Church Hopping

One of the ways the Lord chooses to reveal Himself in the OT is through a mysterious character known only as the Angel of the Lord. The confusing thing about this Angel is that sometimes He is identified as a messenger for God and sometimes it seems as though the Angel is actually God. The very first time God uses the Angel of the Lord is not ironically to a patriarch, but instead to Abraham’s slave girl Hagar. In Genesis 16:7-10, the Angel of the Lord finds her and promises her He will give her offspring that can’t be numbered, a promise seemingly only God could make. The next time the Angel of the Lord speaks to her in Genesis 21:17, it is from heaven and names God as distinct from Himself (or speaks of Himself in the third person).

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When I was but a young boy and a much less mature and well read person, I would barter with God. We all have probably done this at one time or another. If you give me a new car, then I’ll pray everyday. I would also try to get instant confirmation of what God wanted me to do (see also Mark 8:12). I might say if you want me to do option A then make that man in front of me trip and fall. Or if I was really lazy then option A was heads while option B was tails. In reading the OT, it turns out that I may have not been as far off of orthodoxy as I thought. One way Biblical figures determined the will of God is by casting lots.

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There is a fun and challenging riddle out there commonly called Who Owns the Fish? The riddle itself is fun but the supposed background story is what makes it even more appealing. Allegedly Albert Einstein wrote this riddle and made the claim that 98% of the world’s population would be unable to solve the riddle. Well of course that gets the competitive juices flowing in just about anyone and they can’t resist sitting down to see if they are in the top 2% of the world’s population. The truth is that there is no real evidence that Albert Einstein actually wrote this riddle or made this claim, but this riddle is still very popular mainly due to the reputation of the alleged author. There are many people who think that the book of 2 Peter benefits from this same scenario.

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The Bible is full of interesting stuff. Sometimes I come across something that is pretty interesting, but may not warrant a 400 or so word article. Is the United States mentioned in the Bible? Why is one of the Psalms considered theologically incorrect? Should we do away with the Abrahamic covenant and what is the longest word in the English Bible? Here is a short list of five interesting topics found in the Old Testament.

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