Category Archives: Israel

Christmas Trivia

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Now for some Christmas trivia questions!

 1. Was Jesus actually born in December?

No, because just like now shepherds are not “in the field keeping watch over their flocks at night” in December – it is too cold.  What is really important is not when we celebrate but that He was born and that the world celebrates Jesus with us.

2. How many wise men were there?

We do not really know. Tradition holds to three wise men and we have even given them names.  I think we have concluded that there were three because there were three gifts.

3. When did the wise men show-up?

Probably two years after the actual birth. In the book of Matthew the wise men find Mary and the baby in a house not in a stable.  Also Herod killed all the baby boys two years old and under because that is the “time” that the wise men gave Herod.

4. Is Jesus a grandson of Solomon?

No, Mary’s lineage that is listed in the book of Luke goes back to David’s son Nathan (Luke 3:31,32). However, both Mary and Joseph do have Zerubbabel in their lineage.  Zerubbabel is the governor of Israel that is responsible for rebuilding the Temple – see Haggai, Zechariah and Ezra.  There is an interesting reference in Zechariah 12:12 about the family of David and Nathan.

5. Jesus is our High Priest but how could He be a priest if He is not in the line of Aaron?

This may be a stretch but please follow long. Mary went to go visit Elizabeth her “cousin.” Elizabeth had to be in the line of Aaron in order to be married to Zechariah, who was behind the curtain in the Temple when the angel visited him; so Mary was related to Aaron probably on her Mom’s side.  The scripture that backs this up is in Zechariah 6:9 -15 especially verses 12 + 13.

So have a very Merry Christmas and in the words of Tiny Tim, “God bless us ever one!”

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 1

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Metals have always been important to man and all of them are of use and value.  We have even given humans metal characteristics: good as gold, dirty copper, you sunk like lead.  In the Old Testament of the Bible God told Jeremiah, that he was to be a tester of metals and that the Israelites were the ore that Jeremiah was to observe and test. With God having given Jeremiah this command, I wondered what lessons there were to be learned. (Jeremiah 6:27)

In the Bible Israel is described as being a “land flowing with milk and honey” but it only had copper and iron as naturally occurring metals.  Lead, tin, silver, and gold all had to be imported by dealing with foreign nations. So let us look at the six metals (In the Bible six represents the number of man.) that were used in Israel during Bible times and see if we can observe something about people and how we behave.

Lead, then as now, was used to make fishing weights, and solder, and it was something to be inscribed into.  Lead may have been imported in pure form into Israel; if it was an impurity in another metal, such as lead in silver, the refining process required great heat and air so that it could be burned out or separated from the other metal.

In people, lead symbolizes the things from outside of us that keep us held down in the spirit and in the natural.  Worrying, fighting, and just dealing with these “imported” things can “solder” us together and give shape to our lives.  Only the heat and wind of the Holy Spirit will refine the lead out of our lives.  An example of “lead” was the grumbling aliens that followed Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land.  The aliens kept complaining and caused Israel to stumble.  Another example of “lead” would be if you have ever been told by someone that you are useless and no good and you have believed what was said about you instead of believing what God says about you.

Patriarch Timeline

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I put this together to reference with several future studies, I hope it will be useful.

The biggest mistake that may exist is when Esau and Jacob were born; I gave about a five year gap, it may have been longer (probably was) . These are approximate lines; I used Excel and let every box be 5 years.  If it was longer than five years that would put Isaac dying before Jacob went to Egypt. That is a pretty good guess since we do not hear about Jacob traveling back once he is in Egypt.

The other information piece that I did not put in is when Abraham married Keturah; that is partly because we don’t know exactly.  You may get the idea that it was after Sarah died but it easily could have been before and she was around to help take care of the household as Sarah health and abilities were failing.  If they were married before Sarah’s death some of her children would have shared the camp with Esau and Jacob.

Please see my new attempt at Isaac and Jacob’s life. It may still not be 100% accurate but it is better.

Jacob/Israel what really was his name?

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Names are always a great place to start when studying the Bible.  It could be the name of a person or a place but a quick look in your concordance will give you plenty of questions to start a Bible study off with.

One that I find interesting is when God changed the names of Abraham and Jacob.  Abraham who started out Abram and Jacob who went to Israel have provided plenty of study time for me.  It is this discrepancy of why when Abram went to Abraham he was never called Abram again in the Bible; Jacob on the other hand managed to be called both names through the rest of Scripture.  Once Abram became the “father of many nations” that title stuck and the name change/prophecy went into effect.

Jacob or “heal catcher” became Israel or “he will rule (as) God” when he ran away with his family back to the land of Canaan. As you read that part of Genesis it would seem like God made the name change twice (chapter 32 & 35).  But before you can get out of chapter 35 he is called Jacob again several times.  In many places in Psalms and the Prophets the names Jacob and Israel appear together in the same passage.

Questions that are still waiting an answer: Did “Jacob” ever really become “Israel?” Did Jacob block, stop, or limit the change?  Was this “limited” change on purpose; was the “perfect” will of God carried out?

Having asked those questions I will say this, it seems that the duel use of the names show a natural Jewish people and a spiritual Jewish people.  And when I read many of the passages with both names it is very clear that both are equally loved and treasured.