Trapped in the Cave, Fell down in a Hole
Channel: HisHolyLand
Date: 02/02/2021

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Rod VanSolkema is the senior pastor and Libby is the children's director at Crossroads Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Both Rod and Libby have an undergraduate degree from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. Rod completed his seminary work at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. Before planting Crossroads Bible Church, Rod served as pastor at four other churches in the areas of senior high and young twenties ministry. Rod and Libby's love for studying the Bible in its cultural context and setting was catalyzed while studying under and being trained by Ray VanderLaan. Subsequently, Rod and Libby took their family to live in Israel while doing graduate work in geography, archeology, and history at Jerusalem University College. They are lifelong learners who continue to participate in graduate courses at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary and Calvin Seminary. As a couple, they have a real passion for people to learn the Biblical Story and to gain a vision for discipleship by walking the Story in the settings of the Bible

Some of the caves in Israel:

1. Avshalom Cave (Hebrew: מערת אבשלום, romanized: Me'arat Avshalom), known in academic literature as Soreq Cave (Hebrew: מערת שׂורק, romanized: Me'arat Soreq), Arabic: مغارة سوريك, romanized: Mghar Suriq) an popularly as Stalactites Cave (Hebrew: מערת הנטיפים, romanized: Me'arat HaNetifim), is a 5,000 m2 cave on the western side of Mt. Ye'ela, in the Judean hills in Israel, unique for its dense concentration of stalactites and other cave formations.
The cave has been the focus of paleoclimate research, which allowed reconstruction of the region's semi-arid climate for the past 185,000 years.[1] According to the American geologist James Aronson, the Soreq Cave Nature Reserve is the Rosetta stone of climate history in the Eastern Mediterranean.[2]

2. The Cave of Letters is a cave in Nahal Hever in the Judean Desert where letters and fragments of papyri from the Roman Empire period were found. Some are related to the Bar Kokhba revolt (circa 131-136), including letters of correspondence between Bar-Kokhba and his subordinates. Another notable bundle of papyri, known as the Babatha cache, comprises legal documents of Babatha, a female landowner of the same period.

The cave is located at the head of Nahal Hever in the Judean Desert, about 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of Qumran, 20 km south of Wadi Murabba'at. The site is a few kilometers southwest of En-gedi, approximately 10 kilometers north of Masada, on the western shore of the Dead Sea.[1] The cave has two openings, three halls and some crevices.[2]The cave is located at the head of Nahal Hever in the Judean Desert, about 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of Qumran, 20 km south of Wadi Murabba'at. The site is a few kilometers southwest of En-gedi, approximately 10 kilometers north of Masada, on the western shore of the Dead Sea.[1] The cave has two openings, three halls and some crevices.[2]
The cave was discovered by Bedouin of the Ta'amireh tribe and explored in 1953 and 1955 by inspector of the Israel Department of Antiquities, Yohanan Aharoni. In 1953, after the sale of letters written by Bar-Kokhba found in the caves of Wadi Murabba'at, an expedition was organized to explore these caves. However the expedition first visited Nahal Hever, where the team noticed remnants of a Roman siege camp directly above the Cave of Letters. Another camp was also discovered on the southern side of the ravine.
In the Cave of Letters, archaeologists found Chalcolithic remains from the 4th millennium BCE as well as artifacts from the Roman period. Further exploration of the cave was abandoned because of some boulders obstructing access to other parts of the cave. It was not until 1960, when more documents from the Bar-Kokhba Revolt were sold to scholars in Jordan, that further exploration was approved. On March 23, 1960, four teams set out to explore the caves over a period of two weeks. Yigael Yadin led a team to search the northern side of the ravine at Nahal Hever.