MASADA was located on a plateau that rose 1,300 feet above the Dead Sea and was located on the west side of it. Here between 37BC and 31BC Herod the Great built two palaces and many store houses, military barracks, an armoury and underground water storages.
Jewish rebels occupied Masada in AD66 and about 1,000 Jews were besiege there between AD72 and AD73. The seige ended with a mass suicide.
During excavations of Masada in the mid 1960’s a nunber of date seeds were discovered and in 2005 several of these seeds were given to Dr Solowey who successfully had one seed germinate which she called Methuselah. The problem was that the tree was a male and there were no female trees to fertilize it in order to produce fruit.
But when more seeds were found and these germinated they were found to be female trees and now the trees are pollenating and bearing fruit. By 2021 there are multiple thriving male and female date palms grown from ancient seeds and these will be used for further investigation scientifically and commercially.
In the first chapter of the Bible we read: “God said, Let the earth bring forth … the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so” (Gen.1:11).
It is amazing that the date seeds could spring forth into life after 2,000 years lying dorment on the historic site at Masada. These seeds are like the nation of Israel. Israel ceased to function nearly 2,000 years ago and has been scattered across the nations.
Ezekiel describe them as a valley full of dry bones but when he prophesied, the bones came together. He prophesied again and flesh came on the bones. Finally when he prophesied to the bones the life of God came into the carcases and they stood up, “an exceeding great army.” (Ezek.37:10).
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Methuselah-Ketura-2018-10.jpg
We are left in no doubt what the prophecy meant for God said to Ezekiel “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts… And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD” (Ezek.37:11-14).
The Methusalah Tree a Picture of Resurrection
The Corinthian Church had some members who denied that the dead could rise again to life and Paul devoted a whole chapter to the defense of the resurrection from the dead. He wrote:
“some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body” (1Cor.15:35-38).
The Church age has been in existence now for 2,000 years and the first of the believers to die has been in the grave as long as the Methuselah Date Palm but when the Rapture comes the dead in Christ will hear the voice of the Son of God and new life will appear. The graves will be opened and the saints will come forth; be caught up to meet the Lord in the air!
Methuselah was 3,000 years in the grave before he came to life with a resurrection body and rose with Christ. The Methuselah Date Palm sprouted nearly 2,000 years after somebody spat out the seed on Masada. For two millennia the God-given life was in that seed waiting for someone to plant and water it after which it suddenly sprang forth in new life.
Resurrection is the greatest proof of the existence of God and of the Deity of Jesus Christ. If Jesus did not rise from the dead our faith would be vain and there would be absolutely no hope beyond the grave.
All religious leaders are dead and buried. None could say as Jesus did, “I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again it” (John 10:17-18).
Jesus said,
“Because I live. ye shall live also.”
-John Ecob