The Dead Sea

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

Audio version at http://tinyurl.com/2flv23

At times you can come upon a pond in a field and see that it is covered over with algae or dried up or otherwise in poor condition. Dead fish may be floating on the surface and it becomes evident that this is not a healthy pond. It is dead or dying.

Conditions need to be right to provide the proper environment for life and growth. Either living on dry land or under water, the same basic principles apply. If a required element is withheld, death will occur.

We need water to survive. Our bodies are made up of about 55-60% water. Drinking water helps to keep our bodies in good shape. But too much water can be a bad thing.

Even though we occasionally suffer through drought, water is really very plentiful here. 71% of the earth’s surface is covered by water. This comes in two forms—salt water and fresh water. Of course, there is more water than just on the surface. Ground water tables help to provide for well water and springs and also play an important role in the earth’s own filtration system.

Water that falls as rain or is discharged after use will seep down in the earth and will be filtered. Then it is drawn up through wells, or runs into streams or through springs as better water. God knew what He was doing when He created this ole earth.

But that makes us wonder why there is a body of water known as the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is 50 miles long and 10 miles wide. The Jordan River empties into it and I’m sure that most of us have seen this on the maps in the back of our Bibles.

This is a nasty body of water. It is at the lowest point on earth and is sometimes referred to as the Asphalt Sea because asphalt is discharged in small pellets. The surface is 1,378 feet below sea level and the depth is some 1,300 feet in some places.

There is no outlet for this sea. The water that flows there simply accumulates and then evaporates. There is a very high concentration of salt and other mineral solids in that water as well. In fact, the oceans have about 4-6% solids suspended in their saltwater, but the Dead Sea has an amazing 30-33% solids suspended in it.

Nothing can live in the Dead Sea. And because of the suspended salt and minerals, you can’t even swim in it. Maybe you’ve seen pictures of people who visited the Dead Sea and were photographed floating on the surface as if they were on an air raft.

That water is so buoyant that it is difficult to sink your limbs into the water in order to swim. Not that you would ever want to do so.

This sea was mentioned in the Bible as part of the border for the Israelites in the land of Canaan. And it is commonly known also as the general area where a great destruction took place long ago—the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

You remember this story. Lot and Abraham and divided up this land and Lot had chosen the best land. But sin and depravity had overtaken that land and soon Lot and his family were all that remained of the righteous people.

God then arranged for Lot and his family to escape before the destruction took place. His sons-in-law refused, thinking that Lot was joking. And Lot’s own wife disobeyed the instructions and looked back and became a pillar of salt. But Lot and his daughters did survive that terrible event.

We find this in Genesis 19:24-29.

Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens. So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD. Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace. And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt.

While the exact locations of these cities are not known, generally they are believed to be at the southern most end of the Dead Sea. Friends, this used to be a fertile place, so much so that Lot chose that as the good land and left Abraham with the lesser land. But now we only know of it as a place of death and that is because of sin and its consequences.

On Our Daily Walk today, may we reflect this hour on just how marvelous our earth and bodies are and how we are wonderfully made by our God. May we take the time to thank God today for our ever-replenishing resources and for His favor upon us.

Our thought for the day: “The most fitting response to undeserved blessing is unreserved obedience.”

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.