All Posts by Mark Morgan

Jesus’ appearances after his resurrection

By Mark Morgan | Jesus

Early on the Sunday morning following his crucifixion, Jesus rose from the dead – to the dismay of his enemies and the complete surprise of his friends! Each of the four gospels records different details of that morning and the forty days that followed, leading finally to his ascension. Putting those records together into one coherent narrative is not easy, but I hope to present a harmony of the gospels for this time in another newsletter. For the time being, we’ll just look at the appearances of Jesus after his resurrection.

Continue reading

The Land of Pathros

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah , Maps

After the flood, Noah’s descendants spread across the world.  Noah’s youngest son, Ham, had a son called Egypt, some of whose descendants were called the Pathrusim (Genesis 10:14).  Many believe them to be connected with the Land of Pathros, a part of Upper Egypt (see map below).

Continue reading

The working age of Levites

By Mark Morgan | Exodus , Jeremiah

What is the right age to start our life’s most important work? Some people begin to excel in their chosen profession at a very early age (for example, Mozart began composing at four or five years of age), while others shine much later (Oscar Swahn won his first Olympic gold medal at the age of 60).  The Levites helped with the worship of God – who has killed people for flouting his rules of worship.  For everyone’s good, the job had to be learned thoroughly. So what was the working age of Levites?

We still have rules today about the age at which one can start or stop work, and the same was true for priests and Levites in Israel.

Continue reading

A Bumper Harvest

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

Jeremiah had prophesied that Nebuchadnezzar would destroy Jerusalem.  The destruction happened, just as God had said, but straight after that, Judah had a bumper harvest.  This is a very unusual situation.  When a nation is attacked and pillaged, a famine normally follows, further increasing the survivors’ sufferings.

Let’s explore what happened at that time, and perhaps we can find out why.

Continue reading

Timeline of the prophet Daniel’s life

By Mark Morgan | Daniel , Timelines

Daniel was an extremely godly man, presented by Ezekiel the prophet as an example of righteousness along with Noah and Job (Ezekiel 14:14, 20).  Angels also say that he is “greatly loved” (Daniel 9:23; 10:11, 19).  In short, Daniel is a wonderful character and reading his life’s story in the Bible is very valuable.

Timeline

This timeline of the prophet Daniel’s life is a rough overview because most of the events cannot be located exactly in his life.  Some can be located in history, but we are not told Daniel’s age at any time.
Continue reading

The Stewardship of Money

By Mark Morgan | Miscellaneous

Based on a booklet “The Stewardship of Money” written in England during the 1940s by F. Mitchell and revised by Mark Morgan, November 2021.

Chapter 1 – Why Should We Give?

a.    Because we ourselves, and all we have, are God’s

The Christian life begins when we receive Jesus Christ as our personal saviour. It was by his coming into our lives that we became Christians at all. No doubt when we first came to him, it was with a sense of frustration or a burden of sin and helplessness, and our conscious need was to receive forgiveness, peace and power. These, we discovered, were available only in Christ, and, receiving him, we enjoyed the gifts he always brings.

Continue reading

How should Christians use money?

By Mark Morgan | Miscellaneous

Money is mentioned more than 200 times in the Bible, starting with God’s requirement that even slaves bought with Abraham’s money had to be circumcised as part of God’s covenant with him (Genesis 17:12-13).

Money in the Old Testament

In the Old Testament we are often told of God blessing those whom he loved by giving them riches: Abraham (Genesis 13:2; 24:35); Isaac (Genesis 26:12-13); Job (Job 42:10); David (1 Chronicles 29:28); Solomon (1 Kings 3:13; 10:23); Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 17:5; 18:1); Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 32:27). In fact, there is frequently a connection between righteousness and the blessing of riches, particularly in Psalms and Proverbs (Proverbs 10:4, 22; 22:4).

Yet in all of them, there is the repeated warning not to set our heart on riches. There is a warning that if riches are too important to us, we will fail (Psalm 62:10; Proverbs 11:4, 28; 27:24).
Continue reading

Jehoshaphat’s family tree

By Mark Morgan | Family trees , Jehoshaphat

King David, Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa and then Jehoshaphat: this is Jehoshaphat’s family tree.

King Jehoshaphat was a descendant of King David, from the tribe of Judah, and began to reign over Judah about 100 years after the death of King David. He was a righteous and faithful king who would be high on the list of the best kings of Judah – although he had a problem with being too tolerant of evil people.

A family tree centred on King Jehoshaphat is included below. The family tree extends up to King David in simplified form, however the generations around Jehoshaphat include much more detail.
Continue reading

Washing in Bible times

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah , Jesus

In the last two years we have all become familiar with calls to wash our hands frequently.  With COVID-19 leaving its mark all over the world, we are all encouraged to be vaccinated, but also to use soap, hand sanitiser and disinfectants.  How does our response to COVID-19 compare with cleansing and washing in Bible times?

Many people have observed that the Law of Moses concentrates heavily on cleanliness and frequently mentions washing – yet it is not the only part of the Bible where this is true.
Continue reading

The times of Jehoshaphat

By Mark Morgan | Harmonies , Jehoshaphat

Bible records in the times of Jehoshaphat

Background

King David ruled over a united kingdom of Israel – the 12 tribes that had entered “the Promised Land”.  Today, this land is once again called Israel, although parts are now claimed by the Palestinians and Jordan.

After David’s death, his son Solomon became king and expanded the kingdom even further.  Sadly, in later life, love for his many foreign wives led him into idolatry. In response, God said that the kingdom would be split in two during the reign of his son, Rehoboam.  After Solomon died, Rehoboam became king, but could not hold the kingdom together. As predicted, the nation split in two: Israel, ten tribes ruled by a rebel called Jeroboam; and Judah, two tribes ruled by Rehoboam.

From then on, until Assyria destroyed Israel, the two nations swung pendulum-like between open war and a troubled co-existence. During some of this period, Jehoshaphat ruled Judah, following in the godly footsteps of his ancestor David (2 Chronicles 17:3).

Continue reading

The book of Jeremiah in chronological order

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

The book of Jeremiah in chronological order – a suggestion

Dates in the book of Jeremiah show us that the text is not in chronological order.  See “Why is Jeremiah out of order?”. While writing the series “Terror on Every Side!” I found it necessary to decide what the chronological order was, as far as possible. Although we can’t have much confidence in the conclusions for some parts, others we can be very sure of. The table below shows a possible chronological order for the book. In a while I hope to make the Book of Jeremiah available in this order – using the text of the World English Bible (or see the article in Wikipedia) which is available in the public domain. Continue reading