Underneath the city of Jerusalem are vast underground caverns known as Solomon’s Quarries. It is thought that Solomon here obtained the stone to build the temple. The quarry was discovered in 1852 by an Englishman, Mr. Barklay, who was out with his dog. Through the old walls of Jerusalem, by the Damascus gate, the dog disappeared, and was found to have fallen down a crevice. After it had been rescued, the crevice was examined, and it was found that it led into a great cave. Further examination revealed the quarry.
Some of those great stones were giant cubes, 12 and 15 feet each way, and they weighed about 250 tons each. There was one stone which measured 30 by 13 by 71/2 feet. How Solomon and his men got those great stones out of that pit still remains a mystery.
Certainly those stones did not climb out themselves. Someone had to go down and bring them out. Neither can a dead sinner get out of the pit of sin by his own efforts. Someone must go down and lift him out. That Someone is the Son of God, who went down into the pit of sin and death where we were, and by divine power lifted us up and set us upon a Rock.
The Lord Jesus said, “No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:4444No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44).
It took Solomon years to build that temple, but finally the last stone was set in its place, and the temple was finished.
God is building a house now, a temple to His praise made up of sinners saved by grace. Believers are “great stones and costly,” when we think of what it cost God and His dear Son to redeem us.
For a long time now God has been building His house, and it is nearing completion. Perhaps any day, any moment now, the last stone will be set in its place, the last believer gathered in. Then the Lord will come and take His people home to heaven, and the great work of God which has been going on throughout these long years will be displayed in glory with Christ, perfect in every way.
Down in those quarries they have found great stones, half cut, never finished. They were never taken out of the pit. When the Lord Jesus comes with that assembling shout, dear reader, may you be one of those who has already been “drawn out” to be with Him forever, and not one left behind in the pit to be lost forever.
ML-11/06/1977