Row upon row, rank upon rank they stand poised for a battle they will never fight. Six thousand warriors, the statues represent a mute witness to an Emperor whose fierce desire was to live forever.
There comes a moment in life when one feels the hand of death lightly resting on one’s shoulder. At that moment the Emperor resolved to seek the answer to the age-old question, can man live forever? Calling his learned men around him he commissioned them to search the world for the fountain of life. Unknown to him, these men hated him and saw the opportunity to put him to death.
Returning from their fictitious quest they exclaimed they indeed had found the potion of life and he must drink it each day. After a short time, the potentate realized his supposed faithful servants were giving him a potion of poison which could not be reversed. Recognizing his end was close, he set in motion the arrangements for his burial. His elite army of 6,000 men would be buried alive, complete with full armament to serve him in the next life. Panic set in the ranks of the armed forces and he was convinced to create life-like cement replicas of each man which would, he was assured, live forever.
It was the honor of a humble farmer to discover this “wonder of the world” in 1967. Digging a well on his farm, the bottom opened up to reveal full-size horses and chariots lying on their sides and an army of terra-cotta warriors dressed for battle. With this discovery, mankind can look upon the futile efforts of one man whose desire to live forever was misdirected.
With the help of divine wisdom we have shunned the appeal of the world to partake of its narcotics of pleasure for a season and in its place instead drink deeply of the living water. “Whosoever drinketh of this water (the well of Sychar) shall thirst again; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14).
The woman at the well in Sychar told Jesus “Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep…” Like the Emperor she thought it was nigh impossible to possess such a gift. By our own efforts it would be impossible to secure the living water, but as Jesus said, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.”
To be granted this gift, we must come each day to the well of life, in faith drawing upon the living water so readily available in the word.
Many of us will eventually join the congregation of the dead, but we look forward to the resurrection when the eternal King will behold row upon row of sleeping saints raised by his power to serve him forever.
Today’s archaeologists wait with anxious anticipation to be given permission to open the Emperor’s tomb, which, it is claimed, will surpass the riches and splendor of King Tutankhamen’s tomb. For believers, however, the joy is in the empty tomb where once the Redeemer briefly lay, leaving behind only his grave clothes and rising to an endless life.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One