Published Saturday, July 19, 2008

Never bet against God's champion

As many already know, "archaeology is the study of the material remains of man's past." This involves "on-site excavation," which archaeologists call a "dig."

I share this information in the interest of guarding against any confusion: A "dig" is not just an insult or criticism one throws out to someone who is disliked. As for others of us, the only "dig" we have been on is for fishing worms.

I did study Biblical archaeology in seminary. The professor made it "come alive." He acted out the parts of various characters connected with important events and locations in the Bible. With his sense of humor, he would have loved the following story. An archaeologist was digging in the Negev desert in Israel and came upon a casket containing a mummy. After examining it, he called the curator of a prestigious natural history museum.

"I've just discovered a 3,000 year old mummy of a man who died of heart failure!" the excited explorer exclaimed.

The curator replied, "Bring him in. We will check it out and see if your calculations are correct."

A week later, the amazed curator called the archaeologist. "I don't know how you guessed so accurately, but you were right on target about the mummy's age and cause of death. How in the world did you know?"

"It was easy," he answered. "There was a piece of paper in his hand that said, 'I bet 10,000 shekels on Goliath, the giant, to take David, the boy shepherd, in the first round.'"

There was a valuable lesson to be learned from this: Don't ever bet against God's champion.