TrueU Filming—Thursday

Posted on June 1, 2009
Filed Under Worldview | 7 Comments

“Now, for you students who have been raised on the Bible, I hate to burst your bubble. For a divinely inspired document, it certainly gets a lot, if not all, of its historical facts wrong. David, for example, is portrayed to be a mighty king. The reality is, according to Finkelstein and other prominent archeologists, that there is no evidence that David existed, or if he did, he was merely a small tribal leader. We have little or no evidence from Judah in the10th century B.C. that it held permanent populations, urban centers, a capital or some Jewish temple in Jerusalem. These are of much later origin. So, sadly, as we find everywhere, the Bible is horribly unreliable.”

So goes the typical professorial diatribe against the historicity of the Bible. For most of our Christian students, they wither under it.

On Thursday, we looked at more Old Testament archeological evidence that counters these nihilistic or minimalistic positions. We discussed the recent finding of David’s palace on the west side of the Kidron Valley; the Dan Tel Stele that references the “House of David”—a common Aramaen, Assyrian and Babylonian phrase referring to a nation-state; excavations that reveal the large building projects of Solomon, especially his 6-chambered gates at Hazor, Gezer and Megiddo. We looked at the Mesha Stele, the Kurkh Stele of Shalmaneser III and his Black Obelisk, each confirming battles and interactions as expected from the Biblical texts.

Finally, we looked at the sad ending of Israel and Judah—the Assyrian and Babylonian conquests. Here we found abundant evidence in the inscriptions, prisms and battle cylinders of the triumphant kings as the cities of Israel and Judah fell before them. Thankfully, the braggadocios nature of man moved them to crow about it on stone—preserving a great deal of evidence that corroborates the historical narratives of the Scripture.

One moment in all of this, however, became quite emotional for me—for it seemed I was seeing our own day and time as we looked into the window of the past. After the Assyrian King, Sennacherib had conquered the northern kingdom of Israel, he turned his attention to the southern kingdom of Judah. Assyria was a huge, fierce kingdom and Sennacherib a powerful leader. Here is the translation from the Sennacherib Prism:
“As for Hezekiah, the Judean who did not submit to my yoke, I surrounded and conquered 46 of his strong-walled towns…by leveling with battering-rams and by bringing up siege-engines. 200,150 people…I brought away from them and counted as spoil.”

Hezekiah and Jerusalem were in a dismal spot. All the major cities had fallen to this overwhelmingly powerful enemy. They were surrounded. The Assyrians were taunting the inhabitants of Jerusalem. “Why do you trust in your God? We have conquered all the nations around you. We have conquered your fortified cities. Will your God save you from our mighty hand?”

I had read the story in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles many times before, but for the first time I finally sensed the despair and fear that must have shaken the people. It would have been very easy to believe the Assyrian press. How could they stand against these giants? It did appear that God was not going to help them.

But Hezekiah responded with deep repentance. He prayed. He called for the prophet Isaiah. He called upon the Lord on behalf of the remnant. He finally realized that it is the Lord, and the Lord alone, who gives us victory.

And the Lord did so.

An angel in the night struck down a large number of the Assyrians. Sennacherib headed home and was shortly thereafter assassinated, just as God had prophesied through Isaiah.

The archeological evidence supports this miraculous turnabout—not directly, but indirectly. Here is Sennacherib’s last boast, found in one of the prisms:
“He (Hezekiah) himself I shut up in Jerusalem, his royal city, like a bird in a cage…Fear of my lordly splendor overwhelmed that Hezekiah. The warriors and select troops he had brought in to strengthen his royal city Jerusalem, did not fight…”

But the battle narrative ends. There is no boasting by Sennacherib of his final defeat of Hezekiah and the sacking of Jerusalem, because it didn’t happen. He, strangely, picked up everything and went home. Why? The Scripture fills in the story. Those who have a presupposition against miracles will discount it, but you cannot discount the corroboration that Assyria, on the verge of finishing the conquest of Judah, left silently.

Jerusalem survived and remained until the Babylonians conquered her a little over a hundred years later.

But as we walked through the story again and examined the supporting evidence, it was more than the reality of the story that hit me. It was the reality of the battle that rages around us today.

Are we becoming fearful that the enemy has won? Are our hearts beginning to melt? Are we quick to give up?

The Old Testament lays out for us the physical picture of what we know and experience today to be spiritual realities.

I have a deep sense that it is time for God’s people to go before the Lord.

Repent.

Pray.

Trust in Him.

But do not, do not, give up the good fight.

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