Hezekiah and a Tunnel

Yesterday was an exciting dive into Old Testament history up to the beginning of the Babylonian Captivity. We went to the old City of David. There are 2 cities of David: Bethlehem, because he was born there, and the city he built when he took Jerusalem. We looked out on the valley from where his palace was, and you can indeed see the top of many roofs. Our teacher had us all pick a roof to be Bathsheba's, to show the great extent to which David went for adultery. Some of us acted this out, with "David" standing on chair in this city, a girl playing with her hair, and lying on the floor was Brandon as Uriah. (Brandon has an artificial leg and turned it at an awkward angle to indicate death.)

Then we walked down through Hezekiah's Tunnel. For your edification and learning, when the Assyrians came up to lay siege to Jerusalem, Hezekiah (a good and righteous king) had this tunnel built to bring water from a spring into the city to the pool of Siloam/Shilom (which is incidentally where Christ sent the blind man upon whose eyes he had put a clay to wash his eyes and receive his sight). The water was always mid calf height and at some places a meter or so high. It was a very impressive tunnel. Very cramped in some places, very tall in others, always very narrow and wet and dark. But this tunnel allowed Jerusalem (Hezekiah was the then king of Judah) to outlast this siege.

I was very moved by the rest of the story here. As the Assyrians were coming up to Jerusalem and trying to wear down Judah psychologically and threatening complete destruction, Hezekiah was understandably quite worried. He went to the temple (a very good idea) and prayed (another good idea). Then he went to talk to Isaiah, the prophet (the third excellent plan), who told him what the Lord said. The Lord told Hezekiah not to worry. The Assyrians would not prevail, they would not hurt the people, and they wouldn't even shoot one arrow towards the city. That night, an angel of the Lord came and smote 185,000 Assyrians, and "they woke up dead corpses." Bummer of a way to wake up! But how beautifully the Lord kept his promise! This solution was probably not foreseen by the people; how could the Lord possibly save them, they may have thought. But the Lord found a way. The Lord always has a way. When He promises us something, He always comes through.