There are numerous YouTube channels which show volunteers working alongside archaeologists in remote areas. They are all digging, scraping, brushing, and carefully handling their finds. Biblical archaeology is not about proving the Bible true and accurate, but it demonstrates how the Bible and ancient places align with one another.
One young married couple, Sergio and Rhoda, travel to many of these “digs” throughout Israel. They live and work in Nazareth. How cool! Sergio has said, “Wherever you go in Israel you are driving or walking on ancient ruins.” That’s exciting.
They were visiting an excavating team on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Rhoda said, “It’s hard to think of it as a sea because it is so much smaller than a typical sea, such as the Mediterranean. I can look across from Bethsaida and easily see Tiberius.” The Lake of Galilee is only about fourteen miles long and roughly eight miles wide. “For a sea, that’s small,” she said.
At this site, possibly associated with the apostles Peter and John who had lived there, an ancient church building was found. The walls and floor may have been a home during the apostles' time, later re-appropriated as a church building by Byzantine settlers, then as a sugar mill by the Crusaders. Why dig through ancient ruins? What might be found that has relevance today?
In the Judean hills is a massive compound of foundational floors and walls possibly dating to nearly 3,000 years ago! That means it dates to the time of Solomon or possibly his father, King David.
Looking at the church today, do you see people living according to the Bible? Are most church people living like the world? Many have returned to the world’s values - materialism: wanting the biggest house, the brightest car or truck, dressing in the latest fashions, living for wealth rather than honoring God. Movies and TV programs promote sexual immorality, idolatry, dishonoring God’s name, and other worldly behaviors. Ungodly Hollywood stars are idolized!
In Hebrews 1:1-2 the writer says that we are in the “last days” of God speaking to us. In Hebrews 11:13-16 the writer speaks about people of faith (see vs. 1-12) not returning to where they once lived, but “they were yearning for a better country — a heavenly one.”
For what are you yearning? Why dig through ancient ruins? Because in them we can learn about people of great faith. Let’s seek to be people of great faith in God, realizing that we are only here on this earth for a short time (see James 4:14).