Another test series
The recent test cricket series between England and India finished in a 2—2 draw. And the next England versus Australia test series begins on 21 November 2025. A test cricket series involves up to five cricket matches, with each match lasting up to five days. Did you know that Israel went through many more tests on their exodus from Egypt in about 1450 BC? How would they respond to the challenges on their journey? Would they trust and obey God who was leading them? Or would they rebel against God and go their own way? (more…)
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Four lessons from the life of Joseph
I spent last week at a holiday camp for children aged 8-12 years. During this time the children learnt about four lessons from the life of Joseph, who lived about 3,700 years ago (~1680 BC). They also learnt some verses from the Bible (see Appendix). (more…)
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Is the Torah fact or fiction?
Were the ancient Israelites ever really slaves in Egypt? Did the Exodus really happen? Was the Torah (see Appendix) written by Moses in the mid second millennium BC, or by Jews about 1,000 years later? Is it fact or fiction?
In this post, the content of the Torah is examined to see how it matches with the existing archaeological record to help throw light on its origin. When was the Torah written? (more…)
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God’s power, justice and mercy in Egypt
Last Sunday Tim Tszyu beat Joey Spencer in a super welterweight boxing match at Newcastle in Australia.
Thousands of New South Wales doctors went on strike last week in a dispute with the state government over pay and staffing levels. The doctors’ union is seeking a pay increase of up to 30%.
And in the Australian Federal election on 3 May we have Albanese versus Dutton.
Confrontation happens everywhere. Today we are looking at a confrontation that happened in Egypt about 3,470 years ago. (more…)
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In the Bible, what does “a land flowing with milk and honey” mean?
God promised to rescue the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and bring them into Canaan, “a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex. 3:8NIV). He also called it “a good and spacious land”. According to the NET Bible, this means that it was good (in terms of quality) and spacious (in terms of size). Also see the Appendices. (more…)
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Buffer zones in Exodus
In urban planning, a buffer zone is an area that separates different land uses to reduce conflicts and negative impacts between them. Like between houses and noisy motorways or houses and smelly industries. Or it can be protective like the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. Did you know about the buffer zones in the book of Exodus? (more…)
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Comprehensive outline of the book of Exodus
The second book of the Old Testament, Exodus, was written by Moses. The information in chapter 1:1-2:10 may have come from his parents or his sister, or some other source.
I like having titles on the paragraphs or sections of my Bible. This helps to indicate the context of a particular passage of scripture. A comprehensive outline (section headings) of the book of Exodus is given below. (more…)
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Why a good God commanded the Israelites to destroy the Canaanites
This blog comes from Jonathan Noyes and the appendix comes from Got Questions.
When I was an atheist, I loved causing Christians to doubt God. It was fun for me. One of my favorite tactics was to get them to question God’s goodness. I thought that if I could cause them to doubt God’s goodness, I could eventually get them to doubt God’s existence. (more…)
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Are you going in circles?
Tunnel boring machines (TBMs) are being used to build new roads and new metro rail lines in Sydney (see Appendix). The road is the Western Harbour tunnel from North Sydney to Rozelle. And there are three metro rail projects: from Chatswood under the harbour and the city to Sydenham, from the city to Westmead and from St Marys to the new Western Sydney Airport.
And the Snowy 2.0 pumped-storage hydroelectric project to help Australia’s electricity network is using three TBMs to excavate about 40 km of tunnels. But one of the machines named Florence, got bogged. Florence was meant to drill a tunnel 15 kilometres long but had only travelled about 150 metres before getting stuck in very soft wet ground for 14 months. It had only travelled 1% of the distance! The machine weighs 2,400 tonnes and measures 143 metres in length and 11 metres (3 stories) in diameter. (more…)
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The greatest extraterrestrial message
Astronomers have been searching for messages from extra-terrestrial (ET) beings for many years without success. And E. T. was a popular science fiction movie released in 1982. Meanwhile, two special messages from the greatest ET have been available for thousands of years. (more…)
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How were the books of the Bible decided?
How do we know that we have the right books in the Bible – the Old and New Testaments?
Most people believe that the early Catholic Church decided which books were authentic. This is not true; it is a myth. The Church did not authorize Scripture, it just accepted it. It merely recognized and accepted the books God Himself had inspired and authorized. (more…)
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King Saul’s hills and valleys
Saul was the first king over Israel. He lived in the 11th century BC. There is an account of his life in 1 Samuel 9-31 of the Bible. The main hills and valleys in his life are shown in the graph – the lower graph follows the upper one. (more…)
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Solomon’s hills and valleys
Solomon was the third king over Israel. He lived in the 10th century BC. There is an account of his life in 1 Kings 1-11 and 1 Chronicles 29:21 to 2 Chronicles 9:31 of the Bible. And Solomon wrote Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. The main hills and valleys in his life are shown in the graph. (more…)
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Elisha’s hills and valleys
Elisha was the prophet to Israel after Elijah. He lived in the 9th century BC. There is an account of his life in 1 Kings 19 to 2 Kings 13 of the Bible. The hills and valleys in his life are shown in the graph. (more…)
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Elijah’s hills and valleys
Elijah was a prophet to Israel from 900 BC to 849 BC. There is an account of his life in 1 Kings 17 to 2 Kings 2 of the Bible. The hills and valleys in his life are shown in the graph. (more…)
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David’s hills and valleys
David lived in the Middle East about 3,000 years ago. There is an account of his life in 1 Samuel 16 to 1 Kings 2 and in 1 Chronicles 11-29 of the Bible. And David wrote many of the Psalms. The hills and valleys in his life are shown in the graph. (more…)
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Moses’ hills and valleys
After about 200 hundred years in Egypt, the Israelites multiplied so greatly that the Egyptians felt threatened and put slave masters over them and used them as laborers. Pharaoh issued an order that every Hebrew boy that was born was to be drowned in the river Nile. It was a dangerous time for Moses to be born. Moses lived in the 15th century BC. There is an account of his life from Exodus 2 to Deuteronomy 34 of the Bible. The hills and valleys in the first 80 years of his life are shown in the graph. (more…)
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Joseph’s hills and valleys
Joseph was born about 3,900 years ago. There is an account of his life in Genesis 30-50 of the Bible. The hills and valleys in the first 30 years of his life are shown in the graph, which goes up for hills and down for valleys. (more…)
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Abraham’s hills and valleys
Abraham lived in the Middle East about 4,000 years ago. There is an account of his life in Genesis 11-25 of the Bible. God gave him four great promises: a promised son (Isaac), a promised people (the Jews), a promised land (Canaan), and a promised blessing for all people (Jews wrote the Scriptures; Jesus Christ was Jewish).
Part of Abraham’s life is summarized in the graph in terms of whether he was trusting God’s promises or doubting them. It goes up when he trusted the promises and down when he doubted them. (more…)
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Lessons from the book of Genesis
What is the purpose of the book of Genesis in the Bible? Why was it written? And why was it included in the Bible? What are the main lessons in it, both for the original readers and for us today?
When was it written? The book of Genesis was compiled and edited by Moses (Lk. 24:27; Acts 15:1) between 1446 B.C. (the date of the Exodus) and 1406 B.C. (the death of Moses). A likely possibility is during the year that Israel spent encamped in the wilderness at Sinai when Moses probably composed most, if not all, of the Books of Exodus and Leviticus. Such an assumption would place the date of composition of Genesis between 1446 and 1445 B.C. (more…)
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Comprehensive outline of the book of Genesis
The first book of the Old Testament, Genesis, was compiled from eleven older documents by Moses (Appendix A).
I like having titles on the paragraphs or sections of my Bible. This helps to indicate the context of a particular passage of scripture. A comprehensive outline (section headings) of the book of Genesis is given below. (more…)
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A brief summary of the 66 books of the Bible
This paragraph summary of each book of the Bible is from Got Questions. (more…)
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A simple summary of the Bible
This post is a summary by MissionAssist of the main message of each book in the Bible. It uses EasyEnglish which is clear and simple English. It is suitable for those whose first language is not English. (more…)
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Genocide of the Midianites?
Does the Bible support genocide, violence and war? In the Bible God tells the Israelites to destroy the Midianite nation. I have received a comment about the military threat of the Midianite nation, “Why couldn’t they (the Israelites) spare any (Amalekite) captives? At least those who wouldn’t be a military threat in the future like the Midianites?”
After the death of Sarah, Abraham married Keturah, and Midian was one of their sons (Gen. 25:1-4; 1 Chron. 1:32-33). Midian’s descendants were called Midianites or Ishmaelites (Gen. 37:27-28; Jud. 8:24-26). They settled in “the land of the east (of Canaan)” (Gen. 25:6NIV). And they are thought to have worshipped many gods, including Baal-peor and the Queen of Heaven, Ashteroth. (more…)
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