Truth, the easiest path

“... the tunneling through. And this is the account of the tunneling through. While [the workmen raised] the pick each toward his fellow and while there [remained] to be tunneled [through, there was heard] the voice of a man calling to his fellow, for there was a split in the rock on the right hand and on [the left hand]. And on the day of the tunneling through the workmen stuck, each in the direction of his fellow, pick against pick. And the water started flowing from the source to the pool, twelve hundred cubits. And the height of the rock above the head of the workmen was a hundred cubits.”

Jewishvirtuallibrary.org states: “The tunnel was cut into the rock beneath the City of David, in a 533 m.-long, “S”-shaped course. In a straight line, the distance from the Gihon Spring to the Siloam Pool is only 325 m.”

Jewishvirtuallibrary.org also states: “The curving course of Hezekiah’s Tunnel, and the description of how it was cut by two teams of workers, raises questions about engineering and planning capabilities enabling the two teams to meet; not a simple matter considering that work was carried out in the depths of the earth, with minimal lighting by oil lamps, and with little oxygen. There must have been a reason for the long, curving route, requiring so much more effort than a straight one. Several explanations have been proposed over the years. According to one, the workmen followed curving rock formations; another, erroneous one, was that the curve was intended to bypass the (mistakenly identified) Tombs of the House of David; the most probable explanation is that the workmen followed a crack in the rock through which some water flowed from the Gihon to the Tyropoean Valley. The Siloam Inscription mentions that “there was a zdh in the rock”, which could be interpreted as a crack (geological, or the result of karstic activity, or both), in which some water flowed, and which they enlarged into a tunnel. The entrance to the spring in the Kidron Valley was then skillfully disguised.”

Bibleplaces.com states, “Henry Sulley in 1929 first suggested that Hezekiah’s tunnel followed a natural crack in the rock. Dan Gill argues that the two crews of diggers followed a natural karstic dissolution channel.”

Reference.com describes how karsts generally are created:

“Chemistry of karst landscapes

Karst landforms are generally the result of mildly acidic water acting on soluble bedrock such as limestone or dolostone. The carbonic acid that causes these features is formed as rain passes through the atmosphere picking up CO2, which dissolves in the water. Once the rain reaches the ground, it may pass through soil that may provide further CO2 to form a weak carbonic acid solution: H2O + CO2 → H2CO3. Recent studies of sulfates in karst waters suggests sulfuric and hydrosulfuric acids may also play an important role in karst formation.
This mildly acidic water begins to dissolve the surface and any fractures or bedding planes in the limestone bedrock. Over time these fractures enlarge as the bedrock continues to dissolve. Openings in the rock increase in size, and an underground drainage system begins to develop, allowing more water to pass through and accelerating the formation of underground karst features.”

The providence of God began the work to save Israel eons before their need for being saved arose. Then the Spirit of God simply inspired Hezekiah or his counselors to use the karst to make a tunnel.

King Hezekiah was in big trouble. Sennacherib, king of the Assyrian empire, was en route with hundreds of thousands of soldiers to besiege Jerusalem because the Jews had refused his demands for extorting more gold and silver. So Hezekiah commissioned workers to dig a slightly ascending horizontal shaft 1740 feet from a natural spring located outside the city walls, which would quench the city’s thirst during the siege.

When archeologists first discovered the tunnel, they couldn’t understand why King Hezekiah’s men didn’t cut a shaft from the Gihon spring directly to the pool of Siloam. Wouldn’t a straight dig have been the quickest route? Obviously not an engineer, didn’t Hezekiah know that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line?

Then some archeologists saw the wisdom for the circuitous path taken. And it turned out to be the smartest one taken.

When we follow truth we have chosen one path among many millions of optional false paths. In order to arrive at a correct conclusion it is best to begin with the correct postulates. If our most basic axioms are based on falsehood, then our efforts to prove them true will be a very hard and unsuccessful exercise in futility. Nothing is more aggravating that constant failure. Yet the scientific community, funded by huge government grants, continues to try to prove the Bible unbelievable and the Creator to be fictional and that life on earth has never been interrupted by any supernatural activity by a divine Person.

The scripture tells of those who are ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (2 Timothy 3:7). They are ever studying but never getting anywhere because they launch off in a direction different from what God’s word says. In effect, they intend to prove Him wrong. They will prove He is false. And He says of them, “The fool hath said in his heart that there is no Yahweh.” (Psalm 53:1).

The laborers of Hezekiah’s tunnel followed the path on which God sent them. It was the path that He had prepared for them. Though it wasn’t the shortest route, it made for the easiest digging. The karstic rock was much softer than the limestone everywhere else. There were other more sophisticated Egyptian methods in use. Shafts dug down from the surface along the direction the engineers desired and then connected at their bottoms was a technique used for thousands of years. But there was no time for that and it wasn’t prepared of God. It would have required must digging in very hard limestone. And though R. A. S. Macalister said the tunnel was a “pathetically helpless piece of engineering,” it proved to be the simplest and choicest piece of engineering.

The wonderful thing is that the easiest row to hoe is the Bible truth; by which I mean to say, all the Bible truth. Even if I think I believe the Bible, but use it to prove my preconceived ideas which all the sin-loving multitudes want to believe in, I will still ever be studying and never arrive at the truth. The whole Bible will never make sense to me. God and His purposes will never make sense. Life will never make sense and I will just be wasting away in my constant effort to redirect truth to suit my inclinations and self-exalting conclusions. Always truth’s teacher and never a student of truth, never having fallen on the Stone it will fall on me and grind me to powder.

“Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Matt. 11:29, 30.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.” “Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” Jn. 14:6; 1Cor. 1:30.

The only way to real truth and wisdom is through Christ and His righteousness.