For most Bible readers, the city of Cyrene is not typically recognized as a significant place for understanding the world of the Bible, yet it is mentioned no less than five times in the New Testament as the place where certain people came from or lived. This underscores how much interaction some residents of Cyrene […]
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The World of the Bible
It is common for people today to caricature the biblical writers as having a very limited view of the world and thus a very limited perspective on life. The truth is, however, the writers of Scripture were familiar with a very expansive world–shown here–that stretched over 3000 miles from end to end. Most of the […]
Balaam Blesses Israel
Numbers 22-24 The story of Balaam takes place soon after the Israelites passed through Moab on their way to the Promised Land. Sometime before this the Moabites had occupied the land between the Arnon River and Ammon, but King Sihon of the Amorites seized it from them. As the Israelites passed through this area they […]
Aram Captures Gilead
The century leading up to Israel’s fall to Assyria in 722 B.C. was marked by a complicated interplay of regional power struggles, palace intrigues, and territorial losses and recoveries. During Jehu’s reign over Israel the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel’s territory (2 Kings 10:32-33), primarily at the hands of Hazael king of […]
Gideon Defeats the Midianites
Judges 6-8 During the time of the Judges, the Israelites were oppressed for seven years by several nomadic peoples, including Midianites, Amalekites, and perhaps Ishmaelites (see Judges 8:24), who repeatedly invaded the land during harvesttime and ruined all the crops. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to a man named Gideon in the town […]