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We are following a plan to read through the bible in one year. you don't have to worry if you fall behind or if you are starting late. Start at the beginning or, if you already started, pick up where you left off and follow along.
People just starting this goal often get bogged down in details, go slow, and eventually quit because it's to hard to reach the end. Remember that it doesn't have to be in one year. When you fall behind just keep going. As you get used to reading you will find yourself going faster and farther and may even catch up.
The first time I did this it took me over 18 months. The last time it took just over 2 months. This time I'm pacing myself to 1 year so others can follow along. Join the quest
Showing posts with label timeline. Show all posts
Showing posts with label timeline. Show all posts

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Second Kings 7-8

God’s message to me: Be careful who you associate yourself with. Even if you are strong enough to continue doing what is right your example and the influence of bad people on your associates and family could be detrimental. Jehoshaphat was a good king following God but his son married Ahab’s daughter and his son and grandson both followed Ahab’s ways when they were king.

Promises: Our God is a God of the Impossible. The waste and garbage was fetching premium prices and the Israelites had resorted to cannibalism in the city of Samaria. Famine in the land coupled with a siege they had no power to break made the people hopeless. The king had ordered the execution of Elisha but Elisha predicted fine foods would be selling for bargain basement prices within 24 hours. The guard sent to get him didn’t believe such a thing could happen unless the gates of heaven opened and food rained from the sky.

That night God sent the sound of chariots and marching into the enemy camp so that they believed Israel had hired mercenaries against them. They Syrians ran away leaving all they had brought in an intact camp. The animals, the food, the weapons, clothes and supplies were left to the Israelites and the sudden influx of so much caused the price of food to drop to prices normally unheard of in times of plenty.

Commands: Do not forsake God and do not serve false Gods. Jehoshaphat had been an obedient servant of God but made himself to close to Ahab. His son married Ahab’s daughter and, when he became king, he followed Ahab’s sinful ways so that he only reigned 8 years. It was in this time that Edom and Libnah revolted against Judah’s authority.

His son was just as bad and ruled only one year. Wounded in battle while fighting alongside the Samarians, he went to Jezreel to recover.

Timeless principles: God does not seek the suffering of His servants. Like the warnings given to others in the past God sent word through Elisha that there would be famine in the land. Elisha gave the message to the woman whose son had been raised from the dead so that she could escape the famine and live elsewhere for those seven years. You will remember that Joseph was set up to protect his family and all of Egypt from a famine and that others had also been told to go to safe places when famine was coming.

How can I apply what I’ve learned: Be careful of my associations and how they influence those around me.

more to learn for in-depth study: We are developing a bit of a time line here. Ahaziah reigned until about 105 years after Solomon. Solomon and David each ruled 40 years and Solomon began work on the temple around 3148 years after creation. That means Ahaziah would have ended his reign around 3191 to 3193 years after creation. The times of the kings are slightly less precise with information we have now because we haven’t seen a specific point in Solomon’s reign that he began work on the temple. We just know it happened early. In any case we can get a rough idea of the times of each rule by comparing the time in office and the point at which the person took the throne compared to the other kingdom. It’s roughly accurate and will become more accurate as further books will give more precision to the times.

tomorrow: Second Kings 9-11

Monday, January 19, 2009

TIMELINE

The timeline gets a little tricky around the time of Abraham and downright difficult around the time of living in Egypt but this should give you some sense of scale.

Adam is created in year 0. His son Seth is born in year 130. Enosh is born in 235. Cainanl is born in 325. Mahalalel is born in 395. Jarad is born in year 460 followed by Enoch in year 622. Methuselah is born in 687 and will live until the time of the flood, entering the record books as the man who lived the longest. Lamech is born in 874 and will be the father of Noah.

Adam dies in year 930 before any of the people above die. He lives to see 8 generations beyond himself and shares 243 years on the earth with Methuselah. For those interested in oral history this means Adam could have taught Methuselah everything he needed to know about the history of the world directly. There is archaeological evidence suggesting that writing existed in this time period. The building of cities and craftsmanship of tools would imply mathmatics. use of musical instruments shows music and the arts. The most accurate oral histories are musical. Even the Hebrews, who had written histories, used music to more easily memorize stories. This is why the bible is written "in verse", or as poetry.

Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him. Enoch left earth in 987. Seth died in 1042 and Noah was born in 1056. Enosh died in 1140 and Cainan died in 1235. Mahalalel died in 1290. Jared died in 1422. Finally, Noah's son Shem was born in 1558.

Lamech died in 1651, 5 years before the flood. In 1656, shortly before the flood, Methuselah died. He shared 98 years on the earth with Noah's son Shem. Plenty of time to pass on the history. Now we have history passed from Adam, who was created at the beginning, to Methuselah, who lived the longest, to Shem, who would carry it through the flood to the rebirth of civilization.

The flood began in 1656 and lasted into 1657. Shem's son, Arphaxad, was born after the flood in 1658. Then came Salah in 1693. Eber is born in 1723. Peleg is born in 1757. Reu is born in 1787. Serug is born in 1819. Nahor is born in 1849. Terah is born in 1878. By 1948 Abram is born and will later be renamed Abraham by God. Peleg dies in 1996 so that Shem lives to see the death of his Great, great-grandson. The death of Nahor, in 1997 adds the death of his great-great-great-great-great-grandson to Shem's memory. Noah dies in 2006.

Salah, Shem's grandson, dies in 2026. Ishmael is born to Abraham by his wife's maid, Hagar. in 2034. Abraham's wife, Sarah, give birth to Isaac in 2048 and Shem's G-G-G-G-grandson, Serug, dies in 2049. Terah, the G-G-G-G-G-G-grandson of Shem, dies in 2083. Isaac returns to the land of Abraham's family and marries Rebekah in 2088. In 2096, Shem sees the death of his son, Arphaxad. Rebekah gives birth to Jacob and Esau in 2108. Abraham finally dies in 2123, Shem is still alive. Shem's Grandson, Salah dies in 2126. Finally, Shem dies in 2158. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob each returned to their homeland to take wives. Each had the opportunity to learn history from Shem. Shem shared at least 50 years on the earth with Jacob and Jacob spent at least 20 years in his Great-great-grandfathers homeland working for Laban. The history can pass from Adam to Methuselah to Shem and to Jacob.

At this point dependence on oral history would not make sense. Written records were being kept by nearby civilizations with which everyone involved would have had contact. Sanskrit, one of the earliest known languages, originated in this region. In addition, the 3 patriarchs had regular contact with Egypt where written histories could be found on papyrus, carved in stone and molded in precious metals in the form of Hieroglyphs. The first 5 books of the bible are called the books of Moses because he originated them. The idea that an educated prince of Egypt would depend on Oral tradition to pass on the knowledge he sought to teach would be ludicrous. Furthermore the bible makes it quite clear that God ordered Moses to make those records in written form on several occasions. The records were carved in stone and written on some form of paper.

Joseph, too, was a prince of Egypt. His job as a record keeper and treasurer of the kingdom make it unlikely that he would leave the important history of his people to the vagaries of Oral tradition. This gives us 5 generations of oral transmission at the maximum and probably less.

Ishmael died around 2171. But further timing of his line is unavailable.

Eber died in 2187. Joseph would have been born around 2198. The story of tattling on his brothers at age 17 places that event around 2115. Issac died in 2223 but it's not clear if Joseph had been sold into slavery yet. In 2226, Joseph was in the Pharaohs prison and interpreted a the dreams of the Pharaohs chief butler and chief baker. he would be in prison another 2 years before Pharaoh's dream reminded the butler about him.

In 2228, at the age of 30, Joseph stood before Pharaoh. Having interpreted the dream and warned Pharaoh of what was coming he was immediately made prime minister and began to store the grain through the 7 years of plenty.

The Famine began in 2235 Joseph's brothers would have come for the first time by 2236 and made their second trip by 2237 so that Abraham/Israel would have moved his family to The land of Goshen in Egypt by 2238. The famine would end around 2242. In 2255 Jacob dies and is mourned by his family and the whole of Egypt because his son provided the way for Egypt to survive and prosper in the famine. The Children of Israel and an honor guard of Egypt escorted Abraham's remains to Canaan to be buried in the tomb of the patriarchs.

Joseph died in 2308. If we assume that the 430 years in Egypt is counted from the time Abraham moved his family to Goshen then the story of the Exodus begins with the birth of Arron in 2585 and the birth of Moses in 2588. Moses was 80 years old when he told Pharaoh to free God's people so that the escape from Egypt would be in the year 2668.

I don't know what year it is on a Hebrew calender. I do know that they began counting years from the time they left Egypt and Zola Levitt often commented on the Israelites having been around about 4000 years so, Based on the timeline so far, the earth is around 6500 years old or so.

That's about as accurate as I can get for now. There isn't a lot of detail on timelines and lineage until the book of Numbers.
2668

Monday, January 5, 2009

Additional Study

I Was WRONG! At the least we have a clear time for Shem.
Shem was born in 1453 before the death of Lamech in 1546 and the death of Methuselah in 1551. He would have known his grandfather for 93 years but, he would have known Methuselah for 98 years so the timing is still valid. Adam was around to teach Methuselah who was around to teach Shem.

People who lived after the flood: Noah was born in 951, Shem was born in 1453, Arphaxad was born in 1553, Salah was born in 1588, Eber was born in 1618, Peleg was born in 1652, Reu was born in 1682, Serug was born in 1712, Nahor was born in 1742, Terah was born in 1771, by 1841 Terah was 70 and had Abram and Nahor and Haran - Haran died young and Abram and Nahor moved to Canaan with Terah to live in Haran, Nahor showed another dramatic drop in lifespans and died in 1890, Peleg showed the reality of shortening life spans not even outlasting Noah and dying in 1891, Noah died in 1901, Reu died in 1919, Serug died in 1942, Terah died in 1976, Arphaxad died in 1991 - 62 years before his father, Salah died 32 years before his grandfather in 2021, Shem died in 2053, Eber - great-grandson of Shem - has the distinction of being the first of Shem’s descendants to out live him - Shem and Eber shared 435 years on earth and Eber died in 2082.

The Lineage of Noah goes something like this:(numbers indicate generation)
1)Noah- 2)Shem- 3)Elam
\__\________3)Asshur
\__\________3)Arphaxad- 4)Salah- 5)Eber- 6)Peleg
\__\__\__\__\_________________6)Joktan- 7)Almodad
\__\__\__\__\__\____________________7)Sheleph
\__\__\__\__\__\____________________7)Hazarmaveth
\__\__\__\__\__\____________________7)Jerah
\__\__\__\__\__\____________________7)Hadoram
\__\__\__\__\__\____________________7)Uzal
\__\__\__\__\__\____________________7)Diklah
\__\__\__\__\__\____________________7)Obal
\__\__\__\__\__\____________________7)Abimael
\__\__\__\__\__\____________________7)Sheba
\__\__\__\__\__\____________________7)Ophir
\__\__\__\__\__\____________________7)Havilah
\__\__\__\__\__\____________________7)Jobab
*__*__*__*__*__*__*_______________________Living from Mesha towards Sephar (the mountain of the east)
\__\________3)Lud
\__\________3)Aram- 4)Uz
\__\__\___________4)Hul
\__\__\___________4)Gether
\__\__\___________4)Mash
\_____2)Ham- 3)Cush- 4)Seba
\__\__\___________4)Havilah
\__\__\___________4)Sabtah
\__\__\___________4)Raamah- 5)Sheba
\__\__\__\______________5)Dedan
\__\__\___________4)Sabtechah
\__\__\___________4)NIMROD-ruled
\__\__\__\______________Babel
\__\__\__\______________Erech
\__\__\__\______________Accad
\__\__\__\______________Calneh
\__\__\__\______________the Shinar
\__\__\__\______________Assyrian lands
\__\__\__\__\_________________Nineveh
\__\__\__\__\_________________Rehoboth Ir
\__\__\__\__\_________________Calah
\__\__\__\__\_________________Resen
\__\________3)Mizraim- 4)Ludim
\__\__\___________4)Anamim
\__\__\___________4)Lehabim
\__\__\___________4)Naphtuhim
\__\__\___________4)Pathrusim
\__\__\___________4)Casluhim- the Philistines
\__\__\__\______________the Caphtorim
\__\________3)Put(Phut)
\__\________3)Canaan- 4)Sidon(1st born)
\__\__\___________4)Heth- the Jebusite
\__\__\__\______________the Amorite
\__\__\__\______________the Girgashite
\__\__\__\______________the Hivite
\__\__\__\______________the Arkite
\__\__\__\______________the Sinite
\__\__\__\______________the Arvadite
\__\__\__\______________the Zemarite
\__\__\__\______________the Hamathite
\__\__\__\__\_________________From Sidon going towards Gerar as far as Gaza
Then towards Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim as far as Lasha
\_____2)Japath- 3)Gomar- 4)Ashkenaz
\__\__\___________4)Riphath(Diphath)
\__\__\___________4)Togarman
\__\________3)Magog
\__\________3)Madai
\__\________3)Javan- 4)Elishah
\__\__\___________4)Tarshish
\__\__\___________4)Kittim
\__\__\___________4)Dodanim(Rodanim)
\__\________3)Tubal
\__\________3)Meshech
\__\________3)Tiras

Quick note. Tomorrows daily reading is Genesis chapters 17-19. My blog for that devotion will be late because it is 2:40 in the morning now and I should still be sound asleep at 9am.

This had a nice outline feel to it before it posted. Someday I need to learn html so I can ad the proper indents.