King Hezekiah put WHAT in this temple?!?

Last week, we talked about Lachish's story as the 2nd most important fortified city in Judea. This week, we're going to tour the tel!

First up: the city gates! You can walk up the ramp and right into them. But first, there's this artist rendering of the outer gate from the time of Hezekiah is very helpful:

Then, the inner gates:

Just inside these gates is the remains of temple... with something else very interesting...

This shrine is from King Hezekiah's time. He was a righteous king, and he wanted to stamp out all forms of idolatry and false worship. So, he had the altars smashed and a toilet placed in the corner. Tests of the soil say it likely wasn't used, but that is very interesting nonetheless!

Next, on to the palace! It was HUGE, covering 14 dunams (3.5 acres). Outside of it is a really cool installation: a row of chairs representing all the kings of Judah, in order. The height of the back of the chair indicates the length of their reign. Pretty neat!

And, on top of the palace ruins, are nice overlooks with an interactive display where you can line of ancient cities written in Biblical Hebrew, Modern Hebrew, and English.

Finally, there's a beautiful viewpoint towards Jerusalem with signs and displays talking about the Assyrian conquest and the history of the tel. 

You can also go up to the side of the tel where the Assyrians came up the ramp. On top is a place that looks like a wall or blockade was made in order to stop the Assyrians. Something fascinating about this area is that when the ground in the area was tested, they found the soil in the opposite order it was supposed to be: oldest remains were on top, with the newest on bottom. That's because when you overturn earth to build, what's on top goes to the bottom, and what's on bottom goes on top.

And finally, the Biblical record from 2 Kings 19 showing how God defeated the Assyrians on behalf of Israel.

That's it (for now) of Lachish's story and tour. It was so incredible I'd love to go back. What about you? Did you know the story of Lachish? Let me know in the comments below!

The chilling story of Lachish

I don't know how to tell Lachish's story.

It was a place I didn't know a lot about, and learning it as I toured it was powerful beyond words.

The 2nd most important fortified city of Judea, Lachish guarded a main trade road from Egypt to Jerusalem.

Canaanite Period:

This city dates back to before the Canaanites. At some point it was conquered by Egypt, and then possibly the Israelites or the Philistines. Its first mention in the Bible is in Joshua 10, as one of the Canaanite cities who came against Joshua at Ai. The Biblical account says Joshua chased the 5 kings of Amorites, including the King of Lachish, to Azekah (which overlooks the Valley of Elah, where David would slay Goliath centuries later). God delivered Lachish to Israel. It became part of the tribe of Judah’s land and the city was 2nd only to Jerusalem.

Israelite Period:

During the Israelite period, it held a strong position in defending the western frontier of Judea against the Philistines. King Solomon's son, King Rehoboam, fortified it in 2 Chronicles 11, and King Amaziah fled there for refuge in 767 BC (2 Kings 14, 2 Chronicles 25) after the Northern Kingdom was defeated by the Assyrians.

Assyrian Period:

Then came the Assyrian invasion in 732 BC. In all, Sennacherib, the general of the Assyrians, conquered 46 cities of Judea, and Lachish was the 2nd-to-last.

2 Chronicles 32 says that in 701 BC, during the time of King Hezekiah, the Assyrian army camped nearby, seige to it, and built a ramp—a predecessor for the ramp at Masada- allowing then to breach the walls, taking the inhabitants into captivity. A chilling letter talks of the signal fires of Tel Azekah going out, meaning they were the last 2 cities left.

At this point in hearing the story, I had a picture of the beacons of Gondor being lit in Return of the King (Lord of the Rings), except opposite. Can you imagine knowing the most vicious, powerful, and cruel army of your day is methodically making its way through your country, has conquered every city its encountered, and now the city closest to you, the lights you are supposed to watch, have now been extinguished?

Which means... you are next.

Today, in the British museum, is a relief that was found in Ninevah depicting this victory.

(photo from http://jerusalem.nottingham.ac.uk/items/show/50)

As we know, the Assyrian invasion ended not long after. God spared Jerusalem, and Lachish was rebuilt in Josiah's time.

Then came the Babylonians.

Babylonian Period:

They reached the gates of Jerusalem in 598 B.C. and placed it under seige (2 Kings 24). King Jehoiakim was murdered, and all of the nobles were exiled (including the son of King Johoiakim), all of Jerusalem excepted the poorest of the land were carried away into captivity to Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar appointed Johoiakim as king and changed his name to Zedekiah. In 589 BC, King Zedekiah mutinied, and Babylon invaded again. This time it leveled most of the cities of Judah (Jeremiah 34). After Azekah fell, Lachish did, and then finally, Jerusalem on Tisha B'Av, 586 BC.

Persian Period

70 years later, when the exiles were allowed to return, Lachish was one of the cities that were reconstructed (Nehemiah 11). It eventually fell into ruin and was abandoned by the time of Jesus.

Today, you can walk around the top of this incredible tel, thru a gate dating back to Hezekiah, see the remains of the palace, along with a model of chairs to show the length of the reigns of Judah’s kings (we'll see that on next week's post!). On a beautiful winter’s eve, you can see the moon rise as the setting sun lights of the Judean hills in the distance- pointing the way to Jerusalem.

*some information from BibleWalks

Exploring Hezekiah's Tunnel: How in the world did they do that?

In 2022, I described my visit to the City of David and standing outside of Hezekiah's Tunnel. My first visit there was an unusually cold weekend in March—gray, raining, and hovering in the 30-40 degrees Fahrenheit. Even though the water in the tunnel stays the same temperature year-round, I didn't feel like getting my jeans wet up to above my knees and just walking around in the cold.

No, this was an adventure for summer.

So, in July, I went back, and this time walked through the Hezekiah's Tunnel.

The water felt amazing, even when it briefly flowed over my knees. At first, all I could hear was the roar of the water and people yelling/laughing... and I couldn't see anything. That stayed the same the whole time, haha. There is no light without a flashlight in there (the picture above is the view when you finally emerge from the tunnel).

This 535 meter tunnel is not straight; it winds through the rock just like the dry one.

Unfortunately, there was a middle school group of the UK behind me, and the boys, who were directly behind me were constantly yelling crude things in the dark. When we finally got to the end of the tunnel, there was a small gift shop by the Pool of Siloam that had t-shirts saying, "I survived Hezekiah's tunnel". When of the boys read it out look and I looked him dead in the eyes, "You almost didn't". 

But I digress. 

Wow, being in that tunnel in complete darkness was an experience that I'll never forget. It makes the miracle of how this tunnel was created that more incredible! 

King Hezekiah commissioned this tunnel in 2 Chronicles 32:30 (2 Kings 20:20 and Isaiah 22:9) so that Jerusalem could channel its water supply from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam. This way when the Assyrians and anyone else came to lay seige, the inhabitants still had water. 

But in order to do this quickly, as the Assyrians were already advancing towards Jerusalem, the tunnel was dug from both ends and met in the middle with only a small distance between the levels. How in the world did they do that: 2 groups of men digging in rock towards each other while underground, with varying levels of terrain, and find each other within 30 centimeters (1 foot) of each other?

Amazing!

Finally, after exiting the tunnel and putting my tennis shoes back on, we passed the pool of Siloam and entered the Promenade and the Western Stepped (Pilgrim) Road.

The promenade itself has a mural depicting what life likely looked at at the time of Herod. From that, a dating back to 1st century AD leads north and up—straight up to the Southern Steps.

Below this road was a water drainage channel. Both are about 650 meters long (almost half a mile). In the channel, artifacts like coins from the 2nd Temple period, a gold bell ornament like what was on the High Priest's robe, a Roman sword, and a clay seal. According to the brochure the park gives you, this is channel was also likely a refuge for those who felt the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

All those finds prove the every day use of this road, as it was when it was above the earth (and wider) in the time of Jesus. People walked back and forth. This is likely the road the blind man took when he descended from the Temple steps to the Pool of Siloam with mud on his eyes. 

Can you see it?

Besides the fact that it is SO COOL to walk where you know Jesus and His disciples did, there was one other perk from taking this tunnel back up to the entrance of the City of David: with it being underground, we were in the shade, in the cool of the earth, getting a break from the intense July sun. That's not to mention the earlier relief of walking through water, and dipping my hat in it before putting it back on.

I definitely recommend taking the time to visit the entirety of the City of David. I'd love to go back with a tour guide, as I'm sure there's much I didn't see. It's one of my favorite places in all of Jerusalem, just because of the treasure of history that it is.

OH, and did you hear the big news? 

The Pool of Siloam is going to be fully excavated! WOW! I can't wait to go back and see it for myself!

Idolatry within the city gates

There's more to the story of Tel Hazor than meets the eye.

The size and expanse of the site is incredible, and there's so much to learn—which I did on my first visit there. But on my 2nd, I learned to look for the small details that tell an even greater story—a story with implications that last millennia, even to this day.

As I stated in the last blog, Hazor was a significant city guarding the Via Maris. Joshua 11:10 calls it "the head of the kingdoms of Syria and Babylon" because of its important location.

There was a lower city and an upper city. The tel is the upper city, and the lower city is underneath this field. At the entrance from the lower city to the upper, is a dark stone.

It's obvious it's cracked, but it's several thousands of years old. No big deal, right? That's what you'd expect to see. Except... that's not why the stone is cracked. No, it's because during Joshua's campaign in the early chapters of Joshua, God commanded them to destroy everything, to kill everything that breathes, and to destroy all the high places and places of idolatry.

That dark, rectangular stone is cracked because it was where idols were placed at the entrance of the city. 

It's not accidental destruction or decay because of the march of time, or even earthquakes. 

It was intentional.

An act of obedience. 

Needless to say... I completely lost my chill. But my guide wasn't done.

He took us into the palace, sitting next to one of the excavated walls. He spoke to us about the history of Hazor, and its later appearances in the Bible: 

Jael drove a spike through Sisera's temple (the general under the king of Hazor). 

Solomon later built up to city in the same way as Megiddo and Gezer, and it became an Israelite city. 

And then, in 2 Kings 15:29: "In the time of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria came and took Ijon, Abel Beth Maakah, Janoah, Kedesh and Hazor. He took Gilead and Galilee, including all the land of Naphtali, and deported the people to Assyria."

Since the Assyrians burned everything, it makes sense that archeologists find evidence of that fire in the remains—which they have.

But... wait... it looks like there are 2 sets of burn marks, and the distance between them shows quite some time passed between the fires. Why?

Are you ready for this?

Joshua 11: 10-11: At that time Joshua turned back and captured Hazor and put its king to the sword. (Hazor had been the head of all these kingdoms.) Everyone in it they put to the sword. They totally destroyed them, not sparing anyone that breathed, and he burned Hazor itself.

That, right there, is evidence to support the record in God's Word. 

And... I lost my chill again. WOW!

But, why did the destruction of Hazor by the Assyrians in 732 BC have to happen at all? 

Further up the ancient city is lies the reason why God allowed for first the Assyrians and then the Babylonians to invade Israel and takes its people into captivity:

That standing stone is a base for an idol. It is well within the city gates, in the area dating to the time of the Israelites.

Despite God's command to have no other gods before Him, idolatry had crept back into the land. 

The restoration of the Prophet Nahum's tomb in Iraq

In April 2017, two jeeps sped towards the tiny Christian town of Alqosh in Kurdistan, Iraq, with a secret mission—to find the deteriorating tomb of the Biblical prophet Nahum who prophesied about the great destruction to the Assyrian city of Ninevah.

Only 15 miles away, ISIS was battling the Iraqi Army. It was a dangerous mission.

What they found was a crumbling, crooked building. One strong storm could easily level it.

The truth was, they didn't want to just find the tomb; they wanted to restore it. 

Nahum, who lived in 7th Century AD, grew up in this area in a community of what were likely exiled tribes of Israel. For millennia, Jews in this area identified this building as the resting place for the body of Nahum, who was a minor prophet, and later, a synagogue. This common knowledge of this place continued for more than 2,000 years, and the building was saved from being turned into either a mosque or a cathedral. In the 1950s, the Jews of Alqosh fled Iraq for safety, asking local Christian families to care of the building. They did, but when ISIS came through, the building was badly damaged.

Still, the historicity of this place was clear, from the Hebrew inscriptions on the walls to its very architecture. The three men who led this project, Israelis Yaakov Shaffer and Meir Ronen, and American Adam Tiffen, examined the structure. Of his first visit to the tomb in 2016, Tiffen said, "I was amazed at its beauty and the dozens of Hebrew inscriptions on the walls. I was also shocked at its terribe condition, with several parts of the roof having fallen in, and mounts of rubble surrounding the tomb." Now, a year later, its condition had only worsened. But together with the 2 Israeli engineers, the 3 men began to dream.

First, they needed to protect the structure, as one strong wind would blow it all down. Then they could go about the work of restoration. They needed permission from the local authorities, as well as funding, and deeper knowledge of the ancient Jewish community of the area. They also needed rabbinic blessing to undergo such a work.

Four years later (delayed because of covid-19), the project was complete, and the tomb of Nahum and its surrounding synagogue has been restored. It's an incredible story, and I hope you go to read it here from the Times of Israel. It's incredible! They did a beautiful job!