Oops of the Day

The hated Samaritans in the middle province of Palestine between Judah and Galilee went out of existence.

II Kings 17:24-41

Fact of the Day

No! There are Samaritans even today – proven by DNA.  After the Assyrians took the Jews captive to their land (today’s Iraq), they filled the empty Jewish cities with their own people (today’s Iraqi’s). They became a mixed breed and hated by the Jews. Some Samaritans still exist today in the same area of Palestine. DNA shows them to be part Jewish and part Iraqi.  There are several internet articles about them.

Oops of the Day

Everyone in the 10 tribes of the northern half of Israel was taken captive to Assyria and became the “Lost Tribes of Israel”.

II Kings 17:21-23 – IIChronicles 30:1 &6 &10-11

Fact of the Day

No! When King Hezekiah of the Southern Kingdom restored the Passover decades after the Assyrian invasion, he sent couriers to Ephraim, Manasseh, Zebulun, and Asher – all part of the former northern kingdom – and invited them to attend also.  Some did.

Oops of the Day

God was not faithful to the Northern half of Israel when he let them be captured and taken as captives to Assyria (today’s Iraq).

Genesis 15:16 – II Kings 17:7-18 – Leviticus 18:25-28

Fact of the Day

No! God had warned the Jews when he led them to destroy the Amorites (Canaanites) so they could take over the land that, IF the Jews got as bad as the Canaanites, it would vomit them out of the land too.

They didn’t believe God.  They  (1) built temples to and worshiped pornographic religions; (2)  stopped believing in the one true God; (3) worshiped calves and the stars (4)  burned up their children as sacrifices to false gods.

Oops of the Day

God was mean to let the southern kingdom of Judah be led captives to 
Babylon and Jerusalem be burned.

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

Fact of the Day

No! They repeatedly turned away from the only true God, their Maker.

1.  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.

2.  Out of the 20 kings that followed, 13 led the people to worship fake deity, mostly pornographic goddesses and child-killing gods.

3.  God sent these prophets to warn them: Shaiah, Hanani, Obadiah, Joel, Isaiah, Micah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel.  The Israelites called good bad and bad good. These 10 men spent their lives warning them, but they did not want to change.

4.  Hebrews 11 tells how these men of God were treated: “There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better Resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.  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—  the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.”

5.  God was patient for over 400 years. Nothing would change them.  So he punished them to wake them up. Why? Because they were his children, descendants of Abraham and David, and he wanted them back.

Question of the Day

Who led the thousands of Chariots of Fire?

II Kings 6:8 & 14-17 – II Kings 2:11

Answer of the Day? 

When the King of Aram (northern Syria) went to war against weak Israel with an army of thousands, God sent untold thousands of chariots of fire to conquer the enemy army.  Might Elijah, who had earlier gone to heaven in a chariot of fire, have been leading them?  Hmmm…

Oops of the Day

When Solomon was crowned king and asked God to give him wisdom because he was just a child, he was not literally a child. 

I Kings chapters 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 & Song of Solomon 3:11

Fact Of the Day 

No!  Solomon was only 18 or 19 years old when he became king. These are the events after Bathsheba becomes pregnant with Solomon in I Kings chap. 11:
1 year – war with Ammonites (chap. 12)
2 years – Dtr Tamar raped by son Amnon and Absalom’s revenge (chap. 13)
3 years – Absalom exiled by father (chap. 13)
2 years – Absalom back in Jerusalem still rejected (chap. 14)
4 years – Absalom judges people when David not making self available (chap. 15)
1 year – Absalom finally makes self king (chap. 15-19)
1 year – Sheba rebels (chap. 20)
3 years – Famine (chap. 21)
1 year – Census & plague (chap. 24) & dies (I Ki. 1-2)
18 years of events after Bathsheba becomes pregnant with Solomon
David died at age 70 after reigning 40 years. Solomon was crowned on his wedding day (Song of Solomon), reigned 40 years and died. His son, Rehoboam, became king when he was age 41. So, Solomon was around age 18 or maybe 19 when he became king.

Oops of the Day

Absalom was a rebellious son who always defied his father though David did nothing but love him.

II Samuel 13, 14, 15, 19:4

Fact Of the Day 

No! Absalom’s brother raped his sister, Tamar but their father did not punish the rapist  (II Samuel 13:14; 21, 23;) 2 YEARS later, Absalom killed his rapist brother, then was banished for 3 YEARS  (II Samuel 14:13; 28-32).  Finally, someone convinced David to let Absalom come home.  So he allowed Absalom to return to Jerusalem but David refused to see him for another 2 YEARS.  After still another 4 YEARS, Absalom finally rebelled (II Samuel 15:7).  FOR 11 YRS. DAVID TREATED ABSALOM BADLY.  David loved God dearly and was a good warrior, but was not always a good father.

Oops of the Day

Poor crippled Mephibosheth, orphaned son of Crown Prince Jonathan, lived in desolate LoDebar where nothing could grow and with no communication with the outside world. 

II Samuel 9:4

Fact Of the Day 

No! LoDebar was on the outskirts of a major east-west trade route between China and Europe and 10 miles from the prosperous Sea of Galilee.

Oops of the Day

The feet of  Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son, were crippled.  So he used 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.  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 if they were paralyzed.  He would have to check them constantly to see if they had accidentally hit something and been cut. He could not have used normal crutches because his feet were useless in touching the floor.  He could have only used 3-footed stand-alone crutches and swung his feet between them.