Finding Hope in Dark Places - Hezekiah's Tunnel
Our Israel/Greece tour was canceled due to the coronavirus. We have postponed it to 2021. For each day that we would have been traveling, we will post an article about where we would have been traveling that day. Today we would have been visiting the Temple Mount, the Western Wall Tunnels, City of David and Hezekiah’s Tunnel. This would have been one of my favorite days on the tour!
Today would have been one of the most exciting days in Jerusalem and the Old City of David. On our previous tours, we had a chance to travel in a tunnel located underneath the city that ran about 533m (1,748 ft) long and had about 5 inches of water flowing through it. We laughed and screamed and sang songs as we used our cell phone lights to see in this amazing tunnel. This was dug in the days of Hezekiah - 2,800 years ago - but what makes it really special is how they made it. Hezekiah’s people dug this with a team on one end of the city and a second-team on the other end, digging for several months. Using only hand tools, they dug a tunnel curving back and forth through pure rock underneath a mountain, and somehow, they met in the middle! How did they find each other? Can you imagine being underneath the earth digging day and night with hammer and chisel, hoping to find each other? If this wasn’t hard enough, the incline of the tunnel had to be perfect in order to keep the water flowing. This is mind-blowing! To this day, it is considered one of the world’s greatest mysteries of architecture.
What does this tunnel mean to us?
Now the rest of the acts 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
It was Hezekiah who stopped the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon and directed them to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all that he did. 2 Chronicles 32:30
Hezekiah’s tunnel is very important because it provided water for Jerusalem to protect Israel from the siege of an invading army. Hezekiah commissioned this tunnel to move water from the spring outside of the fortified walls into a pool in the heart of the city. This was a true miracle, and the Bible says God supernaturally helped defeat the enemies of Israel in the battle.
The tunnel represents a path of hope, bringing water to God’s people.
There’s another decision Hezekiah made that still affects God’s people today. King Hezekiah made a law that you could not sacrifice anywhere but in the Temple. The Temple was rebuilt in Jesus’ day, and Jews came from all over to make sacrificial offerings of animals for their sins. Jesus accurately predicted the fall of the temple; it was destroyed three decades after Jesus lived, and has been in ruins for the last 2000 years. Because of Hezekiah’s law, there have been no sacrifices made since 70 AD because the Temple was destroyed then.
Mankind has been separated from God but Jesus provided a way (a “path” or a “tunnel”) to God. Jesus is known as our offering of sacrifice for our sins. This is a once-and-for-all sacrifice and is offered for all of mankind. To add to this thought, the Bible describes us as the Temple of the Lord.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own. For you have been bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
In other words, Jesus provided forgiveness for sins through the sacrifice of Himself, and He can reside in us because we are the temple of the Lord. We no longer need a physical temple or a new sacrifice; if you are trapped on the other side of the world in a prison, or live in a skyscraper in Chicago, you can receive the sacrifice for sin. All who call upon the Lord are saved! If Hezekiah would not have stopped all sacrifices outside of the temple, Jews would still be doing that all over the world.
The perfect timing of this is undeniable. The Romans destroyed the temple shortly after Jesus left earth. It has never been rebuilt, so there is no way to sacrifice. Jesus has provided a sacrifice that will last for all of eternity, forgiving sins - past, present, and future.
The building of the tunnel of Hezekiah was improbable, but with God’s help, it was possible and saved Israel. In the same way, Jesus dug a tunnel through impossible odds to reunite us with God the Father and save all of mankind. There is nothing separating you from Him now. Jesus is Living Water - so if you are dry or burnt out or losing energy, drink deeply from this well.
There are archaeologists and scholars today who are claiming that the generally accepted Temple Mount location is not the true site. Using archaeological finds, writings of the first-century historian Josephus, and the Bible, many have concluded that the true Temple Mount is 1/3 of a mile south of the currently accepted site. Because the Temple would need to be closer to water, the Temple would be located near Hezekiah’s tunnel where the Gihon Springs - even today - provides water. Those who have spent years in research conclude that the traditional Temple Mount is a Roman fortress called Antonio’s fortress. If you would like a copy of the book on this subject, The Temples That Jerusalem Forgot, by a most respected author, Dr. Ernest Martin, please email me at info@songforisrael.org.
To learn more about our Israel tours, please click here.
To receive our newsletter, please click here.
To partner with us, click here for our donation options.