IMAGE INSIGHTS - It is hot, rugged, and home to a some of the rock badgers and wild goats of Israel. With its thousands of small caves and fissures it is an ideal location for finding refuge and escape from an enemy or the heat of the desert sun. This 56 by 12-mile-long barren and inhospitable land is wedged between the Dead Sea and the mountains of Judea and was the setting for several important events of scripture. In this barren location of Judah's territorial allotment, King Herod built Masada, King David fled from Saul, and it is the likely place for the temptations of Jesus (1 Samuel 23; Matthew 4). The desert of Judea also became a sanctuary for a Jewish sect known as the Essenes who in the 2nd and 1st century BC established a small community at Qumran not far from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea.
The Essenes were separatists and known for their apocalyptic theology and messianic yearnings. As ascetics, they were extremely strict in their observance of Jewish law, especially regarding purity and the sabbath. Many attribute the preservation of the Dead Sea Scrolls to their efforts who, it is alleged, were responsible for depositing the scrolls into several small caves at hidden and obscure locations near the Dead Sea
One of these caves (seen above) lies 1.2 miles north of Khirbet Qumran and just west of modern-day Kibbutz Kalia. Discovered in February of 1956 it is known today as cave 11, and among its epigraphical treasures were ancient biblical and apocryphal texts. Its most notable manuscript was the Temple Scroll, the longest of the entire Dead Sea Scrolls collection which gave a description of the Jewish temple and the regulations for temple worship. Around 30 manuscripts were discovered in all, including nearly complete scrolls from Leviticus, Psalms, and an Aramaic targum of Job.
One of the Bible passages found in cave 11 was a scroll fragment of Psalm 18 that carries and important message attributed to King David on the occasion of his flight from King Saul. It reads as follows: “For You light my lamp; The Lord my God illumines my darkness. For by You I can run upon a troop; and by my God I can leap over a wall” (Psalm 18:27-28). These verses, and the terrain shown in the photo above, remind us that though some places may be dark and frightening, when God is near, they become place of light and safety. It was in the wilderness that God used a cave like the one shown above to not only protect the soon to be King of Israel from a murderous attempt on his life (1 Samuel 24:3), but also to preserve the sacred words of scripture in a collection of writings that we call today the Dead Sea Scrolls. Those scrolls contained a message from David which some 3,000 years later still empowers believers today.
Because of the life of David and the poetry he composed, we learn that in a wilderness of pain, and in a cave of loneliness, God can give us hope and the light of day. Just as God rescued David from the darkness and would later empower his men to penetrate the city wall of Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5), He will also deliver us from the darkness of an emotional cave to the light of recovery and joy. If we trust in the Lord and the light given by God we can also emerge to scale the walls of the things that seek to harm and threaten us the most.
By John W. Moore
