FIVE COMPETITIONS AND SPORTS MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE
NUMBER 5 - ROMAN SOLDIERS CAST LOTS FOR A GAME OF CASTING LOTS (John 19:24)
Before the dice was invented there were lots. Lots were sticks , cards, coins, knuckle bones from sheep, pottery, stones or other devices - each crudely designed with letters and symbols. Priests, leaders, and common folk cast lots to determine God's will in decision making with such things as choosing a king (1 Samuel 10-20-24), replacing Judas (Acts1:26), dividing land (Numbers 26:52-56), and ending strife (Proverbs 18:18).
When Jesus was hanging on a cross, the soldiers who put him on the wooden bars divided his clothes among themselves. But there was one piece of clothing Jesus had that was special, so they cast lots to decide who got to keep it.
NUMBER 4 - SAMSON LOSES IN A GAME OF RIDDLES (Judges 14:14)
Creating and solving riddles was a very competitive game in the ancient world. In a world where poems and music were the centers of many competitions (eventually included in the Olympics), there was one riddler who stands out in the Bible as one of the best.
Samson challenged 30 Philistines to a contest of riddles. After both sides agreed to the rules and awards, Samson presented the riddle:
"Out of the eater, something to eat;
Out of the strong, something sweet."
The Philistines had seven days to solve the riddle and whoever lost would have to provide 30 expensive garments to the winner.
The solution to the riddle was based on Samson's own experience. Samson had found honey from a beehive that was built inside a lion's corpse. So the solution to the riddle was:
"What is sweeter than honey?"
"What is stronger than a lion?"
The Philistines couldn't think of an answer, so they turned to Samson's fiance who was also a Philistine and they threatened her. Samson's girlfriend harassed harassed him over and over until he broke down and Samson gave her the answer - of course he told her not to tell anyone - but she told one of the Philistines; and when the seven days were up, the 30 Philistines provided the right answer to Samson who lost the contest. To get the 30 garments, Samson killed 30 other Philistines and took their clothes.
NUMBER 3 - NEW TESTAMENT WRITERS USE GREEK COMPETITIONS AS ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHRISTIAN FAITH (HEBREWS 12:1-2)
The Olympic styled games were considered taboo by many Jews because of the violence, the nudity of those competing, and most of all because they came from the Roman/Greek world. Nevertheless at least 2 of the New Testament writers knew quite a bit about the games and used them as illustrations in their writings. It is very possible that Paul and the writer of Hebrews attended one or more of the games.
Hebrews 12:1-2 compares the Christian walk to running in a foot race. The crowd of onlookers are compared to those men and women of faith who lived and died in the past. Removing sin that slows down the Christian walk is illustrated by weights used for training that must be removed for the real competition. The mental focus needed to run was compared to the Christian life of keeping one's focus on Jesus.
The Apostle Paul often used illustrations of boxing and running in his writings, illustrating the importance of discipline, following the rules (Galatians 2:2, 2 Timothy 2:5), striving to be the best Christian possible (Philippians 3:13-15), the importance of training, self control, and reaching for a prize that is better than the honor of receiving a wreath made from an olive branch (1 Corinthians 9:25-27).
NUMBER 2 - ESTHER WINS A BEAUTY CONTEST (ESTHER 2:1-17)
Today's beauty contests are highly competitive venues focusing on talent, intelligence, and beauty. Winners of these contests move on to other contests, win cash prizes, local or national recognition, college tuition, and a host of other awards.
2,500 years ago a powerful Middle Eastern king held his own beauty contest bringing in the most beautiful women from all over the world.
These women spent one year being pampered and covered in oil and spices to prepare them for one special night each woman could spend the night having sex with the king who was the one and only judge. Night after night the king took one of the contestants into his chambers and had sex with her to see if she would win the contest. If he liked her, the king would bring her a second or third time in his chambers,. When the king was content after having sex with all the girls, he made the decision and the winner became the queen.
Among the contestants was a young woman named "Esther," who was a Jew. She was simple, humble, and incredibly good looking. She won the contest and became the queen.
As a queen she lived well off in the palace, able to respond to every wish the king desired; and if she wanted to see her husband, she was able to take her life into her own hands and request to see him. If her husband was in a good mood (which was not easy to predict), if the king was in a good mood, he wouldn't behead the queen for troubling him.
NUMBER 1 - WAR GAMES - FRIENDLY COMPETITION GOES BAD (2 Samuel 2:12-17)
Just after King Saul's death, two Israeli generals (Abner and Joab) and their armies met face to face and agreed to a contest. Each group brought 12 men to the contest with no prize in mind, the contest was simply for entertainment - the 24 men were there simply to entertain the troupes and the generals.
As soon as the game began, both sides could easily see that the soldiers were trained in the same school; for each man on both sides grabbed his opponent by the head and speared the other with his sword. In seconds the game was finished with a tie. All 24 competitors lay on the ground dead. Seeing this, the fans went wild and turned on each other. Total chaos followed with fans on both sides slaughtering opposing fans. In the end it looked like a European football (socker) game.
CONCLUSION
These are the top five sports I see as mentioned in the bible. Do you see something else?
Sunday, December 27, 2015
Three Embarassing Bible Verses about Sexual Parts of the Body
NUMBER THREE - EZEKIEL 23:20
There she lusted after hers lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.
Although this verse seems to be about some prostitute lusting some guy's balls, in reality, the prostitute is a metaphor for God's people who lusted after the sexual organs of other gods.The metaphor is extremely graphic - suggesting that a large penis with lots of sperm was very attractive to women of ill repute in the ancient world.
Today this kind of talk is limited to some work places, groups of friends, some television and many movies.Talking about private parts is not acceptable in Western churches, bible studies, or in public or political discourse.
I have been to hundreds of churches in dozens of cities and four countries. I have heard thousands of sermons in my lifetime., but only one that spoke directly to or about the penis. When I lived in the Congo I heard an African preacher give a message about the consequences of alcohol reminding the congregation that alcohol gets people into fights - and fights can get some poor drunk kicked in the balls - and getting kicked in the nuts gets the gonads to swell up.
People in the ancient world as well as in the Congo see the penis and its functions as just another part of the body. Although we would never preach about a man's penis, the ancients had no problem with the subject.
NUMBER TWO - SONG OF SONGS 7:7-8
Your stature is like that of the palm, and your breasts like clusters of fruit. I said, "I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit."
The Song of Songs made it into the Bible because it was believed to be a metaphor for our love of God. However, any close reading of the book clearly shows it is about the erotic love between a man and a woman. Because this is so obvious, many Christians today see that the Song of Songs is a set of poems about a young married couple. But even that is an attempt to tame the book down to modern and Western religious values. If Song of Songs is a series of poems, while some of those poems suggest a young married couple, others are obviously about an unmarried couple.
In the verse above, a young man writes about the pleasures of feeling up his girlfriend.
Anyway we look at it, the Song of Songs celebrates the early onset of romance between a man and a woman. Even as movies and books of today focus so much erotic pleasure in falling in love, the Bible shows us that the early stages of romance and falling in love are a gift from God.
NUMBER ONE - GALATIANS 5:12
I wish those who are disturbing you might also get themselves castrated!
Circumcision was a procedure whereby the foreskin of a man's penis was removed by a Rabbi usually when a child was 8 days old. Paul was wishing that his opponents would be castrated / cut off / removed from the people they they preached to.
As the Apostle Paul created one church after another around the Mediterranean Sea, Jewish scholars of his day who were already Christian went behind him trying to help new Gentile Christians to get in touch with God's covenant that He made with Moses in the desert. These Jewish Christian theologians, who were called Judaisers,were convinced that the new Gentile Christians needed to be circumcised because circumcision was the sign that one belonged to God, circumcision was a commandment by God, and circumcision was the human response to God's covenant that He made with His people.
Paul did not think Gentiles needed to be circumcised, so he argued against the Judaisers writing a letter to his churches telling them to avoid them. Toward the end of his letter, his frustration with the Judaisers became very clear when he briefly utilized a pun suggesting that those who want you to cut off the tip should go ahead and cut off their own entire penis. This pun is also a metaphor - "I wish they would just go ahead and cut themselves off entirely."
CONCLUSION
Different cultures deal with the human body in different ways. We don't like talking about the private parts in our culture and in our time. In their world, it was acceptable.
There she lusted after hers lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.
Although this verse seems to be about some prostitute lusting some guy's balls, in reality, the prostitute is a metaphor for God's people who lusted after the sexual organs of other gods.The metaphor is extremely graphic - suggesting that a large penis with lots of sperm was very attractive to women of ill repute in the ancient world.
Today this kind of talk is limited to some work places, groups of friends, some television and many movies.Talking about private parts is not acceptable in Western churches, bible studies, or in public or political discourse.
I have been to hundreds of churches in dozens of cities and four countries. I have heard thousands of sermons in my lifetime., but only one that spoke directly to or about the penis. When I lived in the Congo I heard an African preacher give a message about the consequences of alcohol reminding the congregation that alcohol gets people into fights - and fights can get some poor drunk kicked in the balls - and getting kicked in the nuts gets the gonads to swell up.
People in the ancient world as well as in the Congo see the penis and its functions as just another part of the body. Although we would never preach about a man's penis, the ancients had no problem with the subject.
NUMBER TWO - SONG OF SONGS 7:7-8
Your stature is like that of the palm, and your breasts like clusters of fruit. I said, "I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit."
The Song of Songs made it into the Bible because it was believed to be a metaphor for our love of God. However, any close reading of the book clearly shows it is about the erotic love between a man and a woman. Because this is so obvious, many Christians today see that the Song of Songs is a set of poems about a young married couple. But even that is an attempt to tame the book down to modern and Western religious values. If Song of Songs is a series of poems, while some of those poems suggest a young married couple, others are obviously about an unmarried couple.
In the verse above, a young man writes about the pleasures of feeling up his girlfriend.
Anyway we look at it, the Song of Songs celebrates the early onset of romance between a man and a woman. Even as movies and books of today focus so much erotic pleasure in falling in love, the Bible shows us that the early stages of romance and falling in love are a gift from God.
NUMBER ONE - GALATIANS 5:12
I wish those who are disturbing you might also get themselves castrated!
Circumcision was a procedure whereby the foreskin of a man's penis was removed by a Rabbi usually when a child was 8 days old. Paul was wishing that his opponents would be castrated / cut off / removed from the people they they preached to.
As the Apostle Paul created one church after another around the Mediterranean Sea, Jewish scholars of his day who were already Christian went behind him trying to help new Gentile Christians to get in touch with God's covenant that He made with Moses in the desert. These Jewish Christian theologians, who were called Judaisers,were convinced that the new Gentile Christians needed to be circumcised because circumcision was the sign that one belonged to God, circumcision was a commandment by God, and circumcision was the human response to God's covenant that He made with His people.
Paul did not think Gentiles needed to be circumcised, so he argued against the Judaisers writing a letter to his churches telling them to avoid them. Toward the end of his letter, his frustration with the Judaisers became very clear when he briefly utilized a pun suggesting that those who want you to cut off the tip should go ahead and cut off their own entire penis. This pun is also a metaphor - "I wish they would just go ahead and cut themselves off entirely."
CONCLUSION
Different cultures deal with the human body in different ways. We don't like talking about the private parts in our culture and in our time. In their world, it was acceptable.
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