Bible Studies, Inspired by Faith and Science

Joshua: 1. Where does Joshua first appear in the Bible? 2. How close were Joshua and Moses? 3. What tribe was Joshua from? 4. What has a talking donkey got to do with Bible? 5. Did the Israelites kill all their enemies in the desert? 6. Where is Gilead? 7. What happened to Rahab the harlot? 8. How did the Israelites enter the Promised Land? 9. What happened at Jericho? 10. How many times did the Israelites cross water on dry land? Joshua (Hoshea), an Ephraimite (Num 11:28, 13:8, descendant of Joseph), first appears in the Bible when the Amalekites attack the Israelites on their way to Mount Sinai. Moses tells Joshua to lead the army (Ex 17:9). Later Joshua goes up Mount Sinai with Moses, and so is not involved in the golden calf incident (24:13). Moses leads the Israelites in the desert, handing leadership over to Joshua just before they cross the Red Sea into Canaan (Num 27:18). Their travels are plagued with rebellion, plague, thirst (back at Meribah near Mount Sinai, Num 20), poison

Road to Canaan 1. What happened to Miriam? 2. What happened to Aaron? 3. What happened to Aaron’s sons? 4. How did Moses die? 5. Where did Moses die? 6. Who was Korah? 7. Why did the Israelites have to wander in the desert? 8. How many years did the Israelites spend in the desert? 9. Where were the Israelites when they were in the desert? 10. Who died in the desert? Moses’ sister Miriam saved his life when he was a baby, and became a prophetess among the Israelites. Her victory song after the Red Sea crossing is one of the earliest recorded psalms (Ex 15:20). She objected to Moses’ leadership, in particular to his being married to Gentile (Cushite) and his claiming a special relationship with God (Num 12:1-2). After being exposed to the cloud of God’s presense, her skin was white and she was banished for seven days as a leper. According to some traditions, she married Hur, one of the friends who held Moses’ hands during the battle with the Amalekites near Mount Sinai (Ex 17:

Ten Commandments 1. How many plagues of Egypt were there? 2. How many good people in Sodom and Gomorrah would have been enough to save them? 3. How many horns did Daniel’s beast have? 4. Have many toes did Daniel’s statue have? 5. How many laws are there in the first five books of the Bible? 6. Why might Catholics and feminists number the ten commandments the same way? 7. How long did Moses stay up the mountain talking to God? 8. What was God telling Moses while the Israelites were making the golden calf? 9. What’s the significance of a golden calf? 10. What was the punishment for worshiping the calf? Ten appears frequently in the Bible. It’s the highest number we can count to just on our fingers. And it’s a good symbolic number, used to represent something countable, something limited, something belonging to mankind. There are people who said the world was approaching its end when the European Union reached ten members, because of Daniel’s statue (Dan 2:41). Possibly there were people

Parting Seas and Manna in the Desert 1. How long did the plagues of Egypt last? 2. How many men were in the Exodus? 3. Did any Egyptians travel with the Israelites? 4. What did the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire look like? 5. How many bodies of water ran dry for the Israelites? 6. Why might the Red Sea be the Reedy Lake? 7. Where did the Red Sea crossing take place? 8. Where did Moses make bitter water sweet? 9. What did the Israelites eat and drink in the desert? 10. What did Mount Sinai look and sound like? The plagues of Egypt began with the red river in late summer and continued through to March or April of the next year, when the Exodus took place. Hailstorms would have left the desert with water and abundant plants, making this the only time of year such a large group of people could travel with their flocks. The Bible “counts” the people, giving a total of 603,550 men (Num 1:19-21)—so many they would easily outnumber any other army of the time though the Bible also says they