2000-year-old tree bears fruit—for the first time!

Remember this story?

Well, Methuselah's story isn't over!

According to this February 27, article from Behold Israel, Methuselah, who was in fact a 'male' tree and cannot produce fruit. However, 6 more seeds were painstakingly revived and were given the names Adam, Jonah, Uriel, Boaz, Judith, and Hannah. Then, Methuselah was used to cross-germinate Hannah, and the result was...

111 dates!

Which means, that these dates are as close as we can get to tasting what a 1st century person did when eating from a date palm. It's still different because of so many factors, like soil quality, air quality, etc. But still, can you imagine? This is what Jesus and the disciples would have tasted in the desert.

WOW! 

The stories that seed could tell...

The Lesson of Masada

Remember the story of Masada?

In December, Behold Israel posted a teaching straight from this incredible place. I was mesmerized watching it, so I wanted to share it here!

If you have half an hour, it's worth every second. Amir Tsarfati did an amazing job telling the story and making it relevant to our lives in 2020.

Click here to watch (and please let me know what you think)!

Unless a seed falls to the ground...

"Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." John 12:14

When the Romans raided and destroyed the Zealot fort, Masada, near the Dead Sea in the first century, they discovered full cisterns and storage rooms full of food (read the story here).

When those remains were discovered in the 20th century, archeologists recovered fossilized remains of wheat, as well as some dried date pits.

Someone decided to test these 2000-year-old date pit and in 2005, planted one... and in today, it is still growing! 

Methusaelah is now 12-years-old and researchers pollenated him with a female plant—and made dates. 

Gives new meaning to Jesus' words in John 12, huh? We can hold on to our pain and our rights and our dreams and desires, gritting our teeth and standing our ground. And we can hold out for a while. Maybe even a long time. But the power of life—the power of resurrection—comes from being willing to trust God, accept His gift, and die. 

Masada: Never Again

The view from Masada, a fort built by Herod next to the Dead Sea. Herod never actually went there after it was finished, though.

It became famous after a group of Zealots took up residence there. After hearing of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, they wanted to hurt Rome. So they attacked 3 salt mines (Roman soldiers were paid in salt, as it was so valuable... which is where "worth his salt" and even the word "salary" come from). In retaliation, General Silva sent 10 Roman legions (12,000 soldiers) to the wilderness. On the way, they killed all the Essenes of Qumran.

When the soldiers arrived, they surrounded Masada and cut off the water supply, expecting the Zealots to surrender. What they didnt know is that Masada had full storage rooms and its own internal water supply, thanks to King Herod. They held out for 3 years.

Then, one day, a soldier saw a Zealot on top of Masada getting out of a bathhouse and reported another water supply. The soldiers began to build a ramp to scale the mountain. They used Jewish slaves to carry bucketfulls of sand to build the ramp, so the Zealots wouldn't theow down rocks and boulders - they couldn't kills their own countrymen.

The night before the Roman siege, the Zealots said, "our choice is slavery or death. We choose death."

The men killed their wives and children (leaving 2 women and their kids who had ties to Rome who could tell the story to Josephus) and then cast lots, killing each other until the final "loser" had to kill the other guy... and then himself. When the Romans scaled the walls, they found hundreds of dead bodies and a fort with full storage rooms (they wanted the Romans to know they chose death and it wasn't because they ran out of food).

Today, in Israel there is a saying: "Masada, never again." #israel #apictureadayofIsrael