Uzziah Made Machines

Been a bit since I updated this blog. For an over 2000 year old book, the Bible contains quite a bit of science and technology. While this entry will be pretty brief I found this story interesting. This is the story of young King Uzziah.

I think when we think of wars or battles in the Bible we think of armies marching, possibly having some sort of protective gear on and having hand carried weapons like spears or axes or slingshots.

But in 2 Chronicles 26 along comes a young king named Uzziah who built machines of war.

2 Chronicles 26:15 KJV

¹⁵ And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal. And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvellously helped, till he was strong.

The word “engines” is written in Hebrew as “chishshabon” which means a device or an invention. This may be the first recorded instance of a machine used in war.

Earlier in the chapter it discusses that he sought God and God made him prosper. And God helped him in his war with the Philistines.

One wonders if God provided the technology to help Uzziah make his fortifications and weaponry. It doesn’t say. But still we have some kind of semi-automated weapon here that slings arrows and rocks from a tower. That’s a pretty neat trick for the mid to late 700 B.C era.

Downfall of Uzziah

Seems that after Uzziah got strong he committed a transgression against God and received leprosy. It never ends well when you transgress against God.

Bible Technology

This was a simplistic entry on the story of King Uzziah however I just wanted to point out that there is Technology scattered all about the Bible. Inventing weaponry certainly qualifies as a technological advancement.

The Bible is the greatest story full of supernatural things that we, to this day, don’t comprehend. Yet many ignore the technology behind that. You see your paranormal TV shows dabbling with that all the time. Something is there. Almost no one disagrees that UFO’s pop in and out of our existence all the time. Things are going on which we simply cannot explain because our science can’t comprehend it.

Science, technology, dimensions, hyperspace, angels, demons and so on.

And while you can witness and point to the story of a young King inventing automatic weapons of war……….the real technology exists in the realm of God.

⁷ And God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians that dwelt in Gurbaal, and the Mehunims.

How does God help Uzziah? We can take some guesses that maybe involve God providing tactics or putting the wrong move in the mind of the enemy. You could speculate upon that for ages. But if God is helping you there is some pretty deep technology flowing there.

The entire Bible is a story of places and realms our science hasn’t, and cannot achieve. Our God is the God of all our technology and science. We should worship God and not technology or science for God is the father of both.