Problem: Here the manna’s “taste was like the taste of pastry prepared with oil.” But in Exodus 16:31 asserts that the “taste of it was like wafers made with honey.”
09
Mar
2019
Month: March 2019
09
Mar
2019
Numbers 10:33—Was the Ark placed in the middle of the camp or in front of it?
Problem: In this text, we read that “the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them.” Yet, earlier the tabernacle (with its ark) are said to be “in the middle of the camps” (Num. 2:17).
09
Mar
2019
Numbers 10:31—If God lead Israel by a cloud then why was Hobab needed as a guide?
Problem: Exodus 13:21–22 affirms that God supernaturally lead Israel through the wilderness by a cloud that was illuminated by night. However, Moses asked his father-in-law, Hobab, to come with them “inasmuch as you know how we are to camp in the wilderness, and you can be our eyes” (Num. 10:31). But why did they need a human guide when they had divine guidance?
09
Mar
2019
Numbers 6:5—Does the vow of the Nazarite contradict Paul’s prohibition against long hair?
Problem: Paul affirmed that it is against “nature” for men to have long hair (1 Cor. 11:14). But the vow of the Nazarite demanded that one not cut his hair.
06
Mar
2019
Archeology
Archaeology Supports the Old Testament.
Creation. The recent discoveries of creation accounts at Ebla add evidence of this. This library of sixteen thousand clay tablets predates the Babylonian account by about 600 years. The creation tablet is strikingly close to Genesis, speaking of one being who created the heavens, moon, stars, and earth. The people at Ebla believed in creation from nothing. The Bible contains the ancient, less embellished version of the story and transmits the facts without the corruption of the mythological renderings.
04
Mar
2019
Numbers 5:13–22—Doesn’t the Bible condone a superstition here?
Problem: Paul condemns “old wives’ fables” (1 Tim. 4:7). But, Moses here commands the practice of a superstition that has no basis in science. The accused wife was found guilty after drinking bitter water only if her stomach swelled. But, both the innocent and guilty wives drank the same bitter water, thus showing that there was no chemical or biological basis for one swelling and the other not.
04
Mar
2019
Numbers 4:6—Were the staves to remain in the Ark or to be removed?
Problem: According to Exodus 25:15, “The poles shall be in the rings of the ark: they shall not be taken from it.” But, in the Numbers passage it says that when the ark was moved by the Levites “they shall insert its poles.” This seems to be conflicting instructions.
04
Mar
2019
Numbers 4:3—How can the age for Levitical service be 30, when Numbers 8:24 says 25, and Ezra 3:8 says 20?
Problem: According to Numbers 4:3, at 30 years of age a Levite would “enter the service to do the work in the tabernacle of meeting.” However, Numbers 8:24 states, “this is what pertains to the Levites: From twenty-five years old and above one may enter to perform service in the work of the tabernacle of meeting,” and Ezra 3:8 says that Levites “from twenty years old and above” were appointed to oversee the work of rebuilding the house of the Lord. Is there a contradiction between these passages?