by Pastor Patrick Cho

This morning we were in for a treat as we headed to the beach for some fun in the sun. The city of Eilat is certainly much different from Jerusalem. There are far fewer orthodox Jews walking around. Eilat is more of a party and resort city full of hotels and casinos. Off the beach, there is a beautiful coral reef with all sorts of exotic fish. Rather than wading out into the water, the parks and recreation people set up two piers that jutted out into the water. After getting our gear, we walked down to the end of one pier where we entered the water and started to swim towards the second pier. As I jumped into the water, I was immediately surrounded by a school of fish and could see all sorts of things that reminded me of “Finding Nemo.” Unfortunately, the current was really strong and the water was choppy, so some of the reef was cloudy and visibility was not great. Even still, it was nice to have some down time after days of rapid fire instruction and seemingly endless walking. I also had an underwater camera handy, so hopefully the pictures come out fine.

After snorkeling, we washed up and were able to visit a life size replica of the Old Testament Tabernacle. This stop was really fascinating! After a brief introduction, the tour guide walked us through the Tabernacle explaining every detail. Though there were times when the interpretations were a bit contrived, it was nice to hear about the Tabernacle from an evangelical perspective. It was also interesting to see the place’s dimensions. One detail that was surprising was the size of the bronze altar. I suppose it must have been fairly big to be able to fit large animals, but I shuddered when I thought about being a Levite carrying the altar throughout the wilderness (cf. Exod. 27:6-7). I don’t think I would have wanted to be given the altar carrying duty.

Just down the road from the Tabernacle model was a place called “Solomon’s pillars.” This was an immense natural cliff side carved out by wind and sandstorms. It was a gorgeous sight, but the stairs were not very fun to climb in the extreme desert heat. Even still, once we got up to the observation point the view was amazing, and it wasn’t a very long climb. At the base of the cliff was an ancient Egyptian temple to the goddess Hathor. Hathor is usually depicted as a woman with bull’s horns and is the patron goddess of mining. In the temple, you could see several standing stones, some ritual basins, and a holy of holies. This area was the site of copper mining, so the Egyptians probably put the temple there to help ensure their success. At the top of the stairs, there is an ancient drawing of Pharaoh Ramses offering a sacrifice to Hathor. This was one of the warmest places we visited, so it must have been miserable working as a copper miner in this area.

In the afternoon, we visited a wilderness reserve in Hai-Bar Yotvata where we could see various animals from the region. There were ostriches, lizards, various snakes, and rodents. The park also had a cheetah, hyena, owls, and wolves. The heat was so intense that most of the animals were lazing in the shade. Some would curiously look up at us as we passed, but most spent the time sleeping. The last area contained various kinds of vultures. There was a carcass of a young calf laid there for the birds to eat, but I think they were all too tired or hot to move. There is an area at the reserve where you could drive around and get a closer look at animals like ibexes and ostriches, but we unfortunately didn’t have time to do that.

At the end of the day, we arrived at a hostel at the base of Masada. This is located just west of the Dead Sea. The plan is to get some rest, meet up at 5:00am, and climb to the top of Masada to catch the sunrise. Since we’re in Israel, we have been told that this is the thing to do. I feel pretty motivated now, but we’ll see how I feel in the morning!