Three Books, Three Views.

Posted on by
Reply

Part of this year’s Bible study has brought me to read Ezekiel and Obadiah at the same time. This has been good because it made me think how those two men and Jeremiah (Daniel was at this time also but he will be another day) were all hearing God and writing at the same time and how they fit into the time line in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles.  Ezekiel was in Babylon, as part of the first wave of deportees, using time stamps to place his writings with Jeremiah’s and what was happening in Jerusalem at that time. Ezekiel 24 through 31 is the same time period of the second and final attack on Jerusalem. In chapter 32 Ezekiel starts writing about the “twelfth year”; so this was after the fall of Jerusalem and corresponds to Jeremiah 39 through 45. Now Obadiah comes in to this mix because his twenty-one verses are all about the destruction of Edom (Esau, Isaac’s first son and Jacob’s fraternal twin) because of how they mistreated Israel in their time of need.  So if you read Obadiah, Ezekiel 35 and Jeremiah 49:7 – 22 it shows a unified picture of God’s thoughts toward Edom. Resources: The Holman Illustrated Study Bible

Rock or chip off of the Block?

Posted on by
6

Simon, son of John, we know him better as Peter (Cephas) and he is a favorite character in the Bible and one that shows “God-growth” from the beginning to the end of his story.  A meaning of Simon comes from the word for “hearing” and John means “Jehovah-favored” and this may all come from a word that means, “dove” and it is a possible form of Jonah (some Bible translations will use Jonah instead of John).  (Those “Jonah” people and fish, boats and water, sounds like another Bible study to me.) Cephas or Peter means a “piece of rock” or small pebble.

Matthew 16:18 is a verse that I think needs to be looked at a little different. Why would Jesus say that Peter, a “small piece of rock”, would have the church built on him when he used a term for a “large rock” in the same passage?  Lets try it this way; Jesus points at Peter and says he is a “part of the rock” and then gestures towards himself and says but on the “big rock (Jesus)” will the Church be built.

Resources: The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, my brother Luther

Jacob/Israel what really was his name?

Posted on by
10

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.

Lo Debar – Why Hide a Grandson There?

Posted on by
5

Why would you hide an heir apparent in a “Lo Debar?” (see Lo Debar) That connection with King Saul goes back a couple of generations to the Book of Judges.  In chapter 21 Israel had killed off almost all of the Tribe of Benjamin and had cursed them on top of all of that.  But to find wives for the 400 Benjamites who remained they killed off everyone in a town in Gilead except for the young women. So, when the newly crowned King Saul takes off to rescue Jabesh Gilead in 1 Samuel 11 it was probably because he had family there.  Not only did he rescue his family but also, he upped his standing in Israel at the same time.  So, his connection with that part of the land of Israel is family ties so the young Mephibosheth would have been safe.      ( see Lo Debar – Another Look )

A place called Lo Debar

Posted on by
11

After many years of reading the Bible, you start to ask questions because you see things that you know were “not there before.” Some of these blogs will be from “old treasures” and some will be “new treasure” because God wants us to keep moving forward going from “glory to glory” in our knowledge of Him.
A great reason to study the Bible on your own is what happened to me because of a place called Lo Debar (2 Samuel 9). A preacher had taught about Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, son of King Saul, who was living in Lo Debar. (see Lo Debar-Why Hide a Grandson There?)  ( see Lo Debar – Another Look this is a look at all of the people in the story.)
lo-debarLo Debar means “no pasture or no communication”. The negative of the place was so emphasized that I have for 20 years thought that it was a “dump”. Well, another preacher taught about it and did not highlight the “dump” idea, so I knew it was time to study. Part of the study was to go look on Google maps to find where it was, that was fun and it gave me an idea why it may have been called that. One of David’s benefactors (Makir of Ammiel, 2 Sam. 17:27) was from Lo Debar and he brought to David as he ran from Absalom pots, vessels, and bedding, which is what was made in Lo Debar. On further study it seems that Lo Debar possible locationLo Debar may have been a gateway to Gilead and important in its protection, so it seems that it may not have been a “dump.” Resources: Atlas of the Bible by Collins, Zondervan NIV Exhaustive Concordance, and Easton’s Bible Dictionary

The map is from http://bibleatlas.org/lo-debar.htm ,the pic is a screen shot from Goggle Earth.