My wife and I were visiting the British Museum last year when we came across a group of people in the Assyrian gallery listening to a man who we thought was a museum tour guide. “This is the Black Obelisk,” he said, pointing to a statue. “It records the triumphs of Shalmaneser III in the ninth century BC. This ruler is mentioned in 2 Kings chapter 8, and if you look closely, just here, you’ll see a carving of the Israelites paying him tribute.”
Intrigued, we followed the group into a room of stone-carved battle scenes. “These panels decorated the walls of King Sennacherib’s palace in Nineveh,” the man continued. “They depict his capture of Lachish in Judah in 701 BC, which is described in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and Isaiah. These panels caused a stir when they were discovered in 1847, as they were the first archaeological confirmation of an event recorded in the Bible.”
Pointing to the Cylinder of Nabonidus, he said, “Nabonidus was the father of King Belshazzar, who is mentioned in the book of Daniel. Secular scholars thought Belshazzar was a myth until this cylinder was discovered in southern Iraq in 1854.”
As it turned out, the small group we joined wasn’t a museum tour but a church group, and that “tour guide” was one of the world’s leading archaeologists. As my wife and I left the museum, we wondered what other biblical “myths” were waiting to be proven true by another archaeological discovery.
“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives,” Paul wrote (2 Timothy 3:16). And, as archaeologists are discovering, all Scripture is completely trustworthy.
NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: Judges 6:1-40
More:
Read 2 Kings 8:7-15,2 Kings 18–19, 2 Chronicles 32, Isaiah 36–37, and Daniel 5 to learn more about the people and events found in the museum.
Next:
How important is it that the Bible be historically reliable? How does this museum account encourage you to explore God’s Word in greater detail?
GChoo on March 8, 2014 at 12:27 pm
I suppose to non believers and Christians, it is important to know about all these archeological findings to confirm the truth of the Bible. Yes, it is encouraging and also helped us when we share the gospel with others. However, as Christians, we must not forget that it is even more important to experience for ourselves this all-knowing, all-present and all-powerful God by living out His teaching. It is only then we can truly confirm God’s existence having personally experienced His many blessings through happy and good times.
Sheridan Voysey on March 10, 2014 at 4:45 am
I think you’re right, GChoo., but do you think it’s a case of both/and rather than either/or? We need both the objective basis for faith (like the above archaeological evidence) and the subjective experience of faith. Our faith is frail without one or the other but strong with both.
GChoo on March 10, 2014 at 7:11 am
Oh yes Sheridan, I totally agree with you. We need both to strengthen our understanding and faith. God bless.