Israel Trip Day 10: Exploring the Works of the Kings in Jerusalem
Neil Armstrong uttered one of the most iconic statements in the history of the world when he first stood on the moon and said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” But when Armstrong visited Jerusalem for the first time in 1994, he said to his guide, “I am more excited stepping on these stones than I was stepping on the moon.”
Bryan, Judah, and I can all relate. We spent the better part of the day standing on the stones in Jerusalem, wide-eyed like kids at Christmas about the things that happened here. On this day, our wanderings had much to do with the kings of Israel.
We first visited the city of David. I know that we call Jerusalem the “City of David.” But David’s actual city, the part that he inhabited when he took the city from the Jebusites and built his palace, is actually outside of the southern wall of the “old” city of Jerusalem. And it is still undergoing major excavation, so some of it is not yet open. But the path we took led us to the foundational level of David’s palace and to the walls of fortification.
If is looks like the palace is underground, this is because the welcome center and gift shop have been built above these ruins. But eventually you come out into the open.
When you see all of these stone walls, don’t think that these structures were just a pile of stones. The stones would have been plastered and smoothed over, resembling stucco. But the plaster was destroyed when the walls were, or has worn away over time.
One random observation we made is that when you look out from David’s palace you see the Kidron Valley and then a section of the Mount of Olives that has houses on it. When 2 Samuel 11 says that David was on the roof of his palace and he saw Bathsheba bathing, it’s easy to see why. Looking across the Kidron Valley, from the perspective of the palace roof, all of the houses and the roofs and yards on the other side of the Kidron Valley are fully visible.
When David originally conquered the city, according to ancient sources he took it by surprise, coming up under the city through a tunnel that led to the Gihon spring. The Jebusites had constructed this tunnel to give them access to the spring, as one of the biggest challenges for a city, especially in time of war, was getting water to the people inside. But having to go outside the city to get the water was the weakest point of the city, since it could give the enemy access. You can still climb through this over 3000-year-old entrance to the city. Of course, we were already on the city level, so when we went through the tunnel we were descending to the spring of Gihon.
Once we reached the bottom, we found the spring of Gihon, still gushing out water after all these centuries. The spring is now underground because, over time, the city expanded over it. So you’re standing at the spring as if in a huge cavern.
But during the reign of Hezekiah, David’s great (x 12) grandson, who began his reign about 300 years later, Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, came to destroy Jerusalem and carry away the people of Judah just as they had done to the 10 northern tribes. Hezekiah and the people were, of course, terrified, as the Bible records in no less than three accounts of this attack (2 Kings 18–19, 2 Chronicles 32, and Isaiah 36–37). Assyria was advancing, conquering the other cities of the kingdom as they went. Hezekiah didn’t want them to be able to come up through the spring of Gihon as his ancestor David had done when he originally conquered the city. So Hezekiah told the city that they needed to dig a water shaft from the Gihon spring, through the rock under the city, to let the water run into the city from the outside. The enemy would be there soon, so they had to work fast. They started a digging crew at the spring and another from deep within the city where there was a place to collect water. Both teams worked frantically, using their axes to chisel through the rock by torchlight, in cramped conditions, with little air, passing the fragments of rock out in baskets. There was also the challenge of each work crew meeting in the middle! But finally, after days and days of tunneling, their axes met as they broke through to each other. The shaft they had created to bring water into the city was one-third of a mile long.
Walking in the water through this tunnel was pretty amazing, I must say, though one-third of a mile starts to seem really long when you are trying to go through a narrow passage in sometimes very cramped conditions, and in the pitch blackness except for flashlights. I don’t know that I would recommend this to anyone severely claustrophobic! In the video below, the light up ahead is not the end of the tunnel but Bryan and Judah who were ahead of me.
When we finally emerged from this tunnel we ended up at another special place that any reader of the Gospels knows: the Pool of Siloam! Literally until about 2 years ago, archaeologists thought that the pool of Siloam was a tiny reservoir at the end of Hezekiah’s tunnel. But as they have continued to excavate the ancient city they continue to make great discoveries. The pool is actually very big and is only excavated partway, as you can see below.
Of course, all of the water in the world running through Hezekiah’s tunnel could not save the city. Sennacherib’s army still came. And they lay siege to the city. The people had water, but the army all around them was 185,000 hardened soldiers strong. Hezekiah cried to the Lord, and the Lord delivered the people by sending the Angel of the Lord through the Assyrian camp and killing all 185,000 soldiers.
Psalm 46, written by one of the Sons of Korah before Hezekiah’s tunnel, says,
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High (Ps 46:4).
That’s a fantastic claim. There was no river running through Jerusalem at that time that would gladden the people in the midst of an attack. What is this river? The next verse explains:
God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
God was Jerusalem’s river. He would ultimately save her. So the psalm writer can claim,
6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord,
how he has brought desolations on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the chariots with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
There are many believers in Israel today who are still trusting the Lord for his salvation from their enemies, claiming the words of Psalm 46.
There was another man centuries later who would find salvation through the symbolism of these waters coming from Hezekiah’s tunnel to the Pool of Siloam. The blind man whom Jesus heals in John 9. Jesus and his disciples found this man near the temple, likely begging from those passing by, bringing their alms. The disciples wondered who had sinned, this man or his parents, to cause the judgment of his blindness. In their minds there was no way out. But Jesus put mud on the man’s eyes and told him to wash in the pool of Siloam. So the man would have then descended down a long stairway from the temple down to the Tyropoeon Valley to find the pool. And when he washed, he could see! But again, this was not because of the water but because of the work of the Lord.
Today, they are excavating this stairway that leads from the pool up to the temple. This is a difficult task because the stairway is completely underground. The city has been built right over it. But archaeologists are determined to complete it, and there was a lengthy section already completed that we were able to climb. They hope that when they are finished people will be able to ascend from the Pool of Siloam all the way to the temple mount. But for us, it was a huge privilege to stand on these same stone steps where Jesus himself would have often climbed, going up to the temple.
We continued after this to explore the works of the kings. We went as far in time as Herod the Great, who made all of the people move out of their homes who were living around the temple mount so that he could expand it to its present, enormous size. When you walk around the temple, the stones are still lying there from the destruction of the temple in AD 70. Jesus prophesied to his disciples that there would not be one stone left upon a stone, and this indeed came to pass (Matt 24:2). All that remains is the retaining wall that Herod built to hold the ground together for the mammoth courtyard I described in the previous post. The so-called “Western Wall” where the Jewish men meet and pray and read the Torah is part of this wall. But the temple itself was completely and utterly torn down. Nothing remains.
Near the temple mount there are some more recently excavated walls that were built in Solomon’s time when he was building the first temple.
So we finished the day exploring more works of the ancient kings. But what a day! Remembering all that God had done to comfort and sustain and rescue his people throughout the ages, remaining absolutely faithful to his covenant promise, even in times of great judgment. And that he still holds out salvation to them through Christ.
We reflected on these things throughout the day.
But we also had some additional fun along the way.
