Category Archives: Bible Study

Happy or Blessed

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What I love about Bible studies is you start on one thing and find yourself somewhere else and it is a great study too. This one started out as a study on light and ended looking at the word Esher, that means happy. (It will explain itself when I do the blog about light.)  In my Strong’s Concordance for the King James Version that has definitions from W.E. Vine adapted into the entries I found this and thought it was to good to pass up. (Strong’s #835)

Esher and the name Asher (son of Jacob) both come from the same root word and it can be translated blessed or happy. Most of the occurrences of Esher in scripture are in poems such as Psalms or Proverbs. Vine observes that the “prosperity” or “happiness” comes when a superior, usually God, has bestowed His favor on you such as in Deuteronomy 33:29. But he notes that according to Eliphaz Job was blessed and should have been happy not because everything was going good but because God favored Job (Job 5: 17-18). OUCH that runs against the modern thought process.

Vine’s final thought is that it is appropriate to translate Esher as “happy” but for modern readers it “does not always convey its emphasis” to us. Many modern translations do use blessed more than happy.

For a good example of the usage of this word please see http://www.craigladams.com/blog/files/Psalm-1-1.html for Psalm 1.

A good reference- http://biblesuite.com/hebrew/835.htm

The Bible and Science – Light

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  • 1 Timothy 6:16 Who (God) alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light.
  • 1 John 1:5 – God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.

These verses share something other than mentioning God and Light in the same sentence; the two writers both had visions of Jesus in His gloried body. Paul, who wrote to Timothy, had the Damascus Road experience in Acts 9:24 and his visions of Heaven that he mentions in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4. John had his visions on Patmos in Revelation 1:12-16 and he witnessed Jesus transfigured on the mountain (Mark 9:2-4). So both of these men had a personal knowledge of the power/energy that does exist in Heaven.

Light is a small portion of the energy that belongs to the family of radiation called the Electromagnetic Spectrum. These energy waves/photons (small bundles of energy) range EMSpecfrom radio waves to gamma rays. A student asked why some were waves while others were light and rays, my best explanation was their wavelength and the amount of energy they carry. Now to be “unapproachable light” besides being a pure light like a laser it would need to have a lot of energy associated with it. The most powerful of the “light family” is gamma rays, which we know can damage our cells and kill us. According to NASA we really have no idea how powerful this energy can be but they are sure that the closer you are to the source the more powerful the energy will be.

It is nice to see His nature reflect His qualities and there-by announce His glories.

We divide the EM spectrum into three parts yet they are one continuous group. And light is acknowledged to have a dual nature both energy and particle so we have Jesus being both God and man.

Father, let us be close to you so we can have the energy to bring your Light to the world.

All verse are from the 1984 New International Version  http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970412e.html

http://www.lbl.gov/MicroWorlds/ALSTool/EMSpec/EMSpec2.html

The Exodus Story in Other Places

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glory 1

People may argue parts of the Exodus story and how it could not have happened. But the fact that the story is retold throughout the rest of scripture should speak volumes about its validity and its credibility. (This may not be all of them but you get the idea.)

  • Gideon  – Judges 6:13 – Questioned about the miracles
  • Jephthah – Judges 11:15-27 – Retold conquest story
  • Micah 6: 1-5 – The Lord had a case against Israel and highlighted the Exodus to prove his point.
  • Ezekiel 20:4 – God giving a discourse to the elders of Israel about their love for idols of Egypt even though He brought them out of Egypt and gave them a good land.
  • 1 Corinthians 10:4 – Spiritual lesson about Israel being baptized into Moses and Israel sharing spiritual food and drink and still some died in the desert.
  • Moses’ Psalms 90 -100 – I still think they are a series of songs to teach the people about God and His requirements.

Psalms

  • 66: 5-12 A highlight telling of Israel’s time in Egypt and their leaving.
  • 77: 11-20 A call for Jeduthun to remember and meditate on the miracles of God; the parting of the Red Sea is the focus of what God did.

Just a thought, look at Psalm 78-83 as a block for teaching people after Jerusalem fell.

  • 78 A comparison of Israel’s testing God and His mercy and miracles.
  • 80: 7-11 A call to God to remember that He did bring Israel out of Egypt and to have mercy on them again.
  • 81:3-10 To remember that God brought Israel out of Egypt and established that He should be praised.
  • 95: 8-11 Not to harden your heart as people did at Meribah.
  • 105:16-45 A Sunday School lesson of Abraham, Joseph, the plagues, and the joseph-dreams of wheatExodus.
  • 106 A history of God’s faithfulness in not destroying Israel starting in Egypt and going through the Conquest into the unfaithfulness in the Promise Land.
  • 114 It reminds Judah who they belong to and that mountains, hills, and the “waters” obey the Lord.
  • 135:8-14 That man (Egypt, Pharaoh, Sihon, Og, and the kings of Canaan) will not stop God’s people.
  • 136:10-22 Resembles Ps. 135 

Picture of Sheaves from http://www.freebibleimages.org/photos/joseph-dreams/

Timeline for the 38 Years of Wandering

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Much of this is not documented with timestamps but it averages out between thirteen and sixteen months per campsite. The longer time frame happens if you exclude the sites I put in italics from Numbers 21:10-20; they are not mentioned in Moses’ list of stages. (Please excuse the different size fonts as I was trying to keep it on one page.) My concordance does have meanings for some of the names of the campsites but they are usually just listed as “campsites.” (See the Number Thirty-eight in the Bible.)

Time Where Scripture What Happened
Rithmah Nu. 33:18Deut. 2:1 Should be the first camping area of the 38 yrs.
Rimmon Perez Nu.16, Deut. 11:6-7 Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, Aaron’s staff buds, Perez means “breach” that is why I put this here.
Libnah
Rissah
Kehelathah
Mount Shepher
Haradah
Makheloth
Tahath
Terah
Mithcah
Hashmonah
Moseroth
Bene Jaakan
Hor Haggidgad
Jotbathah
Abronah
Ezion Geber
M1 y40 Kadesh/Desert of Zin(Sin) Nu. 33:36Nu. 20:1 Miriam died, Edom denies passage (would have been Passover)
D1 m5 y40 Mount Hor, a border of Edom Nu.20: 22, 33:37 Aaron died, king of Arad attacks and then is destroyed, the bronze snake
Zalmonah
Punon
Oboth Nu. 21:10
Iye Abarim, a border of Moab Nu. 21: 11
Zered Valley, River Arnon border of Moab and Amorites, Mattanah, Nahaliel, Bamoth, Valley in Moab by Mt. Pisgah Nu. 21:10 – 20Deut. 2: 14 + 24 – 3:11 Israel (no longer Moses) defeats Sihon and Og. Numbers 21: 21- 35 Pisgah is by the Dead Sea  – Deut. 3:17,26-29 Moses died there 34: 1
Dibon Gad Nu.21: 30
Almon Diblathaim, near Mount Nebo Nu.33: 47
D1 m11 y 40 Plains of Moab across from Jericho, from Beth Jesimoth to Abel Shittim this is near Beth Peor Nu. 25:1, 33:49Deut. 1:3, 3:29, 4:3-4, 23:3-6 In the story of Balaam, Moses talked about the division of the land

Timeline for the First Two Years of the Exodus

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This is the first two years of the Exodus journey; the actual time frame for this journey should have been two to three weeks for the journey to Jordan River. The next 38 years timeline is coming. (Please see Ten Times Testing God)

 Time Where Scripture What Happened
D1 m1 y1 Rameses Ex. 12:1 Started Calendar
D 10 Choose Lamb
D 14 Slaughtered Lamb – Passover
D 15 Ex. 12:33,Num. 33:3 Marched out boldly, plundered Egypt
Succoth
Etham, the edge of the desert
I can’t prove it but I will call it day 21 –the end of Unleavened Bread By the sea Num. 7:7Ex. 14:2 Camped by Migdol/PiHahiroth to the east/opposite of Baal Zephon
3 days to Desert of Shur(Etham)Marah Ex. 15:22Num. 33:8 What they originally asked for in Ex. 3:18, Second testing of God – bitter waters
Elim Ex 15:27 (Num.33:9) 12 springs and 70 palm trees
Red Sea Num. 33:10
D15 m2 (y1) Desert of SinBetween Elim and Sinai Ex 16:1Num. 33:10 Third testing by complaining about meat and bread. Got manna and stored some for a witness.
Dophkah Num. 33:12
Alush Num. 33:13
Rephidium Num. 33:14, Ex. 17:1 Amalekites attacked, water at Massah and Meribah in 17:6 it says this was at Horeb/Sinai, Jethro visits,
D1 m3 (y1) Desert of Sinai Num. 33:15, Ex. 19:1 It sounds like they went around to the other side of the mountain, got the LAW, leaders ate with God, the golden calf
D1 m1 y2 Ex. 40:2+17,Nu.9:15 Tabernacle finished, glory cloud covered it
M1 y2 Nu. 9:1 God spoke again to celebrate Passover
D8 m1 y2 Lev. 9:1 Priest start their duties
D1 m2 y2 Desert of Sinai Nu.1: 1+18 Census was ordered
D20 m2 y2 Nu.10: 11 Lord command to break camp – cloud lifted
D23 m2 (y2) Taberah, Kibroth Hattaavah no movement is recorded, possibly the same place Nu.10: 33Nu. 11:34 People complained about hardships (outskirts of camped burned) and quail fell and plague occurred
Hazeroth/Desert of Paran/Kadesh Nu. 33:17Nu. 13:26 Miriam leprous, spies sent out, people rebel