It was Ash
Wednesday the day after Mardi
Gras, the day before thousands of people walked the streets
of Mobile to celebrate Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras) in the city where it
was birthed in North America. Up and down the streets of Mobile there
was another type of celebration and it was a
celebration
of the oldest written form of the word of God. The advertisements were
posted on each light standard down Old Government Street, it was the
exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls at
the Emporium near Mobile’s waterfront area.
It was amazing how
they had organized the exhibit. It was only going to be here for 95
days, so you knew it was going to be special. The people who worked so
hard to bring the scrolls here had accomplished one thing that no one
else could do in this city for hundreds of years. Every denomination
you could find had brought a group to this temporary shrine. Rabbis,
Baptist preachers, Catholic Priests and Pentecostals found a common
unity with the word of God that was displayed at the Emporium.

As you walked from
item to item you had a small description of every item by pushing the
buttons marked on the headset player that was given to you at the
beginning of the exhibit. A small explanation of each item appeared
and the description of why and how each item was celebrated.
How strange it was
that this particular exhibit had come to Mobile at such a time. The
actual artifacts were discovered by a Bedouin boy in the winter of
1946-1947. How unique was this that these scrolls were found at the
time of the rebirth of Israel. Israel became a nation again after
2,000 years on May 12 of 1948, new Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion
proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel from its new
capital in Tel Aviv. It was the beginning of the "ingathering of
the exiles" from its new capital in Tel Aviv. It was almost
prophetic in nature as the word came forth from two thousands years of
hidden captivity in a cave and then the people came forth after 2,000
years of captivity scattered throughout the world. After being gone
for two thousand years and entire people, language and nation was
resurrected.
The initial
find of the scrolls was brought to the City of Bethlehem. Bethlehem
birth place of the Jesus means Bread of Presence, and the word of God
to the Jew and to the Christian is the bread of life for belief . The
scrolls where advertised by an antiquities dealer named Kando in the Wall
Street Journal. There was more than just this one cave where
scrolls were discovered over the next decade ten other caves would be
discovered with more hidden treasure. The scrolls were wrapped in a
cloth, but even though the people who wrapped them took care when
archaeologist began to work with them they fell apart. Some of the
scrolls had been damaged by the sellers as they put them back together
with scotch tape. The scripts were written on goat skins and that was
unique for its day because most of the written work was done on
papyrus paper at that time. The goat seems to be the common element of
this whole story because it was a lost goat who led Bedouin boy to the
initial cave site. Since the written word was not put on papyrus the
scrolls could be identified and pieced back together by identifying
the fragments by a DNA code of each goat.. The DNA of a living
organism is the finger print of an animal or a person. Many of the
fragmented scrolls were put back together though DNA
testing. Every book of the Old Testament had been
preserved in these caves except the Book of Esther. In some of
the other caves an entire book of the Old Testament was
completely in tact and is now displayed in Jerusalem at the Shrine
of the Book, located in the City of Jerusalem. God had put His
hand on the time and the situation of the discovery of the written
documents to be found, its as if the people who had put them away were
led by God to do it. The timing of the find and the timing of Israel
coming together as a nation was not coincidence.

The carbon
testing of the cloth that wrapped the scrolls dated the documents more
than 2,000 years ago. It’s believed that many of them were written
during the time of Jesus in Jerusalem. The Essences were of group of
intellectual monastic Jews who lived away from Jerusalem. They
withdrew from Jerusalem at the time because of the persecution of the
intellectuals of the day. Other sects of Jews had punished them for
their stick living of the Jewish laws of Moses. At the time the Jewish
Temple had been built by Herod the Great. The Temple as it stood
during the time of Christ was larger than Solomon’s Temple which was
built before the Second Jewish Captivity. The Essens lived in a desert
environment at Qumran at the edge of the Northern end of the Dead Sea
with the Judean Desert and Jerusalem to the west. Herod the Great was
a builder and not even The Dead Sea escaped his dominion. Close
to a 100 miles to the south Herod he built a place where he could
escape to if Rome ever decided to deal with the Jewish uprisings. It
was called Masada and it was like a Qumran, but on a grander scale
built on the top of a mountain. Within that small community the last
signet of Israel withstood the Roman Army. Within Masada were cisterns
and a complete city with a small place of worship. After the fall of
Jerusalem in 63 AD, the Romans attack Masada by building a ramp to
kill off the last established Jewish sect called the Zealots, before
the Romans could enter the Zealots took their own lives to make sure
the Romans never had the honor of defeating them in battle. This was
the last known sect of Jews to stand in Israel until the return of the
nation on May 12, 1948.

One of the best
parts of the entire exhibit was upstairs in a small projection room.
In that room an entire overview of the Old Herodian Temple
could be seen. It was done on a small surround screen with a young
lady speaking about the various parts of the old Jewish Temple. She
explained that the Herodian Temple was several times larger
than Solomon’s Temple. During her talk she asked if there was
anyone who had ever visited the Western Wall of the Herodian
Temple. I was the only one to raise my hand in the group. She then
pointed to a particular place on the Temple Mount where it was
located. It was amazing at how small the Western Wall was as
compared to the entire structure.
The Temple was
destroyed by the Romans as the prophecies of the scattering of the
Jewish Nation was fulfilled, but there was also the prophecy claiming
that the Jews would be regathered from all parts of the earth found in
Amos 9:15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall
no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith
the Lord thy God.
Many believe
that one of the greatest miracles of Israel since their time of being
restored on May 12, 1948 was the period of time where they reclaimed
the land of the Temple Mount on June 7, 1967. Jordan who had owned the
land up until the Six Day War wanted to open up the Eastern
Gate of Jerusalem and build a hotel. King Hussain had already planned
on building a lavish hotel just inside the Eastern Gate the earth
moving equipment and large cranes were in place on the eve of the Six
Day War, in scripture it says that Christ will split the Mount of
Olives and open the Easter Gate of Jerusalem. If you go to the Eastern
Gate today you will see it closed. One of the officers who was their
during the night of June 7, 1967 said that they were given orders to
go and take the Temple Mount area. They must have been supernatural
orders because no one from the high command of the Jewish Army gave
that command. As the Jews mounted the attack not a shot was fired and
for the first time since 63 AD the Nation of Israel captured one of
the holiest places in Jerusalem. Many believe that the Jewish nation
will rebuild the Temple on the Temple Mount area, earthquakes have
caused the walls to begin to fall around the Temple Mount area. The
second Holiest place in Islam is located right on the spot of where
the Holy of Holies of the old Jewish Temple was located. The Dome
of the Rock is supposed to be the place where their prophet
ascended unto heaven. The under structure of The Dome of the Rock
has began to crumble. The greatest earthquake fault in the world is
close to this area. Through the Jordan River Valley and through
the Dead Sea area all the way through a part of Africa is located two
large land plates that are drawing apart almost 100 feet a year. For
years the Dead Sea flowed into the sea, it was an earthquake that
stopped that flow and every since the Dead Sea has retained its water
and a heavy build of salt is there today. The Dead Sea is the
lowest place on the entire earth. Eventually these
two plates will separate Africa from Asia. This is an area where
Israeli seismologist say that a large earthquake will hit Jerusalem
very soon causing much loss of life. Since the taking of the Temple
Mount region extensive archeology finds have resulted in unearthing
several historic sites. In one area when we were there in 2001 we saw
the old wall that Nehemiah built around the City of Jerusalem
Anyone who is
familiar with the second coming of Christ was excited about these Holy
pieces of scripture coming to Mobile. What a celebration and maybe
even a prophetic statement about our city. Maybe the Holy Word has
come here because of a great awakening that could happen in the port
city. The power of God can be found in His Word and when his people
are in His Word there is revival, thank you Exploreum for bringing
God’sWord to our city.