and went to meet the Philistines. That is why they call this place Sela
Hammahlekoth. 29 And David went up from
there and lived in the strongholds of En Gedi.
1 Samuel 24
David Spares Saul's Life
1 After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the Desert of En Gedi.” 2 So Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats. 3 He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. 4 The men said, “This is the day the Lord spoke of when he said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’ ” Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul's robe. 5 Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe.6 He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord's anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.”7 With these words David rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way. 8 Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground.9 He said to Saul, “Why do you listen when men say, ‘David is bent on harming you’?10 This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lift my hand against my master, because he is the Lord's anointed.’11 See, my father, look at this piece of your robe in my hand! I cut off the corner of your robe but did not kill you. Now understand and recognize that I am not guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I have not wronged you, but you are hunting me down to take my life.12 May the Lord judge between you and me. And may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you. 13 As the old saying goes, ‘From evildoers come evil deeds,’ so my hand will not touch you. 14 “Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom are you pursuing? A dead dog? A flea? 15 May the Lord be our judge and decide between us. May he consider my cause and uphold it; may he vindicate me by delivering me from your hand.” 16 When David finished saying this, Saul asked, “Is that your voice, David my son?” And he wept aloud.17 “You are more righteous than I,” he said. “You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly.18 You have just now told me of the good you did to me; the Lord delivered me into your hands, but you did not kill me.19 When a man finds his enemy, does he let him get away unharmed? May the Lord reward you well for the way you treated me today.20 I know that you will surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hands. 21 Now swear to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants or wipe out my name from my father's family.” 22 So David gave his oath to Saul. Then Saul returned home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold."
The Midrash (Rabbinic commentary) refers
to this as David cutting off the corner of Saul’s prayer shall. In Hebrew
word for corner is Kanaf and is also the same word for wings. The Torah
commanded that the Jews sew tassels to the corner of their robes.
Numbers 15:37-41"37 The Lord said to Moses,38 “Speak to the Israelites and say to
them: ‘Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners
of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel.39 You will have these tassels to look at
and so you will remember all the commands of the Lord, that you may obey them
and not prostitute yourselves by going after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes.40 Then you will remember to obey all my
commands and will be consecrated to your God.41 I
am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the
Lord your God.’”" Deuteronomy 22:12"12 Make
tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear."
These tassels are called tzitzit and have 613 knots (one for every commandment
in Torah) and are made up of 8 strings and 5 large knots which equal 13. Every Hebrew
letter represents both a letter and a number so by adding up the strings
and the large knots 13= the word ekhad which means one. (Tzitzit=600). 1st
century garments consisted of a Tahluk (under/inner garments) and the Talet
(outer garments). Jesus said that if a man asked for your cloak, that you
should give him your shirt too... in other words it is better for you to go
naked than to deny a person in need. In Matthew 9:20 and Mark
5:25 recounts the story of the woman who had been bleeding for twelve
years and how she reached out to the corner of Jesus's robe and was healed. Wow
... lots to unpack in this story alone, I promise we will get back to David and
Saul.
At the time of Jesus and before, a woman was considered unclean during her menstrual
cycle. This meant that she could not touch anyone, she could not be in
community, she would have to remain outside the camp or town until the end of
her cycle and then she would have to ceremonially clean herself before being
welcomed back into the community. This woman, who was bleeding for 12 years,
was not only in discomfort, she was an outcast to the community. She could not receive
a hug from her friends, children or husband without making them unclean. She
could not make love to her husband; she could not be part of family events such
as wedding ceremonies, births, funerals etc... For twelve years. As a woman I
can tell you that would be agony! So lonely! In her desperation she believed
the prophecy in Malachi 4:2 " But
for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in
its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the
stall." She believed Jesus was the Messiah; she had nothing to lose and
everything to gain by her faith in Jesus as the Messiah, believing that He
would have healing in his Kanaf! How awesome is that!!!
Ok back to David and Saul. When David cut the kanaf off of Saul's prayer shawl
it symbolized that Saul was no longer under the Shadow of God's wings, and a
visual that Saul was not being obedient to God's laws.
Zechariah 8:23
"23 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “In
those days’ ten men from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one
Jew by the hem of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard
that God is with you.’ ”"
En Gedi is 30 miles from Azekah where David fought Goliath. The
Desert is a place where the Jews would go to find God because of the necessity
for God to show up. We all face times of wandering through
the proverbial desert in our lives, and can identify with the
psalmist who thirsts for God. We (I) often must pray for the feet to walk the
path that God has laid out before us, and sometimes He makes that path smooth,
but other times He does not. Many times we have to ask God to give us the
strength to get through the day, and even when God does provide us the feet to
climb life’s mountain sides, its still not guaranteed to be easy.
2 Samuel 22:34, Psalm 18:33 and Habakkuk all say,
"He makes my feet like the
feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights."
Here at En Gedi we see the word picture for water coming out of a rock. The desert
of Israel gets rain maybe once every 200 year. The water that is found in En
Gedi comes from Bethlehem. When it rains in Bethlehem and Jerusalem the water
seeps down through the porous limestone which conducts water while purifying
it. When the water hits Zola mite it flows along it until hitting a weak point
in the rock, where the built up pressure of water will seep out of
the rock (fresh water coming out of the rock), as described twice in the story
of Moses. It takes about 2000 years from rainfall to the time it comes out in
the springs of En Gedi. It's hard for that fact to sink in when you’re not
sitting near its waterfalls in the sweltering heat of the desert, with not much
to save you from the heat to realize that God loves his people so much that He
would provide rain 2000 years prior, knowing that people would be hot and maybe
even thirsty needing relief... God is the God of details.
Living water (Maim Chaim) is mentioned several times in the bible to describe
God (Jeremiah 17:13, Isaiah 32:2, 35:5-6, Psalms 107:35, Isaiah 49:10, Isaiah
58:11). Living water is defined as water that moves under its own power, and is
fresh. Dead water is water that does not move, such as the Dead Sea and cistern
water that collects rain water and sits in limestone cave like structures that
become murky, muddy and stagnant. Cisterns were also filled by human hands in
certain places throughout the holy land. In Psalm 63 David writes about this in
En Gedi.
Psalm 63:1-2
"O
God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my
body longs for you,
in a dry and
weary land where there is no water. 2 I
have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory"
Cisterns
were the peoples way of taking care of themselves rather than relying on God's
provision for water.
Jeremiah
2:13
" 13 “My people have
committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living
water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot
hold water."
God does not promise that our
deserts will go away, but He does promise to sustain us in the desert. It is
important for those who claim Christ to continue to renew themselves with
"living water" through fellowship with fellow believers, time in the
word, asking questions, spending time in prayer. We can't do it ourselves
without God's living water we risk burn out, but with God's living water we
find our strength in Him. The Israelites rejected the living water and chose to
rely on their own storage of water over God's provision of water. How do we
rely on and sustain ourselves? What are our cisterns? Drugs, gambling, pre-marital
sex, porn, success, over-time? All these are dead water that promise
sustainability but ultimately lead to self destruction. They are
attractive from a distance, but just like the Dead Sea, nothing thrives in it,
and not only does it not satisfy our thirst, when we drink it, it is deadly.
There is the continual need for more. The greatest downfall of the church (as a
whole not the building) today is keeping this living water behind the church
(Building) doors Monday through Saturday and only bringing it out Sunday
morning. Jesus gave us the example and the standard to share God with even the
lowliest in society, those who culture says has no value. We live in a world
dying of dehydration (figuratively) who are desperate for living water.
Although En Gedi is an oasis in
the Judean desert, there are no apartments, condo's, houses, hotels, or even
camp sites. God never intended for people to stay there long term. It was meant
to bring rest and refreshment to empower the Jews to continue on.
Gods
Provision in the Desert
Acacia trees are desert tree’s
that are the Bedouin’s best friend, they provide shade, burn very hot and very
slow due to the density of its wood, its sap can be used to treat skin and
stomach ailments, is nourishing for camels (one kilo of its boiled leaves can feed a camel for a
month) and serves as a sign that there was water nearby, and many Bedouins use
the acacia tree as a marker for where to dig a well. Acacia wood is very valuable, the rod of a
shepherd is made of acacia wood, and the Ark of the Covenant as well as many of
the instruments made for worship in the temple was made of acacia wood and then
plated with Gold.
Acacia trees generally grow in
wadi’s which are canyons created by rushing walls of water, and are the most
dangerous place in the desert. There are two ways that people die in the
desert, Dehydration, and Drowning. Although it does not rain in the deserts of
Israel, when the rain comes in Jerusalem all the water cannot be absorbed by
the rocks and will burst from the water table as described above in a wall of
rushing water towards the Dead Sea which
creates the wadis. Even today when the
rains come the Bedouin people beat metal drums to warn people to get out of the
wadis because the water comes and leaves so quickly that once you hear or see
the water coming, it is too late to escape its reach. Acacia trees are occasionally
found in the middle of the wadi, but generally are on the sides of the wadis,
and there is a beautifully comforting fact about Acacia tree’s, as Jeremiah
17:7-8 describes,
“7 “But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose
confidence is in him. 8 He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out
its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are
always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear
fruit.””
When the rain doesn’t
come, or the water doesn’t come down the wadi where the acacia tree is, it can
go dormant for up to 10 years. So why is this comforting? God says that a man
who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him will be like a tree planted
by the water that sends out its roots by the stream (Acacia tree). There have
been times in my faith, where I feel like I have not been watered, and feel
like I am dormant, but this passage seems to say that this is ok, that like the
Acacia tree, I won’t stay stagnant forever, and that I am not going to wither a
die like any other tree would without water, that when the rains come again I
will once again flourish.
Joshua 1:6-9
6 “Be strong and
courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore
to their forefathers to give them.7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey
all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to
the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart
from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be
careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and
successful. 9 Have I not commanded
you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be
discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
There are 3 words for meditate
in hebrew are Hagarh, Hagah and Halak. To hagarh and hagah the text is to
devour it like a lion devours it prey. And in this passage Hazak (Be strong and
courageous) is used 4 times. Hagah is also the word used for the sound a lion
makes when hungry and has just caught a prey.
Sodomite
apple’s
This is a
Sodomite apple. Doesn’t it look inviting? Like it would be succulent and juicy…
a answer to prayer in the hot Judean desert.
But when opened
not only is it hollow and empty, but is lethally poisonous when consumed. This
can be very reflective of some people faith. Perhaps you are or you know those
Sunday Christians who look like they have it all together, look as though their
walk with God is perfect, and they are living a life that is richly blessed.
But Monday through Saturday they live a life where God is not welcomed; they
live a life that is full of empty things that promise the world but truly only
deliver death.
Jeremiah 17:1-18
“1 “Judah's sin is
engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars. 2 Even
their children remember their altars and Asherah poles beside the spreading
trees and on the high hills. 3 My mountain in the land and your wealth and all your
treasures I will give away as plunder,
together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country. 4 Through
your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to
your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled my anger, and it
will burn forever.” 5 This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in
man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the
Lord. 6 He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see
prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in
a salt land where no one lives. 7 “But blessed is
the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. 8
He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the
stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has
no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” 9 The
heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 10 “I
the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to
his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.” 11 Like
a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay is the man who gains riches by
unjust means. When his life is half gone, they will desert him, and in the end
he will prove to be a fool. 12 A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our
sanctuary. 13 O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be put to
shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they
have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water. 14 Heal
me, O Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the
one I praise. 15 They keep saying to me, “Where is the word of the Lord? Let it now
be fulfilled!” 16 I have not run away from being your shepherd; you know I have not
desired the day of despair. What passes my lips is open before you. 17 Do
not be a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of disaster. 18 Let
my persecutors be put to shame, but keep me from shame; let them be terrified,
but keep me from terror. Bring on them the day of disaster; destroy them with
double destruction.”
If you claim Christ, and you are
honest with yourself, where do you land? Are you more reflective of the Acacia
tree, or are you a Sodomite apple?
This lesson alone changed my life, and how I pursue my faith.
Qumran and the Dead Sea scrolls
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