OOPS OF THE DAY ~

Things in the Bible not really in the Bible …and a few surprises

Oops of the Day

The Jews were required to give a tithe to the temple every year.

Deuteronomy 14:22-28

Deuteronomy 26:12  –  Leviticus 1-5  –  Leviticus 27:2  –  Numbers 21:2  –  I Samul 1:11  –   II Samuel 15:7-8  –   Psalm 22:11, 25  –  Psalm 66:13  –  Psalm 76:11  –  Psalm 116:8,14,18-19  –   Job 22:27  –   Jonah 1:7-9

Fact of the Day  

Yes and No!   It was much more. A good Jew gave about one third of his income, not just one tenth. (1) The Jews had to give an extra tithe every three years for their welfare program. (2) They had to pay for their vows, which in many cases were really special prayer requests.  (3) They had to buy animals for sacrifices for intentional sins, unintentional sins and sins requiring restitution.  (4) If they wanted to thank God for anything special, they had to buy grain for a sacrifice  (5)  If they didn’t have mney to buy the animals or grain, they had to take them out of their own supply, thus depleting their own “pay check.” (6) And every time one of their flocks or herds had a first-born “first-fruits”, they had to sacrifice it ~ another depleting of the “pay check.”  

Still want to follow the Law of Moses to get people to give more?

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OOPS OF THE DAY ~ October 6

Things in the Bible not really in the Bible...and a few surprises

Oops of the Day

God was mean to not protect the southern half of Israel now called the kingdom of Judah from the Babylonian army when they burned down Jerusalem and enslaved the people.

Leviticus 18:25-28 – all of II Chronicles – all listed prophets – Hebrews 11:35b-38

Fact of the Day 

No! Their kings led the people to commit terrible, terrible sins.

  • -Solomon built altars to the CHILD-SACRIFICING god, Moloch, to please one of his wives, and altars to other gods to please his other wives. That was the beginning.
  • -Out of the 20 kings that followed, 13 kings led the people to worship fake deities, mostly PORNOGRAPHIC GODDESSES with their temple prostitutes and Ashera poles,  and CHILD-KILLING GODS who burned them to death.   God sent these men to warn them: Shaiah, Hanani, Ohadiah, Joel, Isaiah, Micah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel.  These 10 men spent their lives warning them and trying to save them from hell,  but they did not want to give up their LEGALIZED PROSTITUTION and  PEDICIDE.
  • -Hebrews 11 tells how they treated anyone who tried to stop them:  “There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better Resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

At one time, Jerusalem was the most evil city in the world.

God was patient for hundreds of years – generation after generation.  Nothing would stop them.  So he punished them to wake them up. Why?  Because they were his lost children, descendants of Abraham and David, headed for hell, and he wanted them back.  Such unbelievable love! 

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NEWS & OOPS OF THE DAY ~ October 4

Things in the Bible not really in the Bible...and a few surprises

Oops of the Day

Absalom was a rebellious son who defied his father, David, even though David did nothing but show love and kindness to his son his whole life.

II Samuel 13:14 & 21 & 23  –  II Samuel 14:13 & 28-32  –  II Samuel 15:7 

Fact of the Day 

No! Absalom’s half-brother raped his sister, Tamar (which, according to the Law of Moses was punishable by death)  but their father did not punish his rapist son. So, 2 yrs later, Absalom had his rapist half-brother killed.  For that David banished him.  Absalom stayed with his maternal grandparents and begged to return home.  Finally, after 3 years, David allowed Absalom to return to Jerusalem.  But he refused to see Absalom.  Finally, after 2 more years, he did allow Absalom to see him.  For the following 4 years, it seems David was drifting from his judging duties, so Absalom covered for him by judging in his father’s name.   After another 4 years of this, Absalom finally gave up on his father.    This totals 11 long, unhappy father-son years.

David was a complicated man.  Sometimes it is easier to love someone at a distance.  During the whole process, David lost a daughter and two sons.

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OOPS OF THE DAY ~ October 3

Things in the Bible not really in the Bible...and a few surprises

Oops of the Day

Poor crippled Mephibosheth, orphaned son of Crown Prince, Jonathan, grew up in desolate LoDebar, with no pastureland or communication with the outside world.  

II Samuel 9:4 

Fact of the Day 

No!  LoDebar was just off the King’s Highway which met a major trade route between China and Europe.  It was also just 10 miles from the Sea of Galilee.

YOU’RE SMART.  READ THE BIBLE FOR YOURSELF

ALSO, you might enjoy reading our biblical historical novel, MEFIBOSET:  CRIPPLED PRINCE in our “Intrepid Men of God” series.  Read the first chaprer here free:  https://bit.ly/3J0YaOZ

 

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OOPS OF THE DAY ~ September 25

Things in the Bible not really in the Bible …and a few surprises

Oops of the Day

Jonathan’s son, Mephibosheth’s, feet were crippled.  So he had to use crutches to help him walk. 

II Samuel 4:4  –  II Samuel 19:24

Fact of the Day 

No!   He wasn’t just a cripple. His feet were paralyzed. How do we know?  When King David was running from Absalom, Mephibosheth did not “care for his feet”.  The only reason he would have to take special care of his feet is that, if they were paralyzed, he would not be able to feel whether he had accidentally hit something and cut them, etc.  And, being paralyzed, he would not have been able to use normal crutches because his feet would not have been able to detect when they touched the floor.  However, he could have used 3-footed stand-alone crutches and swung his feet between them.

YOU’RE SMART.  READ THE BIBLE FOR YOURSELF

ALSO, you might enjoy reading our biblical historical novel, MEFIBOSET:  CRIPPLED PRINCE in our “Intrepid Men of God” series.  Read the first chaprer here free:  https://bit.ly/3J0YaOZ

 

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OOPS OF THE DAY ~ September 23

Things in the Bible not really in the Bible …and a few surprises

Oops of the Day

David was a little boy when he killed the giant Goliath.

I Samuel 16:18  –  I Samuel 17:34  –  I Samuel 17:38-39  –  I Samuel 17 all

Fact of the Day 

No!  And double no!   In the chapter before killing the giant, it says this about the “son of Jesse of Bethlehem” ~

  • NIV:  “… he is a brave man and a warrior…”
  • NLT:  “…he is a brave warrior, a man of war…”
  • ESV:  “…a man of valor, a man of war…
  • KJV:  “…a mighty valiant man, and a man of war…”
  • NAS:  “…a valiant mighty man, a warrior…”
  • ASV:  “… a mighty man of valor, and a man of war…”
  • ERV:  “…a mighty man of valour, and a man of war…”

Saul was probably around 7 feet tall.  Yet they put Saul’s tunic on David, then his armor, then his helmet, then his sword. 

  • It does not say he tripped over the bottom of Saul’s tunic.
  • It does not say Saul’s armor weigh him down so much he could not move.  
  • It does not say Saul’s helmit slipped over to one side and almost fell off because David’s head was so small.
  • It does not say that, with the additional weigh of the huge sword over the armor that David fell over to one side.

It says David walked around in it and said he was not used to it.  

Oh, and one other thing:  He sometimes killed a lion or a bear when they tried to carry off one of his father’s sheep for dinner.  Killed any lions or bears lately?

YOU’RE SMART.  READ THE BIBLE FOR YOURSELF

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OOPS OF THE DAY ~ September 22

Things in the Bible not really in the Bible …and a few surprises

Oops of the Day

Saul of Israel was always a bad king.

I Samuel 13:1  –  I Samuel 14:47-52

Fact of the Day 

No!  For over 40 years, King Saul fought all of Israel’s enemies valiantly.  Look it up.  Check it out. At the end, it was jealousy – of his imagined enemy – that destroyed him.

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OOPS OF THE DAY ~ September 21

Things in the Bible not really in the Bible …and a few surprises

Oops of the Day

Only men from the tribe of Levi and direct descendants of Aaron (Moses’ brother) were allowed to be priests and high priests. 

Numbers 18:1-24  – I Samuel 1:1-2  –   I Samuel 1:11  –  I Samuel 1:25-28  –  I Samuel 2:12 & 17  –  I Samuel 2: 22-26 & 35  –  I Samuel 3:10-11  –  I Samuel 3:19-21  –  I Samuel 7:9  –  I Samuel 13:8 – 13a  –  I Chronicles 6:1, 25-38

Fact of the Day 

Yes and No!  God made this law, he can change it, and  he did – once.  God made one exception to his Only-Levite and Only-Descendant-of-Aaron rule.  Once again, that exception was a little boy.   

When High Priest Eli, a descendant of Aaron, could not control his thieving and adulterous priestly sons, God decided to destroy Eli’s entire family and make Samuel the next High Priest.  But, how could that be?  Samuel’s father was from the tribe of Ephriam, not the tribe of Levi.  And he certainly was not a descendant of Aaron.

Apparently, when Samuel’s mother, Hannah, took little Samuel around age two to four to the tabernacle for Eli to raise, Eli adopted Samuel.  And the night that God spoke directly to boy Samuel from the angel-wings cover of the Ark of the Covenant, that was Samuel’s initiation directly by God.  

Samuel’s later descendants are listed in Chronicles as Levites.  God himself qualified Samuel to be high priest.  Oh, and that’s how Samuel’s grandson became that famous Levitical singer in the temple decades later we talked about a few days ago.

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OOPS OF THE DAY ~ September 19

Things in the Bible not really in the Bible …and a few surprises

Oops of the Day

No one other than the high priest ever was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle or Temple.  Even then, he could only do so once a year.

Exodus 25:17-22  – Exodus 33:7-11  –  Leviticus 16  –  I Samuel 2:26  –  I Samuel 2:35  –  I Samuel 3:3-4 & 9  –  Hebrews 10:19-25

Fact of the Day 

No!  God made the law, he can change it, and I think he did – once.  God made one exception to his Only-the-High-Priest rule and the Once-a-Year rule.  And that exception was with a little boy. 

When the holy golden Ark of the Covenant between God and man was made some 450 years earlier,  they made a lid for it which God called the atonement cover.  It had two cherubim on it facing each other with their wings overshadowing the lid.  Before the holy Tabernacle of worship was erected, the ark was in a special tent for Moses and God told him, “There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.”  And so, the Bible says,  There the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend…”  (Remember, the Holy Tabernacle of Worship had not been made yet and Aaron had not been made high priest yet).  Then, after listening to God,  “Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.”

Now 400 years later we find little boy Samuel sleeping in the Holy of Holies (kind of like what Joshua had done.)  Really?  Are you sure?   “Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord” (holy Taberncale of Worship), but not just anywhere in the house of the Lord.   He was lying “Where the ark of God was…. and the Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” and spoke to the little boy a message to pass on to the High Priest.

Why would God do that?  That is another surprise for tomorrow!

YOU’RE SMART.  READ THE BIBLE FOR YOURSELF

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OOPS OF THE DAY ~ September 13

Things in the Bible not really in the Bible …and a few surprises

Oops of the Day

Samson, the strongest man in the world, was always making bad choices of women and showing off  his strength. 

Judges 14:5-9  –  Judges 16:3  –  Judges 15:8  –  Judges 16:31

Fact of the Day 

No!  Samson judged the Israelites for 20 years and there are only a few accounts of his strength.  Though smart, perhaps he realized he also had a temper problem.  So, he seems to have lived in the cleft of a rock (cave) in Etam in the hills above his home town of Zorah and judged from there until his final capture and ultimate death at the end of his 20 years.

YOU’RE SMART.  READ THE BIBLE FOR YOURSELF

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