AUGUST, 1946
343 EARTH'S TREASURE HEAPS Paul R. Bauman, Th.B., D.D.
AUGUST 27 Scripture: Romans 14:7 "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.” What we do, or what we leave undone, influences other lives whether we know it or not. The -following stanza is well-known; nevertheless, we ponder it again. “ You are writing a Gospel, - -s A chapter a day, By the deeds that you do, By the words that you say:
WHY DOES THE ARCHAEOLOGIST STUDY POTTERY?
T)OTTERY HAS been a valuable aid not only In ma t t e r s of Bible chronology, but also in confirming various other details of Bible history. For example, the pottery of the Ca- naanitish period of Jericho gave place —with an unusual abruptness to an Israelitish style of ceramics. This dis covery confirmed the sudden capture of the city and the break in the his tory of the people of Jericho. Again, pottery unearthed in the Holy Land has been shown in certain cases to be of Hittite ori gin. Such dis coveries prove that the Hittites were in Palestine at the time of Joshua’s con quest. On the hill Ophel the pottery brought to light by the spade was shown to be undoubtedly of Jebusite origin, and we know that David’s fortifications were laid upon those of the Jebusites. Several discoveries in pottery of tre mendous value have been made in recent years, proving the early exist ence of alphabetical writing and re futing the charge that Moses could not possibly have written the “words” of the Lord. In December, 1929, a small piece of pottery with three let ters in the ancient Sinai Hebrew script written upon it, was discovered at Gezer. Several yea r s earlier, three letters were found painted on a frag ment of a pot found at Lachish. This was dated at the thirteenth century, B. C. A third example fn the same script was f ound in 1930 at Beth Shemesh. It was written in ink on an oStracon (piece of broken pottery) and was dated by Dr. Albright at the fourteenth century B. C. Hence, alpha betical writing was not only in exist ence in the days of Moses, but it was widely used at that time. However, perhaps the best known of the recent discoveries in pottery, bearing upon the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, come to us from Lachish. These are a water jug or ewer, and a bowl, both of which are assigned to the thirteenth century B. C., or earlier. The ewer was found among the debris in a rubbish pit and on its shoulder are eleven letters or signs. The red pottery bowl, found in a tomb, contains acro.ss the outside an inscription in white paint deciphered by Dr. Langdon as f o l l ows : "His righteousness in my hand (or support) and . . . What a splendid illustra tion of the way God has used even broken pottery to v i nd i c a t e His “righteousness” and “s u p p o' r t” His Word!
Part II*
Men read what you write, Whether faulty or true; Say! What is the Gospel According to you?"
AUGUST 28 Scripture: Romans 14:15
‘‘But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not char itably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.” Dr. F. E. Marsh wrote of the death of Christ as "a fulcrum upon which the Holy Spirit rests the lever of His Word to raise a lost sinner." You are the agent whom He could use to apply the fact of the Gospel. The fulcrum must be placed before the lever can be used.- The fact that Christ died to save the lost is the source of motive for every Christian act. Let us. judge our acts by this word from Romans that the fulcrum be not overturned and the Spirit hindered from raising the lost ones, those whom we shall contact today. “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye play abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” The greatest lust of men's hearts today is that for power: power to be used to further their own ends. As the Holy Spirit searches our lives, may we be willing to be purified from the lust that there may be instilled a divine desire to walk in joy, peace, and se curity because the power of the Holy Spirit is energizing the life. Then we shall abound in hope to the glory of God. "7 beseech you, brethren . , . that ye strive together with me in your pray ers to God for m e” What a sense of strength and victory comes to our heart with the knowledge that some one remembers us* daily before the Mercy Seat! Striving with one another in prayer will eliminate striving against one another in other things. Because of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose love is matchless in beauty and immeasurable in amount, our prayers for each other may mean deliver ance from the hindrance of unbelief and unbelievers as we endeavor to speak and live the Gospel witness. "The effectual fer vent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” AUGUST 31 Scripture: Romans 16:27 "To God only wise3be glory through Jesus Christ for ev er” The world is full of books; our land is full of schools; knowledge is available on every hand. However, knowledge is dan gerous unless there be wisdom to apply it rightly. There- is only One who is wise enough to use knowledge safely. God, the only source of real wisdom, has promised to give us discernment and judgment at our request. To Him, the Father of our Lord and Saviour, we offer praise and worship. Glory to His holy name for evert AUGUST 29 Scripture: Romans 15:13 AUGUST 30 Scripture: Romans 15:30-33
The Lachish Bowl One further discovery at Tell Duwier (1932-8) deserves mention because of its importance, namely, the Lachish Letters. Eighteen of them were un earthed—personal letters from one man to another—written in carbon ink with a reed pen on pieces of broken pottery. They were written in the Phoenician Hebrew script and were found in the rubbish on the floor of the gate tower destroyed by Nebuchad nezzar in 598 B. C. Of these Caiger says: “The importance of these pots herds will be realized when we re member that they áre the only Hebrew inscriptions of any length which have survived from the pre-exilic period. From the Biblical point of view, their value can scarcely be overestimated. .. And here for the first time outside - the Old Testament we find mention of a ‘prophet,’ of the class which played so large a part in Hebrew history.” In some of the later levels of Jericho vast quantities of po t s he r d s were found, including jug handles of a late Jewish period bearing the word “jah,” and reminding us of the prophet’s words: "Every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the LORD of hosts” (Zech. 14:21). There is a sense in which that passage has been, fulfilled by the little pieces of broken pottery found so abundantly in the Holy Land. It seems that in these last days, when the Bible has been so viciously attacked, God has hallowed the humblest utensils of man—separating them for the purpose of vindicating His Word. Pieces of pottery which have done so much to establish the truth of God’s precious Word, certainly may be aptly de scribed as “holy unto the Lord.” 1. Marston, The Bible Comes Alive, New York, p. 172. 2. Cobern, New Archaeological Dis coveries, New York, 1917, pp. 165f. *The first part of this article ap peared in the July issue of The King’s Business.
\
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker