Category Archives: Bible Study

Your Bible Study for 2012

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Plan vs. resolution

Clicking on these two sites took me out of the blog so please be aware of that.

http://www.1828-dictionary.com/d/search/word,resolution 6. Fixed purpose or determination of mind; as a resolution to reform our lives; a resolution to undertake an expedition.

http://www.1828-dictionary.com/d/search/word,plan  2. A scheme devised; a project; the form of something to be done existing in the mind, with the several parts adjusted in idea, expressed in words or committed to writing; as the plan of a constitution of government; the plan of a treaty; the plan of an expedition. (noun)

PLAN, v.t. To form a draught or representation of any intended work.  1. To scheme; to devise; to form in design; as, to plan the conquest of a country; to plan a reduction of taxes or of the national debt.

I don’t know about you but I like the “plan” better, it will allow me to make changes if needed but will still give me a stable base of where I want to go. The website above is for the Webster’s 1828 Dictionary – it is interesting to check our current word usage against the usage when we thought of our self as a “Christian Nation” and did not worry about being politically correct.

Have you “planned” what and how you are going to study through out the New Year?  Here are some possibilities.

1. Read the Bible through in a year, there are a lot of great plans that you can follow.

2. Get another translation and read it through in a year.

3. Pick a topic (actually pick twelve of them) and study it out.  Try people, places, things or events.

4. Focus on either the New or the Old Testament.

This year I am going to alternate reading Proverbs and Psalms every month.

After much thought on the subject I think I am going to do #3 which will be new for me, usually I do #1, 2 or 4.

1. A topic that will run for most of the year will be “The Gospel According to the Old Testament.”

2. Blessed

3. Acts 4: 29 a) speaking the word    b)with great boldness

4. Acts 4: 30 healing, miraculous signs and wonders

5. Waiting on God and times of refreshing

6. Putting 1& 2 Samuel together with 1 Chronicles.

7. Finish some work that I started in Psalms.

8. Body parts and how they are discussed/shadowed in Scripture

9. Fruit and nuts especially the fig and the almond

10. Write four sermons from the ideas above

Yeah, I know I said pick 12 but I have a feeling that these 10 will keep me busy for the whole year, if not then I can add to my plan as I go.

Amalekites: An enemy from Moses to Mordecai to_______! Part 1

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We are not finished with Esau and his descendants and the trouble they are going to be to Jacob’s side of the family. Esau had Eliphaz, by Adah his first wife, who had a concubine named Timna who had Amalek (Gen. 36:12). She is attributed to Adah (a true wife in the genealogy) but is listed last. For Timna see 1 Chronicles 1:36-39.

The Amalekites are cursed, and the Israelites are to be fighting them from generation to generation because they attacked the Israel column (Exodus 17:8-15) as they headed to the Promised Land. Deuteronomy 25:17 – 19 is a serious statement to the Israelites about that incident; it is that commission that King Saul is trying to accomplish in I Samuel 14 and 15.

Josephus 2.1.2 assigns Amalek to the country of Idumea; this is where King Herod came from. Davis Dictionary of the Bible says the Idumeans had circumcision forced on them after being conquered by John Hyrcanus a Maccabean ruler. This is why the Jews hated Herod so much, he was not a Jew and very possibly an Edomite and he could have even been an Amalekite.

A side thought on this – there was always some kind of contention within Abraham’s family; Ishmael and Esau did not seem like contented brothers and uncles, but their genealogies made it into the Bible so that tells me that some communication did exist between parts of the family.  Since Moses is credited with writing Genesis and parts of Esau’s history was definitely happening while they were in Egypt there was communication.  Moses may have gotten some of the information while he was in Midian.

Other references to Esau/Edom/Amalek being destroyed or facing the judgment of God.

Jeremiah 2:

Ezekiel 35

Obadiah

Malachi 1:2-5

https://ificouldteachthebible.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/ishmael-and-es…and-foe-part-2

Moabites and Ammonites: Family and Foe – Part 3

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https://ificouldteachthebible.wordpress.com/2011/11/06/ishmael-and-es…and-foe-part-1

https://ificouldteachthebible.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/ishmael-and-es…and-foe-part-2/

I find it unsettling that four of Israel’s major enemies are “family.”  Now at times, they were civil towards one another and we have to remember that Ruth, David’s and Jesus’ grandmother, was a Moabitess.  But Edom, Moab, and Ammon are frequently mentioned together as joining forces to fight Israel and in many of the Prophetic Books, they are together when the Lord is handing out judgment.

It should also be noted that God warns Moses and the Israelites about fighting with them on the way back to the Promised Land. In Deuteronomy 2:5,9,19 it is stated that each of them had been given that land by the Lord and Israel was not to start trouble.

Lot is the father of Moab and Ammon (see Timeline) by his daughters after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:30 – 38). Now a question that has been asked is whether they should have ever been there, to begin with!  Abraham was to leave his country and family and go to the Promised Land but there is Lot with his uncle as he leaves the rest of the family.

WHAT TYPE OF METAL ARE YOU? Part 3

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Iron was a metal that was naturally present in Israel, even though it took the Israelites some time to learn how to work it (1 Samuel 13:19-21).  Iron requires a lot of heat and hammering to produce a usable material; however, iron has to be protected or it will rust, and eventually the object made of iron will be useless and destroyed.  Iron was used for tools made for cutting and digging because of the hard, sharp edges that could be made with iron.

Our “iron things” (some of our natural character traits) come from inside of us and can represent some of our toughest obstacles to overcome.  Proverbs 27:17 (as iron sharpens iron) tells us why a person may rub us the wrong way, God wants our hard areas worked on and that is done by having to work with other people’s hard areas.   An example in David’s life is his relationship with his brothers (1 Samuel 17:28+29).  As an over achieving little brother who had killed a lion and a bear, and had been in the king’s service as a harp player he apparently allowed these accolades to develop as a sore spot with his brothers. Our own attitudes can be a hard, sharp cutting point in our life.  People will view them as either our greatest asset or our biggest bane, but yielding this “iron” to God’s testing and use is really what is important.   These “iron areas” will either be protected and maintained in us, rust and cause real problems, or sharpened and gotten rid of.

WHAT TYPE OF METAL ARE YOU? Part 2

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Now that we have the “lead out” let us move on to the next metal.

Tin was imported, possibly from Spain or from Western Europe, and was a valuable metal in Israel.  It was worked into various articles like cooking utensils and artwork.  Tin was added to copper to make bronze.  Today, as in ancient times, tin is a major impurity in silver.

A modern-day use of tin is to cover other metals, so they don’t rust or oxidize.  Iron our next metal is treated this way; it hides or protects it from contact with other things.  Even though we call cans from the grocery store “tin cans” they are really made of iron.  In our modern slang attaching the word “tin” to something carries an inferior or cheap label. Examples are a “tin ear”, a “tinny sound”, a “tin man.”  Even in the movie The Wizard of Oz the “tin man” was rusted and had to be oiled; if he was pure tin that would not have been necessary, he was only tin-plated.

In people, “tin”, like lead, comes from the outside of us. The “tin things” in our lives will harden us and even change the way we look; just as copper changes color and becomes harder when tin is added to it to make bronze.  In 2 Samuel 12 Bathsheba was a “tin” to David.  Even though Solomon was born, this incident changed David’s life he had a lot of unrest and bloodshed in his family from then on.  Fear of things will act as “tin” and can have a great influence on our lives by limiting or covering us and changing our perspective and even our habit patterns.