Jericho and Ai
Why do we spotlight apologetics each week? In this day and age it is becoming seemingly more difficult to talk to non-believers about Jesus. They are asking tough questions regarding faith, God and the Bible. The apologetic spotlight will be a time to learn various topics that can help to defend your faith.
If someone told you that your great, great, great, grandfather was a general for his own army in the ancient place called Cuidad Perdida, would you believe that? I personally would be skeptical. First, I would want to know where this Cuidad Perdida place was and if it was even real. So, if someone took me to the area of where this ancient city used to be and showed me swords that were uncovered there and a piece of paper or artifact of some kind with my great, great, great grandfather’s name on it, then I would believe it because the evidence is there!
This is exactly what happens with the Bible!
Archaeology is the study of human history. Archaeologists go on these missions or trips to find certain objects. These objects that they find help them understand what has happened in history.
Why is this important for the Bible? It shows that the Bible is accurate in what it states. One investigative film maker, Tim Mahoney has made an awesome video where he did something similar to Lee Strobel, who is the author of The Case for Christ, which is also a movie. It’s a really good book and movie. Tim Mahoney also went on an investigation regarding various events that the Bible claim happened.
During his investigation he found that many different stories in the Bible are true and accurate. One story he found to be very accurate was the story of Joshua and the Wall of Jericho. In short, Joshua and the Israelites marched around a wall that was really well-built. They never attacked the wall; all they did was march around this wall and blew trumpets which caused this super strong, well-built wall to crash down.
Prior to them walking around the wall, Joshua sent some spies to check out the city and there was a prostitute named Rahab who helped keep those spies safe. Rahab actually lived inside the wall at this time. God saved Rahab and her family by having her place a scarlet cord in her window so that when Joshua and his army walked around the wall blowing their trumpets, her section of the wall would not crumble and all of Rahab’s family would survive.
What is amazing is that archaeology has shown that the Wall of Jericho is not only real, but when archaeologists uncovered it, they found that it had in fact crashed down, but it crashed outward. That is significant because if it was attacked with weapons, it would have fallen inward. Joshua and his men did not use any weapons and never actually attacked the wall. The accuracy of this Biblical account is incredible!
They also found a section of the wall that did not crumble and did not crash down, which describes Rahab’s story perfectly!
There are so many other instances in the Bible that archaeology verifies those events happened.
One other one I want to briefly touch on is the place of Ai (a Canaanite city) in the Bible. This goes well with the Wall of Jericho because it also has to do with Joshua and his army.
Biblically, the place of Ai was a city that Joshua and his army attacked, and we read about that in Joshua chapters 7 and 8.
For the longest time, no one actually knew where this city was located because all their guesses were wrong, despite the Biblical explanation of where the city is located. That is, until 1994 when a couple archaeologists finally found the exact location of the city. What is remarkable is that once they found the location, they realized that the details that the Bible describes about the attack and location of Ai matches up perfectly with all the archaeological evidence that they found. One example: it says in Joshua chapter 7 that Ai is EAST of Bethel and sure enough, Ai was discovered to the East of Bethel.
Every detail that the Bible gives regarding Ai has been uncovered and proven to be true! How incredible that a story that is over thousands of years old has been proven to be true. Our Bible can be trusted!
Categories: Apologetics Spotlights