Discover

Masada

Herod the Great built his winter palace on the top of the huge table top mountain of Masada. To call Herod's compound a palace does not really tell the whole story. Herod believed people were trying to kill him so he built a deluxe palace/fortress where he could have held up for years if he needed to. 

Masada - Christ victorious

The story of Masada is not biblical as it happened shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman army in 70 AD. At Masada, the valiant Jewish zealots withstood the Roman legions for years and triumphed by never being taken alive. This represents a great earthly victory for the Jews, but it makes me pause and consider the victory of Christ over sin and death, a far greater victory for the Christian.

I Corinthians 15:55-7
55: O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 
56: The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 
57: But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Romans 6:2-14
2: God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 
3: Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 
4: Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 
5: For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
6: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 
7: For he that is dead is freed from sin. 
8: Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 
9: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 
10: For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 
11: Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
12: Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 
13: Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 
14: For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.