Category Archives: Bible Study

Salem or Sodom – Bera, King of Sodom

Posted on by
3

Bera may be the most audacious person in the Bible! He is also a type and shadow of the devil. First, he is a king who allowed and possibly encouraged his people to sin. He then takes part in a rebellion against his overlord with the other rulers of the Valley of Siddium. They lose to the coalition lead by Kedorlaomer. The kings with the armies go hide in the hills while their families and towns are looted. The rout and panic of his army were so bad they were falling in tar pits. Then he expects to get his stuff/people given back to him! (Genesis 14)

Abram and his friends come in and save the day, and are traveling back toward Salem probably heading to his village. Out of the hills/hiding come Bera and meets Abram in the Valley of Shaveh or king’s valley, which is identified as the valley near Jerusalem. (The only other mention of a king’s valley in the Bible is in 2 Samuel 18:18 in a reference to Absalom.) I am sure there are a lot of ways to look at the goods Abram recovered, but it is possible that not all of it belonged to the Jordan River valley kings. So Abram could have made claim to everything he had just won and really who was going to take it from him, the kings who had just lost it! So Abram honors the Lord and gives a tithe to Melchizedek. I think the wicked king was getting nervous about losing so much stuff with no chance of getting it back. To curb the flow of goods Bera asks/claims the people, so Abram tells him what is going to happen and why. The nerve of that guy to be asking or claiming anything is unbelievable. But one thing is for sure, Salem brought the party and Sodom brought nothing.

Bera, just like the devil, knows people are more valuable than goods. The riches could have been a distraction for Abram because once you have all of that stuff you have to fight to keep it and Bera would have had more people.

The lesson to be learned here is what Bera/the devil does to a Christian in a fight. Abram had gotten a victory and probably was just hoping for some quiet time. But out comes someone to congratulate you on the victory. Many times that person will be a distraction from what you need, which is what Melchizedek brought, something to refresh and strengthen you. We Christians usually equate the bread and wine with communion but the truth is Melchizedek was throwing a party (feeding) for the victor because they were tired. Abram wisely discerned that Bera and the goods were not the reason he went to battle, that was to get his family back and that mission was accomplished. Bera lost everything, hid while someone else got the job done, and still claimed he was owed something.

https://www.biblicaltraining.org/library/valley-shaveh

Salem or Sodom – Abraham

Posted on by
25

Well, actually at this time he still was called Abram his name change is not for another three chapters. He would have been in his 80’s and had lived in Canaan less than ten years (16:3). He had made alliances with some of the locals and seemed to well established. He has had the foresight to train his men into a working army and claimed 318 who had been born in his house. That could have made his camp 1000 people strong and would have been a good-sized village. The importance of them having been born into his house speaks not only of loyalty but also the quality and intensity of their training. If his three allies also had similar camps that truly would have been a serious coalition. Josephus records this in Book 1 Chapter 10 and makes it sound like it was just the three brothers who went with Abram and not additional forces. If Aner, Esheol, and Mamre had brought troops the fighting force could have been up to 1,200 troops. Abram trusted these men enough to make a treaty with them so that speaks volumes about their character and abilities.

In musing over Genesis 14 I realized Abram went after Lot not after Sodom. So in verse 22 when he is talking to the king of Sodom, besides being a witness to a very heathen king, Abram is making it very clear he wanted nothing except what God would supply in his life. Given the fact that he had already decided his course of action before hand shows his intelligence and character.

We also need to look at the symbolism of this battle; Abram had victory over his past. The Euphrates River valley was his birthplace so his victory sealed his “new life” and showed his faith in the “Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth.”

Other facts:

  1. God will keep you in the know (vs. 13).
  2. Someone did some editing because it was not “Dan” yet (vs. 14).
  3. Ancient Elam and Shinar equate to modern Iran and Iraq it seems they have been bullies for a long time.

Jordan vs. Euphrates

Posted on by
14

The_Euphrates_Valley_-_Syria,_Kurdistan,_et_cetera_by_Edward_Stanford_Ltd._-_WDL

  • The Jordan River starts near Mount Hermon and flows to the Dead Sea this distance is 124 miles (200 km) but because it meanders it is about 223 miles (360 km) in length.
  • The Euphrates River starts in Turkey near the Ararat Mountains and flows to the Persian Gulf, approximately 1,740 miles (2,800 km).
  • According to Google if you walk from one to the other it could take you 280 hours, about 12 days because it is 862.9 miles (1388.6 km).

The people who have inhabited these two river valleys have been at odds with each other for a very long time. In the Bible, the first mention of this fighting is in Genesis 14 where the kings of Elam and Shinar (Babylon) are attacking the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah. The only reason this makes it into the Bible is that Abram’s nephew Lot is taken captive and is being carried away as a slave. Abram (Abraham) along with his allies quickly put a stop to this and chase away the Euphrates River kings. This thrashing went on for more than 40 miles and ended with a recovery of people and property.

http://www.britannica.com

“The Euphrates Valley – Syria, Kurdistan, et cetera by Edward Stanford Ltd. – WDL” by Edward Stanford Ltd. – http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11694/. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Euphrates_Valley_-_Syria,_Kurdistan,_et_cetera_by_Edward_Stanford_Ltd._-_WDL.png#mediaviewer/File:The_Euphrates_Valley_-_Syria,_Kurdistan,_et_cetera_by_Edward_Stanford_Ltd._-_WDL.png

Jehu and the Prophets

Posted on by
1

Jehu had contact with at least three prophets (four if you count the one who anointed him) during his lifetime: Elijah, Elisha, and Micaiah. Jehu was an army commander during the days of Ahab and if you put together 2 Kings 9: 24 – 26 and 1 Kings 21: 17 – 23 it is apparent that Jehu was present when Elijah spoke the destruction that was to come to Ahab’s house. I find it interesting when someone is present when a word from the Lord is spoken and years later the hearer of that word is part of the fulfillment of the prophecy. No doubt Jehu would have also heard Elijah’s announcement from the Lord about how Ahab had humbled himself and that the word would come upon his son (1 Kings 21: 29).

As a commander of the army, it is also to be expected that Jehu was present when Micaiah prophesied against Ahab and he died. This should have had an impact on him and how he viewed words from the Lord. But his attitude is hard to read in the story of his anointing. At first, glance, when the young man came with the word from Elisha Jehu, seems to downplay his anointing until the other officers become serious about the oil dripping from his head (See Jehu – The Start). But this show of support may have been what he really wanted to see before he would act openly on that word.

Elisha was the other prophet that he would have been around and you have to wonder if he was the prophet who delivered the word in 2 Kings 10: 30. Jehu was promised and received four generations of his family as kings of Israel (See 2 Kings 15: 12). Elisha was present for Jehu, Jehoahaz, and Jehoash (13: 14). It is a shame that even with all of this help from the Lord Jehu would/could not follow the Lord more closely (10: 31) (See Jeroboam- The Lord Your God for the sin that Israel stayed in). But it must be pointed out that God in His love gave Jehu every chance and three solid men of God to help him.

I still am in awe of God for loving Israel so much that He sent Elijah and Elisha to them andJehoshaphat's Timeline not to Judah. God tried hard to get them to change but they would not. In reading the start of 2 Kings it would seem that Elijah’s chariot ride to heaven happened right after Ahab’s death but he wrote a letter to Jehoram condemning his treachery and pronouncing his death. That could add about nine years before the cloak fell to Elisha. So exactly when all of the miracles in 2 Kings 2 – 8 happened we can not tell because the chronicler talks about kings but does not name them. It is possible that Elijah was alive to see the word he spoke against Ahab come to pass.

Rats in the Bible

Posted on by
8

There are not a lot of references to rats or mice (KJV) in the Bible. The first is Leviticus 11: 29 where the eating of rats and other animals is forbidden. They were and are used as food by the people in surrounding countries. You can see Peter’s dream in Acts 10: 12 containing all of these animals.  If you have ever owned mice or hamsters you know they like to surround themselves with their fecal droppings and it is a safe bet that is why God did not want them eaten. The second reference is the one that most people think about when you talk about rats or mice in the Bible; 1 Samuel 6 tells the story when the Philistines have captured the Ark and God inflects them with tumors and they send a guilt offering of golden rats and tumors. The last verse is Isaiah 66:17 were a special curse is reserved for those who go to pagan temples and eat rats. 2 Kings19: 35 historically is connected to rats chewing on equipment and spreading the disease to Sennacherib’s army. Chewing and gnawing on things and destroying fields of grain is what rats/mice do and they are really good at it.

See Rats #2 for ideas about their meaning and appearance in dreams.

Several references will tell you that there are many species of rodents (twenty-three at least) in the land of Israel. They are hamsters, sand rats, Jerboas (a hopping rat with big ears), and a gopher/groundhog/mole-like animal. My NIV concordance specifically listed Jerboas as a possibility for the animal in Samuel. The pictures are a sand rat and the sore is from a parasite that uses them as a host for their larva. If those sores are what the Philistines had no wonder they wanted to get rid of the Ark of God.

Psammomys_obesus_roudairei_(Psammomys_roudairei)_-_Museo_Civico_di_Storia_Naturale_Giacomo_Doria_-_Genoa,_Italy_-_DSC02815                     Leishmaniasis_ulcer