Eilat, the Red Sea, and Timna Park

Today begins the official first day of the “Pre-Tour Red Sea Experience.” We’re still squinting through the fog of jet lag.

This morning we had the option of lounging around the hotel or visiting the Underwater Observatory Marine Park in Eilat. I chose the marine park.

(Photo: Eilat Underwater Observatory. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

On a previous trip to Eilat, I snorkeled in its beautiful coral reef. But today I got to see it and stay dry while underwater.

The large aquarium offers a home to 400 species of fish, including:

• A massive shark pool
• A habitat for large herbivore turtles and stingrays
• 40 rare fish aquariums

This afternoon, our whole groups of 7 buses headed north to Timna Park to explore a replica of the Tabernacle.

Timna Park’s Tabernacle

A full-scale replica of the Tabernacle stands in the very wilderness where Moses and the children of Israel wandered for forty years. It is like entering a doorway to history—and viewing a picture of your salvation.

(Photo: Tabernacle model. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

Reading the Tabernacle’s dimensions in Exodus 35-40 is so different from seeing them with your own eyes  (Exodus 40:34-38). The realistic replica echoes of Yom Kippur—the Day of Atonement—when God forgave the sins of His people.

Timna Park was great. How many other places offer such great lessons in biblical history, in personal holiness, and in the purpose of Yom Kippur?

Contemplating the Wandering

Before we left the park, we each “wandered” off alone in the wilderness and meditated on Deuteronomy 8. Interestingly, when Jesus was being tempted in the Judean Wilderness, He quoted from Deuteronomy 8, a passage in which Moses reminded Israel how God had tested them during their 40 years in the wilderness in order to know what was in their hearts.

The Lord allowed them to hunger as well, and then He fed them with manna. All this He did to teach them, as Jesus quoted, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).

Continue Your Tour!

Learn more about each of these sites, including devotionals for each one, by exploring these links:

• Eilat—Israel on the Red Sea
• Eilat Gives a Word of Warning When Your Ship Has Come In
• The Tabernacle Metaphors and Messiah
• Timna Park—A Portrait of Your Atonement on Yom Kippur
• Chasing the Geography of the Presence of God
• My Yom Kippur Conversation about the Messiah
• Your Thanksgiving Peace Offering

See My Pictures from the Tour—and on the Map!

Check out my pictures of our tour. I’m adding to the collection daily, so be sure and check each day’s post. Click the locations on the map below to see pictures from that site.

(Can’t see pics in email or RSS? Just click here and select a post.)