Bible stories come to life

Nov 15

A parable and “A lamb set aside”

A Bible Tales post with a difference! A parable about preparation and a then poem, “A lamb set aside”, to remind us of what Jesus did for us as the lamb of God.

A parable…

The return of Jesus will be like when a husband has worked all through the night and is very tired. After telling his wife that he will get up sometime for lunch, he is finally free to sleep.

And when he rises from sleep, his wife smiles happily and welcomes him gladly. He sees that his lunch is already cooked and sits bubbling on the stove. The table is laid ready, with utensils and a plate in each place. Beside his plate, a glass with a cool drink awaits him. The husband and wife sit down together and share a meal.

I tell you the truth, that man will treasure his wife forever!

In the same way, make sure that you have everything ready for Jesus before he returns.

Nov 11

Armour-bearers

By Mark Morgan | Jehoshaphat

Armour-bearers

The Bible mentions armour-bearers several times. Their job title gives the impression that all they did was carry armour, but that’s a long way from the truth.

We are never given a full job description for an armour-bearer in the Bible. As far as we can tell, they were special bodyguards for important people such as kings, princes or commanders. Continue reading

Oct 25

Jeremiah’s family and genealogy

By Mark Morgan | Family trees , Jeremiah

Jeremiah’s family / Jeremiah’s genealogy

Jeremiah was a prophet, but he was also a priest.^[1]Jeremiah 1:1 What do we know about Jeremiah’s genealogy? At the start of his book, he is described as the son of Hilkiah,^[2]Jeremiah 1:1 and we know that there was a High Priest called Hilkiah at that time. Was Jeremiah the son of the High Priest? Hilkiah is called “Hilkiah the priest”^[3]2 Kings 22:10, 12, 14; 23:24 and “Hilkiah the High Priest”,^[4]2 Kings 22:4, 8; 23:4 but his father’s name is not mentioned. Listing the name of a man’s father name was commonly used to distinguish between people with the same name. Yet it is only when we look in the genealogy of the high priests that we find Hilkiah’s father was called Shallum. This consistent use of the name “Hilkiah” without saying who his father was suggests that saying he was a priest was enough to uniquely identify him. Continue reading

Notes[+]

Notes
↑1, ↑2	Jeremiah 1:1
↑3	2 Kings 22:10, 12, 14; 23:24
↑4	2 Kings 22:4, 8; 23:4

Oct 06

Why is Jeremiah out of order?

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

The book of Jeremiah is not in chronological order.

Many books of the Bible tell us of events that happened during certain years, and sometimes this is refined to the month and day or even the time of day. Other events, however, are reported with very little to locate them in time. The book of Jeremiah includes some passages that are anchored to particular days, while others are not located in time at all. By itself, this would make it hard enough to work out exactly when things happened in Jeremiah’s life, but the situation is worse than that: even the passages with dates are not in order! Continue reading

Sep 23

Nebuchadnezzar destroys Jerusalem

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

Sieges: Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem (FreeBibleImages.org / Sweet Publishing http://freebibleimages.org/illustrations/jeremiah-cistern/ Slide 6)

The end of the siege

Putting the events of the final siege in chronological order can be done with reasonable confidence from the time the Chaldean army surrounds the city until Nebuchadnezzar destroys Jerusalem. The list of events in descriptive point form in chronological order follows. For some of these, we know exact dates, but for most we do not, we only know the order:

Aug 30

Nebuchadnezzar’s third attack on Jerusalem brought utter destruction

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

Nebuchadnezzar’s third attack on Jerusalem – the final siege

In our previous article, we listed the three times when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem and then looked in some detail at the second siege. In this article, we look at Nebuchadnezzar’s third attack on Jerusalem, the best known and the most devastating attack, that resulted in the complete destruction of the city.[1] By that time, Nebuchadnezzar was reigning over a large empire, yet he dedicated almost two years to the conquest of Judah (during the 17th-19th years of his reign[2]). Continue reading

Jul 31

Nebuchadnezzar’s second attack on Jerusalem

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

Nebuchadnezzar’s Attacks on Jerusalem

Before we look specifically at Nebuchadnezzar’s second attack on Jerusalem, let’s remember that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked Jerusalem three times:

In the 3rd/4th year of Jehoiakim/Eliakim (the 1st year of Nebuchadnezzar).[1]
From the 11th year of Jehoiakim/Eliakim until the 3rd month of Jeconiah/Jehoiachin (the 8th year of Nebuchadnezzar).[2]
In the 9th-11th year of Zedekiah/Mattaniah[3] (17th-19th year of Nebuchadnezzar[4]). This is the most well-known attack by Nebuchadnezzar and resulted in the complete destruction of Jerusalem.[5]

Jul 15

Habakkuk’s Questions – Prayer and Violence

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah , Minor prophets

Habakkuk’s questions (Complaints!)

One of Habakkuk’s questions was a simple question we might often have asked ourselves: did God listen to his prayers? But that wasn’t the end if it. Would God answer him? And did Habakkuk want to hear the answers anyway? You see, Habakkuk’s questions weren’t just questions, they were more like complaints.

Habakkuk’s first complaint to God

2 “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
3 Why do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
4 So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted.”

Habakkuk 1:2-4

Jun 03

Polluting the land – spiritual pollution

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

They worshipped however and whatever they wanted. From Sweet Publishing / FreeBibleImages.org(http://freebibleimages.org/illustrations/moses-golden-calf/ Slide 3) License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Can a land be unclean?

When I was growing up, my family followed a Bible reading chart to make sure that we read all of God’s word and not just the parts that seem initially to be more interesting. After a while I started to recognise that there were some fascinating details in unexpected places – including God’s opinion of what moral or spiritual pollution is.

As a teenager, I noticed that there were several times during the year when we read of various things that made the land of Israel unclean. But was it the physical earth of the land that was meant or did it mean something else?

Jan 10

The prophet Habakkuk

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah , Minor prophets

Habakkuk the prophet

Habakkuk was a prophet in ancient Judah. We do not know exactly when his visions took place, but in some ways it doesn’t matter, since his questions are universal and the answers can be easily applied to any time.

God chose people to be his prophets and they delivered his messages. False prophets chose themselves and delivered whatever messages they wanted – probably often whatever would get them the most popularity and power. God criticises them often (Lamentations 2:14; Ezekiel 13:9, 22:28; Jeremiah 5:31), particularly towards the end of the life of the nation of Judah.

This was the time when Habakkuk prophesied.

Dec 11

Were prophets and priests meant to fight?

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

Many of God’s prophets predicted God’s judgement on Israel would come through attacking nations. Jeremiah predicted that Nebuchadnezzar would attack Judah from the north. He was also a priest. Were prophets and priests meant to fight?

Are there any examples we can learn from?

Elisha the prophet was with the army of Israel when Jehoshaphat king of Judah, Jehoram king of Israel and the king of Edom went to attack Mesha the king of Moab (2 Kings 3:9-12). We don’t know if he was there to fight or just sent by God to make sure that a prophet was available when one was needed.

Nov 22

Joseph: maps

By Mark Morgan | Joseph , Maps

Map of Mesopotamia

Both of these maps come from the book “Joseph, Rachel’s son” which was released on 4 December 2018.

The first of the maps is a map of Mesopotamia that was derived from a map by Yiyi of the Middle East with a CC BY 3.0 licence.Continue reading

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