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We're here at Masada. This is a mountain fortress, Masada means fortress, and this was a fortress
that Herod had put together. Other people had made it a fortress as well, and in the
year 73 A.D., just not long after Christ, some Jewish rebels came and took over this
place and they used it as their outpost. They would use Masada as a place to go and try
to revolt against Roman rule. And at one point in their history, they were holed up here
in Masada and they see this place as a great symbol of their desire to be free and to set
the people free from other oppression. And the Romans came and sieged the place, they
surrounded it for three years, built a siege ramp up to it so they could come and take
over these 960 or so Jewish rebels. And when they got to the top, they broke through the
wall and they found that the rebels had all killed themselves, dying free rather than
being taken slaves or captives or worse at the hands of the Romans. And so this continues
to be a sign and a symbol of people who are willing even to fight to the end to worship
God yet one more day in the way they believe, rather than to have to worship another god
in some way that they don't believe.