Though the nation of Elam receives limited attention in Scripture, the history of this ancient civilization spans nearly the entire breadth of the Bible from Genesis to Acts. After being listed among the descendants of Shem (Genesis 10:22), Elam is noted as one of the four Mesopotamian nations whose kings traveled to Canaan during Abraham’s […]
Category Archives: Divided Monarchy Period
Places Referenced by Trees in the Bible
When modern readers encounter a verse in Scripture that references a “great tree” to locate where an event took place, there is a good chance they will dismiss it as somewhat irrelevant to the significance of the passage. But for the original audience of Scripture, these tangible references provided a very real connection to the […]
Jehu Executes Judgment
2 Kings 9-10 More than two centuries before the prophet Habakkuk struggled to understand how God could use the wicked Babylonians to accomplish his good purposes (Habakkuk 1), a man named Jehu rose to power over Israel and carried out deeds that were similarly God-ordained yet incredibly brutal. We first hear of Jehu while the […]
Ahab’s Wars with Aram
Though righteousness often results in worldly blessings (see much of the book of Proverbs), the Bible’s judgment of Ahab as one of the most wicked kings in Israel’s history shows that worldly success cannot always be regarded as a measure of one’s favor before God, because Ahab was also one of the strongest kings in […]
Omri Rises to Power
1 Kings 16:8-28 Though most Bible readers would hardly recognize the name Omri among the list of Israel’s rulers, this king played such a pivotal role in Israel’s history that 150 years later the kings of Assyria still referred to Israel as the “land of Omri” in their annals. During (or perhaps before) the brief […]