In July 2005, the World Bank approved a feasibility study for a plan to build a 200-kilometre (120-mile) canal to bring water from the Red Sea to replenish the Dead Sea. The two-year study by Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians would cost $15.5 million, and if initiated, the project would take five years to complete. However, in January 2006, Hamas, the militant Islamist party came into power, and Israel cut all contacts with the Palestinian Authority. There are other complications as well, having to do with differing opinions on the ecological balance if the salt waters of the Red Sea are added to the Salt Sea.3 Meanwhile, though its water level continues to drop, tourists still enjoy floating in the “un-drownable lake.”
The Salt Sea is in the news, and if you are reading this Bible Study online, you will need to do a search to find out the latest developments.
The north shore of the Dead Sea is notable for its caves that served as libraries and preserved the Dead Sea Scrolls for 2000 years. These scrolls have shed much light on Scripture as well as provoking conspiracies and controversies. They refute the beliefs of Islamists who live in the vicinity.
The prophet Ezekiel saw fresh waters flowing from the Temple in Jerusalem that transformed the Salt Sea into a fresh water lake teeming with fish of all kinds… “where the river flows, everything will live.” (Ez 47:9 NIV) Some see this as having a real fulfillment in a world to come; others believe that this portion of Ezekiel is symbolic. “Most interpreters agree that these waters signify the gospel of Christ, which went forth from Jerusalem, and spread itself into the countries about, and the gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost which accompanied it, and by virtue of which it spread far and produced strange and blessed effects.”4
Salt purifies, but how much better to have the fresh waters of life, the message that Jesus Saves!