Hezekiah’s Tunnel

Well, we are still on lockdown, and like others I have been looking back on some of life’s adventures. 

Many years ago my wife and I and young daughter were returning home from a one year engineering contract that I had been working on in Thailand, and we decided to stop off in Israel for a holiday. It was a visit we had often talked about, and since we were ‘passing by their door’ as it were, it seemed the right time to do it.

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Prior to arriving I had read an article about ‘Hezekiah’s Tunnel’ and so was determined to see it. Hezekiah was an ancient King of Judah who reigned approximately 700 years before the birth of Christ. In the Bible, 2 Kings 20:20 we read of his reign – ‘’As for the other events of Hezekiah’s reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?’. (see also 2 Chronicles 32.30) 

So we walked down to the ancient city of Jerusalem, outside the old city walls, and were directed to the location and entrance to the tunnel by a guide. Down a steep set of stairs and soon we could hear the water running, still coming from the Gihon spring, mentioned so may times in the Bible. The water was running about 10 inches deep at the narrowest parts of the tunnel. UNFORTUNATELY THERE WAS ONLY ONE TORCH! It was impossible for the ones at the back to see properly and the rock beneath your feet was uneven so my wife and daughter thought it safer to go back. The entrance to the tunnel was low and narrow at places, and I just followed the guide through this chiselled rock, hewn by Hezekiah’s men 2700 years ago! The height and width of the tunnel vary as you walk through, and the water is running quite fast. The tunnel was dug through the rock from both ends, one starting at the Pool of Siloam and the other from the Gihon spring. Towards the southern end where the two teams met there is now a replicate plaque on the wall, copied from the original that is in a museum in Istanbul.  It reads:

“When there were still 3 cubits to be excavated, there were the sounds of a man calling to his companion. On the day of the (completed) excavation, the stone-hewers struck out, each toward his opposite number, pick toward pick.”

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The tunnel is about 600 metres long and takes 20 minutes or so to navigate. As you approach the pool of Siloam it was good to see ‘light at the end of the tunnel’. And there waiting for me was my wife and daughter. Wow, that was for me a great adventure – the Bible text certainly is seen in living reality with a visit to Israel.

Hezekiah had ordered the tunnel to be built because Jerusalem’s water supply was outside the city wall and the people would be in grave danger in the event of an enemy attack or siege. In actual fact the city was later besieged by the Assyrian Army and the water tunnel was hugely significant in their survival. They were on lockdown, but lives were saved by Hezekiah’s foresight.

Sometimes we like to blame our politicians for their lack of foresight, perhaps justifiably at times, but this Corona virus lockdown shows that we too need to think ahead. So many of the things that we took for granted are now on hold and life seems somewhat frightening, uncertain and confusing. Figuratively, the pools that we drank from, for our security, pleasure and satisfaction have dried up! It reminds me of Jesus’ words to a woman at a well one day – “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14) Eternal life? That sounds like an offer worth serious consideration, as we cope with lockdown and read of the growing fatalities of the Corona virus!

On another occasion Jesus standing in the temple court on a Jewish Feast Day, cried in a loud voice ‘If any one is thirsty let him come to me and drink.’  He wasn’t speaking of physical thirst, but of a thirst for meaning and purpose in life, indeed for God Himself! I came to Jesus many years ago, I can’t imagine life now without Him – He said, ‘I have come that ye might have life in all its fulness’ and I have proved that to be true -‘a well of water springing up to everlasting life’ is a great description.

He invites us all to come – so will you come? You could use the words of this hymn, which came to mind this morning as your prayer

Stay safe, God bless -Matthew

Fancy a walk through the tunnel? Click here: