How much does one know when it comes to sequencing in one’s mind historical events and Bible persons/events when it comes to the Bible versus secular histories? That is other primary secular historical events and characters mentioned in scripture. How about relating Bible characters with what we call secular events. This may be especially rewarding when secular history confirms the Bible. Did the reader know that 1, 2, and 3 Maccabees, is especially thorough in doing this? Of course, the Maccabees books are part of the Apocrypha, but does that mean it is wrong in recording history?

Does one readily recall that in secular history the Medes defeated the hated Assyrians along with the help of the Babylonians? It did not happen the other way around. The ceremonial and religious heart of the Assyrian Empire, Assur, was captured by the Medes, not the Babylonians. The Assyrians were a brutal people. They conquered the northern Tribes of Israel, then removed them from their homelands. They were stripped of protective clothing, walked, or marched barefoot, had to forage for themselves, and took no household goods with them. This happened in three distinct stages.

When the Assyrians were finally defeated by the combined forces of subject states, the Medo-Babylonians, the Middle East made a huge sigh of relief. This is the time that Nabopolassar, Nebuchadnezzar’s father, took power in Babylon. Nabopolassar was the actual King of Babylon, but Nebuchadnezzar, his son, sat on its throne. Read the Book of Daniel to get the Bible connections. Here is a significant secular historical event about Daniel’s time. Nebuchadnezzar also is famous for building the famous Hanging Gardens in Babylon.

There are too many parallels with scripture in the above example to list them in this blog. However, let us look at a few other historical events and characters that had exchanges about or during their lifetimes that parallel scripture.

Think of what some would consider as reprehensible to God, during the reign of King Hezekiah, the brass serpent that Moses while in the Wilderness was instructed by God to make to heal those bitten by the venomous snakes in an Israeli camp. Some today would consider when King Hezekiah ordered its destruction that GOD would avenge the destruction of something he had ordered built. In 2 Kings 18, that is exactly what King Hezekiah did and God was not displeased. Why? The Jews had been making incense offerings to it.

2 Kings 18… He [Hezekiah] did what was right in the sight of the LORD, in accordance with everything that his father David had done. 4He removed the high places, smashed the memorial stones to pieces, and cut down the Asherah. He also crushed to pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel had been burning incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan.

People were worshiping the bronze serpent instead of their God. Even though God had ordered Moses to build it, he did NOT punish Hezekiah for ordering its destruction. We can learn from this fact that ANYTHING interfering with our giving worship to God is dispensable by man. We at ahabiblemoments feel that is what has happened to the church. It is no longer a gathering of believers but an object or habit, tradition, and routine.

NOAH: The Bible tells us in Genesis 5:32 when he was born. In tracking Bible year chronologies, there is something of note. We find that the time between when Noah was born, and the great flood is a huge gap. 600 years will pass. We know that Noah used this time (at least the 100 years before the flood) to preach God to the people and to build the Ark. People had fallen away so far from God that he told Noah he was going to destroy the world. This in and of itself gives us an answer to something many researchers and archeologist have endeavored to discover for an exceptionally long time. Where is the Garden of Eden? It is quite simple…the great Noah-tic flood eliminated it. The Bible tells us of its pre-flood location in Genesis 2:10–14: “And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it [the river] was parted and became four heads.”

We know of the Tigris and Euphrates, but it is legitimate to question if their flows were altered by the Great Flood. Note to archeologists. It is impossible to find a place that no longer exists.

To put a wrap on this week’s ahabiblemoments blog, here are a few additional connections between the secular and biblical histories that we do not study in church or the secular classroom in school.

Joshua (1451 BC) and King Tut (1333 BC)
Daniel (604 BC) and Aesop (c. 600 BC) Aesop’s Fables
Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego (Mid-sixth century BC) and Buddha (563 BC) and of course Daniel
Belshazzar (539 BC) and Confucius (547 BC)
Ezra (467 BC) and Socrates (c. 469 BC)
Malachi (c. 400 BC) and Plato (c. 427 BC)
Herod the Great (37 BC) and Cleopatra (37 BC)