Never Again!

Our trip to Masada was inspiring and unforgettable. We listened as Meir shared with us his heart about Masada. Never again shall Masada fall! He shared with us the two important archaeological, historical and national finds of the excavation of this fortress on the mountain.
One was the pot shards that had the names of the last ten men after they each had killed their own family and the over 900 free Jews encamped in this forsaken
palace. They drew names from a hat and the name drawn would kill the other 9 and then fall on his own sword. This was done because the Romans had captured their fortress and rather than be taken as slaves, they killed themselves. Meir shared on the speech of their leader who said "Do you want to hear your wives scream as they are being "taken" by the Roman soldiers? Can you stand there and do nothing as your children cry out to you?"

Meir said, he would still have made the same choice so that his loved ones would not suffer this indignity. His point was that, Israel still makes that choice. Masada is one of the places where the Israeli soldiers are sworn in to the army. As they stand upon that ground and say never again! I will fight for my family, for my country knowing that I am the only defense between them and the numerous and powerful enemy.

The other great archaeological find was that of a piece of the ancient Torah found in the synagogue. It was open to this passage: Ezekiel 37. "Can these dry bones walk again?" As I read the whole chapter aloud to the people we knew God was writing His message before us. Please read the whole chapter, it is "bone chilling!" Because here we were and God had caused the Israelis to walk in their homeland once again.


As we walked up the mountain, we saw soldiers with huge military packs. They looked very weary and I asked Erez if they were doing military drills? He told me (from experience) that the soldiers had probably been walking all night on a training exercise. They walk about 70 miles in the desert fully equipped and at the end of this walk they hike up one side of Masada and then down they other. Now that is some work!! It was another example of the Israeli heart.


We approached the synagogue and it was fairly crowded, but as we entered a school trip of teenage girls was trying to enter. At first, Meir thought they would be too disruptive, but Pastor wanted them to feel welcome. We began to sing and as we moved into singing Yerushalayim Shel Zahav (Jerusalem, City with a Heart of Gold) the girls started to sing with us. Then they sang to us. Then we sang He Na Mah Tov together. They started dancing and several of our ladies joined them. It was a unique and fantastic experience because even though we did not speak one another's language our common tongue was our love for Israel and our love for God. IT WAS AWESOME!

Later that night in service, Sunshine shared her insight into Masada. Meir had said that the people were found slain, but they piled all of their weapons and food so that the soldiers knew that they chose to die not out of desperation, but by their choice. She saw the direct relation to Jesus as He said, "No man takes my life from me, but I choose to lay it down." She shared how she wanted to have courage like that to just lay her life down.

(Exerpt from our trip in November, 2008)