Little Known Bible Facts

Here are some little known or read Bible facts. The longest name in the Bible is Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. It signifies, "quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil" (Isaiah 8:1). The shortest prayer in the Bible is Peter's: "Lord, save me!" (Matthew 14:30: But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me). At the age of ten, Abraham Lincoln had read the entire Bible three times. How many times have you read it? By reading three chapters Monday through Saturday and five chapters each Sunday, you can read through the whole Bible in a year. The word Bible comes form the Greek word biblia and means "book." Old Testament books were scrolls, a strip of animal skin that was rolled up on two sticks. One ancient copy of the book of Isaiah is twenty-four feet long. God's name is not mentioned in the book of Ester. Zimri was king of Israel for only one week before he committed suicide by setting the palace on fire around himself (1 Kings 16:15-20). Jacob, afraid that his brother Esau might be holding a grudge against him, surprised his twin with a gift of 220 goats, 220 sheep, 30+ camels, 40 cows, 10 bulls and 30 donkeys (Genesis 32:13-21). For a wedding gift, Caleb's daughter Acsah asked for (and received) some springs of water in southern Israel (Joshua 15:16-19). David killed 200 Philistines and brought their foreskins to King Saul so that he could marry Saul's daughter Michal (1 Samuel 18:18-27). Believe it or not, the Queen of Sheba brought King Solomon 4.5 tons of gold plus "large quantities of spices, and precious stones" (1 Kings 10:10). Some the most familiar of all Bible gifts are the gold, incense and myrrh the Magi brought to Jesus when he was a baby (Matthew 2:11). At a big party to celebrate the end of Job's suffering, each of his friends and relatives brought exactly the same gift: a piece of silver and a gold ring (Job 42:11). For over a year Noah struggled to keep a tidy ship.(Genesis 7:11-8:19) When Moses finally asked God to stop the plague, billions of "frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards and in the fields. They were piled into heaps, and the land reeked of them" (Exodus 8:13-14). The people sacrificed "so many sheep and cattle that they could not be recorded or counted" (1 Kings 8:5). Imagine all the carnage. The blood of all those animals and their bodies. The Assyrian soldiers were camped around Judah and were intent on taking Jerusalem, but "when the people got up the next morning there were all the dead corpses (bodies)!" (2 Kings 19:35-36 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.) All the grass will burn up, a third of the water will turn to blood, a third of the ships will be destroyed, a third of the creatures in the sea will die, a third of the rivers and springs will turn bitter, and many people will die from the bitter water (Revelation 8:7-9). In the last days when a third of the earth will burn up. If you have never accepted Christ Jesus in your heart and life by belief and baptism in the same name, today would be a good day to do so. (Acts 2:38, 8:12-18, and 22:16 among others which say so.) He gives free fire and eternal life insurance and assurance. While listening to the apostle Paul preach late one night, a young man named Eutychus fell asleep. Unfortunately, he was sitting in an open thirdstory window, and he fell to the ground below. As you might imagine, the fall was lethal. Paul quit preaching, went downstairs, raised the man from the dead and then went back upstairs and finished his sermon (Acts 20:7-12). Some Israelites were burying a man when they spotted a band of raiders. They dumped the body into the prophet Elisha's tomb. When the body touched Elisha's bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet. (2 Kings 13:20-21 And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year. And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.) While some prophets were chopping down trees, one of the iron axeheads flew off and fell into the Jordan River. Elisha cut a stick, threw it in the river, and the axehead floated to the surface (2 Kings 6:1-7). King David's son Absalom rode his

mule under an oak tree and got his head caught in some branches. The mule kept going, leaving Absalom hanging, very much alive. When Joab heard of the incident, he went and used Absalom, his bitter enemy, for target practice (2 Samuel 18:915). Eglon king of Moab was so fat that when Ehud, Israel's left handed deliverer, rammed his sword into the king's belly, even the sword's handle disappeared (Judges 3:12-23). The prophet Elijah ran all the way from Mount Carmel to Jezreel in northern Israel, then on to Beersheba in southern Judah, a distance of over 100 miles (1 Kings 18:45-19:5). Goliath, whom David killed with a slingshot, stood over 9 feet tall! His coat of armor weighed about 125 pounds. The head of his spear by itself weighed 15 pounds (1 Samuel 17:4-7). King Solomon's salary was 666 talents or 25 tons of gold per year. At today's gold price of $999.00 per ounce, he received over $750 million per year(1 Kings 10:14). If two million Israelites took part in the exodus out of Egypt (a conservative estimate based on Numbers 1:45-46), the procession would have been an incredible sight. Marching 50 abreast, the column of departing Jews would have stretched for 23 miles into the desert. Walking at a comfortable pace of 2.5 miles per hour, the people would have required almost 10 hours to pass the same point. The wooden ark, in which Noah, his family and the animals escaped the flood, was built according to God's instructions. It was 450 feet long, as long as one and a half football fields, and it was 45 feet tall, as tall as a five-story building (Genesis 6:15). 1 Peter 3:18-21 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.