Day 6 started on a sober note as we spent a few hours in the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. What human beings are capable of, by continued and prolonged rationalization and sin. Even though this was not a Biblical site, we saw the reality of original sin and evil in the world.
In a way, history keeps repeating itself. When we lose sight of God, we lose sight of a God-centered, Biblical-centered worldview. ALL human beings – whether they haven’t been born yet, or they are refugees from war torn countries, or they are helpless and poverty stricken in a third world country, or they are a 95-year old in a nursing home – are made in the image of God and have value, dignity, and worth.
What’s the solution to evil? God provided one in Jesus. Who dealt evil, sin and death a mortal wound when he rose from the grave and will one day return to bring final and permanent defeat.
From there, we went to Genesis Land, where Mel and I rode a camel to a tent in the desert and sat and more yummy food.
After that, we made our way, via cable car, to Masada. The site of incredible history. You can read all about it here. But in a nutshell, it was one of Herod’s palaces. A place of an incredible stand-off with the Jews, stunning architecture and engineering, and tremendous views.
We then settled into our hotel on the Dead Sea, surrounded by mountains. After another nice meal, and some more desert that I didn’t need, we hit the sack and got up early to see [most of] the sun rise over the water and then floated in the Dead Sea…which is NUTS, and fun.
Today we are off to Qumran, where they found the Dead Sea Scrolls, and a few other places. Word on the street is that there is lots of walking today. That’s good, yesterday I only walked 6.89 miles.
Mike Ruel 