The Sea of Death (Yam HaMawet)

This story is about the "Sea of Death", but these first few pictures represent the modern day Jordan River Valley in Israel, and show us what the area of the "Dead Sea" might have looked like before its destruction approx. 4000 years ago. In Genesis we see a description of the whole area of the Dead Sea before its destruction:  Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah)

like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar.

The area of the Dead Sea that was once a beautiful river valley, is approx. 10 mi. wide and about 30 miles long moving South towards the Arabah.

The surface area of the lake now measures approx. 230 sq. mi. or 600 sq km.  A very large area that encompassed the five thriving cities that are described in Genesis, including Sodom and Gomorrah.

Apparently the river valley being extremely productive like the Nile valley in Egypt, could have sustained an immense population. Some estimates of ancient river valleys like in Egypt are as much as 8000 people per sq mi, but conservative estimates put the figure around 2000-4000 per sq mi.

Which means there could have been a population of around one million people inhabiting the area of the Dead Sea before its destruction.

Genesis 13:12 says: "Abraham settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in the cities of the valley, and moved his tents as far as Sodom".   But the cities of the valley were not destined to be there much longer.  When the Angels visited Abraham, the cities only had a few hours left, but they did not know it.

Genesis 19:24-25  Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heaven, and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

Genesis 19:27-28  Now Abraham arose early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord; and he looked down towards Sodom and Gomorrah and toward the land of the valley, and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace.

Peter wrote: He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter.

Also Jude writes:  Just as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

It is estimated that the Dead Sea area contains approximately 37 billion tons of salt, and it could be argued that most of that salt was deposited at the time of the valleys destruction, essentially God rained fire(molten salt) mixed with brimstone(burning sulfur) creating a large scale salt bath furnace.  

Salt bath furnaces are used in today's industrial processes to quench and temper different kinds of metal, it is a valued process because of heat distribution, temperature control, and permeability.  It is estimated the amount of salt in the Dead Sea area would have created a Salt Bath Furnace 300 sq.mi in area, and 120 feet deep.  Essentially a "Lake of Fire".  (Abraham beheld the smoke of the Valley ascending as the smoke of a Furnace).

Perhaps this is why Jude writes that they "underwent the punishment of "Eternal Fire".  It not only would have utterly destroyed every thing on the ground, but would have lowered the level of the valley, while at the same time making it impossible for anyone to inhabit the area permanently.

After all it does record that when the Lord was raining judgement upon the valley, Lot's wife stopped, and looked back, and the destruction overtook her, and she became a pillar of Salt. Was this an example of actual Hell fire?

Four thousand years later it still remains an absolute waste land, nothing grows there, and nothing lives there, the only ones that go there are tourists, and those who harvest minerals like salts, and potash for fertilizers and such. We can see why it was named Yam HaMawet by the people that lived in that region.  The surface of the Lake is approx 1400 ft below sea level, and the deepest part of the Lake is about another 1000 ft, so its around 2400 ft below sea level at its deepest point, whether the valley was a lot higher than the entire rift originally or if it was blow torched down further into the earth at the time of its destruction is impossible to know. But in order for there to have been a beautiful river valley like there was, the river would have had to continue on southward instead of just stopping in a dead lake surrounded by hills. 

Many companies sell the "Dead Sea Salts" as health products, like San Francisco Salt Co. The thought of the residents of the "self proclaimed homosexual Capital" of the nation, smearing on their skin the ancient residue of incinerated homosexuals, definitely puts a dark ironic twist on the end of the story. But is this the end of the story of the "The Sea of Death"?  No, actually it is not the end.  The Bible tells us that when Christ Jesus returns to reign over the earth from His Royal City of Jerusalem for a thousand years, there will be a river of life that comes from His throne and it heals everything wherever it goes, and it says that it will go through the area of the dead sea and continue all the way to the ocean, and it will make all the waters fresh, and it will be teaming with creatures, like all the creatures of the great seas. It will once again be a lush fertile valley, to be lived in and enjoyed by all those that make Jesus Christ their King.