What can we learn from an ancient toilet?

Two weeks ago, I wrote about God loosing the loins of kings. Today, I’m captivated by a 2,500 year old toilet. What’s so interesting about a stone potty?

Videos like this make me wish I’d been an archeologist.

Weeds

Raw meat

Tapeworms

Why am I excited about 2,500 year old weeds and raw meat? This discovery dates to the first temple period when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC. The analysis of the dirt below the toilet confirms II Kings 25:3.

On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.

The siege had brought the city low. There was no way to make a fire, and there was no food. They were eating weeds and raw meat. The Bible tells us what the raw meat was.

I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege. – Jeremiah 19:9a

This toilet was found in the City of David in the administrative complex, so it was used by Judah’s elite. Could what they dug up have been eaten by Gemariah, one of the royal scribes, or Elishama, of the royal family?

Ezekiel 5:10 and Lamentations 4:10 also speak of parents eating their children. Why would God allow such devastation in His city? Doesn’t this bolster Richard Dawkins’ argument that the God of the Old Testament is a misogynistic, genocidal bully?

Through Jeremiah, God had been calling his people to repentance for decades. In Jeremiah 7, the Lord called His people to amend their ways and their deeds. Had they obeyed they would have avoided judgment. What was He asking of them?

Practice justice
Do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow
Do not shed innocent blood
Do not walk after other gods
Don’t steal, murder, commit adultery, or swear falsely

These aren’t outrageous, selfish demands. God loves His people, and He wants what’s best for them. He laid out precepts for our own good, but we disobey. After centuries of disobedience, God finally brought judgment on Jerusalem, exactly as he said he would – sword, famine, and pestilence. He didn’t do it because he’s a misogynistic bully. Here is His heart:

Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.

His judgment was the first step of restoration. Thirteen times in Jeremiah alone, the Lord promises to restore the fortunes of Israel.

“I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,” declares the LORD, “and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.” – Jeremiah 29:14

I am touched by the Lord’s sweet assurances that even though they were going through a horrible time, it would not last forever. Nevertheless, the tapeworms, weeds and raw flesh make me grieve for the suffering in Jerusalem, especially because it was needless.