17th January 2025
Hezekiah’s Tunnel
The rest of the deeds of Hezekiah and all his might and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
2 Kings 20:20 (ESV)
Forty years ago I had the opportunity to visit the Holy Land, better known today as the State of Israel. Among the various biblical sites visited, the one I found especially impressive was Hezekiah’s Tunnel. Around the year 700 BC the Assyrian army laid siege to the walled city of Jerusalem. The army needed a water supply to enable its operations to continue in the hot sunshine, and the Gihon Springs outside the city walls in the Kidron Valley would have provided that. Unfortunately for King Sennacherib and his army, King Hezekiah of Judah anticipated a siege and had a tunnel constructed to divert the spring’s water inside Jerusalem’s walled city. (2 Chronicles 32:1-3).
The curved tunnel from Gihon Springs to the Pool of Siloam measures approximately one third of a mile. Teams of workers from opposite ends of the tunnel chiselled their way through the sheer rock, eventually meeting up in the middle. For the water to flow gently from Gihon to Siloam, the grade was a mere 0.06. I had the privilege of walking through the tunnel with the aid of a guide where the water still flows to a depth of 70 centimetres. At one point the guide focused his flashlight on the tunnel wall and we could see the chisel marks that the original workers had made 2700 years ago. On another occasion he switched his flashlight off for about 30 seconds to let us experience total darkness – and what an eerie experience that was!
An inscription in Hebrew discovered in 1880 on a wall near the Siloam Pool entrance, mentioned that the tunnel was simultaneously hewn from both ends. By all accounts the work was an ancient marvel of engineering.
To complete the story at this juncture, Sennacherib’s army was miraculously destroyed by an angel of God, and Jerusalem was spared destruction. (2 Kings 19).
Reflecting on the unique experience of visiting Hezekiah’s Tunnel all those years ago impressed on me the faithfulness of God and accuracy of scripture that has been preserved for us today. Another observation is the unique, creative skills God has invested in humans created in his image. Hezekiah’s Tunnel is testament to that creative skill.
Prayer
Father in heaven, thank you for preserving this account of King Hezekiah and the tunnel he created to supply water to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, at a time when their enemies planned their captivity. Help us to always put our trust in You, just as King Hezekiah did in his day. We ask this in Jesus’s name. Amen.
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Study by: John Magowan About the author: |
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Local congregation:
Lisburn Grace Communion
Ballymacbrennan School House
129A Saintfield Road
Lisburn
BT27 5PG
Meeting time:
Sunday 11am
Local congregational contact:
Bob Beggs
Email: lisburngracecom@gmail.com (www.grace-ni.org)
Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church