Category Archives: Bible Study

Tree of Knowledge – Trees and Garden in Ezekiel

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In this post, I will focus on the trees in chapter 31 of Ezekiel.  In studying the topic of trees in the Book of Ezekiel I saw four groupings of trees throughout its chapters:

  1. Chapters 6 – 20 – are a mixture of unfaithfulness and judgment. 
  2. Chapter 31 – Pharaoh and his hordes being compared to Assyria.
  3. Chapters 34 and 36 – a promise of provision and “more than enough”.
  4. Chapters 40 and 41 – palm trees (art) in the new temple.

Fact – Bible Gateway (NIV) has Ezekiel with thirty verses that have the word trees in it.  That is more verses with the word “tree” than any other book in the Bible.

Chapter 31 starts with a timestamp of the “eleventh year, the first day of the third month” and verse 29:20 has the “eleventh year, the seventh day of the first month” so some background is in order.  I will digress and talk about world events outside of this chapter to help explain what we are reading.  The two timestamps are Ezekiel’s time in exile with King Jehoiachin (see 1:2) and possibly referring to the Hebrew calendar.  So first, it is after Passover and in the time of the “Counting of the Omer” that leads to what Christians call Pentecost (see Leviticus 23).  This is from the month and day portion of the timestamps.  The eleventh year is placing this just before the fall of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 39:2).

The Other Prophets – A part of this study that has been eye-opening is that Zephaniah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Daniel where all alive at this time.  Jeremiah was nearing his death and the fall of Jerusalem.  Daniel was in the time period of his first four chapters – the fiery furnace, golden statues, and dreams interpreted.  (Like Jeremiah, I do not believe that Ezekiel and Daniel are in chronological order within their chapters.)  I wonder just how much of their doings and prophecies were known to the others?  We know from Daniel’s fast that he was aware of the seventy-year exile that was spoken by Jeremiah. Zephaniah may be the oldest of the group but little of his background is known except that he was active during the reign of Josiah (1:1). 

World Events – This will be a brief placement of Tyre, Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt in context with Ezekiel 28 through 31.  You will need to do your own searches on these topics as I am not giving references.  There are too many and they seem to overlap or not go far enough on any one topic. 

  1. Tyre – In chapter 28 the king of Tyre is given the characteristics of Satan and his fall into pride is discussed (See the Bad Guy post).  Tyre was destroyed by Babylon, even though it was on an island.  It was part of the Assyrian Empire and is associated with Lebanon. 
  2. Assyria – This is the nation that defeated and exported Northern Israel and brought the “Samaritans” to take their place.  By Ezekiel’s time, Assyria had been defeated by Babylon, so they were a good object lesson. 
  3. Babylon – They are a good/evil tree in the history of mankind.  In their day they were a chosen instrument to do the bidding of God, unfortunately, they took things to unneeded levels and reaped that reward.  But the empire did do much for humanity.  The use of Babylon as an example goes all the way into the book of Revelations.
  4. Egypt – The focus of Ezekiel 29 through 32 is Egypt.  By this time, they had been defeated by Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish.  Josiah had been killed in the fighting with Neco, as he was going to Carchemish.  Neco also changed who was king in Israel setting the stage for Jerusalem’s fall.  They are given to Babylon as plunder in 29:17. This verse’s timestamp seems out of place!  The twenty-seventh year may refer to his age but that still is out of place (1:1), or this was his very first word from the Lord. Very little of Egypt’s and Israel’s interactions could be considered good.  Starting with Abraham Egypt has been a snare for Israel and all of the words from the Lord are about to be fulfilled.  Egypt would still be a “player” but never the world power that it had been.

 Trees and the Garden – The analogy of Pharaoh and Assyria uses the metaphor of trees to explain the fallen angels and Satan with the men/nations who supported them.  I am going on the premise that the “garden of God” and “garden of Eden” are being used to separate the ideas of angels and men.  To me the trees in the “garden of God” in verse eight are angels and a transition occurs in verse nine to bring both realms together, and then in verses 16 – 18 it shifts to the men who are the allies.  The end results of these comparisons were that Babylon did humble Assyria and that Egypt would fair no better.  

In the Bible – The Book of Jonah was written about the city of Nineveh, which at that time was the capital of Assyria.  

The words to Ezekiel are not done with the enemies of God before He sets up the New Jerusalem.  The “unfaithful shepherds”, Edom, and Gog are still to be dealt with before the “valley of dry bones” becomes God’s army and the new Temple comes.  Edom is the land of Esau, Jacob’s brother.  Gog has been referenced as Russia or China, but I am starting to think that it is Europe and the coalition of the Beast.

So, starting with the trees of the garden in chapter 31 I wonder if the rest of the Book is a “timeline” of events before the return of Jesus?

pic ; http://clipart.christiansunite.com/Bible_Characters_Clipart

The Number Twenty-one in the Bible

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Twenty-one in the Bible is associated with four major topics and a minor one.  The minor topic is found in 1 Chronicles 24 + 25.  These references are the list of people who have a job that has been assigned to them and the numerical order of these people.

The four major topics are Zedekiah, Daniel’s fasting, the seventh month, and the Passover and unleavened bread.

  1. 2 Kings 24:18, 2 Chronicles 36:11, and Jeremiah 52:1 reference that King Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began his reign of Jerusalem/Judah.  He would have been ten years old when his father Josiah died.  He was the last king of Israel, until Jesus, and he did not follow God or listen to the prophets.  2 Chronicles 36 mirrors Jeremiah 52 and gives a good summary of his life.  Nebuchadnezzar made him king and changed his name from Mattaniah (gift of God) to Zedekiah (Yahweh is righteousness).  He is one of several people in the Bible to have their name changed.  The change may have been to remind him to follow the rules!  The ten and twenty-one we will see again in another topic. 
  2. Daniel 10:13 is part of the story of Daniel’s fast.  The twenty-one days have become important parts of fasting and warfare narratives.  In studying this I feel it is important to remember the reason and the timing of his fast.  The reason was the ending of the seventy years of rest for the land.  Okay, that is also the time that Jerusalem would be vacant before Cyrus king of Persia would let Israel go home.  If “the first month” was the Jewish religious calendar this fast went through the time of Passover.  (Which started on the tenth of the month and went to the twenty-first of the month with the end of Feast of the Unleavened Bread.  So, Daniels’s fast could correspond to the birth/rebirth of the nation of Israel.)
  3. Exodus 12:18 is the reference for the first Passover and the ending of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  This should have been the time period for the crossing of the Red Sea and a time of freedom for Israel.
  4. The last major topic also deals with the Feast on the twenty-first day of the seventh month.  The best reference is Haggai 2:1 when a word of encouragement went to Zerubbabel.  This occurred in the seventh month or during the time of the Feast of Tabernacles.  This commemorates Israel living in tents for forty years.  This feast comes after the Day of Atonement, which is on the tenth day of the seventh month. (Study Leviticus 23.) The prophet Jeremiah was also being taken to Egypt, against his will, during this time period after the fall of Jerusalem.

The twenty-first letter of the Jewish alphabet is “shin” and it is the letter that looks like a crown.  The number value of shin in the Hebrew language is 300.  This letter is associated with the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) because its gematria is 300. To appreciate the full scope of shin go to Chabad.org as they have a good article on this topic.

An interesting “twenty-one” I found is in Luke 3:34-38.  Start with Adam, as number one, and count to Abraham.  I just read in my devotional book that we give up the curse of Adam at the cross and take on the blessing of Abraham – who is twenty-one from Adam.

 

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/137093/jewish/Shin-Sin.htm

https://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_One/Aleph-Bet/Shin/shin.html

https://imgbin.com/png/b8eFPpq5/shin-hebrew-alphabet-letter-png

I do not believe in “good luck” numbers as Jesus does not do things by luck.  But because of this study, I would associate the number twenty-one with the Feasts of Israel and the beginning of the nation.

Jeremiah – Family

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Jeremiah and his family are a major topic in the Book/prophecies of Jeremiah.  Chapters 6 + 8 are directed at the “priest and prophets” which are Jeremiah’s uncles, cousins, and father/grandfather.  Hilkiah is the High Priest for Israel.  Baruch, Jeremiah’s scribe, introduces Jeremiah as the “son of Hilkiah” Jeremiah 1:1.  This phrase puts Jeremiah as a family member, possibly a real son/child but at least a grandson.  More importantly, it means that Jeremiah could have been the High Priest or at the very least been a part of the daily duties and sacrifices of the Temple.  Ezra, who wrote the book, is also identified as a “son of Hilkiah” and so he was a relative of Hilkiah/Jeremiah.  We can extend this relationship to Zachariah the father of John the Baptist, Luke 1: 5 because he was a priest.  

Hilkiah and his family are mentioned in 2 Kings 18, 22, 23, 1 Chronicles 6:13, 2 Chronicles 34, and Isaiah 36.  He was the priest that “found” the Book of the Law for King Josiah and helped in restoring the Temple.  I called Jeremiah possibly a true child of Hilkiah because “the word of the Lord” came to him during the lifetime of Josiah.  This could put Jeremiah’s birth early in the reign of Josiah. Many other brothers, cousins, and uncles are mentioned in the references I gave.  All of these family members add to the drama/narrative in Jeremiah and make Jeremiah the misfit/standout of the family.

Some background – Jeremiah’s hometown was Anathoth of Benjamin, which is one of the towns given to the Levitical families by Moses/Joshua.  The field that Jeremiah bought in chapter 32:7 was in Anathoth.

Hilkiah (#2518 in Strong’s) means “Portion of Jah”.  

Jeremiah (#3414) means Jah will rise.

In case you are noticing that many names, especially in this family, have “iah” or “el” as a portion of the name.  It is because “iah” and el refer to the Eternal or Jah/God.  Israelites took the name of God very seriously and considered it holy and it was not used in common speech.  Jah was one version that could be said out loud or pronounced. 

Names within families were frequently “recycled” as part of the tradition and a way of honoring relatives.  (That is why the name John was questioned in Luke.)  See 1 Chronicles 6, especially 3 – 13, for details on the family tree of Levi and Aaron.  Also 1 Chronicles 9:10 -13.  Remember that there was a shift in the priesthood in the days of Samuel, David, and Solomon, which had to do with Eli and several other factors during those days. See Samuel and the Priest.  From other studies about priests, I know that a High Priest may not serve long, just a few years.

It is not mentioned that Jeremiah ever married. (Jeremiah 16:2 the Lord told him not to marry.) If he had the bride would have been a member of the Levitical/priestly clan as it was required to keep the bloodline pure.    

Mother – Jeremiah 15:10 is the end of a section that starts in verse eight.  The section starts with widows, and goes to “mothers of young men”, and a mother of seven, and then to Jeremiah’s mother.  Now, you could make an argument that the term “mother” is referring to Israel and that is possibly another level.  But verse ten is referring to Jeremiah’s mother.  It is a recurring idea that Jeremiah was not a “happy camper”, he has several complaints against God and this verse seems to edge on blaming his mother for his birth.

In Jeremiah 20:14 his mother is mentioned again.  This is part of one of Jeremiah’s complaints, this one begins in verse 7 and goes to number 18.  Once again Jeremiah is not directly blaming his mother for his problems, but if she was still alive this would have been a hard saying for her to hear.  I choose to take Jeremiah’s statements as a lament for the pain that he is feeling and what it must have been doing to her.  Remember, she was of Aaron’s linage.  She should have been “important” in the sense that she was married to the High Priest.  I could also believe that she was being blamed for Jeremiah and his not conforming to “family standards.”

Brother – Jeremiah 29 is best known for verse eleven and the prophecy that Daniel is praying about in Daniel 9, the one about seventy years.  This chapter also introduces us to Gemariah.  He was special and important enough to Jeremiah that Gemariah was entrusted with the letter to the Exiles in Babylon.  Gemariah would have been a brother/half-brother to Jeremiah because he is also a “son of Hilkiah.” (That is taking for granted that Hilkiah may have been alive or just died.) So, it is possible that not “all of the world” was against Jeremiah. 

Cousin/Uncle – This is a good time to remind us that names were frequently reused, refer to 1 Chronicles 6 + 9 for example.  Jeremiah 32: 6 has Hanamel son of Shallum coming to sell a field to Jeremiah.  Jeremiah does buy the field in Benjamin and seals up the deeds for future reference.  (I THINK that Jeremiah was being taken advantage of by his uncle/cousin because of the imprisonment and the siege.  But Jeremiah did this as a prophetic gesture so my opinion counts very little.)  There are many Shallums in the Levitical family and the officials of the court and other officers of the Temple.  It is very possible that the court officials were Levities.

Tree of Knowledge – The Bad Guy In This Story

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In the story of the Tree of Knowledge and the Garden, a look at the “bad guy” is in order.  No, this is not Adam but the serpent.  Why not just call him Satan?  Good question.  According to BAS (Bible Archaeology Society), the term Satan was not in use when Genesis was written.  I have no problem in the thought that it is Satan; let us look at a set of scriptures that connect a “type” of Satan with the Garden and his fall.

Ezekiel 28: 1- 19 is three different prophecies to the ruler/king of Tyre, again the word Satan is not used in this chapter.  Parts of these messages are directed at a “man and a physical place” while other phrases make no sense if we try to imagine them talking about a human.  The verse that is important for this study is #13, “you were in Eden, the garden of God”.  Verse 14 identifies this ruler as a guardian cherub, #15 says he was blameless, but #16 talks about trade, violence, and sinning.

Verse 2, 5, and 17 mentions that pride was the reason for his (Satan’s) downfall.  Verse 17 mentions that his wisdom was also corrupted because of his beauty and splendor.  (All my references are from the NIV.)  Place these ideas into the Garden narrative and there are similar problems that Eve and Adam faced.  The fruit was “pleasant to the eyes” and “desirable for gaining wisdom”.

Other interesting facts about Tyre are: 

  1. It would have been in the land that had belonged to the Tribe of Asher.
  2. Jesus healed a little girl that lived in that place.
  3. We tend to lump it together with Sidon.  But starting at verse 20 Sidon gets its own judgment.  Verse 24 to 26 seem to reference Israel, this is interesting because Asher and the people of the northern kingdom were relocated many years before this prophecy.
  4. The town of Zarephath is in Sidon just up the coast from Tyre.

Humility and pride are opposites.  It is very easy now to see why the Father used Moses (most humble man) and opposes anyone that is ruled by pride.

Jeremiah – 6 + 8

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In Jeremiah 6:12 – 15 and 8:10 – 12 are two identical thoughts/statements.  Actually, the body of those verses is the same with just the first verse in both carrying the same thought with different wording.  Psalm 14 and 53 are also similar sets of verses, so things being repeated in the Bible are not unusual.  When you find “repeats” it is a good idea to give them some extra attention.

Jeremiah, the book, is a collection of prophecies, history, and “family” problems that are recorded by Baruch son of Neriah (36:4 and chapter 45).  Jeremiah’s ministry covers about forty years (1:2+3), Josiah had eighteen more years, and the other two kings had eleven-year reigns.  (There will be other studies on topics of Jeremiah’s life and ministry.)

We will start with a summary of those two sets of verses and then look at some of the topics before, in-between, and behind 8:12.  In this block of prophecies are many “says the Lord” with a few variations off of this idea.  Since we like to read things in a linear timeline within “books of the Bible” it is really hard for us to deal with the concept that not all of these may have been said one right after the other.  We know Baruch wrote more than one copy of this text.  The “history” with in the book does seem to go fairly linear but chapters 46 through 51 could have been “pieced together” by Jeremiah/Baruch for better reading.  It seems that Chapters 6 – 9 may have come over a longer period of time than what we would except.  Plus 6:27 – 30 seems disconnected within the chapter. (That is a section on metals, the people, and Jeremiah.  See What Type of Metal Are You.)  I would have put it there because of Jeremiah’s statement that starts this group of prophecies – Jeremiah does not know who he will speak this message too (6:10+11).  However, in keeping with the restating of the same thought, 9:7 does refer to refining and testing.  NOTE. I do think that the similar verse in chapters 6 and 8 was spoken at different times and these utterances may have been years apart.

I will work from 6:12 – 15 as this is really the section that caught my attention.  Verse twelve (actually the thought starts in 11b) promises that land, houses, and wives will be taken away and given to someone else. This promise is focused on prophets and priests (v 13).  I need to remind myself that Jeremiah is of the priestly family and he is a prophet.  He is speaking to family, which is why the priest and prophets come against him so hard.  A reference for prophets is 28:1 and for the priest, it is 5:30 + 31.  

Some of the standout thoughts are that these “men of God” dress the “wound” of the people and proclaim “peace, peace” while they are lying and looking out for themselves.  The fact that the wound is singular in both sections brings me to think at unfaithfulness is the problem, with the priest excusing bad conduct, in all of its forms, as not a real problem.  The people can see that judgment is coming but they are being told that it will not affect them because they such “good people” and are “okay”.  

Other areas that will be worked with are below.

  • Verse 6:16 is one statement that caught my attention in reading this section.  It is part of the message that John the Baptist spoke as he prepared the way for Jesus. 
  • Chapter 7: 1- 29 calls out the regular people for their unfaithfulness and unwillingness to follow God.  Verse 23 is the Lord restating His commands and expectations.  This will be a separate post, but these commands were given to the family of Israel starting in Genesis and restated in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. 
  • 7:30 to 8:3 talks about Topheth.  This valley had a long ugly history that possibly started with Solomon and his unfaithfulness to God as he honored his many wives over the Lord.

THOUGHTS: I will extend this series and cover other topics in Jeremiah.  Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel are contemporaries but are writing from three different viewpoints.