Megiddo's Layers

No one can travel to Israel without being introduced to the land’s layers.  This is not simply a geological history, like the exposed layers the Grand Canyon reveals.  These are layers of civilization.  One of the first places we were exposed to the depth of Israel’s layers was in Megiddo.
Meggido is starkly exposed as a high plateau where several civilizations built a fortified city.  The question becomes which civilization should you excavate because there are 26 layers.  That’s the problem with layers.  The one we uncover provides some answers and amazing treasures, but to go deeper means to destroy the layer we stand on. 

Perhaps the most remarkable remains was the 70 meter tunnel  Ahab built leading to a 25 meter shaft that connected to an underground spring. 

This is a view into the shaft to the spring.  Think about the men with hand-held tools that chiseled their way down.  Consider the engineering it took to start the 70 meter tunnel at opposite ends and meet in the center only a little off!   What drove them to persevere?  Water!

The Megiddo layers tell the story of several civilizations that made use of their crucial placement on a trade route between Egypt and Syria.  I had forgotten that it is Megiddo that gives way to the story Michener tells in his book, The Source.  (By the way, two American books caught my eye among the picture and history books tourists could buy in the gift shops:  Michener’s The Source  and Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad.)

Many battles occurred at Megiddo and more than one civilization ended here.  Joshua conquered the king of Megiddo in his move to Promised Land. (Joshua 12:7, 21)  Solomon fortified the strategically located Megiddo to protect his kingdom against attack. (1 Kings 9:15)   It was at Megiddo that the Northern kingdom was deported and Josiah, the last righteous king, was killed. (2 Chronicles 25:22-24).  Closer to our time, in World War I, the British won a decisive battle using the same strategic control that Megiddo offered anyone who staked a claim to her.

The Bible draws our attention to Megiddo in Revelation 16:16 about the last battle that will draw all the kings to Armageddon.  Trying to make sense of this once mentioned name, many believe it is a corruption of the Hebrew word for mountain – har- and Megiddo or Ar-meggeddon.  Revelation talks about the seven bowls of God’s wrath,  gathered kings,  flashes of light, thunder, a massive earthquake, and enormous hailstones.  It speaks of an environmental catastrophe. Lots of speculation surrounds the where, when, and how of this place, whether metaphorical or literal. 

Megiddo forces me to take a look at my layered life, the layers that I build upon and the layers that are still buried.  I am my childhood, my adolescence, my young adulthood and beyond.  What I don’t remember is still there, sometimes waiting to be discovered.  God knows my layers.  He was present in every one of them.  He has no buried memory.  Then, self-discovery must involve more than digging up layers by myself.  Self-discovery makes God my archeologist, the only truly compassionate One who can unearth whatever He knows is valuable for me to know. I will remember Megiddo for her layers as I allow God to be in charge of my dig site.