April 19 ~ Things in the Bible not really in the Bible…and a few surprises

 

Oops of the Day  

When Jesus formed clay for the eyes of the man born blind, he told him to wash in the Pool of Siloam.  He walked a few steps and did so.

John 8:59  –  John 9:1 & 7

Fact of the Day

No!  Archaeologists show that he had to stumble his way 1/3 mile to get to that pool.

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April 18 ~ Things in the Bible not really in the Bible…and a few surprises

 

Surprise of the Day  

If Jesus created everything in the world including human beings, do you think he could create eyeballs?

John 1:1-4  –  John 1:14  –  John 9:6

Fact of the Day

Man was made of clay.  The man born blind was healed when Jesus made mud and put it onto the man’s “eyes”.  When he formed the clay for the man’s eyes, was he making eyeballs for him?  Anophthalmia is a disease where a person is born without eyeballs.  About 1 in every 5,200 babies is born with this.

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April 17 ~ Things in the Bible not really in the Bible…and a few surprises

 

Oops of the Day  

“The Prodigal Son” – The older brother should have forgiven his prodigal lazy brother who finally came home.

Luke 15:11-14  –  Luke 15:22-25  –  Luke 15:30-32

Fact of the Day

No! It was much more than that. It was jealousy, greed, and a desire for all or nothing. As the oldest son, he was going to inherit their father’s entire estate (note v. 31), yet he resented one little party given to his brother. And, his father thought his youngest was dead; the older one acted as though he wished his brother was dead.

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April 15 ~ Things in the Bible not really in the Bible…and a few surprises

 

Oops of the Day  

Joseph, Jesus’ step-father, died while Jesus was still a child.

Luke 4:14-22  –  John 6:42  –  John 19:25-27

Fact of the Day

No!  When he returned to Nazareth as an adult and preached there, the people said, “IS (present tense) this not Joseph’s son”  His step-father apparently died between then and the crucifixion.

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April 14 ~ Things in the Bible not really in the Bible…and a few surprises

 

Oops of the Day  

Jesus first went to the temple when he was 12 and had celebrated his bar-mitzva.

Luke 2:31-42  –  Matthew 2:19-23

Fact of the Day

No! Bar-Mitzva was first recorded in history in the 13th century in France.  Jesus’ parents went to the temple every year. The likely reason they took Jesus at age twelve was that cruel King ARCHELAUS was so mean (he had killed 3000 in the temple when Jesus was 11), he was banished to Gaul by Caesar. THEN, it was safe to take Jesus to Jerusalem.

22 But when Joseph heard that ARCHELAUS was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth.”

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April 12 ~ Things in the Bible not really in the Bible…and a few surprises

 

Surprise of the Day  

Who was Anna the Prophetess?

Fact of the Day

When baby Jesus was presented at the temple by his parents,  Prophetess Anna was AGE 84 or more and had lived at the temple all but 7 of her adult years.  She lived through these attacks on the temple and Jerusalem:

BC 63 – Pompey besieged Jerusalem and entered the temple.

BC 54 – Crassus looted the temple of all its gold.

BC 40 – When Herod was made King, Jerusalem closed its gates, so he had to attack.

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April 11 ~ Things in the Bible not really in the Bible…and a few surprises

 

Oops of the Day  

The angel chorus sang about Jesus’ birth to the shepherds.

Luke 3:13  –  Revelation 5:9-12  –  Revelaion14:3  –  Revelation 15:3  –  Revelation 16:5

Fact of the Day

No!  Angels do not sing.  A multitude of the heavenly host (angels)  praised God “saying” glory to God. Later seven angels “said” the song of Moses and the Lamb. The third angel “said “the Lamb was righteous. 

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April 10 ~ Things in the Bible not really in the Bible…and a few surprises

 

Oops of the Day  

The shepherds the angels appeared to the night of Jesus’ birth were humble but respected men.

Luke 2:8-20  –  Genesis 46:33-34

Fact of the Day

No!  Shepherds were despised.    The Jewish Talmud forbade shepherds from being witnesses.  They were not allowed in the temple.  Further, no help was to be given to heathens or shepherds.  True, David rose from being a shepherd to a king, but this shows his strength in rising above his circumstances.  And Jesus?  Jesus dared to be the lowest of the low so he could show us how to be the highest of the high.

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April 8 ~ Things in the Bible not really in the Bible…and a few surprises

 

Surprise of the Day  

God planned to give Canaan to Abraham’s descendants, but not for another 430 years.  Why? 

Genesis 15:7  –  Deuteronomy 12:29-31 –  I Kings 16:34  –  II Kings 6:28-29  –  II Chronicles 28:3  –  Isaiah 57:5

Fact of the Day

Abram arrived in Canaan at age 75.  At age 85, God said he planned to give all of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants. but not yet.  He and his descendants had to wait another 430 years. Why? Because the sin of the Amorites who were living in Canaan at the time of Abraham had not yet reached its peak. Why wait? God is far more patient than we are.  For the next four centuries, he gave them chance after chance to repent and change. 

 God said the Israelites would go in and kill them all and take over their land.  Kill them?  That’s murder!  No, it is capital punishment.  They worshiped Baal and Asherah.  He was worshipped with child sacrifices – child killing.  She was worshipped with legalized pornography and prostitution (both male and female). God warned the Israelites that the land was “spewing out of its mouth” the child killers, etc.  But, if the Israelites did the same thing, the land would spew them out too. 

 Eventually Israel’s kings were sacrificing their sons to Baal.  Another Israelite rebuilt the walls of Jericho on top of his sons and set the gates on top of his sons!

And later, when Assyria and later Babylon laid siege to their cities, not letting them out, they ATE THEIR OWN CHILDREN!   Jerusalem finally became the most evil city in the world!  And so, they were “executed”  by Assyria and Babylon and spewed out of their land to live in foreign lands.

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April 6 ~ Things in the Bible not really in the Bible…and a few surprises

 

Surprise of the Day  

How old was Abraham when he left the idolatrous city of Ur (today’s southern Iraq) and why might God have told him to leave at that time?

Genesis 10:1 & 11:10-26  –  Genesis 11:28 & 31  – Genesis 12:1-4  –  Genesis 15:7  –   I Chronicles 11  –  Nehemiah 9:7  –  Acts 7:1-4

Fact of the Day

Five verses in the Bible say God called Abraham out of his hometown, the city of Ur in Chaldea near the Euphrates River (domain of Hammurabi later) in today’s Iraq. 

Genesis 12:1-4 says Abraham was 75 years old when God told him to leave Haran (in today’s SE Turkey).  If that had been God’s first promise of a son for Abraham, we could say he had to wait 25 years to have his promised son.  But God made the same promise when he told Abraham to leave Ur.  So…

  1. …how old was Abraham when he left Ur?
  2. …how many years did he have to wait to have that son? 

Start counting.  Genesis 10:1 and 11:10-26 gives the genealogy of Noah down to the time of Terah and his son, Abraham.  You will see that Abraham was 58 years old when Noah died.  Perhaps that is when and why God told him to leave. While Noah was still alive, he could protect Abraham, one of the few who believed in one God.   The Bible does not say how old Abraham was when God called him out of Ur.  But this is one strong possibility.

Also, that would mean he had to wait 42 years to have that promised son, not 25. 

Such faith!  Such amazing faith!

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