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Unexpected instructions from God
By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah
Recently, my oldest daughter suggested that it might be good to write an article on some of the unconventional, unexpected or peculiar things that God told people in the Bible to do.
We discussed the idea and came up with quite a long list of cases where the instructions of God were completely unexpected by the people who received them and in many cases would have seemed bizarre.
For example, when God told Noah to build an ark[1] (a big boat, probably shaped like an enormous box), I can imagine that Noah was shocked. How close he was to any large body of water or what experience he had with building boats, we do not know, but being told to build a boat to save life on the earth would have been a huge and unexpected responsibility!
Throughout the Bible, we read of God giving instructions to various people. Many of them are things we might expect our creator to say, but there are other categories of instruction that would astonish us if we ever received anything similar!
When parents are expecting a baby, they have an opportunity to choose a name that seems appropriate. They may select a favourite name, a family name, a name with a special meaning – or perhaps the only name they can agree on! Whatever the motivation behind the choice, most people find pleasure in choosing a new baby’s name.
However, there are quite a few cases in the Bible where God took over this perk of parenthood and specified the name of the baby while it was still in the womb or even before it was conceived.
Here is a list of such babies, and in every case, the name God gave had a meaning that was important:
I think that this list is exhaustive, but if you can think of any other examples of babies named by God in the Bible, please let me know.
At times, adults change their names, particularly if they have a name that would be difficult for people to pronounce or embarrassing – or if they feel that another name would be more beneficial to their career. This is quite common among performers and authors, and women also often change their surname to that of their husband when they are married, but the Bible also gives us some examples where God told people to change their names or gave them an extra name to use as well as their existing name.
Can you imagine what it would feel like to have your given name changed at God’s command?
The man Abraham is famous around the world – amongst Jews, Muslims and Christians – but did you know that Abraham was not his original name? For the first 99 years of his life he was known as Abram, a name with the grand meaning of “exalted father”. However, when God made a covenant with him and required him to be circumcised as a symbol of that covenant, he also gave him a new name – as if he was a new baby. The name chosen by God was Abraham, which means “father of a multitude”.[16]
His wife Sarai was also renamed Sarah, which means “princess”.[17]
That was a day of major change for Abraham and Sarah! God changed both of their names and promised them a son whom they were to call Isaac. And as if that was not enough, all the males in their household had to be circumcised, a ritual that was to be continued throughout their generations – including their son Isaac when he was born a year later.
Abraham would have to remember to call Sarai “Sarah” and she would have to call him “Abraham” in return. All of the men would have to endure a painful operation which would cause them days of suffering. It says a lot for Abraham’s persuasive piety that there do not seem to have been any objections to the plan!
About 160 years later, Abraham’s and Sarah’s grandson Jacob was also given another name by God, after a puzzling incident in which he met an angel at night. For some reason, the two of them wrestled for hours before the angel ended the battle by touching Jacob’s hip socket and putting his hip out of joint. Jacob, however, still refused to let the angel go without blessing him. The angel satisfied this request by naming him Israel, which means “he struggles with God” or “God strives”.[18]
Jeremiah the prophet was attacked, beaten, put in the stocks and left there overnight by a priest in Jerusalem called Pashhur. The next day, Jeremiah told him that God’s name for him was not Pashhur, but Magor-missabib,[19] which means “terror on every side”, an expression used a few times in Jeremiah and the title I chose for a series of novels about the life of Jeremiah.
We also know of at least one famous man in the Bible whose name was changed, but not at the instigation of God (as far as we know!). Do you know who this was?[20]
How many thousands or millions of people through history have been called Abraham, Sarah, Ishmael, Isaac, Jesus and even John in memory of those people whom God named? History could sound quite different if the original names had been used instead – imagine a US president called Abram Lincoln or a nation called Jacob!
Despite the popularity of some of these names, I don’t know of anyone who has named their baby Maher-shalal-hashbaz!
Now we look at some of the unconventional, unexpected or possibly even peculiar things that God told people in the Bible to do.
In the time of king David, the Philistines often attacked Jerusalem and David was quick to ask God what to do. 2 Samuel 5 gives us some details of two of these confrontations. On the first occasion, when David asked what to do, God told him to go and meet the Philistines in battle and that he would be victorious. He did and he was.[21]
On the second occasion, God directed David to take a different approach, leading his army around behind the Philistines and waiting near some balsam trees. When he heard the sound of marching in the tops of the trees, he was to attack, because God would already have begun to defeat the enemy. David obeyed and won a convincing victory.[22]
When people refer to David as a great king they are right,[23] and this willingness to ask God for instructions and then do what God told him is one of the outstanding characteristics that made him great. I can’t help thinking that few generals would ever ask God for guidance, and most would ignore such an instruction if they ever received it. Despite God’s insistence that he controls the kingdoms of the world,[24] we, as humans, continue to believe that we know better!
God spoke to his prophets frequently and some of the instructions he gave them were particularly strange, things they were to do as part of giving others a message from God.
For example, Ezekiel was told to get a sword and use it as a barber’s razor to cut off his beard and the hair on his head. Not too strange, you might say, but it didn’t stop there. Imagine how you would feel if you were given the following instructions:
“Take balances for weighing and divide the hair. A third part you shall burn in the fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are completed. And a third part you shall take and strike with the sword all around the city. And a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will unsheathe the sword after them. And you shall take from these a small number and bind them in the skirts of your robe. And of these again you shall take some and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will come out into all the house of Israel.”
When God talks about “the siege” above, he is referring to another instruction he had already given Ezekiel instructing him to draw a picture of Jerusalem on a brick, then lie down in front of it and act as if he were laying siege to it![25]
These instructions do seem strange, but they were all part of God’s attempts to get people to listen to his warnings, in the hope of saving their lives. Sadly, most people didn’t listen in those days – any more than they do nowadays. God explained what Ezekiel’s little parable with his hair meant:
“A third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in your midst; a third part shall fall by the sword all around you; and a third part I will scatter to all the winds and will unsheathe the sword after them.”
Ezekiel’s play acting was a terrible warning of coming judgement, given by God in the hope that his people would repent. They didn’t.
Other prophets who acted out parables were:
(a) An unnamed prophet asked someone to wound him so that he would have to wear a bandage which would stop King Ahab from recognising him and also make his message more convincing.[26]
(b) Isaiah was told to:
(c) Jeremiah acted out several parables. He was told to:
(d) Hosea was told to marry a prostitute to present a living example of God’s willingness to forgive his people.[33]
Shortly after the kingdom of Israel was split into two parts, God sent a prophet from Judah to give a warning to Jeroboam, the new king of Israel. The conditions God placed upon his journey were that he should go to Bethel and deliver the message, but not eat or drink anything while he was there. Not only so, but he was to return home by a different way from the way he had gone.[34] Sadly, he didn’t follow those instructions.
Elijah was a famous prophet whose life is celebrated in the oratorio “Elijah” by Felix Mendlessohn, which contains some magnificent music. Elijah received a few unexpected instructions from God during his life, including being told to go and live beside a creek at the start of a drought and that ravens would feed him. He obeyed and the birds gave him bread and meat every morning and evening, and he drank from the creek until it dried up.[35] After that he was told to go beyond the borders of Israel to live with a widow and her son in Zarephath. There he was looked after until the drought ended after three and a half years.[36]
Elisha took over from Elijah as God’s prophet and he became famous for doing twice as many miracles as Elijah. One involved the healing of a Syrian general, Naaman, who was a leper. He went to the king of Israel and demanded to be healed, which convinced the king that Syria was looking for a fight. Elisha, however, told the king to send the man over to Elisha so that he could learn that there was a real God in Israel. When Naaman arrived, Elisha sent him a message telling him to go to the Jordan and dip himself in it seven times. Initially, he refused, angrily saying that the rivers of Damascus were better than all of the waters in Israel. Fortunately for him, however, his servants convinced him to try anyway and he was cured of his leprosy.[37] Had he held on to his stubbornness, he would have remained a leper. Stubbornness might feel good at times, but it can often make us miss out on good things.
Some other well-known Bible characters were told to do very unexpected things.
Abraham was told to sacrifice the only son of his beloved wife Sarah – which is the only time in the Bible where God told anyone to sacrifice a human being. The happy sequel was that when Abraham showed that he was willing to obey, God stopped him and provided a ram for him to sacrifice instead.[38]
Let’s look at a few other examples where godly people followed strange instructions to the letter:
We could go on with many other examples or look at the strange things people saw and did in visions (eating scrolls, digging through walls, being picked up by the hair and taken to Jerusalem, etc.), but this is enough for now!
This article on unexpected instructions from God is one of a series of articles on Jeremiah published as back-up material for the Bible-based fiction series Terror on Every Side!
[ More information | Purchase ]
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Notes
| ↑1 | Genesis 6:13-21 |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Genesis 16:11 |
| ↑3 | Genesis 16:15 |
| ↑4 | Genesis 17:15-19 |
| ↑5 | Genesis 18:10-12 |
| ↑6 | Genesis 21:6-7 |
| ↑7 | 1 Chronicles 22:9 |
| ↑8 | 2 Samuel 12:24 |
| ↑9 | 2 Samuel 12:25 |
| ↑10 | Isaiah 8:1-4 |
| ↑11 | Hosea 1:4 |
| ↑12 | Hosea 1:6 |
| ↑13 | Hosea 1:9 |
| ↑14 | Luke 1:13 |
| ↑15 | Matthew 1:21; Luke 1:31 |
| ↑16 | Genesis 17:5 |
| ↑17 | Genesis 17:15 |
| ↑18 | Genesis 32:24-30; 35:10 |
| ↑19 | Jeremiah 20:2-6 |
| ↑20 | Hint: He is in the New Testament |
| ↑21 | 2 Samuel 5:18-21 |
| ↑22 | 2 Samuel 5:22-25 |
| ↑23 | 2 Samuel 22:36; Psalm 18:35 and see Bible Tales article “David’s Legacy” (https://www.bibletales.online/davids-legacy/) |
| ↑24 | eg. Daniel 4 |
| ↑25 | Ezekiel 4 |
| ↑26 | 1 Kings 20:35-43 |
| ↑27 | Isaiah 8:1-2 |
| ↑28 | Isaiah 20:1-5 |
| ↑29 | Jeremiah 19 |
| ↑30 | Jeremiah 13:1-11 |
| ↑31 | Jeremiah 32:1-44 |
| ↑32 | Jeremiah 25:15-38 |
| ↑33 | Hosea 1:2-3 |
| ↑34 | 1 Kings 13:1-32 |
| ↑35 | 1 Kings 17:1-7 |
| ↑36 | 1 Kings 17:8-18:1 |
| ↑37 | 2 Kings 5:1-14 |
| ↑38 | Genesis 22:1-18 |
| ↑39 | Genesis 15:8-21 |
| ↑40 | Exodus 12:3-14 |
| ↑41 | Joshua 3:7-4:18 |
| ↑42 | Joshua 6:2-21 |
| ↑43 | Jeremiah 18:1-17 |
| ↑44 | Matthew 2:13-15 |