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

The year in Israel – rain

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

Rain

For those of us who live in cities, particularly western cities, the cycle of the year does not effect us much.  Our weather may change, but ploughing, sowing, threshing and reaping have little impact on us.  Western supermarkets are stocked with a vast array of foods throughout the year, and the immediate connection between the fertile earth and the food on our tables is not very clear.  Foods can be imported from countries all over the earth and land on supermarket shelves within days of being picked in some remote corner of the world.  For us, the early and latter rains don’t really matter much.Continue reading

Copying

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

Copying

Last year I started to write out sections of scripture, and today, reading over what I had written, I came across a mistake that highlighted one sort of error that can very easily be made by copyists.Continue reading

“Terror on every side”

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

“Terror on every side”

In the times before computers and smartphones became so common, a Bible concordance was a wonderful tool for finding words in the Bible. Furthermore, if you could find words, you could also find expressions, although it could be quite a lot of work. The very first expression I remember looking up in a concordance was “terror on every side”. As a teenager, it seemed to me that I came across it on every second page when we were reading through Jeremiah as a family. So I pulled out my copy of Strong’s Concordance – the one with a gaudy purple cover which I still have – and began the search.Continue reading

The book of the law

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

The book of the law

In the time of King Josiah, the book of the law was found in the temple of Yahweh. It was read to Josiah and the words he heard caused him to tear his clothes and weep (2 Chronicles 34:19-21, 27; 2 Kings 22:11, 19) because the nation had not obeyed the laws it contained. Josiah expected that the punishments promised in the book of the law would follow.Continue reading

Calendars

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

Calendars in Bible times

In Australia, we use the Gregorian calendar (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar), which was first introduced in various Roman Catholic countries in 1582 and gradually spread over the rest of the world over the next 350 years. Although there are still many different calendars in local use around the world, the Gregorian calendar is by far the most common one used for international dates. According to this calendar, the average year contains 365.2425 days, due to the careful inclusion of leap days added according to a defined plan.Continue reading

God’s communication

By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah

As far as we can tell, the majority of people in the Bible never heard directly from God. Nevertheless, God has spoken to humans on many occasions in many different ways throughout history. Men and women, young and old, kings and slaves, rich and poor, righteous and evil. God has also communicated or interacted in other ways: blessings, curses, riches, poverty, rewards, punishments, sickness, health, barrenness and having children. We are even told that in some situations he took control of people and made them do what he wanted. So what does the Bible tell us about God’s communication with people?
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