STONES CRY OUT

Have you ever seen a KH1 or KH2?  They are artifacts found in 1979 in burial caves just south of Jerusalem's old city, above the Hinnom Valley.  The amulets were named KH1 and KH2.

Why are they important?  The Dead Sea scrolls were dated about two hundred years before Christ and were the oldest artifacts that give witness to the authenticity of Scripture.

However, KH1/KH2 speak to us from Jeremiah's day (600 BCE).  They are the oldest surviving text from the Hebrew Bible and are 2,600 years old.  That makes them 400 years older than the Dead Sea scrolls.

Verses from Numbers 6 are on both these artifacts.  They include the earliest example of God's name "Yahweh"...and verses familiar to us called the Aaronic priestly blessing.  The scrolls say "Yahweh bless you and keep you.  Yahweh make His face shine upon and be gracious to you.  Yahweh lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace."

 Isn't it amazing to know someone from 600BCE wore the silver scrolls (rolled up and hanging by a chain) around their neck, close to their heart?

This is Dr. Gabriel Barkay, the archaeologist whose excavation recovered the silver scrolls.  He began with a very meager budget and used 12 and 13 year olds from a club nearby to help in the dig.  In fact, a boy named "Nathan" was the one who found the burial chamber.

Once inside that, the Lord allowed a Wheaton grad student named Judith Hadley to find something that looked to her like a cigarette butt.  It was purplish in color and about an inch long.  Judith had found KH1.

It took archaeologists three years to figure out how to unroll the amulet without causing it to disintegrate.  They sent it to the Brits, who sent it to the Germans, who sent it back to Israel.  Everyone refused to work on it because they were afraid they would destroy it.

Finally Israel developed a special process which allowed the unrolling and everyone was astonished to realize that both scrolls contained ancient writings that were verses from the Bible.

The writing was dated by the shape of the characters and the context of the other findings in the burial cave which could be dated back to the seventh century.

Here is how Dr. Barkay described what was in the chamber:  "In one chamber more than a thousand objects werre found.  They included 125 objects of silver, 40 iron arrowheads, gold, ivory, glass, bone and 150 semi-precious stones.  There was 60 cm (2 feet) of accumulation filled with objects and skeletal remains.  There was a lot of dust and a lack of oxygen.  It was very hot and we had to change teams every few hours.  Everyone was sworn to secrecy - they weren't allowed to tell parents, spouses, or friends.  If word got around Jerusalem that there was such a treasure, the California gold rush would be nothing compared to what would happen here."

What does this discovery mean to us?  It means God is true and His word is true.  It means we can trust Him because He can stand up to scrutiny.  It means He reveals these little nuggets from archaeology just because He wants us to know Him.

After all, Jesus said if we (His disciples) keep silent, the rocks will cry out.  They have.  And the LORD turned His face toward us to give us light.

If you'd like to watch a five minute  YouTube about the discovery, click HERE...or for a seven-minute video with a bit of historic context, click HERE.