The Lesson of Masada

Masada 

It has been five years since I last posted anything in this blog, quite a long time for writer's block and much has happened in the interim.  I have been away from the writing but not from my study of the. Bible. I hope that I have learned much. I hope that I am closer to God and that I can count myself among His friends.

The picture on this page is an image of Masada, the fortress that Herod the Great carved out of a mountain plateau overlooking the Dead Sea.  Herod used it as a winter palace and as a haven from enemies. Its ruins still show signs of the beautiful frescoes that were once painted on its walls, and the remains of cisterns, storerooms, and walls are remnants of a past lost to time but not memory.

After the Romans destroyed the Second Temple of the Jews in 70 A.D., a group of Jews fled to Masada.  They remained there until  73 AD when the Romans laid siege on the fortress, built a circular ramp and began an ascent toward the summit. The climb proved futile, for upon reaching the top, they found  960 men, women, and children dead in a mass suicide.  The Jews had chosen to commit suicide rather than being taken captive by the Romans.

Masada made an impression on me not so much for its historical significance as for the realization that our actions, which we can control put in motion a whole series of events which we cannot control.  Only God knows the future, but he puts it within our power to control our present actions. In Luke 19: 41-44, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem. And when he drew near and saw the city he wept over it, saying, Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.  For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies will cast up a bank about you in on every side, and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you; because you did not know the time of your visitation. Jesus was referring to the destruction of the Temple, but that event set in motion a whole series of events leading to the siege of Masada. He wept for His people then as he weeps for us now when we turn from him.

I write this in the midst of a pandemic that experts claim will kill at least 100,000 people in the United States alone before it is over. But what do the experts know?  Only God knows what the end result will be.  It is the season of Lent.  Will we use this time to turn back to God or will we make Jesus weep?