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Your Bible Questions Answered

April 25, 2024

In Search of the Lost Ark, The Quest For The Ark of the Covenant (Episode 2). This study comes from our book with that title, found on our website educatingourworld under the heading of Bible Prophecy. It is a free download, as are all of our other resources.

We pick up where we left last time as we begin our journey with the Ark of the Covenant. We start with Abram, whose name was later changed to Abraham. The Lord Himself appeared to this special individual over 4,000 years ago and made a covenant, namely, an agreement with him. It contained a number of specific promises.

Among other things, his descendants would be a special people to the Lord who would live in a special land, one that the Lord specifically reserved for them.

However, before his descendants would settle in the land, they would live as slaves for 400 years in a foreign country. At the end of that time, they would come out with much wealth.

The Bible tells us that this is precisely what took place. After being slaves for 400 years in the Land of Egypt the nation of Israel, led by Moses, was miraculously brought out of the land by means of a number of special miracles, including the parting of the Red Sea.

On the way to the Promised Land, at Mount Sinai, the Lord revealed Himself to this nation by means of great signs. He promised them that they would be a treasured possession to Him if they obeyed His commandments. In fact, they would be His unique representatives on the earth.

This special covenant was made at Mount Sinai. Moses then went up on the mountain for forty days to receive the Ten Commandments written by God Himself.

Tragically, on his way down he saw the people in sin. Throwing down the tablets in anger, the Lord then constructed a second set that would consist of the agreement between Him and the people.

Now it was time to construct a sacred object which the Lord had chosen to symbolize Himself and which could house the Ten Commandment--the Ark of the Covenant.

God then gave Moses the plans for the construction of the Ark.

Our next episode will explain a number of things about the Ark itself as well as their meaning. As we noted, there will be many important biblical truths that we will learn as well as practical lessons for us. We trust this study will be a blessing to you.

Your Bible Questions Answered

May 3, 2024

As we continue with our study of the Ark of the Covenant, we come to a tragic event in its history, namely, the capture of the Ark by the Philistines. On the positive side, we are introduced to one of the greatest characters in Israel's history, Samuel. We find that he had been dedicated to the Lord by his mother Hannah. He was staying with the High Priest Eli at the Shiloh where the Ark was housed. This chapter gives us a precious incident where the Lord Himself spoke to you Samuel who initially thought it was Eli. Samuel's eventual response was, "Speak Lord, your servant is listening." A great lesson for us as how we are to react when the Lord is speaking to us. In this context, we are told that Israel went out to battle against the Philistines and were soundly defeated. Sadly, back in the camp, some of the leaders came up with the terrible idea of bringing the Ark with them into the next battle. They assumed that this would guarantee victory. The Philistines were needlessly fearful when the Ark arrived in Israel's camp. While the Ark symbolically represented the Lord Himself, the Lord was not living inside of it. Hence Israel was defeated and the Ark came into the hands of the pagan Philistines. Add to this, the two worthless sons of Eli, Phineas and Hophni, died in the battle. When word reach Eli that the battle was lost, that his sons had died, and the Ark was taken he fell over backwards and died. It was hearing about losing the Ark that cause his death. The wife of Phineas was giving brith at the tine to a son. She was also overwhelmed by the loss of the Ark to the point where she died in childbirth. Before she died, she named the child "Ichabod," the glory has departed from Israel. Indeed, it had. The people trusted in the Ark as a "good luck charm" rather than in the Lord Himself. As we will see in our next episode, while the Ark was now in the hands of the Philistines, it would not be something that was magical or even helpful to them. Indeed, the opposite would be the case.

Your Bible Questions Answered

May 2, 2024

We continue with our examination of the subject of the Ark of the Covenant. We've come to Episode 9 which is also chapter 9 in our book, In Search of the Lost Ark: The Quest For The Ark of the Covenant. The chapter is titled "Battling for the Promised Land." This book is a free download from our website educatingourworld and is found under the category of Bible Prophecy. We read the following.... We recall that God had promised Abraham that the entire land of Canaan would belong to his descendants. Jericho was the first city of the Promised Land to be conquered. After Jericho was destroyed, Joshua set his sights on the smaller city of Ai (pronounced eye). With the success at Jericho, it seemed that victory at Ai would be a simple matter. This, however, would not be the case. The People Went Fighting Without The Lord If Joshua thought that having the Ark of the Covenant would be an automatic guarantee for victory in battle, he would soon learn differently. The Bible describes what happened as follows: Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven, east of Bethel, and said to them, “Go up and spy out the land.” And the men went up and spied out Ai. Then they returned to Joshua and said to him, “Not all the people need go up; about two or three thousand men should go up and attack Ai. Since they are so few, do not make the whole people toil up there” (Joshua 7:2,3 NRSV UE). The victory at Jericho was not won because of the superior fighting ability of Israel but because of the power of the Lord. Unfortunately, the overconfident people went to fight the battle with Ai without consulting Him. Scripture says: So about three thousand men went up there from the people, but they fled before the men of Ai (Joshua 7:4 NKJV). The army was defeated at Ai. The main reason for the defeat was that one of the Israelites, a man named Achan, took some of the booty from the destroyed city of Jericho. God had commanded that Jericho be utterly destroyed with no spoils taken. The Israelites had to be judged for their disobedience. After the loss at Ai, Joshua and the leaders fell before the Ark: Joshua and the leaders of Israel tore their clothing in dismay, threw dust on their heads, and bowed down facing the Ark of the LORD until evening (Joshua 7:6 NLT). Ai was eventually conquered, but a valuable lesson was learned—mere possession of the Ark did not guarantee victory. The Ark moved around a number of places during this time period. First, it seemed to remain a couple of years at Gilgal, the place where they first entered the land. On one occasion it was brought to Mount Ebal in the area of Shechem. This was too commemorate the victories at Jericho and Ai as well as having the covenant renewed. The Ark then settled in Shiloh for some 400 years. There a more permanent structure was built for the Ark. We discover that for a three-hundred-year period after the time of Joshua, the references to the Ark are rare. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia notes: Just where the ark was during the period of the judges is still a matter of some uncertainty. We have the record of the High Priest Phineas receiving counsel from God concerning the civil war with Benjamin.7 We read the following in the Book of Judges: And the Israelites went up seeking direction from the LORD. (In those days the Ark of the Covenant of God was in Bethel, and Phinehas son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron was the priest.) The Israelites asked the LORD, “Should we fight against our relatives from Benjamin again or should we stop?” The LORD said, “Go! Tomorrow, I will give you victory over them” (Judges 20:27,28 NLT). Apart from this one event, the Bible is silent about the Ark during the time of the Judges. Conclusion For several hundred years after the battle of Jericho, references to the Ark are few. It is assumed the Ark traveled with the Tabernacle and came to rest in Shiloh8, where it stood for a period of four hundred years. We now come to an incident where the Ark is again brought out to battle, and this time with disastrous results.

Your Bible Questions Answered

May 1, 2024

We continue our study of the subject of the Ark of the Covenant. As we have indicated, all the material from these videos comes from our book, In Search of the Lost Ark: The Quest For The Ark of the Covenant. It is a free download from our website, educatingourworld and can be found under the heading of Bible prophecy. We now come to Chapter 8, Conquering A City God's Way: Jericho... The God who reveals Himself in Scripture does things His own way. His ideas and thoughts are not the same as we human beings. The prophet Isaiah records the Lord as saying: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8,9 NKJV). This statement was never truer, than when Joshua received the battle plan from the Lord to take the city of Jericho. Once the children of Israel entered the land God had promised, they practiced the neglected rite of circumcision. Then they were ready to fulfill the promises of God and conquer the land. The first battle would be against the city of Jericho. The Battle Plan Against Jericho The battle fought against Jericho employed one of the oddest strategies ever used to fight a battle. Joshua told the men of war: Your entire army is to march around the city once a day for six days (Joshua 6:3 NLT). The seventh day the strategy would be different: Seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark, each carrying a ram’s horn. On the seventh day you are to march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. When you hear the priests give one long blast on the horns, have all the people give a mighty shout. Then the walls of the city will collapse, and the people can charge straight into the city (Joshua 6:4,5 NLT). As predicted, the walls did indeed come tumbling down at the seventh day after they had circled the city seven times. How did it happen? Simply put, it was a miracle. The Evidence Says This Actually Happened Recent archaeological evidence has substantiated the biblical account of the destruction of the city of Jericho by Joshua. After evaluating all the facts, archaeologist/scholar, Bryant Wood, writes: Was there a destruction at the hands of the Israelites? The correlation between the archaeological evidence and the Biblical narrative is substantial. The city was strongly fortified (Joshua 2:5,7,15,6:5,20). The attack occurred just after harvest time in the spring (Joshua 2:6, 3:15, 5:10). The inhabitants had no opportunity to flee with their foodstuffs (Joshua 6:1). The siege was short (Joshua 6:15). The walls were leveled, possibly by an earthquake (Joshua 6:20). The city was not plundered (Joshua 6:17,18). The city was burned (Joshua 6:24). For further documentation on the evidence from Jericho, see our book Ancient Mysteries of the Bible Solved, Volume 1, pages 54-55... It can be found under the heading of "The Bible." God’s Power Is What Brought Down The Walls Jericho, the fortified city of Canaan, was conquered by the miraculous power of God. Led by the Ark of the Covenant, the city was taken with a battle plan that clearly showed the superiority of the God of Israel. The conquest of the Promised Land had begun.