What I Learned from Masada, inspired by Isaiah

Scripture Verse that caught my attention today: Isaiah 22:10 You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.

Observation: Looks like it was a desperate time.

Application: A few years ago I had the opportunity to travel to the Holy Land and, as a part of that trip, visited Masada. Masada (sp?) is an elevated plain in the middle of a desert wilderness. It was where King Herod had built a marvelous palace that he may have only visited a few times. It was basically a desert oasis—albeit only because of the work of slaves and servants, with water collected in huge man-made cisterns and carried to where needed. It was a seemingly insurmountable fortress; you could see the enemy coming for miles and miles…and it would be an incredible challenge to attack such a fortified city on a hill.

Eventually the city was abandoned, however, and later a group of early Christians—the Essenes—lived there. They were rather extreme in their piety and saw the rugged and elevated desert plain as safe haven from the ways of the world. The Romans, however, saw them as foes and determined to bring them down. And so the Romans set up base camps around Masada and literally built a huge ramp out of rocks with which to besiege the city. They also shrewdly used Jewish slave labor for much of the process, since the Essenes were hesitant to shoot quivers into their next of kin.

It must have been an ominous time for the Essenes—to know that their ability to protect themselves could only last so long. With each rock thrown on the ramp pile, the Roman’s ability to enter the city grew ever more clear. I’m sure that they held out as long as they could. They probably dismantled many a house in order to try to fortify their walls. But to no avail.

If I recall the story correctly, there were roughly 100 people living there. Rather than be personally defiled by the Romans, I believe a group of 8 or so Essenes were chosen to literally kill the other Essenes so that the Romans would not have the satisfaction of finding them alive or torturing them horrendously. And then the last 8 or so Essenes, according to lot, killed each other. One mother and child somehow hid from the whole affair and they were able to tell the story of what happened.

I must admit that I’m not completely sure what the point of this whole story is in terms of its tie-in with the passage from Isaiah above. But it immediately came to mind when I read that verse. I can’t imagine the desperation of knowing that someone else is about to take everything that you think you own. I’d like to think that things are a whole lot more civilized these days. But in reality, even now the world is sometimes a habitat for human prey. Corporations leverage the power to take over land or influence politics or drive the competition to bankruptcy. Closer to home, everybody loves an estate sale and many a family unit is only one missed paycheck away from possible foreclosure.

None of this was Isaiah’s point to begin with except for his constant reminder that our true hope will never be found in our possessions. Rather, our hope is found in our relationships and particularly our relationship as a people (more so than as individuals) with our God.

This is not to say that we shouldn’t take reasonable measures to protect ourselves. But our primary mission is still to be gracious to the stranger and faithful to our God. Anything else is nothing more than futile attempt to build up some kind of wall that will in fact eventually be broken down.

Prayer: Lord, thanks for the reminder that our hope is not in our ability to protect ourselves but only in your ability to raise us back up. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(Scripture readings today included Isaiah 22-24 and Hebrews 12)