Donna and I recently went with members of our church to see the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. It was the last stop of the American tour before returning back to Israel. We were told that the Israeli authorities are making no promises that the world-famous scrolls will ever be put on exhibit on foreign soil again. That was enough to motivate us to buy tickets to go see them, just in case we have no other opportunity to travel to the Holy Land. The one problem we encountered was trying to find a parking space. We almost missed our time frame to enter! The crowds were so great, we had to leave the museum grounds and drive across the street into a neighborhood to finally park. We only had 5 minutes to spare, but we made it!



Once inside, we were immersed in an array of exhibits that not only presented many of the priceless scrolls, including of the Old Testament, but there were many other items used by the community of scribes that lived in the desert dwellings of Qumran near the Dead Sea. There were actual jars that stored the scrolls, plates and bowls, an actual inkwell, various tools, boxes for bones, a pair of sandals, and coins—over 600 artifacts in all. There were even jars on display that belonged to King Hezekiah from 701 BC! And one scroll fragment is being shown here in Denver for the very first time to the public. Concerning the biblical scrolls, one cannot help but recall Psalm 12:7, where it says about God’s Word, “Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.”

Our museum outing ended at the iMAX Theater for the National Geographic special about Jerusalem, a 3-D presentation. The scenes were breathtaking, and also gave some computer-generated modeling of what Herod’s Temple must have looked like. With Jerusalem recently being recognized by America as Israel’s capitol, it made us realize how important this city is politically, but also historically, culturally, religiously, and prophetically.

We are thankful that God gave us this opportunity to connect up close with His ancient Word, as well as with the world that then existed.