When moving mountains, only faith in God will do; but sometimes tunnels just need hard work.
I’m sure you’ve heard the quip that some are so heavenly-minded, they’re no earthly good. The fact is that anyone who is not heavenly-minded will be of little earthly good. Hezekiah certainly was heavenly-minded. We are told that “in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, in the law and in the commandment, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart” (2 Chron 31:21). But that doesn’t mean a person can’t also seek practical solutions in life. The ancient cities had an Achilles heel. Obviously the water source would be at the lowest spot, but the cities were situated on higher elevations. Without pumps, and in times of siege, how could the people inside the city wall access that water? When Hezekiah knew Jerusalem might soon be surrounded by Sennacherib’s forces, he set about to find a solution to the problem. First, “he consulted with his leaders and commanders to stop the water from the springs which were outside the city; and they helped him…saying, ‘Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?’” (32:3-4). But we also discover that “this same Hezekiah also stopped the water outlet of Upper Gihon, and brought the water by tunnel to the west side of the City of David” (v 30). This 1,750 foot (530 m) tunnel, carved by two teams in a serpentine fashion through solid rock, is recognized as one of the greatest feats of water systems engineering of the past. The tunnel brought the water underground from the disguised Gihon Spring outside the city wall to the Pool of Siloam inside the wall. God will soon be seen as a miracle-working God, but it’s an important fact that He won’t do for us by miracle what He has given us to do by our own obedience, watchfulness, concern, and hard work.