Books not included in the Bible

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

Other books in Bible times

Have you ever noticed that the Bible refers to books not included included in the Bible?  From time to time, someone in our family refers to “Waheb in Suphar and the valleys of the Arnon” – a rather quaint and attractive expression from Numbers 21:14 which tells us that it comes from “the Book of the Wars of the Lord”.  Unfortunately, this quaintness is missing from the KJV which says simply “What he did in the Red Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon”.Continue reading

The Prophet Zephaniah

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah , Minor prophets

The Prophet Zephaniah

When we read of prophets in the Bible we can get the feeling that they all lived at different times from each other.  There is almost never any indication of different prophets meeting each other or working together.  However, there are just a few examples, including Moses and Aaron; Elijah and Elisha; Haggai and Zechariah; and two nameless prophets in the time of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and maybe some others.  What about the prophet Zephaniah?Continue reading

God’s judgement of priests in Jeremiah’s time

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah , Minor prophets

God’s priests

When God led the people of Israel out of Egypt to Mount Sinai, they quickly went astray while Moses was up on the mountain.  Only the Levites worshipped God as he wanted them to and so he selected them as his special tribe in Israel.  Not only that, but he selected Moses’ brother Aaron as priest, and said that his descendants after him would inherit this important task. Did they do the job well? Are we told what God’s judgement of priests was?Continue reading

Events around the birth of Jesus

By Mark Morgan | Harmonies , Jesus

Events around the birth of Jesus

We are given quite a bit of detail surrounding the birth of Jesus and his early life in the gospels of Matthew (Matthew 1:18-2:23) and Luke (Luke 2:1-52), but there is little overlap in the details given.  Putting the two together as a parallel record can help us understand when various events took place.Continue reading

Quotations from Jeremiah

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

Quotations from the Old Testament

Writers in the New Testament often refer to passages from the Old Testament – including some quotations from Jeremiah.  Used for two main reasons, this habit ties the two testaments very closely together.  So what are the two reasons?Continue reading

Bible Covenants

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

A covenant is simply an agreement. Bible covenants are agreements made between people, or between God and people.

When we sign a contract, that is an agreement, and each country has many laws that detail just how binding such agreements are. These sorts of agreements and their associated laws have changed through history, and the Bible tells us of many agreements made thousands of years ago.Continue reading

Mourning in the Bible

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

Mourning in the Bible

Death and mourning are subjects which became important for humans because of sin (Romans 5:12). Different countries have many different customs surrounding death.  Many ways of mourning can be seen around the world. Not only that, but customs have also changed a lot through time. There is quite a bit of variation in mourning described in the Bible too, with some differences based simply on whether the person who had died was respected or loathed! Let’s have a quick look at death and mourning in the Bible, particularly in connection with the time of Jeremiah.Continue reading

The Passover Lamb

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

The Passover

Just before God led the people of Israel out of Egypt, he told them to keep the Passover lamb in their homes from the 10th day of the first month (Exodus 12:3) until until they killed it on the 14th at twilight (Exodus 12:6).

A lamb in the home?

When the Passover is defined as a national feast in Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16, there is no mention of any requirement to keep the lamb beforehand. Was this just a once-off requirement as part of building up for the first Passover? Continue reading

High places

By Mark Morgan | Jehoshaphat , Jeremiah

High places

When we wish to see a broader view, we look for high places. Each year, about 1,000 people try to climb Mount Everest. In 2016, about 600 reached the summit and 6 climbers died.

Of course, the world’s highest mountain is a far cry from your local hill, but it seems that high places have always been attractive to people, and the Bible talks about “high places” about one hundred times.Continue reading

Was it really so bad?

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

Was it really so bad?

From time to time, I am asked the question: “Why does the series Terror on Every Side! present such a negative picture of God’s opinion of Judah even in the time of Josiah who was such a good king?”

The answer to this question takes time to give.Continue reading

Birds in Israel

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

Birds in Israel

Israel is home to many species of birds. In the Old Testament, the law of Moses devotes space to lists of which types of birds are unclean (e.g., Leviticus 11:13-19 and Deuteronomy 14:11-18).

The law forbade eating of unclean birds, and a quick look at the list of unclean birds shows that all the birds included eat meat or fish.Continue reading

The year in Israel – feasts

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

Feasts

The cycle of the year in Israel was guided by “feasts” – annual religious events. The name “feast” can be a little misleading as it may lead us to think of celebrations with party food, but these feasts were not like that at all. One “feast” – the Day of Atonement – required all the people to “deny themselves” (Leviticus 23:27), which seems to refer to fasting.Continue reading