Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Qumran and En Gedi, April 15, 2019

Monday, April 15 we took a field trip bus with the students to visit Qumran, En Gedi, Masada and the Dead Sea.

At Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered:





Cave 4 where many scraps of the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.  Other caves had more intact scrolls that had been put in jars and were better preserved.

Below is a picture of us after having climbed up and up and up and finally reached this water fall in En Gedi.  Several of the students got in the water and under the falls and had a grand time.  It was sometimes a treacherous climb, with wet rocks causing slippery conditions.

 Under this lush length of bamboo trees is a very dark pathway that we traversed to get to the Falls featured above. It was pretty treacherous as the rocks were wet.  I fell a few times.

Bro. Barron talked about 1 Samuel 23:29 and 24:1 where it states that David went to the wilderness of En-gedi.  Were these one of the caves where Saul slept while David, not willing to kill him, cut off part of Saul's skirt so Saul would know that David could have killed him?
I love 1 Samuel 24:10 where David says to Saul:  "Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how that the Lord had delivered thee to day into  mine hand in the cave; and some bade me kill thee:  but mine eye spared thee; and I said, I will not put forth mine hand against my lord; for he is the Lord's anointed."
Bro. Barron then likened this to our day, when we might feel tempted to say something negative against the Lord's anointed--be it the Prophet, Apostles, Stake President or Bishop.  He said that even though men, especially a Bishop or Stake President might have personality quirks or things that annoy us or that we don't understand, that we should not "put forth our hand (or mouth) against them".  He gave an example from his life when he and his wife planned to move and had put down $1000 in earnest money on the house.  Right after this the Stake President learned that Bro. Barron was moving and felt a deep feeling from the Holy Ghost that Barrons should not move.  He actually called Bro. Barron and told him that as Stake President, he didn't feel good about the move.  They later met and talked about it.  Bro. Barron and his wife decided to follow the counsel of the Stake President and lost the $1000, which was a huge sacrifice at the time.  Bro. Barron then said that that decision brought untold blessings to them, which they could not anticipate.  He didn't elaborate.  But he did tell the students that they should not speak against the Lord's anointed.

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