Hidden deep within the pages of the Bible are noteworthy, interesting and sometimes surprising facts. Here is a collection of ironic, witty, and explanatory treasures that can be found in the Bible. You just have to look for them:
Why were the sons of Aaron decreed by God to be the priests? One possible answer is genealogy. Let's put together the following Scriptures:
Exodus 28:1 - Have Aaron your brother brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, so they may serve me as priests.
Genesis 49:10 - The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.
Matthew 1:1-6 - A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the descendant of David, the descendant of Abraham:
Exodus 32:26 - So (Moses) stood at the entrance to the camp and said "Whoever is for the Lord, come to me." And all the Levites rallied to him.
Deuteronomy 10:8-9 - At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister and pronounce blessings in His name, as they still do today.
Exodus 6:16,18,20,23 - These were the names of the sons of Levi according to their records: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Levi lived 137 years. ... The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. ... Amram married his father's sister Jochebed, who bore him Aaron and Moses. ... Aaron married Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
Now notice the genealogy of the sons of Aaron. They are descendants of both the priestly tribe of Levi and the royal tribe of Judah.
In Joshua 2, Rahab in faith protected the Israelite spies. Her immediate reward, in Joshua 6:25, was to be spared from death when Jericho fell, and to become part of the Israelite community. But she gained an even greater reward (and I can think of no greater reward for her than this): She married Salmon, and her son was Boaz. So she is in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, as seen in Matthew 1:5 (see above).
Likewise, Ruth was rewarded for her faithfulness. She married Boaz, and was the mother of Obed. She was King David's great-grandmother. So she was also in the line of Jesus (Matthew 1:5, see above).
Jesus once said "You don't know what you are asking!" Why did He say this? Let's find out:
Matthew 20:20-23 - Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus with her sons
and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. "
What is it you want?" He asked.
She said, "Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left
in your kingdom."
"You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said to them. "Can you drink the cup I am
going to drink?"
"We can," they answered.
Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me
to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father."
Now look at Matthew 27:38 - Two robbers were crucified with Him, one on His right, and one on His left. - Think about that: "You don't know what you are asking." Was she reserving cross spaces?
But we also need to look at Mark 16:19 - After the Lord had spoken to them, He was taken up into heaven and He sat at the right hand of God. - Now think about THAT: "You don't know what you are asking." Though she didn't know it, she wanted one of them to take God's seat.
There was a reason Jesus let the woman anoint Him with the perfume before the crucifixion:
Mark 14:3-8 - While He was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man
known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She
broke the jar and poured the perfume on His head.
Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste of perfume? It could
have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor." And they rebuked her
harshly.
"Leave her alone," said Jesus. "Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing
to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them anytime you want. But you will not always
have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my
burial.
Mark 16:1-7 - When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James,
and Salome bought spices so they might go anoint Jesus' body. Very early on the first day of the week, just
after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, "Who will roll the stone away
from the entrance of the tomb?"
But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they
entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were
alarmed.
"Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified.
He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him."
If the woman had waited, she wouldn't have had a chance to anoint Jesus. He would have already risen by the time the Sabbath ended. In fact, that was the only time his body was anointed for death.
But for her love for him, she has been rewarded.
Mark 14:9 - "I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout
the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."
Matthew 27:46-47 - About the 9th hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" - which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" When some of those standing there heard this, they said, "He's calling Elijah."
We know He wasn't calling Elijah. And we do know that Jesus was very forsaken at the time. But Jesus had another much more important reason to say that. Let's look at the facts:
Read Psalm 22:1 - My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? The first line is the same as what Jesus said. So He was quoting Scripture. Now the question is, why was He quoting Scripture?
There is one other thing we must be aware of. The chapter and verse numbers we are familiar with first appeared in the 1599 Geneva Bible, The Hebrew Scriptures had divisions, but were not numbered, so Jewish Scripture references had to be made another way. They referred to a passage by quoting the first line. So what Jesus was really saying was, "Read Psalm 22."
Psalm 22:8a says, "He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue him." The mockers in Matthew 27:43 said, "He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if He wants him."
Psalm 22:18 says, They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my
clothing.
Matthew 27:35 - When they had crucified Him, they divided up His clothes by casting
lots.
Mark 15:24 - And they crucified Him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see
what each would get.
Luke 23:34b - And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
John 19:23-24 - When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took His clothes, dividing
them into 4 shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven
in one piece from top to bottom. "Let us not tear it," they said to one another, "Let us
decide by lot who will get it." This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said,
"They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing."
So this is what the soldiers did.
Psalm 22:7 - All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
Psalm 22:14 - I am poured out like water, and my bones are out of joint. My
heart has turned to wax; It has melted away within me.
Psalm 22:15 - My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to
the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.
Psalm 22:16b - A band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands
and my feet.
Psalm 22:17 - I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me.
These are very good descriptions of the crucifixion.
Read Psalm 22. It's in there!
Too many non-Christians believe that, because Jesus was crucified, that He failed His mission on earth. But Scripture says that Jesus didn't fail:
John 4:34 - "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work."
John 5:36 - "I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me."
John 19:30 - When He had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. So he said His work was finished. He accomplished everything He intended to do.
I Corinthians 1:22-24 - Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. So it was all part of the plan.
What's the lawyer's favorite verse? Try Hosea 10:4 - They make many promises, take false oaths, and make agreements; therefore lawsuits spring up like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.
Raiders of the Lost Ark sounds like a wonderful adventure. Wouldn't it be great to find the Ark of the Covenant? But it won't ever happen. Scriptures tells that it is not lost. It's gone.
Jeremiah 3:16 - "In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land," declares the Lord, "men will no longer say 'The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord.' It will never enter their minds or be remembered. It will not be missed, nor will another one be made."
It seems that the ark is already gone at the time Jeremiah wrote this text. Most likely it was taken by Nebuchadnezzar. II Chronicles 36:7 - Nebuchadnezzar also took to Babylon articles from the temple and put them in his temple there.
But the ark is NOT among the inventory of the items that King Cyrus returned to Sheshbazzar when he gave his edict for Israel to return to the land of Judah (Ezra 1).
There are several possibilities of what might have happened to the ark:
II Chronicles 28-24 - Ahaz gathered together the furnishings from the temple of God and cut them in pieces.
II kings 24-13 - As the LORD had declared, Nebuchadnezzar removed the treasures from the temple of the LORD and from the royal palace, and cut up the gold articles that Solomon king of Israel had made for the temple of the LORD.
If the ark had been taken to Babylon, we have to remember that Babylon was conquered by Persia, and later, Persia was conquered by Medea. It is possible that one of the kings of Babylon, Persia, or Medea didn't know what the ark was, and destroyed it to get the gold on it. Haman (book of Esther) is also a good suspect,
Proof that it was gone: Hebrews 9:3-5 - Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, which held the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered Ark of the Covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron's staff that budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover. But we cannot discuss these things in detail now.
So they had no memory of its details at the time of Paul.
Because we have the Holy Spirit, we don't need the Ark of the Covenant. But we will see it again. Revelation 11:19 shows the ark in God's temple in heaven.
How did the Al Qaeda suicide attacks get into this page on Bible treasures? Islamics claim that martyrs for Islam will get 70 virgins in the afterlife. But they also claim that Allah is the same as our Christian and Jewish God. But if Allah is God, something bothers me (beside God's dislike of polygamy and promiscuity). The Bible contradicts the Islamic version of the afterlife for a martyr:
Matthew 22:29-30 - Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection, people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven."
It seems the resurrection body won't have any sexual equipment. So just WHAT is the Islamic martyr who gets the 70 virgins supposed to do with them? Will he adorn his dwelling with them?
Here's a thought: Maybe it's really a threat, intended to discourage martyrdom. Maybe those 70 virgins are supposed to constantly nag the Islamic martyr throughout eternity.
Was the first hazardous cargo route in the Bible? Yes, it was. It was the road from Gath and Ekron to Beth-Shemesh. The Philistines had captured the Ark of the Covenant in a battle. But it was causing them constant trouble, including rats and tumors. So they decided to send it back to Israel.
Excerpts from I Samuel 6:1-7:1 - "What shall we do with the Ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it back to its place." ... but God struck down some of the men of Beth Shemesh, putting 70 of them to death because they had looked into the Ark of the Lord.
God doesn't like big government. In the following verses, recognize that a king was the only form of government generally known in Biblical times. So the restrictions on a king also apply to other governments:
Excerpts from Deuteronomy 17:14-20 - ... Be sure to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses. ... Do not place a foreigner over you. ... The king must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself. ... He must not take many wives. ...He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. He is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from the priests, who are Levites. ... He is to read it all the days of his life. ... He must not consider himself better than his brothers.... (Note that horses are weapons.)
The hazards of big government are given in I Samuel 8:11-18 - (Samuel) said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day."
Note that Samuel mentioned only a 20 percent tax rate (the tithe, plus the tenth the king would take). I wonder what he would think of our 75 percent total tax rate in the U.S. today.
Would you believe that the U.S. Congress is mentioned in the Bible? It is, in Isaiah 28:10,13:
10 For it is:
Do this! Do that!
A rule for this! A rule for that!
A little here, a little there.
That's what they do to us. So God's word becomes strange to them:
13 So then, the word of the Lord to them will become:
Do this! Do that!
A rule for this! A rule for that!
A little here, a little there,
so that they will go and fall backward, be injured and snared and captured.
The greedy politicians who covet our incomes will get their just judgment in the end.
Another translation has a similar take on this:
10 For it is:
Do and do, do and do,
Rule on rule, rule on rule,
A little here, a little there.
There are a lot of cases in the Bible where God did something, and later undid it:
Genesis 11:7 - "Come, let us go down and confuse their language, so
they will not understand each other."
Acts 2:6 - When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment,
because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
I Kings 6:1-2 - In the 480th year after the Israelites had come out of
Egypt, in the 4th year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, he began to build the temple
of the Lord. The temple that King Solomon built for the Lord was 60 cubits long, 20 wide, and 30 high.
Luke 21:5-6 - Some of His disciples were remarking about how the temple was
adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, "As for what you see
here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown
down."
It happened about 40 years later.
Exodus 25:10-11 - "Have them make a chest (ark) of acacia wood 2.5 cubits
long, 1.5 cubits wide, and 1.5 cubits high. Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and outside, and make a
gold molding around it.
Jeremiah 3:16 - "In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in
the land," declares the Lord, "men will no longer say 'The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord.'
It will never enter their minds or be remembered. It will not be missed, nor will another one be
made."
Leviticus 11:1-3 - The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Say to the Israelites:
'Of all the animals that live on land, these are the ones you may eat: You may eat any animal that has a
split hoof completely divided and that chews the cud.'"
Mark 7:18-19 - "Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that
nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him unclean? For it doesn't go into his heart, but into
his stomach, and then out of the body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
Matthew 2:9 - After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star
they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.
Luke 23:44-45 - It was now about the 6th hour, and darkness came over the whole
land until the 9th hour, for the sun stopped shining.
(It is also interesting that the historian Thalus wrote an account of darkness in Syria that happened
during the crucifixion of Jesus.
The Bible even tells us why we have to work:
Genesis 3:17-19 - To Adam He said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; from dust you are, and to dust you will return.
How many miraculous water partings are in the Bible? One at the Red Sea? No, we have to count the Jordan crossing in Joshua too. But there are actually two more.
Exodus 14:21 - Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided.
Joshua 3:15-16 - Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carry the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
II Kings 2:8 - Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up, and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed on dry ground.
II Kings 2:13-14 - Elisha picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it. "Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?" he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.
That makes 4 times when waters parted.
How many times did God alter time, or physical effects that depend on time?
Joshua 10:13 - So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the day and delayed going down about a full day.
I Kings 18:44c-46 - So Elijah said, "Go and tell Ahab, 'Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.'" Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on, and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. The power of the Lord came upon Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.
II Kings 20:11 - Then the prophet Isaiah called upon the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down the stairway of Ahaz.
Matthew 21:19 - Seeing a fig tree by the road, He went up to it, but found nothing on it except leaves. Then He said to it, "May you never bear fruit again." Immediately the tree withered.
John 6:21 - Then they were willing to take Him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.
Maybe some Biblical figures DID know about the truths about nature:
Psalm 50:1 - The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to the place where it goes down. Note it says that He summons the earth, not the sun, to go from one place to the other. Does this indicate rotation of the earth?
Ecclesiastes 1:7 - All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. Does this mean Solomon understood the water cycle?
When did Peter confess that Jesus is the Christ?
Leviticus 23:27a - "The 10th day of this 7th month is the Day of Atonement."
Leviticus 23:34, 42 - "On the 15th day of the 7th month, the Lord's Feast of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for 7 days. ... Live in booths for 7 days: All native-born Israelites are to live in booths."
Matthew 16:16 - Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Matthew 17:1 - After 6 days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
Matthew 17:4 - Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three booths - one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
If Peter was thinking about the Feast of Tabernacles, it would be the first day of the feast. Working backward from that indicates that Peter confessed Christ on the Day of Atonement, fulfilling the purpose of that commanded special day.
Why were shepherds the first people to be told of the birth of the Messiah (Christ)?
John 1:29 - The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"
Of course there were shepherds at the birth of the Lamb of God.
Why were non-Jewish magi from the east told of the birth of Jesus?
Isaiah 49:6 -
It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
to restore the tribes of Judah
and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles
that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.
This is yet another indication that the Gentiles are also included in the salvation of Jesus.
People make a choice that causes them to have homosexual or transgender cravings, but the choice they make is NOT deciding to become homosexual or transgender.
Romans 1:25-27 - They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator who is forever praised (Amen). Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
It is the choice to worship created things (instead of God) that causes homosexual cravings. So the recent increase in worshiping nature, the earth, and the environment could explain the sudden increase in homosexual activity.
But even such grievous sins as homosexuality can be forgiven, if you genuinely turn away from the sin:
Romans 3:22-24 - This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:1-2 - What shall we say? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What about the miracles in the New Testament that most people don't even notice?
Riding a donkey:
Mark 11:2 - saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here."
Mark 11:7 - When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it.
Luke 19:30 - "Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here."
Luke 19:35 - Then they led the donkey to Jesus. They put some of their clothes on its back and helped Jesus get on.
Other than ranchers who know about riding animals, nobody notices the miracle here. You can't just sit on the back of a donkey that has never been ridden before and ride it. Like a horse, a donkey must be laboriously trained to be ridden before anyone can ride it. It is a miracle that the Lord could just sit on it and ride it!
Wading through the angry crowd:
Luke 4:29-30 - They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
He miraculously made people unable to recognize Him.
Knowing who people were before He met them:
Nathanael, John 1:47-48 - When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit." "How do you know me?" Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you." Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel."
The woman at the well, John 4:17-20; 28-29 - "I have no husband," she replied. Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true." ... Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?"
Zacchaeus, Luke 19:2-6 - A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
This is the miracle of the omniscience of Jesus. He knows everything.
Finally, a verse about treasures, that indicates two different treasures in one phrase:
II Corinthians 4:7 - But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
One interpretation is that "jars of clay" refers to the pottery jars used to store scrolls in. Thus, the verse refers to the Scriptures.
The other interpretation is that "jars of clay" refers to our human bodies. God formed Adam from clay. When the Holy Spirit indwells our bodies, we have treasure in our "jars of clay."
In addition, God uses the Holy Spirit to store the Scriptures in our minds, index the Scriptures, and remind us of Scripture when we need it. So both interpretations are really the same.
I hope you enjoyed these treasures that I found within the pages of the Holy Bible. May God use them to truly inspire you.