“MASADA,» which means «fortress, is in Israel, set on a monumental” rocky prominence as if thousands of very competent sculptors had carved it on a rock almost 1300 feet above the coast of the Dead sea. For Herod, this place became his refuge, his fortress, his best resource for the adversities that history brought to him.
In 40 BC, Herod fled to Rome before the invasion of the Parthians and left his family to take refuge in Masada. When he returned, they had survived the siege and the attack of the Parthians, so Herod decided to invest a lot of money and energy to reinforce the walls of Masada with watchtowers. Herod came to believe that Masada was an impregnable fortress. Inevitably, when people put their trust in the works of their hands, they end which up being seemed disappointed, to be their refuge, feeling
helpless and having nothing to cling to. That their strength, and their best resource in adversity ends up failing them.
In what do you invest your resources, your time, your money, your energy? In what things or people do you think your strength is placed? Is there some «masada» in your life that makes you feel confident when problems arrive? Do you have a human refuge or a resource at hand to which you turn when things get difficult? If so, that «masada» is taking the place God wants to have in your life
When we believe that our strength in life consists in being assured of a good job, endless studying, or accumulating money so our finances provide us with future security, we fall into the arrogance of King Herod. Bible invites us to have only God as the source of our strength because «the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer» (2 Samuel 22:2). And how is it that we receive that strength that comes from God? Having faith in Him.
Dear friend, do not continue trying to conquer the difficulties of life by yourself, trusting in the «strength» that you have been carving around you. That strength will fail, but God will not fail you. Make yourself strong in Him; put your faith in Him; make sure to go out this morning to face life by anchoring yourself first in Him.
«The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation my stronghold» (Psalm 18:2).