Category Archives: Out of Egypt

Bread in the Bible – Epiousios

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Because epiousios is in Matthew 6:11 and Luke 11:3 it is the second best-known bread in the Bible. Those references are in the center of the Lord’s Prayer, along with forgiveness, and they contain the special Greek word epiousios. How special? It is only used twice in the corpus of Greek writings and literature. Okay, I did not say just the Bible, I said all of Greek literature before the time of Jesus. (God bless translators.) It has been rendered “daily”. Never have I heard this word or how special it is; take some time and check out these links. O the verse- Give us this day our DAILY bread. (Mark translation.)

Since there is nothing to compare it to, my first reaction was MANNA! What is this special concept in the Lord’s Prayer that is sandwiched between “give us this day” and “bread”? “Daily” has worked; “for the coming day” may be just as good, or is there even more? As this is a study, I will put it in context with the Sermon on the Mount and then break that compound word down. After all of that, I will share my crust with you (The crust on a loaf of bread is special to me.).

Luke – Only Matthew and Luke recorded this prayer by the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit. Luke had heard this prayer many times before he wrote it to Theophilus. There are slight variations between the two in the Greek text but that should be expected. Others have added more and bigger changes than these slight variations. (I am working on a study on the Lord’s Prayer.) Luke 11 to me is the start of his version of the Sermon on the Mount, it does go for a few chapters.

Thoughts on the Word

The Author of Creation and the Word of Life coined a word. Epiousios was not a mistake or an accident. If you look at verse 11, it could have been said “Give us today our bread” and the meaning would have been clear.

I thank the Father for the food we have to eat and His grace for willingly taking care of my family. Do I have a simple explanation for epiousios. No, but the study has moved some “tent pegs” because my God has pushed my box out of shape. I will try to put this compound word into the context of Jesus’ sermon and His teachings for His Kingdom. Now, let’s think above our possessions.

The Sermon – I need to start/mention the baptism of Jesus (3:13), which compares to the Children passing through the Red Sea. He then goes into the wilderness and is tempted (4:1-4). The first temptation is about bread or what He needs to live on. (If it is just a number reference it is from Matthew.) Jesus then picks up and adds to John the Baptist’s message; the good news that the kingdom of heaven/God is near (4:17) and He is healing every disease (4:23). Remember that the Children came out of Egypt healed. Relax take a breath and view the Sermon as a Jesus version of the Ten Commandments and the Law. Now consider how food, water, manna, and quail played into the trip to the mountain where they met God. A note to myself – they had gold, silver, and possessions but no food or water; what did they complain about?

The Sermon has several references to food, eating, and what is needed to maintain our lives. I decided the best way to study these was to list them.

  • 5:6 – those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
  • 5:13 – you are salt (needed for life) stay flavorful
  • 5:42 – help those who need to borrow from you
  • 6:11 – gives us bread every day and “more”. We could be praying every day for what we need tomorrow. It could be a statement to give us above what we need so we can share.
  • 6:19 – watch what you are storing up
  • 6:25 – life is more important than food, Father knows we need it so don’t worry
  • 6:31 – don’t worry about what to drink or eat
  • 7:9 – if you ask Father for bread or fish, He is not going to give you something harmful
  • 7:16-20 – good fruit comes from good trees

Actual and metaphorical these verses help to open the Kingdom and show the righteous relations that God wants with the Body of Christ and that we are to have with the other parts of the Body. Luke 6:38 with the “good measure” being poured for us, then pressed, shaken, and running over is exhorting us to get out of our box and give above what is sufficient. I am beginning to feel that is a good picture of epiousios.

The Parts

Epi is a prefix in Greek, and I have seen it as a word. It can mean upon or above. We are talking about Father God, the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills.

Ousios in our “modern” jargon carries the concept of substance or being. In the Wiki article above that concept was part of the trinitarian doctrine and the controversy that arose in the early church. See Luke 15:12+13.

My Musings

I may say “daily” but I am not sure I can go that small in my thinking ever again.

Metaphorically I can see epiousios as the crust on a loaf of bread. It is on top of the substance that most people like. It has formed from the heat changing the dough to make a shield for the soft inner part. The crust can have a pleasant color. It gives me something to chew on while I enjoy the softer inside. Personally, I like to eat the crust.

Many kernels of grain are needed to make a loaf of bread. They are picked, ground up, and mixed together to make bread. The Body of Christ has many individual “kernels” that are being prepared so we can be the Bride and be presented spotless and perfect.   

Artos in the Book of Matthew

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Artos is the Greek word for bread and loaves (Strong’s G 740), and I like using Matthew as a reference point. There are kernels of truth in many other verses in the New Testament about bread, and if you look into the Hebrew, you will find lechem. The town of Bethlehem is the town of bread. So, grab a donut or make a sandwich, and let’s start studying bread. ἄρτος | Free Online Greek Dictionary | billmounce.com

Matthew 6:11, which is in the center of the Lord’s Prayer and started this study, that will be another post. After having sliced through the crust of this topic, I found many questions that needed looking at. But we will start in Matthew 4.

Jesus was fasting and the “tempter” started his grinding attacks with a “what if”. The challenge was to make bread. Elegant sermons abound for this story, and I will not attempt to match them. So, I am going to ask questions. Why stones? Stones indicate that man had used them for something. I would expect rocks to be out in the wilderness. Why bread? I love the smell of fresh bread, but what about the fragrant aroma of beef, lamb, or bird? (Check Leviticus 1, all of those are parts of sacrifices.) Jesus’ answer, in verse 4 may give us a clue or open the bag for several metaphors for bread used in Matthew and beyond. Bread, leavened or not, barley, or wheat (See Ruth 2) were the mainstay of the diet, in Egypt they even used baked bread to make the beer. We should fill our larders every day with the words of God so we can taste the righteousness and get strength from the grace that Jesus opened up to us.

I think it is fair to take a Muse Moment and look at 7:9 when in the Sermon Jesus flips the pan and asks who would give his son a stone instead of bread. The word again is lithos and not petra. Jesus is our petra, but when man “handled Him” He became the cornerstone that would cause them to stumble.

I am not leaving out any ingredients in this study, just mixing them in a slightly different order. My next stop is 12:4 where Jesus is not getting along with the Pharisees because of heads of grain. Those heads of grain put this story between Passover and the Feast of Trumpets. It had to be a carefully measured walk also because it was on the Sabbath and the Pharisees were tagging along. David and the Shewbread or Bread of the Presence and breaking the Law is the main sticking point this time. That consecrated bread is what was put into the Tabernacle to represent the twelve tribes of Israel. Jesus’ point is that He is the Lord of the Sabbath and that the Sabbath is not the lord of man. This is not a license to not rest with God one day a week, just do not make more rules to follow. Love God and love man is more than enough.

My guess is that those twelve loaves were made of barley (See Judges and the story of Gideon.) The recipe for those loaves is not written in the Law and only the priest knew how to make them. In Purpose or Prothesis, I asked about what they were made of during the forty years of wandering. They may have stayed in one place long enough to grow grain, but manna was their main food source. That of course makes them gluten-free for their time of wandering:)

I am not done, but I am hungry, so the other references on bread will be served up later.  

Bible 911 – Joshua

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Joshua 9:11 Wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying, Take victuals with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants: therefore now make ye a league with us. (KJV)

The 9th chapter of Joshua is about the Gibeonites. If I may, I would like to view the Book of Joshua with the idea of NEW. New leader, new land, new year, new problems, and new chances to see God move for them and through them. The “new” associated with the Gibeonites is the con/trick they pulled on Joshua and Israel. Up to this point in their history, people have held them in slavery and lied to them, attacked or threatened them, and caused them to sin. This con was because the Gibeonites feared them and did not want to fight this horde of people. This new problem came from an old curse.

The Hivites of Gibeon, Descendants of Ham

Genesis 10:6-20, 1 Chronicles 1, Joshua 3:10, and 1 Kings 9:20 all list the family groups that descended from Ham and Cannan. They settled in this land and they are the ones under the curse of Noah. That curse was they would serve the descendants of the Shem, who is the progenitor of Abram. The list will look like this – Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and the Jebusites. Joshua 9:7 calls the Gibeonites Hivites.

Hivite | The amazing name Hivite: meaning and etymology (abarim-publications.com)   

Biblical Canaanite descendants are still living in Lebanon, say geneticists (christiantoday.com)

 A fun side note here is Job is in the land of Uz. Uz is in Genesis 10:23 and is a descendant of Shem. 

Because of the Treaty

The first notable thing in 9:18 is that Israel grumbled. In the exodus under Moses, they grumbled when they had no bread, then they grumbled when they got tired of the bread (manna), and here Israel is grumbling because of dry, moldy bread. There is a pattern in all of that, I just do not know what it is. Another side note, Jesus our Bread of Life was born in the House of Bread. We need to remember that at this time the manna had stopped, and they were getting their own food.

Did they grumble because of Exodus 34:12 where God said to not make a treaty with anyone in the land? It could be that grumblers just like to grumble.

Joshua and the leaders did not do well in this treaty/league. Treaty and league are nice sounding terms, but they made a H1285 or covenant with these people. For them to break it would have been bad news, King Saul did, and a drought plagued the land under David’s rule.

So, they made them wood choppers and water carriers. Deuteronomy 29:11 states that there were foreigners in the exodus that had the job during the forty years of wandering. Joshua assigned the Gibeonites these chores for the Tabernacle and Gibeon was given to the Levites as one of their cities.  

A clause in the covenant must have been about mutual defense if attacked. Because when Adoni-Zedek, the king of Jerusalem attacked, the Gibeonites called for help. (Joshua 10:2) In 10:12 Joshua asks for a miracle and gets it, the sun “stands still” until he has beaten the Amorites. This miracle is mentioned in Isaiah 28:21.

To show how far the area had slipped into sin let’s look at the name Adoni-Zedek. Melchizedek was also the king of Jerusalem (Salem) and he was the priest of the Most High God in Genesis 14. Adoni-Zedek means lord of righteousness, he did not come out with bread and wine. Like Balaam, he did not keep the memo about listening to and believing the Most High God.

King Saul and the Gibeonites

2 Samuel 21 is a story that involves the Gibeonites, King Saul, Rizpah, and King David. Gibeon was in the area that was given to the tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 21:17). 1 Chronicles 9:35, Saul’s genealogy, says he had family from that city. Saul had relatives who lived by the Gibeonites, so his zeal may have had a monetary base. Anyway, he had tried to destroy them, which broke the covenant that Joshua had made with them. They must have cried out to God and He answered by stopping the rain for three years. Rizpah was Saul’s concubine who had two sons given to the Gibeonites, she kept scavengers from disturbing the bodies. No, I do not comprehend all of the “legal” aspects of this tale but it is plain that God was serious about that covenant.

Gibeon the City

This city and region are mentioned many times in the history of Israel and Judah.

  • There was a pool there. 2 Samuel 2:13 and Jeremiah 41:12 are fights that happened near this pool.
  • David moved Moses’ Tabernacle and the altar of offerings to a hill there when he took the Ark to Jerusalem, see 1 Chronicles 16:39, 21:29, 1 Kings 3:4, 2 Chronicles 1:3.

People of Gibeon

These may be Benjaminites or native Hivites.

  • 1 Chronicles 12:4 mentions a member of David’s elite bodyguard, Ishmaiah, who led the Thirty.
  • Hananiah, a false prophet, who opposed Jeremiah was from Gibeon. He was probably a priest or Levite.
  • Nehemiah mentions it twice – 3:7 and 7:25.

Joshua

Joshua was a great leader. How would you like to follow in the steps of Moses? He and Caleb were the oldest people in the camp and had watched their families all pass. He did the job he had been raised up for and with just one recorded mistake, not bad.

Numbers 27:18 and Deuteronomy 34:9 both speak of Joshua having the Spirit. The OJB uses the term Ruach HaKodesh which means spirit of wisdom or Holy Spirit.

Hebrew Names for God – Ruach HaKodesh (hebrew4christians.com)

Other posts I have done on Joshua – Joshua by the Books, and Joshua and Encouragement

Winds in the Bible – The Bible and Science

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Winds and directions are frequently written together in the Bible. Wind(s) are a tool that the Lord uses for His purposes. There is a metaphorical side of winds, but the physical aspect of air movement should not be downplayed, this includes the geographical location of the speaker.

The Science

Air moving can be pretty or a problem, but why can it move? Hot and cold, convections, high and low pressures, and the Coriolis Effect are drivers that put air into motion. Forgive me for breezing through this but all of those boil down to Sonshine and spin. The sun heats land and water and the air rises, if something goes up something comes down. The spinning of the earth causes rotary motion in the slower-moving air. (If a term is highlighted, please click on that, it is another post that may add to the topic.)

Location, location, location is important. Many of the references to wind are in Israel, so the Mediterranean Sea, deserts, mountain ranges, and the Sea of Galilee all influence the weather. Now to be a little geo-specific, Daniel, Ezekiel, and Job are not in Israel, Moses is in Egypt, and Noah and Jonah are near Turkey, Paul and much of Acts deal with the Mediterranean. Yes, all of those are in the same region, which is the area of the prevailing westerlies or 30 to 60 degrees north latitude. Into all of that throw in seasonal weather and winds becomes more of a complex issue. Remember if you are south of the Equator storms and wind directions may not be the same as in Israel. PS winds are usually named for where they are coming from not where they are going to.

Father God vs Mother Nature and the other guy  

How many times have you acknowledged someone for the weather? Mother Nature frequently gets the credit for nice weather and some rainy weather. Let it be a destructive storm and God usually gets the blame, even from nonbelievers. Ephesians 2:2 has an interesting phrase that Paul says about the air. There is a spirit that is the prince and power of the air, or Satan. Please notice how Satan never is credited with bad weather; think steal, kill, and destroy. Much of our weather is because of physical factors but there are times.

I try to think of Father God and not Mother Nature, just to give the credit where it is due.

There are six more topics to cover and I will try not to be blustery about them. So, study and use a concordance and Bible search tool, as I will not try to mention all of the references. I encourage you to use a parallel function in your tools as there can be small differences.

Four Winds or the Four Corners of Heaven

So, is this a metaphor, actual winds, or both? I will give examples of each and let you decide. Oh, get out your Bibles as I am giving only the reference.

Both 

  • Jeremiah 49:36 has Elam being pushed by the four winds and its people being sent everywhere.
  • Revelations 7:1 is a terrifying picture where angels are stopping the winds blowing all around the world. The hot air would rise and create a heat dome, which should play into 8:5 and provide the violent weather.

Real Winds

  • Ezekiel 37:9 is the verse where Ezekiel is told to prophesy to the four winds to give breath to the slain bodies.
  • Daniel 7:2 is a “night vision” where he sees the great sea being churned by winds from four directions.

Four Directions or All the Earth

  • Daniel 8:8 and 11:4
  • Zechariah 2:6 and 6:5
  • Matthew 24:31 and Mark 13:27 tell of when Jesus’ Church will be called by a loud trumpet call from all the earth.

West Wind

A very strong west wind in Exodus 10:19 pushes the locust from Egypt into the Red Sea. The NASB has the words west and wind in the same verse, but most translations say flood or a rushing stream, and the wind could be from the east. These are the only two verses I found.

North Wind

  • Ezekiel 1:4 is God’s introduction to the prophet. A strong wind from the north is pushing a huge lightning storm with something glowing on the inside; the Father knows how to make an entrance. Remember a sky full of angels singing to some shepherds.
  • The “hurricane” that pushed Paul to start a church in Malta, Acts 27:14, is called a Northeaster in some translations.
  • A north wind is frequently paired with a south wind as in Job 37:9. Solomon does this in several places in the Bible – Song of Songs 4:16 and Ecclesiastes 1:6.

South Wind

  • A south wind in Israel is coming from the desert, so it will be warm or hot.
  • Job uses many weather references, see 37:9 and 17 for south winds.
  • Luke, who adds great details, does it again in both his Gospel and Acts. Luke 12:55 has Jesus linking a south wind with it being hot. Acts 27:13 and 28:13 are on board the ships that take them to Rome. In Luke 11:31 he joins Matthew in talking about the Queen of the South. The word is notos or south wind.  

The next wind is the most named and is associated with judgment and correction. Use a Bible search tool as I will give a few examples. I have used Bible Gateway.

East Wind

  • Hosea 13:15 Though he may flourish among his brothers, the east wind, the wind of the Lord, shall come, rising from the wilderness, and his fountain shall dry up; his spring shall be parched; it shall strip his treasury of every precious thing. (ESV) I feel this verse says a lot.
  • Genesis 41:6 Pharaoh’s dream about the coming drought.
  • Exodus 10:13 the wind that brought the locusts on Egypt.
  • Jonah 4:8 is the wind that dried Jonah’s vine.
  • Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Job, and Psalms are other books that have the east wind doing the Lord’s work.

Yes, in word searches there will be overlap.

Wind or Winds

  • 1 Kings 19:11 a strong wind is tearing apart a mountain where Elijah is.
  • Psalm 104:4 and Hebrews 1:7 link angels and winds as ministers of God.
  • Ezekiel 5 repeats the idea of being cast to the winds.

The New Testament has more generic winds than named ones.

  • Matthew 7:25 the parable of the house that will stand.
  • Matthew 8, Mark 4, and Luke 8 have Jesus calming the winds while He was in a boat.
  • Jude 1 and James 3 use winds as metaphors.

May the wind always be at your back as you sail on in your studies of wind, breath, storms, and weather in the Bible.

Bible 911 Esther

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Esther 9:11 On that day the number of those that were slain in Shushan the palace was brought before the king. (KJV)

In studying and pondering this Bible 911, I see this verse as “an end” and “a start”. An internet search will reveal movies, controversies, agendas, and extra verses for Esther, not bad for only ten chapters. I choose to leave those alone.

A Start

No matter what anyone says, the celebration that started in the ninth chapter, Purim, is still observed. That speaks volumes if you will let it. A pur is like some dice. It is the same idea as the Disciples “casting a lot” to pick the replacement for Judas. It is possible that is also the idea behind the Urim and Thummim.

An End

Mordecai and Esther ended the family line of Agag the Amalekite, which is something their ancestors King Saul and his son Jonathan did not do. Agag is the king of the Amalekites whom Saul was to kill in 1 Samuel 15. Please read Amalek Part 1 and Part 2.

The great victory in Esther 9:11 did not end the family of Esau/Edom and it probably did not end the Amalekites (I think). They are descendants of Abraham with a lot of history. God was not pleased with them, as shown in Exodus 17:16 and Hebrews 12:16. Even Malachi 1 has much to say about them, if Ezra did write Malachi that would fit in with the ideas in Esther 9. Most of the prophets were given words that were against Esau, Edom, and Mount Seir.

Samples of Amalekites being around after 1 Samuel 15:

  • They raided Ziklag and David fought against them in 1 Samuel 29.
  • One killed King Saul-2 Samuel 1.
  • 1 Chronicles 4:43 has a story from the time of Hezekiah about them.

Agag’s Family Connections

  • Genesis 36: 12 and 16
  • 1 Samuel 15 – Agag and the homeland of Havilah to Shur (verse 7). Ishmael and the Philistines also have connections to this area.
  • Esther 3:1
  • Exodus 17 and Deuteronomy 25 tell the story of the Amalek attack on Israel as it left Egypt.
  • Ephraim and Manasseh, while in Egypt, had raiding bands that may have terrorized the area from Shur and Havilah – 1 Chronicles 7:21 – 22. 
  • Ezekiel 35:5-6 speaks of an “ancient hostility” that bloomed as Jerusalem fell to Babylon. The hostility may have been Saul’s attack, or the raid in Exodus 17 that could have come from those raids in 1 Chronicles 7:21 – 22, but I have a feeling it was Esau selling and being tricked out of the right of the firstborn – Genesis 27. Amalek may have caught the offense of his grandfather and never let it alone.

If you want a study, the story and history of Esau would keep you busy for a while. Esau’s family line is recorded in Genesis 36. Reseach the Prophets also.

Esther’s Family

Esther is a Benjamite. Her uncle Mordecai’s genealogy is in Esther 2:6 and it is indicated that he was carried off with Jehoiachin. They are related to Jonathan and Saul. The Benjamite genealogy is found in 1 Chronicles 8; the very next section is the captives who returned from Babylon (that is probably from Ezra). Saul and Jonathan’s family tree is 1 Chronicles 9: 35-44. Between these passages and tradition, we believe that Esther was a granddaughter of Jonathan through Mephibosheth and his son Micah. (Please view Why Hide a Grandson There and Lo Debar a Second Look. Lo Debar was not a dump and I believe Mephibosheth was with family that was protecting him and providing for him. The last story in the Book of Judges changed a lot for the tribe of Benjamin.)

Some about Benjamin:

  1. He is the only progenitor of the Tribes that was born in the Promised Land. The rest were born in Paddan Aram/Haran or Egypt.
  2. Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives are in the territory allotted to Benjamin.
  3. He was the thirteenth child of Jacob. (12 sons, 1 daughter)

127 Providences

The Persian kingdom was huge. It wrapped the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea and went to India. Jerusalem and Shushan were just two of the 127 providences, so how many actually had Jews in them? The couriers and the horses had a serious trip to take.

Times

The years in Esther are referenced by Xerxes’ rule of Persia. I wonder if the “months” are from the Jewish calendar. Movies crunch the years to fit it into a two-hour time slot.

  • 1:3 is the third year of his rule, so he throws a party.
  • 2:12 has twelve months of beauty treatments for the maidens.
  • 2:16 is the seventh year of his reign. There was no big rush to pick a new queen.
  • 3:7 is the twelfth year of Xerxes’ reign.
  • 3:12 and 13 are the days of the months for the writing of the letters and the day picked to kill the Jews.

The first celebration would have been in the thirteenth year. The day of writing the letters in 3:12 would have been just before Passover.

Hebrew Jewish Months in the Old Testament – Bible History (bible-history.com)

Things that caught my attention

  1. Where the action and setting of the Books took place. (This is not a complete list.) No part of Esther takes place in the Promised Land. For the most part, Exodus through Deuteronomy is not in Israel. Daniel and Ezekiel are set outside of Israel with references to the Land. Jonah starts in the Land and goes to Nineveh.
  2. Acrostics found in Esther. The name of God is not found in Esther, but there are acrostics for it in the text. This site actually listed them, if you go searching the internet, please know there are many agendas out there.  Q&A: Is God in Esther? (thirdmill.org)  
  3. Haman, Agag, and Amalek are people who did not do right by Israel. We need to remember the real enemy from Isaiah 14:12, it is Lucifer who stirs people to attack the Jews because they are God’s chosen people through Abraham.

What is your Amalek?

This is a metaphorical question. Amalek was the first thing to attack Israel after they passed through the Red Sea leaving Egypt. They plagued Israel and the Father promised them He would fight against them. I believe they are one thing that will be put under the feet of Jesus. So, what attacked you after you repented and were baptized and is still warring against you?